Wacken 2013 Review

WACKEN OPEN AIR 2013
The Mekka for metalheads is Wacken! This quote of a journalist still counts in 2013. You can travel all around the world, in each Metal-scene Wacken is an issue. And so every WOA-edition hosts fans coming from all over the world which might be the most impressive aspect of the Wacken-universe as a contra to all problems on this planet: Bringing people from different cultures together and let them party hard, but in peace.
And the organizers confirmed a very attractive billing for this party lead by Rammstein, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Nightwish, Doro and Motörhead. Last named ones had to stop their appearance due to health problems of Lemmy which might had been the lowlight to many fans suffering with their idol. Besides that there were lots of highlights getting celebrated suitable as for example the special shows of Amorphis (with an acoustic rearranged section) and Danzig (including a Misfits-section).
As the years before the organization worked very well. The festivalsite as its ways to the different stages offered much space for the masses, the clean restrooms were for free use and the variety of food and beverages was huge.
Like the latest WOA-editions the fans also had the opportunity to visit the Wackinger Village with several viking as medieval shows and a market. The Bullhead City Tent inluding the W.E.T. Stage as the Headbanger Stage alternating with each other held its place from last year. We concentrated on the main festival area with all the bands of the three big stages.
The weather was quite ambivalent: Especially the friday became the most extremely hot festival day for years. On saturday evening a strong rain caused some mud on as around the festival area. But the organization considered this and the fans didn’t stop the party. At this year’s Wacken Open Air 85 bands appeared on the five regular stages (besides several shows on the Beer Garden Stage and the Medieval Stage and as lots of competitors within the Metal Battle contest as further performances on the W.E.T. Stage as the Headbanger Stage on wednesday) in three days for about 75000 visitors (Sold out!). Finally we need to express our condolence for one man from Poland who died sleeping in his heated tent. Sad story which could have happened everywhere, but nevertheless tragic.

Thursday
True Metal Stage
Rammstein Because of preparing the stage for the headliner the True Metal Stage didn’t host any other band than the headliner on thurs what let us suppose how gigantic this show might become. While we walked in front of the stage finding the right place to watch suddenly some kind of intro tone sounded. Wow! That was the loudest as clearest sound we had ever heard till then. And that stood for the following show with a phenomenal sound: Loud and differentiated, so many spectators of the crowded festivalsite put away their ear-plugs. It became more and more obvious the long preparations on the stage would result in a phenomenal show, acoustically as visually. Vocalist Till Lindemann wafted down from the stage roof to begin with “Ich Tu Dir Weh” and “Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen?” The show effects which of course included fire as its main element were amazing: Flames falling from the roof down onto the edge of the stage, a fire arrow shot by Till Lindemann to the sound tower which was coming back or Lindemann’s flamethrower against keyboarder Flake being captured in a fire-resistant jar, etc.. And musically the band convinced as well by a best-of-set containing “Feuer Frei”, “Ohne Dich”, “Du Riechst So Gut”, “Du Hast” and “Ich Will” that marked the end of the regular set after which they returned with “Sonne” interpreted in a unique collaboration with the german beat-music star Heino and the final “Pussy”. I just missed “Engel”. But anyway: Fascinating! The band kneeled down and Till Lindemann thanked for another time looking authentically impressed.

Black Stage
Skyline Same procedure as every ear: The (former) band of WOA-organiser Thomas Jensen opened the festivalsite by several Rock- and Metal-classics like Saxon’s “Strong Arm Of The Law”, Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” getting the fans in the right mood, and so they did.
Annihilator Canada’s finest set the first highlight of the festival. After ten years they returned to Wacken and inspired the crowded as hot festivalsite. Lead by their vocalist/guitarist duo consisting of mainman Jeff Waters and Dave Padden who had been new that mentioned last time in Wacken. Besides presenting by “No Way Out” a promising song from the brandnew “Feast” album waiting for its release three weeks later the classics “King Of The Kill”, “Set The World On Fire”, “The Fun Palace” and the final debut-hit “Alison Hell” got celebrated nearly over the whole filled festival area.
Thunder The Hardrock institution from London fascinated on less hard, but nice melodic levels. The most visitors could be the children of their voice Danny Bowes and probably didn’t know the opener “Dirty Love”, the following “River Of Pain”, “You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down” or the ballad hit “Love Walked In”, but they celebrated it making this a good Rock show in the early evening.
Deep Purple To me it became like a little sensation when I stood at the same place one year before and watched the announcements for the first confirmed bands for WOA 2013: The Hardrock legend from Birmingham in Wacken, what an idea! So Deep Purple, founded in 1968, are one of the oldest bands besides Alice Cooper ever have played in Wacken. Without any big effects the band let their music do the talking starting with “Into The Fire”, the hit “Highway Star” and “Hard Lovin’ Man”. From then on Ian Gillan’s voice and each musician ruled Wacken. About the sense of the jams as solos you may discuss, but it had class anyway. Besides that Deep Purple were able to present by “Vincent Price” as “Above And Beyond” new songs from “Now What?!”, the first album after eight years. Of course classics like “Strange Kind Of Woman”, “Hell To Pay”, “Perfect Strangers” and “Space Truckin’” couldn’t miss. After one of the biggest Rock hits ever, “Smoke On The Water”, had been performed together with Uli Jon Roth they finished their regular set before returning with the encore part consisting of the two covers “Green Onions” (Booker T & The MG’s) as “Hush” (Billy Joe Royal) and the final “Black Night”.

Friday
True Metal Stage
Tristania In my opinion this Gothic Metal act from Norway had its best times years ago. Although Mariangela ‘Mary’ Demurtas had a nice voice as presence that couldn’t save the lame show of the nearly motionless performance of her bandmates and the unspectacular setlist considering by the opener “Number”, the title track, “Night On Earth”, “Himmelfall” and “Requiem” five songs from the very new release “Darkest White”. Just “Beyond The Veil” and “Year Of The Rat” became some kind of interesting.
Powerwolf You can’t stop the Powerwolf! The victorious march of the fivepiece from the Saarland seems irresistable. While extremely hot temperatures (about 37 degree Celsius) it was an exercise to every fan as to the corpsepaint of the band as well. The beginning of their show consisting of “Sanctified With Dynamite” and “We Drink Your Blood” left no questions open about sparing stamina for the rest of the show: No compromise! Songs from the brand new album “Preachers Of The Night” like “Amen And Attack”, “In The Name Of God (Deus Vult)”, “Kreuzfeuer” and “Coleus Sanctus” were as much celebrated as the classics “Resurrection By Errection”, “Werewolves Of Armenia”, “All We Need Is Blood” and “Raise Your Fist, Evangelist”. Singer Attila Dorn entertained by several jokes, the band rocked and so “Lupus Dei” closed a great show.
Pretty Maids The Danish Dynamite is back, nearly back to back! Beginning by their new “Motherland”-songs “Mother Of All Lights” and “I See Ghosts” their music was just the right sound to spread some good mood in the sunshine. Ronnie Atkins impressed by hist still strong voice and the instrumental fraction lead by mainman Ken Hammer acted tight. Their classics “Back To Back”, “Rodeo”, “Yellow Rain”, “Future World” and the encore “Red, Hot And Heavy” rocked the jubilating crowd.
Sabaton The rise of the Swedish Power Metal fivepiece is one of those Metal mysteries to me. But their in my opinion pretty average sound with the questional steady war issue caught the sympathy of many thousands metalheads singing and headbanging with the opener “Ghost Division”, “Into The Fire”, “Cliffs Of Gallipoli”, “The Art Of War” and “Primo Victoria”. Fronter Joakim Brodén couldn’t hide his surprise about getting such a massive support. He entertained by some beer-related comments and the audience’s sympathy was won.
Doro The grand lady of Heavy Metal invited Wacken to celebrate her 30 years jubileum. And this should turn out to a memorable show. Supported by ex-Scorpion’s Uli Jon Roth, Motörhead’s Phil Campbell, Saxon’s Biff Byford, Grave Digger’s Chris Boltendahl as Subway To Sally’s Eric Fish & Frau Schmitt Doro appeared considering many classics of her former band Warlock (the opener “I Rule The Ruins”, “Burning The Witches”, “Hellbound”, “Für Immer”, “Metal Tango” and the final hymn “All We Are” which got co-assisted by several well-known guests. After that one the Metal queen returned for the encore by another Warlock track known as “Earthshaker Rock”. The effect of lifting the drum riser nearly up to the roof of the stage was cool as well. This show mainly was one for the old fans who had been waiting for such a setlist for years.
Grave Digger After his Doro-support Chris Boltendahl returned with his own formation on stage in the deepest night focussing a bit too much on their newer material. The most celebrated tracks were classics like “Knights Of The Cross”, “Ballad Of A Hangman”, “Excalibur”, “Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching)” getting supported by Sabbaton’s vocalist Joakim Brodén and the final “Heavy Metal Breakdown”.

Black Stage
Neaera The right wake-up-call was given by the Deathcore quintet from Münster. And although this noon felt hot like hell the mainly young fans celebrated this energetic show by stagediving and circle-pits in a way making shouter Benny Hilleke speachless. The band combined new “Ours Is The Storm” – material like its title song, “Through Treacherous Flames”, “Between Us And Annihilation” and “My Night Is Starless” with the more familiar “Armamentarium”, “Let The Tempest Come” and the final “Spearheading The Storm” to a stirring show.
Gojira One of the last confirmed bands replacing As I Lay Dying on this billing position was this quartet from Bayonne. Their show turned out to the best one of this friday. The beginning of their show astonished a lot by interpreting the newer “Explosia” as the “From Mars To Sirius” classics “Flying Whales” and “Backbone” that tight as stirring. The performance of the Duplantier-brothers and their two comrades rocked in maximum size. “L’Enfant Sauvage”, “The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe” and “Vacuity” took care about much motion by headbanging, stagediving and pit-action by the fans. After “Oroborus” they returned for the encore “The Gift Of Guilt”. Awesome!
Ihsan The great master of Black Metal returned with his self-named act for another time supported by the musicians from Leprous. Before starting with “On The Shores” he announced it was time to bring some frost into the heat. That worked well musically, but because of the mentioned temperatures and perhaps the missing as suitable popularity of the Norwegians just a few hundred listened and applauded to their Progressive Black Metal. Compositions like “The Paranoid” or “The Barren Lands” deserve more feedback. This will happen for sure when Ihsan returns with hist former band and Black Metal legend Emperor to Wacken next year.
Agnostic Front The billing mixture had become that wide it was no surprise the NYC-Hardcore-legend rocked Wacken. The opener “Addiction”, “My Life My Way”, “For My Family”, “Friend Or Foe” convinced the WOA-audience pretty fast and animated to much pit-action. Of course Roger Miret, Vinnie Stigma & Co earned the most support for their anthem “Gotta Go” sung by man thousand fans’ voices. So the Ramones-cover “Blitzkrieg Bob” marked the end of a purely successful show.
Motörhead After the cancelation of the With Full Force headliner-slot as of some other dates there was some conversation about Lemmy’s health status. But they proclaimed to come. What followed became a little live tragedy. After six songs (“I Know How To Die”, “Damage Case”, “Stay Clean”, “Metropolis”, “Over The Top”, “The Chase Is Better Than The Catch”) including by a long solo of Phil Campbell to give Mr Kilmister a break he had to abort the gig. After this organizer Thomas Jensen went on stage to thank for Lemmy’s commitment in this heat which resulted in much applause. We hope he’s getting well very soon!
ASP This is timing: On the day of the release of their newest output “Maskenball” the Gothic Metal group appeared in Wacken. Usually I like having in Wacken that many different styles on the stages, but this Gothic-mess didn’t convince me at all although the place was filled. And especially the final well-known “Ich Will Brennen” inspired lots of fans to take part in. Anyway, this didn’t rock!

Party Stage
Russkaja What sounds like Putin’s Kreml band is a Folk Rock/Metal/Crossover – sevenpiece from Vienna. After several years on the stages outside the festival area this year they had the honor to open the friday. But they didn’t really impress at al, so next time put them back on the Wackinger Stage, please.
Eisbrecher In contrast to that the bavarian Industrial-formation around ex-Megaherz-vocalist Alexx Wesselsky attracted much more fans. Those were entertained by “Willkommen Im Nichts”, “Antikörper”, “Metall” and “This Is Deutsch”. Much celebrations and singalongs got the covered Megaherz-hit “Miststück” played at last.
Ugly Kid Joe Finally they’re back! The little different Heavy Metal band from California, a bit older, a bit less hair, but still as cool 18 years (!) before when I had seen them for the latest time. Bassist Cordell Crockett still wore his special glasses, drummer Shannon Larkin appeared just in underpants due to the heat this time and fronter Withfield Crane still was the agile fronter who knows how to animate the audience. From the opener “VIP” the quintet rocked Wacken and at the latest while the following debut-hit “Neighbor” nobody cared about the hot temperatures. The cover ballad from Harry Chapin, “Cats In The Cradle” was sung by lots of fans. After the second ballad “Milkman’s Son” and the self-describing “Goddamn Devil” the fivepiece left the stage to return for the Motörhead cover “Ace Of Spades” in co-assistance of Phil Campbell and the band-hit “Everything About You” as the encores. What a strong comeback!
Soilwork The Swedish sixpack returned with the new double-cd-masterpiece “The Living Infinite” of which they not only the two starting tracks “This Momentary Bliss” and “Parasite Blues”, but “Tongue”, “Long Live The Misanthrope” and “Rise Above The Sentiment”. What usually doesn’t work at time-limited festival shows did here because of the quality of the new compositions. On the other hand the fans of course waited for the familiar classics “Weapon Of Vanity”, “Follow The Hollow”, “Nerve” and the encore “Stabbing The Drama”, and so they celebrated those ones animated by fronter Björn ‘Speed’ Strid and bass-weirdo Ola Flink even more.
Corvus Corax In the meantime I got bored by the Folk Rock/Metal ensemble. Their disadvantage to play against Motörhead appearing on the Black Stage should become a big advantage after Lemmy had to abort the show after six songs, so many spectators change to the Party Stage. But this fact didn’t turn this performance to a good one.
Amorphis This showcase was a very exclusive one: Supported by saxophonist and a female singer the band interpreted rearranged acoustic versions of “Enigma”, “I Of Crimson Blood”, “Empty Opening”, “Rusty Moon” and “Sign From The North Side”. A cool light show took care about the right visual atmosphere resulting in much applause from the audience. After this the still main part was the one for the plugged-version-fans who got satisfied by “Shades Of Gray”, “Narrow Path”, “Hopeless Days” “Nightbird’s Song” from the new “Circles”-album as by the classics “Silver Bride”, “The Castaway”, and “House Of Sleep”. So the band from Suomi bid farewell by “My Kantele” ending an amazing as remindable show.

Saturday
True Metal Stage
Callejon Why not going with my colleges to the first band when it’s hot everywhere? So I preferred sweating in front of the stage, and I shouldn’t regret my decision. To my own surprise the Metalcore-fivepiece from Düsseldorf had developped to a band for a big stage like this one. The festival area was pretty filled and the popular cover versions of Fettes Brot’s “Schwule Mädchen” as of Die Ärzte’s “Schrei Nach Liebe” from their new pure cover album “Man Spricht Deutsch” were sung by lots of spectators. Besides that their own compositions like “Dieses Lied Macht Betroffen”, “Zombified”, “Sommer, Liebe, Kokain” and the amazing ballad “Kind Im Nebel” convinced as well.
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter For another time the Reiter attracted their fan army in front of the stage. And those celebrated their gig containing “Revolution”, “Es Wird Schlimmer”, “Metal Will Never Die”, “Seemann” and “Reitermania”, but not me. Their fun factor combined with the fulfilled Metal clichés were ridiculous to me.
Anthrax The US Thrash Metal icon started strong with “Among The Living”, “Caught In A Mosh” and “Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)”. After this they dedicated the following “In The End” to Ronnie James Dio and Dimebag Darrel. Supported by Shadows Fall – guitarist Jonathan Donias and Jon Dette replacing Charlie Benante the fivepiece performed the cover versions “T.N.T.” (AC/DC), “Got The Time” (Joe Jackson) and the final “Antisocial” (Trust) which got as much celebrated as the other classics “Indians”, “I Am The Law” and “Madhouse”. Lead by an agile singer Frank Belladonna who ran the stage up and down and the dedicated Scott Ian as Frank Bello it was no surprise the crowd moved themselves in a circle-pit.
Trivium After the Thrash Metal legend the time had come for one of the biggest Thrash acts nowadays. The quartet started furious by “Throes Of Perdition”, “Becoming The Dragon” and “Down From The Sky”. The following “Brave This Storm” was a very new song from an album getting released later this year. The powerful voice of Matt Heafy and the energetic as tight performance animated the numerous fans to celebrate “Black”, “Dusk Dismantled”, “A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation” as the encores “In Waves”, “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr”.
Nightwish After Nightwish had dropped out singer Anette Olzon and had decided to replace her by ex-After Forever-vocalist Floor Jansen. So the fans were pretty curious if she could fill the footsteps of Tarja Turunen what nobody had done in their eyes as ears. And from the beginning by “Dark Chest Of Wonders” and “Wish I Had An Angel” she did. Her voice as her performance convinced absolutely. So the show being recorded live for a video release turned out to a pure success getting jubilated for “She Is My Sin”, “Storytime”, “Nemo”, “Amaranth” and the final “Last Ride Of The Day”.
Subway To Sally For another time the sevenpiece from Potsdam had the pleasure to set the final musical point in Wacken which they used to play a special best-of program. Right after the opener “Schwarzes Meer” they performed a medley consisting of “Henkersbraut”, “Falscher Heiland”, “Knochenschiff” and “Das Rätsel II”. So they spared time for the end of the show because after the”Sieben” / “Ohne Liebe” / “Veitstanz” – medley the Folk Rock / Metal band left the stage to return with an exclusive encore-set by “Maria”, “Carickfergus”, “Sag Dem Täufel” and “Julia Und Die Räuber”. Special as well was the collaboration with Santiano playing “Auf Kiel” together. The fans got totally satisfied celebrating their faves.

Black Stage
Fear Factory In the noon with clouds, but still hot temperatures the Industrial-institution from Los Angeles returned seven years after they had played in Wacken for the first time. And they still could count on a huge audience. And this one was curious getting offered a best-of-set just beginning with the strong “Demanufacture” and “Self Bias Resistor”. The newer era of the band got considered by “The Industrialist” and “Powershifter”. Apart from that classics like “Shock”, “Archetype”, “Cyberwaste” and “Replica” ruled causing much headbanging as moshpits. The only thing to criticize was Burton C. Bell’s clean parts when he didn’t hit the right tones for several times.
Lamb Of God Last year was turbulent when fronter Randy Blythe got arrested in the Czech Republic spending time in jail before getting the judgement to be free again. The place in front of the stage was pretty packed. From the opener “Desolation” it was clear how overwhelming this performance should become. It seemed like they had spared all their energy of those mentioned days to give it back on stage. The following “Ghost Walking”, “Walk With Me In Hell” and “Set To Fail” left no doubt about it. But while “Ruin” suddenly it rained massively. More and more fans fled, but there was still an astonishing crowd left partying in the rain as its result mud to “In Your Words”, “Laid To Rest”, the hit “Redneck” and the final “Black Label”. The groove monster from Richmond is back!
Danzig It has been a long time I had seen Danzig live. In general his live activities in Europe had become pretty rare. So many spectators as me were curious about this appearance, but first I got disappointed. Glenn Danzig and his comrades first looked a bit uninspired, but that changed from the great “Her Black Wings” on. After the wonderful “How The Gods Kill” a big surprise awaited the fans: The guitarist of Danzig’s former band as Punk-legend Misfits, Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein entered the stage to perform with Glenn and his band Misfits-classics from “Death Comes Ripping” over “Vampira”, “Astro Zombies” till “Last Caress” before they finished with the Danzig-hymn “Mother”. The fans jubilated knowing they had seen a very unique collaboration, and the band returned with Doyle to play the Misfits-classic “Die, Die My Darling” as the encore.
Alice Cooper The grand father of Shock Rock was back in Wacken. As four years before he presented a show that’s worth its name. Parallel to the songs a plot was shown on stage with many gimmicks and effects in which Alice died for several times. Musically there was a choice over nearly 50 decades. “House Of Fire”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, “Caffeine”, “Hey Stoopid”, “Go To Hell” and “Feed My Frankenstein” still are pure entertainment in 2013. And so they animated the spectatorship to singalong and applaude a lot. After “I Love The Dead” a cover section followed considering the rock classics “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” (The Doors), “Revolution” (The Beatles), “Foxy Lady” (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) and “My Generation” (The Who). After this Alice Cooper finished by his own Rock classics “I’m Eighteen” and “Poison”. “Schools Out” as the encore included an “Another Brick In The Wall” – interlude honoring Pink Floyd set the final point after an excellent performance.
Lingua Mortis It’s good Rage decided to distinguish between Rage and Lingua Mortis Orchestra to avoid irritating their fans. This night they didn’t get that much support. The mainly unknown tracks might have been responsible for that. In the end ‘Peavy’ Wagner, Victor Smolski and their orchestra were able to reach more feedback by “From The Cradle To The Grave” and “Straight To Hell”.

Party Stage
Alestorm The Folk Metal fivepiece from United Kingdom could count on numerous supporters when they entered the stage. Their pirate-based lyrics and their party-orientated sound animated the crowd to party into the last day. Highlight was when they interpreted “Wenches & Mead” as “Weiber & Wein” in german for the second half of the set. The fans partied while I got bored.
Sonata Arctica The Melodic Metal act was supposed to show they still had a die-hard-fanbase. Those one just hat celebrated “Black Sheep”, but while “The Last Amazing Grace” the mentioned strong rain started. But as while the much harder Lamb Of God could count in front of the stage on an astonishing number of fans so could the Finns on the Party Stage. So they had celebrated “Replica”, Full Moon” and the final “Don’t Say A Word” before the “Vodka”-outro sent them to the tents change their wet clothes under the just returned sun.
DevilDriver Two years after they had to cancel their WOA-participation the fivepiece from Santa Barbara finally made it to Wacken. And they exclusively performed “Ruthless” and “Appetite” from the forthcoming output “Winter Kills” being released about three weeks later. Of course familiar classics like “Dead To Rights”, “Not All Who Wander Are Lost”, “I Could Care Less” and “Clouds Over California found more resonance. To me the show became more and more monotonous.
Candlemass Not less monotonous should become the Doom Metal icon from Stockholm. For those who enjoy their Doom “Bewitched”, “Emperor Of The Void”, “At The Gallows End” as the encores “Black As Time”, “Crystal Ball” and “Solitude” were an apparentness, to me it wasn’t.
Meshuggah In total contrast to that the quintet from Umea presented a fascinating show. Supported by a brilliant light show in the middle of the night Fredrik Thordendahl & Co presented their high-skilled compositions which meanwhile founded by the Djent-subgenre a new interesting scene. Lead by the charismatic shouter Jens Kidman the opener “Swarm”, “obZene”, “Bleed”, “Rational Gaze” and “New Millenium Cyanide Christ” activated all left headbanging stamina. And it became clear: This show rocked for sure! By “In Death – Is Life” and “In Death – Is Death” the band finished this year’s WOA finally with its very best show in the end. Phenomenal!

Conclusion:
After last year’s rain flood this time we had the hottest temperatures since probably our first WOA-visit in 1997. The rain on saturday brought back a bit of the mud factor. The organisation worked well as every year. The fans were always informed about everything necessary to know. Musically there was no important short-term cancelation, just the mentioned Motörhead-gig-abortion.
The prices for food and beverages changed that way that after wishes of several visitors the organizers downsized the cups as the prices (e.g. 3,00 € for a 0,3 l instead of 3,50 € for a 0,4 l beer or softdrink the years before).
On saturday night the Wacken organizers announced the first bands for 2014:
Amon Amarth, Apocalyptica & Orchestra, Arch Enemy, Avantasia, Behemoth, Children Of Bodom, Emperor, Iced Earth, King Diamond, Kreator, Prong and Schandmaul!
We enjoyed our Wacken 2013! So see you in Wacken 2014 – rain or shine! Special thanks go out to Anna Lorenz, Fine Wolff and the WOA-team!!!!! At the Wacken Open Air rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte, Dumbo and Julia!!!!!