WITH FULL FORCE 2013
Happy Birthday, With Full Force! 20 years of raising a festival and establishing its status as the unique open air uniting the three main subgenres as Metal, Hardcore and Punk deserves big respect!
To celebrate this anniversary as dignified as possible the organizers decided to add by thursday a fourth day on which five bands mainly with a special WFF-relationship appeared on the Main Stage: By headliner Slayer, Hatebreed and Agnostic Front which had won all the polls in the past years performed the three main faves of the WFF visitors. Besides that Jason Newsted’s self-named band and the local heroes Elsterglanz opened this special day.
Besides this the WFF-team confirmed a very attractive billing satisfying all the fans from the mentioned subgenres for the three regular days. Korn, In Flames, Parkway Drive, Down, Sick Of It All as Caliban are just the big names of a program which enthused from the noon till the the theme nights on the Tent Stage. And so the cancelation of Motörhead according to Lemmy Kilmister’s health problems which wasn’t the only one this summer didn’t bother anyone too much.
After last years’ thunderstorm the typical WFF-weather returned to Roitzschjora. But an environmental extreme isn’t necessary to notice the top-organization of the With Full Force. The audience was well-informed about line-up-changes, the sound was good and the security relaxed. Besides the festival jubileum we ourselves celebrated our mag-festival-anniversary by 10 years of WFF-participation. And it was an amazing as worthy celebration!
On the airfield of Roitzschjora appeared 66 bands on two stages in four days for about 30.000 visitors.
Thursday
Main Stage
Elsterglanz The honor to open this memorable day went to the local heroes and longlife WFF-fans Elsterglanz. This East German answer to Die Kassierer attracted lots of supporters filling up the festival ground despite the rain. The Fun-Punk-weirdoes took care of a good mood on the festivalsite by the anarchy hymn “Kaputtschlaahn” as by several show effects.
Newsted A good mood got also spread by Jason Newsted and his new formation. The set of course was dominated by their forthcoming debut album. And although this was mainly unknown one month before its release the audience celebrated the Thrash Metal set of the self-named “king of the underdogs” who finished the show by the Metallica classic “Whiplash” which of course caused the most jubilation.
Agnostic Front The NYC Hardcore legend are one of the regular WFF-guests which couldn’t be missed on this evening. Starting with “Addiction”, “Dead To Me” and “My Life My Way” the fivepiece kept the crowd moving to hymns like “For My Family” and the undestructable “Gotta Go” while it seemed like those were sung by the whole festivalsite. By the Ramones cover “Blitzkrieg Bop” Roger Miret, Vinnie Stigma & Co finnished an enormous Hardcore party.
Hatebreed From the Punk-inspired classic institution to the nowadays more Metal-orientated leading Hardcore band: Hatebreed entered the stage and set from the opener “Tear It Down” on a new degree in today’s brutality scale. The great sound took care of enough pressure, shouter Jamey Jasta ran the stage up and down and the crowd reacted by several circlepits. But the new “The Divinity Of Purpose”-tracks “Honor Never Dies” and “Put It To The Torch” were supported as well. A huge moshpit was reached by the hits “This Is Now”, “I Will Be Heard” as “Destroy Everything” before the new “Indivisible” marked the end of a very active show, on as in front of the stage.
Slayer After the tragic death of guitarist as main songwriter Jeff Hanneman and his replacement of Exodus’ Gary Holt everyone was curious about what to happen with WFF-visitor-favourite number one. Besides that drummer Dave Lombardo got replaced by Forbidden’s Paul Bostaph for another time. Beginning by the title track of the latest and hopefully not last output “World Painted Blood” it became pretty much clear technically there was nothing to worry about. But between the songs fronter Tom Arraya conveyed not to be really fealing comfortable, an impression the only other left original member, Kerry King, wasn’t able to destroy. The Thrash Metal icon gave their thousands of fans a strong final consisting of “Seasons In The Abyss”, “Dead Skin Mask” and “Raining Blood as the encores “South Of Heaven” and “Angel Of Death”.
Friday
Main Stage
Hacktivist The new star on Djent heaven from United Kingdom opened the regular WFF 2013 program and surprised by a stirring show. The alternating voices between clean singing, shouts and raps as a tight band resulted in a massive sound. The announcements emphasized the political approach of the artists. Songs as “Unlike Us” or the final “Elevate” from the debut album as the Kanye-West-/Jay-Z – cover “Niggas In Paris” earned a lot of applause from the audience. First highlight!
Red Fang Pretty much as passionate the program continued by the Sluge/Stoner Rock fourpiece from Portland. They mainly concentrated on their latest output “Murder The Mountains” by “Hank Is Dead”, “Into The Eye” and “Malverde”. But over 45 minutes their sound became too montonous.
Kali Yuga Not much more interesting felt the following German act. Melodic Death Metal can be such an entertaining style, but this formation didn’t really catch much attention. Maybe next time in a club.
The Devil Wears Prada Entertainment seemed to be an issue for the young quartet from Ohio. Their Metalcore inspired the first respectable circle-pits in front of the Main Stage on friday. Hits like “Danger: Wildman”, “Vengeance” as “Born To Lose” rocked enormously between breakdown and melodic parts. By “Gloom” and “Martyrs” even songs from the forthcoming album got presented.
Terror The LA Hardcore fivepiece had played several times before in Roitzschjora, always successful, and so they did this time. In my opinion in this genre they have much more songwriting talent as brutality as their big brothers from the other coast, Hatebreed. Anyway, the opener “One With The Underdogs”, “Always The Hard Way” and “Live By The Code” convinced their fans raging in front of the stage as the neutral spectators by their sympathic as energetic performance.
Pain Wrong place, wrong time? The Industrial Metal band around Hypocrisy-mastermind Peter Tägtgren didn’t attract too much fans on the festival ground. But the number of raised by the time. Although the shining sun usually is not an argument for that sound “Dirty Woman”, “End Of The Line”, “It’s Only Them” and “Same Old Song” allured more and more rubbernecks to the stage. So the final hit “Shut Your Mouth” could be sang by a respectable crowd.
Down The following break lasted 20 minutes longer because of the mentioned cancelation of Motörhead. Instead of an intro the all-star-band entered the stage and started with a cool jam into their set. The live presentation of “Lifer”, “Ghosts Along The Mississippi”, “New Orleans Is A Dying Whore” or “Temptation’s Wings” had an unbeatable intensity resulting much support over the festivalsite. Phil Anselmos showed a sense for the tragic moments when he dedicated “Lysergik Funeral Procession” to the departed Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman as for slapstick when he caught by reflex something thrown which should be a dildo which turned out to much laughter. “We play slow, heavy and dirty”, was Anselmo’s promise in the beginning of the set which was held by the fantastic quintet seeming to enjoy every single second on stage. After “Hail The Leaf” and “Stone The Crow” they left with the maximum size version of “Bury Me In Smoke”. The short-term-co-headliner-position was fulfilled with a performance definitely having headliner character.
Parkway Drive Metalcore of five surfers from Australia instead of Lemmy Kilmister’s Rock ‘n’ Roll institution, could this work? The answer can definitely be answered with “yes”. The festival ground was filled, the band got support by a bombastic clean sound as by a mainly blue-orientated light several effects like confetti rain or pyros and the band showed an agile performance. So “Sleepwalker”, “Karma”, “Idols And Anchors”, “Home Is For The Heartless” and “Romance Is Dead” were celebrated on as before the stage with all power and passion. The thousands of voices building a choir to lead into the pretty new “Wild Eyes” from the recent “Atlas” album showed how popular the quintet from down under is. With “Carrion” an appearance ended which achieved all aspects of a great headliner show.
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
After The Burial The Deathcore/Djent – genuises from Minnesota enthused as they had done at last year’s Euroblast-headliner-slot. Classics like “Aspiration”, “My Frailty” or “Berserker” as the new “Wolf Amongst Ravens” from the forthcoming album impressed by their complexity and convinced the Core-kids organising pit-action.
Every Time I Die After I had seen them at Summer Breeze before I was curious about the noisy Hardcore Punk of the fivepiece from Buffalo. But somehow the band seemed to be stuck in its montonous schema. And this wasn’t just my impression as the reactions in front of the stage showed although the band gave all on stage.
Chelsea Grin Much more diversified was the sound the sixpiece from Salt Lake City presented. The three guitars meant more power, but on the other hand the band inspired by its more silent melodic moments of their newer songs before the next breakdown wave initialized a further circle-pit. “Crewcabanger”, “My Damnation”, “Lilith” and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” found its support.
Tent Stage: Knüppelnacht
Napalm Death The Grindcore icon from Birmingham had the honor to set the brutality level higher for the following Death / Black Metal night. Barney Greenway, Shane Embury & Co performed a best of set which enthused fans as Down’s Phil Anselmo who stood on the edge of the stage seemingly having much fun with this appearance.
God Seed The filled up tent watched the Norwegian continuation of Gaahl and King after losing the name rights of Gorgoroth. Gaahl was the only member wearing corpse paint and screamed out his nihilistic messages. I decided to prefer getting a few beers meanwhile.
Hail Of Bullets The war ensemble from the Netherlands always offer strong live shows. So they did in Roitzschjora. Their Death Metal caused massive headbanging action in front of the first rows. The unique voice of Martin van Drunen and older (“Nachthexen”) as newer “Tokyo Napalm Holocaust”) tracks got celebrated.
Naglfar The probably best as most underrated Black Metal formation of this night caught the attention of the fans by “Bring Out Your Dead”, “The Perpetual Horrors” and “I Am Vengeance” as by their motivated live performance fighting any tiredness successfully.
Krisiun The trio from Porto Allegre smashed down every present left Knüppelnacht spectator who hadn’t gone sleep. The tightness producing those blastbeats impressed pretty much, and “Sentenced Morning” as “The Will To Protency” might have caused neck pain of several headbangers on the following morning.
Marduk The Swedish Black Metal institution began by the opener of the current output “Serpent Sermon” before playing a best-of-set containing the epic “Imago Mortis” as the classics “Slay The Nazarene” and “Christraping Black Metal”. Those ones who were still left participated as much as they could, but there were just a few.
Saturday
Main Stage
A.O.K. The anarcho punks appeared for the fifth time at With Full Force. The reason for letting them open the Main Stage program was an obvious one: The festival area was pretty filled with supporters having the necessary sense of humor for experiencing “Baguette Attack”, “Butzemannslayer”, “Wishmop” and “Peter Pan, Du Arschloch”. Fronter Jochen Graf initialized interaction with the crowd by the wall of Brombeerhagel when the crowd took one person in the middle to run to him and grab his testicle with the next played tone. The self-named Nothing Core worked well for those who shared this black weirdo humor.
Hämatom The following act wasn’t quite as entertaining, even if their kind of corpsepaint let me suppose it. Their Industrial Metal in German language like “Leck Mich” or “Totgesagt Doch Neugeboren” didn’t really motivate to pay too much attention.
Adept The first serious band on the Main Stage today was the fivepiece from Sweden. Their Metalcore had the vibe most spectators needed. So “Forever And A Day”, “Secrets” and “Dead Planet” from the new “Silence The World” worked as well as songs from both older albums like “An Era Of Treachery” and “The Lost Boys” did. Breakdowns and circle-pits collided to a cool live happening.
Hellyeah The band around ex-Pantera/Damageplan-drummer Vinnie Paul – as known as brother of Dimebag Darrell – and ex-Mudvayne-fronter Chad Gray played their Party-compatible supported by strong sound. Tracks like “Drink Drank Drunk” and the motivated stage-action found their support.
Coal Chamber The idea to reunite the Nu-Metal-act was a pretty surprising one because fronter Dez Farfara’s nowadays band DevilDriver works pretty well and Nu Metal isn’t anything the fans ask for. Anyway, the combo started very motivated in its set, but the weather didn’t like Nu Metal and let it rain. So just the Die-Hard-Fans took part in “Clock”, “Sway”, “Drove” and of course their former hit “Loco”.
Deez Nuts What is hip nowadays could be seen during the following formation. The Australian Rapcore attracted lots of fans celebrating the opener “Streets Are Watching” and “Shot After Shot” from their new record “Bout It” as the classics “I Hustle Everyday”, “Go Veg”, “Like There’s No Tomorrow” and “Band Of Brothers”. Accompanied with cool gestures the four guys seemed to create the new style of Gangsta Hardcore.
Sodom The Thrash Metal icon can be called as a regular guest at With Full Force. So the comparatively traditional sound was able to count on a respectable audience. Ten years ago I watched them on the 10 years anniversary of WFF, so this year they couldn’t miss. Just sad they arrived 20 minutes too late on stage because of a traffic jam after an accident, so the trio around mainman Tom Angelripper had just 30 minutes left. Those got filled with classics like “The Saw Is The Law”, “Outbreak Of Evil”and “Agent Orange”. At least a bit to satisfy the fans.
Sick Of It All Stage-action, more stage-action, Sick Of It All. The NYHC icon around the Koller brothers left no doubt about still running the most kilometres on stage as about belonging to this jubileum. With the catapult start by “Take The Night Off” and “Good Lookin’ Out” they began on a high energy level holding it over “Death Or Jail” until the classic “Scratch The Surface” sung by thousands of fands who had turned out the festival ground to one huge moshpit.
In Flames The festivalsite was pretty packed for Gothenburg’s finest who was about to perform their third With Full Force headliner show. The kings of Melodic Death Metal opened by newer songs (“Sounds Of A Playground Fading”, “Where The Dead Ships Dwell”, “Alias) to let follow classic hits (“Pinball Map”, “Trigger”) getting the complete support by the crowd. For another time the Swedes got supported by a brilliant light as effect show. Vocalist Anders Fridén showed his entertainer qualities and the band performed the old classic “Artifacts Of The Black Rain” as tight as newer hits like “Cloud Connected”, “The Quiet Place” or “The Mirror’s Truth”. The audience appreciated this loudly. So after the recent single “Deliver Us” an awesome show got finished by “Take This Life” and “My Sweet Shadow”.
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Asking Alexandria It was time to my personal premier of watching Asking Alexandria for the first time. My expectations of their powerful Metalcore combined with great melodies shouldn’t get disappointed. “A Prophecy”, “The Final Episode (Let’s Change The Channel)” and “Reckless & Relentless” the british sixpack reached enthused reactions from the audience and left by “The Death Of Me” and “Run Free” from their forthcoming album.
Tent Stage: Saturday Night Fever
Kvelertak The return of the Norwegian Black ‘n’ Roll formation was a remarkable one. A packed tent awaited them beginning with “Apenbaring” and “Bruane Brenn” from their new “Meir” release. There was nothing to notice about the stressful last minute arrival. So band as fans rocked enormously to the final “Fossegrim” and the self-titled “Kvelertak”.
Haudegen The following act from Berlin consisted of two singers performing in German assisted by a backing band. This all reminded me much on a light version of Böhse Onkelz. From the opener “Stadt Voller Helden” over “Ein Mann, Ein Wort” till the final “Wir Kommen Zurück” it became too trivial.
The Other The German Horror-Punk-fivepiece around fronter Rod Usher sounded as looked quite a bit like The Misfits. Their fan community celebrated “My Home Is My Casket”, “Back To The Cemetary” and “666 Ways To Die” while this wasn’t my cup of beer.
Smoke Blow After canceling their last year’s appearance because of the thunderstorm the Hardcore Punk band from Kiel return to rock the tent. And so they definitely did by “Alligator Radio” and the Billy Idol cover “Rebel Yell”.
Sunday
Main Stage
Mambo Kurt The same principle worked well as yesterday: A fun-/comedy-act opened the day and the masses went to the stage. Announced as a special performance the artist interpreting classics on his hammond organ got support by 30 gogo-girls which resulted in much applause.
Between The Buried And Me What followed was one of the most fantastic live performances that I had experienced in my personal ten years joining the With Full Force. The very innovative as non-comparable Progressive Metal was that complex, not everbody could or wanted to watch. Anyway, those ones who stayed celebrated classics like “White Walls” and “Selkies: The Endless Obsession” as “Astral Body” or “Telos” from the current masterpiece “Parallax II: The Future Sequence”. Just the quintet from Charlotte didn’t get too much in motion while interpreting their compositions.
Betontod After 20 years of existence two years ago the german Punk formation forced their live-action massively. And so they returned to Roitzschjora with the opener “Keine Popsongs” earning directly much participation on the spectators’ side. Even technical problems while “Schwarzes Blut” didn’t stop the party atmosphere. So a few minutes later the party continued including the highlights “Glück Auf” and “Viva Punk!”.
The Browning The difference between the Punk Rock before and what was up about to follow it couldn’t has become. Nevertheless the Electro Metal fourpiece also got much positive feedback from the audience applauding and headbanging for “Bloodlust”, “Standing To The Edge” as for the new song “Planet Hate” from the forthcoming album.
Devil Sold His Soul And so the party continued with Post Hardcore from the United Kingdom. The young band sounded pretty innovative. “Hope” and “End Of Days” also convinced the pit-motivated crowd.
Knorkator The Comedy Metal weirdoes from Berlin attracted lots of fans in front of the stage going wild from the beginning consisting of “Der Ultimative Mann”, “Ich Will Nur Fick’n” and the Boney M cover “Ma Baker”. The band entertained by several costumes and gimmicks, Stumpen played with Alf Ator tennis on stage and Stumpen crowdsurfed inside an inflatable ball during “Konflikt”. After this incomparable stunt they bid farewell by “Wir Werden Alle Sterben”.
Korpiklaani How the Finish sixpiece got this high billing position on the Main Stage was a big riddle to me. Their Folk Metal didn’t address so many visitors. And the fact that the party track “Vodka” was the only one getting celebrating was symptomatic.
Caliban On my first With Full Force I discovered Caliban and over the past ten years I watched them about six times in Roitzschjora. Since then the band has developped from the new german hope in the raising Metalcore scene to an icon of this subgenre after its boom. The quintet produced the hugest circle-pits, one around the sound tower, and “It’s Our Burden To Bleed”, “I Will Never Let You Down”, “24 Years” and the final “Memorial” got celebrated by thousands of fans. Just the Rammstein cover “Sonne” was unnecessary, Caliban can call many songs their own which work much better on stage.
Korn The leading band of the Nu Metal genre returned to Roitzschjora with their old as new guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch. And the question was: Will they find back to old live qualities they had been known for, especially after the smashing co-headliner-show of Caliban? The answer was a clear yes. To my surprise they opened by their biggest as breakthrough hit “Blind”. Supported by a clear as bombastic sound and cool video projections the quintet held the audience in motion to “Falling Away From Me”, “Did My Time”, Lies” and “Here To Stay”. After “Y’ All Want A Single” the band left the stage to return with the encores “Get Up!”, “Got The Life” and “Freak On A Leash”. Amazing jubilated show.
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
All That Remains Over years I had thought as wished that the quintet from Massachussets belongs to the WFF. Finally the time had come and I seemed not the only one who had been waiting for. The passionate performance of the four men and one woman as the variable voice of shouter/singer Phil Labonte inspired the crowd to singalongs, headbanging as circle-pits by “Some Of The People, All The Time” “Hold On”, “Two Weeks”, “This Calling”, “Six” and “Become The Catalyst”. Amazing!
Die Kassierer It’s a WFF-tradition to let the anarcho-punks headline the hardbowl one day every second year. So it was my sixth Kassierer show in Roitzschjora. Besides a new release in the meantime there hadn’t changed too much: Fronter Wölfi appeared occasionally naked and the band celebrated their Punk classics like “Besoffen Sein”, “Sex Mit Dem Sozialarbeiter”, “Das Schlimmste Ist, Wenn Das Bier Alle Ist”, “Mein Glied Ist Zu Groß” and “Stinkmösenpolka” with the packed tent.
Tent Stage: The Last Supper
Paradise Lost From the first tones of “Enchantment” this appearance became kind of magic. What an atmosphere! The up-tempo-classic Pity The Sadness followed and the headbanging fraction didn’t hesitate. After Nick Holmes’ demand to bring the masses of the finished Korn-gig on the neighbored Main Stage up to the Tent Stage the quintet played the title track of the currend album “Tragic Idol” to let follow their hit “As I Die”. After “The Enemy” and “In This We Dwell” the British left with “Say Just Words”. Just sad they were forced to renounce “One Second” due to time problems.
Negura Bunget After line-up-changes the sixpiece from Romania were back to perform their unique Black Metal with Romanian Folk instruments including the well-known woodboard. Anyway, what had been very interesting and innovative at former concerts felt pretty boring this night.
Amorphis The band from Finland of course knew how to rock the tired people opening with “Shades Of Gray” from the new masterpiece “Circle” of which they also performed “Hopeless Days” and “Narrow Path”. The fans mobilized their last stamina to celebrate “Sampo”, “Silver Bride” as the classics “Into Hiding” and “On Rich And Poor”. They finished a wonderful show as the whole live-action of the WFF anniversary with “House Of Sleep”.
Conclusion:
The whole team wants to stress this year’s With Full Force was a very dignified anniversary as one of the best we had ever experienced within ten years now!!! The prices were still very fair to the fans (e.g. 2,50 € for a 0,4l beer or softdrink)! And as fair worked the prices for food! Our special thanks go out to Peter Klapproth, Sascha Merkel, Bogo Ritter and the WFF-team!!!!! At the With Full Force 2013 rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Julia, Helga, and Nicole!!!!! So we’re looking forward to With Full Force 2014!