WITH FULL FORCE 2011
We had been to all eight WFFs from 2003 on, and each year the climatic conclusion was a good festival summer weather, in a few years it became a bit too hot like in 2010. But this 2011-edition of With Full Force everything changed. From Saturday it rained on and on while a very cold wind stuck on the nerves of many visitors damaging their tents which got water ingress. This resulted in many fans leaving the festival area a day earlier than planned as several of our colleges did.
On the other hand it was interesting to see how the WFF-organization handled with the environmental influences. And they did well: First of all the festival area is in contrast to other big festivals no acre. So the floor didn’t become that muddy most of the area. And at those few places which got too much water the WFF team placed straw and bark mulch. Regarding the other festival issues the festival was well-organized as usual.
And the line-up rocked by Agnostic Front, Bullet For My Valentine, Cavalera Conspiracy, Hatebreed, Kreator and Volbeat. Especially the shooting stars from Denmark caused lots of ticket sales, and in the end the WFF could proudly present its new visitors’ record.
On the airfield of Roitzschjora appeared 64 bands on two stages in three days for about 35.000 visitors.
Friday
Main Stage
Omnium Gatherum As the days before friday became a nice day. So the opener was able to welcome the motivated WFF-crowd in a sunny warm atmosphere. Usually there might be better conditions to entertain the Roitzschjora audience, but the Melodic Death Metal of the Finnish fivepiece worked well, especially the title track, the video single “Soul Journeys” and the final epic “Deep Cold” from their new album “New World Shadows”. Nice festival warm-up.
Evile The UK-Thrashers are one of the protagonists of the so-called new wave of Thrash Metal. They rocked the festivalsite mainly with material from their two longplayers like “Infected Nation” or “Thrasher” and presented by “Eternal Empire” a track from their forthcoming release.
Deadlock Starting with Techno sounds as their intro the Bavarian sixpack entered the stage to impress by their Melodic Deathcore. The deep grunts of fronter Joe Prem were well-balanced with the clean voice of Sabine Weniger and their catchy songs like “Martyr To Science”, “Code Of Honor”, “Awakened By Sirens”, “The Brave Agony / Applause” as the new “Bizzaro World” – tracks “State Of Decay” and “Virus Jones” which attracted the spectators to take part in the show.
Disbelief To keep and hold Metal real as raw without getting too wannabe-undergound you need to see a Disbelief-show. For another time the quintet from Frankfurt caught the focus of many spectators by their psychedelic intense monsters as “A Place To Hide”, “Sick”, “Misery”, “Navigator”, “Hate / Aggression Schedule”, “Rewind It All”. This tight band and its distinctive vocalist rock!
Carnifex The following formation used the “into your face” – attitude which worked quite well. For another time the Californians offered blastbeats with clockwork-precision meeting hardest shouts and deepest grunts. The band used to keep it real by “In Coalesce With Filth And Faith” as “My Heart In Atrophy”, and so the numerous fans showed off in different pit- actions.
Legion Of The Damned The Dutch Thrash Attack played in front of a much smaller number of fans. Nevertheless they appeared on a high energy level introducing their new output “Descent Into Chaos”. But the most reactions earned their self-named classic “Legion Of The Damned”.
Bring Me The Horizon First of all the youngsters from Sheffield disappointed me by their first few songs being to monotonous. It was my first Bring Me The Horizon – appearance. So it should become the right decision to stay because the set became more variable. The fans freaked out anyway celebrating the newer “Alligator Blood”, “Blessed With A Curse”, “Anthem” (including high-five-crowdsurfer-interaction in the photo-pit) as the final classic “Classic Smile”.
Agnostic Front The NYC Hardcore original can be counted as steady guests in Roitzschjora. So as always they smashed their numerous supporters by classics like “Crucified”, “Anthem” or “Gotta Go” as by material from their new release “My Life My Way”. Roger Miret, Vinnie Stigma & Co showed all those younger bands how to rock the stage.
Bullet For My Valentine Does the still young Welsh band fill the expectations of a WFF-headliner-position? Supported by several pyro and other effects the quartet started with “Your Betrayal” and “Fever” from their current so-called release. “Waking The Demon” marked the first highlight the numerous fans took part in by headbanging and pit-action. Also remarkable was the fact many women filled the first rows. After the silent “Say Goodnight” Matt Tuck and his companions closed the regular set by their hits “Scream, Aim, Fire”, “Hand Of Blood” and “Tears Don’t Fall”. And they returned to perform an impressing cover interpretation of Metallica’s “Creeping Death”. With the other two encores the band accomplished their slot by the newer “Fever”-tracks “Begging For Mercy” and “Alone”.
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Protest The Hero The most progressive band of the weekend were the crazy Canadiens. Their Prog Metalcore invaded the half filled tent. The fans celebrated the complex “Bloodmeat”, “Sequoia Throne” and the new “Scurrilous”-composition “C’est La Vie” diversified between little applause up to moshpits.
Millencolin The Swedish Punk Rock institution was the right band for the Hardbowl headliner slot. Songs like the opener “No Cigar”, “Material Boy” and “Devil Me” spread by their melodies as their rocking factor a cool atmosphere which turned out into a big tent party.
Tent Stage: Knüppelnacht
Insidious Disease The all-star-formation around Morgoth-fronter Marc Grewe, Napalm-Death-bassist Shane Embury and Dimmu-Borgir-sixstringer Silenoz smashed a brutal Old School Death Metal set. The performed material from their one and only release “Shadowcast” kept the crowd in motion.
Watain The candle-lighted stage set concilliated a Sting-show-atmosphere. The praised Black Metal sensation turned out to be a pretty substandard Black Metal combo with no special brutality or value. Fire and blood are not enough to perform a good live show!
Negator And it shouldn’t become much better when the German Panzer Metalists entered the stage. Less rediculous show effects than the Swedes before, but still no substance in their Black Metal noise became boring pretty fast.
Grave The Swedish Death Metal icon presented Old School Death Metal at its best. “Rise”, “Soulless” and “Bloodpath” were the right inspiration to get woken up again as to headbang.
Misery Index And so the Death Metal commando from Baltimore held the blastbeat speed high and inspired the left fans for another time to headbang to “Traitors” or “We Come In Peace”.
Saturday
Main Stage
Kylesa From Saturday morning it continuously rained on. Nevertheless the opener was the right one to wake up the crowd. With even two drummers the fivepiece whose lead vocals got shared between the male and the female guitarist worked well with their Sludge Metal.
Betzefer It had been several years ago when the fourpiece from Israel had been celebrated as the new Pantera before they finally returned to Roitzschjora. But many visitors had left the festivalsite because of the pouring rain and the Israelis didn’t give any reason to stay by their pretty mistakable Thrash Metal.
The Black Dahlia Murder How to rule the festivalsite while shitty weather the Motor City quintet had shown at Party San 2007, so they did at WFF 2011. Shouter Trevor Strnad gave a good example about how to ignore the environmental circumstances and inspired the fans to move.The crowd celebrated “What A Horrible Night” and “Statutory Ape”
Entombed It was up to Death ‘n’ Roll to keep the people moving. No matter to the mighty Entombed. With “Wolverine Blues”, “Damn Deal Done”, “When In Sodom” and “Left Hand Path” the Swedes had the right heating hits. And with a fronter as L.G. Petrov there can’t get anything wrong live.
Callejon Who had thought the Screamo Zombies from Düsseldorf wouldn’t have been able to hold the set standards should have proved wrong. The five guys caused by their German-speaking Metalcore an army of crowdsurfers, so the security had a lot to do. Besides that several circlepits whirled over the festivalsite.
Terror Furthermore the quintett from Los Angeles set much pressure on the Main Stage by their Old School Hardcore. Lead by the agile shouter Scott Vogel the crowd went wild to “One With The Underdogs” and “Always On The Hard Side”.
Satyricon Hard rain is no excuse when the leading band in Black Metal appears. Fronter Satyr, drummer Frost and their live musicians began by “Possessed”, “Black Crow On A Tombstone”, and it was remarkable how many fans ignored the waterfall above their heads which got banged to “Now, Diabolical”, “Commando” and “To The Mountains”. The Norwegians rocked the festival area and marked by a strong finish consisting of “K.I.N.G.”, “The Pentagram Burns”, “Fuel For Hatred” and the band hymn “Mother North” one of the best shows of this weekend.
Cavalera Conspiracy Two years ago the band of the Cavalera-brothers surprised on the WFF-headliner-position with a good show. But this year they didn’t as the co-headliner bored by being a worse copy of their former band Sepultura. So of course its played hits “Roots, Bloody, Roots” as “Refuse/Resist” were the highlights of the show.
Hatebreed And the NYHC-Hardcore-heroes showed who ruled the place. The elected biggest faves of the With Full Force attendance brought a monstrous show containing monsters like “In Ashes They Shall Reap”, “Tear It Down”, “Destroy Everything” and “I Will Be Heard” animated to several mosh-pits, shouter Jamey Jasta ran the stage up and down and an older woman celebrated the headliner naked in the first row what the cameramen from then on preferred to focus on.
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Emil Bulls The Bavarians had been the big surprise of WFF 2009 when I had expected a usual Mainstream Crossover act, but they kicked ass. And so they did this time by the opener “Here Comes The Fire”, “The Most Evil Spell”, “When God Was Sleeping”, “Nothing In This World” or the final “Worlds Apart”. The tent was pretty filled which might partly be caused by the weather conditions outside.
Earth Crisis The Vegan Straight Edge Hardcore original performed their brutal set on a high energy level, but time after time this performance became monotonous. So shouter Karl Buechner and his bandmates just aroused a “Firestorm” in the first few rows.
Die Kassierer The Anarcho Punk band from the Ruhrpott is a steady guest of the WFF: Every two years they sing about issues as to be drunk, cocks and tits. This time fronter Wölfi got assisted by an attractive female guest vocalist performing “Mein Glied Ist Zu Groß” and “Komm Mach Die Titten Frei”. And so the whole filled tent partied to “Besoffen Sein”, “Mein Schöner Hodensack” and “Blumenkohl Am Pillemann”, and Wölfi of course presented his penis for another time.
Tent Stage: Saturday Night Fever
Knorkator The reunion of Germany’s leading band in ambitious Comedy Rock/Metal were the right act to warm up and entertain the crowd besides all the rain and storm. Stumpen, Alf Ator, Buzz Dee & Co served a best of set containing “Kurz Und Klein”, “Ich Will Nur Fick’n”, “Der Ultimative Mann”, “Eigentum”, “Wir Werden Alle Sterben”, “Alter Mann” and the final hit “Böse” as by “Refräng” a new song from the forthcoming album. Their costumes and their stage action took care about lots of laughter in the tent right after midnight.
Peter Pan Speedrock The Hardrock combo from Eindhoven entertained much less spectators, but they did well by their Hardrock.
Mad Sin The same happened while the Rockabilly-band, even more visitors went to their tent or car being tired of the weather conditions while a few left fans celebrated party songs like “Cursed”.
Cancer Bats After such a day it was much to late for the quartet from Toronto. The Canadiens would have probably fit much better in the afternoon with their Hardcore.
Sunday
Main Stage
Manos The local Thrash Comedy heroes attracted their fans in front of and later 30 of them onto the stage. “Drehrumbum” and “Wer Hat An Der Uhr Gedreht” were the right motivation after a stormy night which destroyed and flooded lots of tents. For those folks staying on the festival area it was the start for the last party while many others left Roitzschjora.
Stonewall Noise Orchestra The Stoner Rock band was the first completely serious act on the Main Stage this day, and also their sound fit to the recent conditions, but the stronger rain banished most of the couple of interested spectators.
Kvelertak I was pretty curious about the praised newcomers from Stavanger. And their live-presentation of their Black ‘n’ Roll worked as well on an open air stage. So the fans celebrated the set consisting of tracks from their self-titled debut release like “Ulvetid”, “Bloodtorst”, “Fossegrim” or “Mjod”.
Skindred The British Crossover fourpiece had the most bad-luck due to several technical problems. In the end they decided to give up after ex-Dub-War-fronter Benji Webbe had improvised these breaks for a longer while. So in the end they didn’t have enough opportunities to “Stand For Something”. But the organizers offered the band the chance to appear later on the Tent Stage which the musicians took.
Ill Nino In contrast to former WFF-appearances the Latinos didn’t have their best day, especially vocalist Christian Machado. Besides that the sound sucked and just a small crowd seemed to care about this show containing “I Am Loco”, “How Can I Live”, “This Is War”, “Bleed Like You” and “This Time’s For Real”.
Parkway Drive What then followed must be described as the best performance besides Satyricon this weekend. Guitarist Luke Killpatrick had broken his leg and accordingly entered the stage in a wheel chair. He wore a stunt man helmet he must had got from Colt Sievers and had fun rolling the stage up and down while playing as tight as the whole band did. Lead by the agile fronter Winston McCall it was easy to see how live experienced the quintet is. And so the numerous fans celebrated “Unrest”, “Idols And Anchors”, “Sleepwalker”, “Deliver Me”, “Romance Is Dead” “Karma” and the final “Carrion” even when the rain became stronger.
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter Especially in East Germany the fivepiece is a phenomenon. Due to the weather conditions they just attracted a pretty small crowd, but those fans partied when their faves performed “Du Kleiner Wicht”, “Es Wird Schlimmer”, “Seemann”, “Der Weg” as the newer “Hört Auf” and the title track from the new output “Moral & Wahnsinn” as the farewell track, and even didn’t get stopped by technichal problems.
Kreator The Thrash Metal icon from Essen always fulfills its fans’ expectations. So they did again in Roitzschjora. Supported by a cool light and pyro show “Hordes Of Chaos”, “Warcurse”, “Endless Pain”, “Phobia”, “Enemy Of God”, “Pleasure To Kill”, “Violent Revolution” and “Extreme Aggression” took care about a lot of metalized pressure. But to a co-headliner there were too few fans after many had left the airfield of Roitzschjora. In the end fronter Mille waved a red flag to turn into “Flag Of Hate” and finished by “Tormentor”.
Volbeat As we had been informed before the Danish Elvis Metalists were pretty much responsible for the spectators’ record number of this year’s WFF. And so it seemed like everyone who hadn’t left Roitzschjora went in front of the Main Stage for their last open air weekend party. And it became a remarkable one by “Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood”, “Sad Man’s Tongue” which got dedicated to Johnny Cash, “River Queen”, “Mary Ann..s Place” and by “Heaven Nor Hell” as the video single “Fallen” material from their brand-new album “Beyond Hell – Above Heaven”. Michael Poulsen praised the fans for being tough under hard conditions this weekend and showed his solidarity by pouring himself with water which caused much applause. Generally a sympathic slot which was worth the WFF-headliner-position!
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
More Than A Thousand The inventive as very melodic Metalcore of the Portuguese fivepiece were the perfect opener after a hard night which caused a lot of earlier visitors’ departures. Their agile performance and refreshing songs like “First Bite” or “No Bad Blood” rocked the Tent Stage enormously. My personal live discovery of this year’s WFF!
Tent Stage: The Last Supper
Solstafir The Stoner Pagan Black somewhat Metal created an atmosphere in the tent which can be described as epic. The few long compositions caused many closed eyes in the audience doing what the people might not had done the latest stormy days: To relax and enjoy! So the quartet from Iceland invited to a trip by “Köld”, “Pale Rider” and the final “Goddess Of The Ages”.
Moonspell Beginning by “Wolfshade” the second Protuguese band of the day played another inspiring show as they had done while their WFF-appearances before. And the amazing final consisting of “Vampiria”, “Alma Mater”, “Opium” and “Full Moon Madness” ruled anyway.
Arkona The definitely most boring band of this year’s Last Supper was the Folk Pagan Metal band from Moscow. Familiar Pagan stuff meeting very bad female live vocals became a real challenge to stay awake to see Samael, but of course not in front of the stage while that.
Samael Finally I reached my goal to watch the quartet from Switzerland animating the last energy reserves of the crowd. After such a weekend the used stroboscope light and the hit “Rain” became a little test to the spectatorship. But anyway: Vorph, Xy & Co played a good show which earned its celebration.
Conclusion:
For the first time since our first WFF-participation in 2003 the weather sucked. While many of our colleges left the festival earlier than planned I had chosen the right tent as shoe equipment. Besides that the organization was well-prepared. Even the sangria dealer reacted offering from saturday on mulled wine. The prices were still very fair to the fans (e.g. 2,40 € for a 0,4l beer or softdrink)! And as fair worked the prices for food!
Our special thanks go out to Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann and the WFF-team!!!!!
At the With Full Force 2011 rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi and Conny!!!!! So we’re looking forward to With Full Force 2012, the tenth in a row for the writer of these lines!