With full force 2014 Review

With Full Force 2014
After celebrating the 20th birthday of the With Full Force Open Air in 2014 we were excited to see what’s up with the festival twen. Of course the special anniversary day presenting five fans’ favorite bands on thursday last year stayed exclusive and didn’t find repetition. Anyway, the festival organizers were able to confirm an attractive billing lead by Volbeat, Rob Zombie, Motörhead, Hatebreed, Amon Amarth and Bring Me The Horizon. Besides that the other postitions of the billing showed a very interesting mixture of the subgenres Metal, Hardcore and Punk as the WFF visitor is usually used to.
The weather turned out very sunny, sometimes a bit too much. But the prices for drinks (e.g. 0,4 l beer for 2,50 €) were fair as those ones to pay for food, so this wasn’t a real problem. As there weren’t many in general because for another time the organisation worked very well. Even the billing got short-termed fixed because of Germany’s soccer world championship quarter final which traditionally happened and was won while With Full Force. So nobody had to appear against the German soccer team. Of course the other three games were shown as well on an extra huge screen in the neighborhood of the Tent Stage. Band cancelations weren’t listed this year.
On the airfield of Roitzschjora appeared 60 bands on two stages in three days for about 30.000 visitors.

Friday
Main Stage
Blackest Dawn The Deathcore sixpiece from the not so far away Magdeburg had the honor to open this year’s Main Stage program. Lead by their two shouters they enthused the first arrived fans by Deathcore smashers like „Curse Of The Soulgrinder“ and the new „We Are Legions“.
Milking The Goatmachine The next drumming vocalist followed by the four german goats bringing Grindcore on stage. Usually the Knüppelnacht would have been the better location including the audience, but especially the tracks from the „Greatest Hits – Covered In Milk“ – interpretations invited the spectators to party.
The Black Dahlia Murder The energy of this band from Michigan is undescrible. Especially fronter Trevor Strnad showed another agile performance. Their Melodic Death Metahl combined with several Core elements convinced headbangers as circle-pitters by „Miasma“, „Statutory Ape“ and „Moonlight Equilibrium“.
Kataklysm Headbangers shurely had fun when the Death Metal kings from Canada returned to show another strong WFF-Main-Stage-show. Songs from the current „Waiting For The End To Come“ – album like its three starting tracks „Fire“, „If I Was God… I’d Burn It All“ and „Like Animals“ got celebrated as the classics „As I Slither“, „Illuminati“, „Where The Enemy Sleeps …“, „Taking The World By Storm“, Manipulator Of Souls“, „In Shadows And Dust“ and „Crippled & Broken“ while the sun shined hot.
Skindred To enter the stage to the sound of Star Wars’ „Imperial March“ couldn’t have been cooler. The Fusion between Metal and Reggae influences spread a bit of South American vibes right before the Germany game that was about to begin right after the show. So while several visitors preferred to search for the right place to watch it later on, others celebrated the opener „Rat Race“, „Nobody“ as tracks from the new release „Kill The Power“. Well done by the Welsh!
Callejon After the 1:0-won of the German soccer team against France the party motivation of the spectators had increased enormously when the quintet from Düsseldorf entered the Main Stage. So „Blitzkreuz“, „Dieses Lied Macht Betroffen“, „Sommer, Liebe, Kokain“, „Lass Mich Gehen“, „Snake Mountain“, „Porn From Spain 2“ and of course the covers „Schwule Mädchen“ of Fettes Brot and „Schrei Nach Liebe“ from Die Ärzte got celebrated loudly as actively. For another time the ballad „Kind Im Nebel“ turned out to a fantastic highlight.
Hatebreed After co-headlining last year’s extra WFF-pre-day the Hardcore icon from Connecticut returned for another jubilated appearance showing the fivepiece is the most wanted band in Roitzschjora besides Slayer. The numerous fans followed each of shouter Jamey Jasta’s commands jumping, moshing, etc.. „In Ashes They Shall Reap“, „As Diehard As They Come“, „Honor Never Dies“ and „Never Let It Die“ caused a lot of motion on as in front of the stage. But this got even raised by the Hardcore hymns „Live For This“, „I Will Be Heard“ „Destroy Everything“. The Hardcore institution rocked their second home for another time.
Volbeat How to rock a big crowd is a quality the quartet from Danmark is well-known for. And so they did as they had done three years before. But in contrast to 2011 there was no massive rain disturbing the party opened by the newer song „Doc Holliday“ directly beginning after a fireworks. „Sad Man’s Tongue“ marked the first highlight sang by thousands which did it again a bit later while „Radio Girl“. The whole performance spread pure party atmosphere topped by the encore final consisting of „Pool Of Booze, Booze, Booza“, „The Hangman’s Body Count“, „Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood“ and „The Mirror And The Ripper“ while others watched the South American – related soccer world championship quarter final between Brasil and Columbia resulting in a 2:1 for the hosting team.

Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Of Mice & Men Fresh sounding Metalcore from California ruled the Tent Stage. The wonderful melodic hooklines as the live performance of the quintet impressed. The quintet mainly concentrated on their new album „Restoring Force“ by „Feels Like Forever“, „You’re Not Alone“ and „Would You Still Be There?“ which earned much support.

Tent Stage: Knüppelnacht
Nile After the „Dusk Falls Upon The Temple Of The Serpent On The Mount Of Sunrise“ – intro the Death Metal ensemble around Karl Sanders let follow „Sacrifice Unto Sebek“ and „Kafir!“. Their technical aprroachead sound sometimes may cause confusion for new listeners or spectators, but that night the filled tent celebrated the highlight show after midnight ending with „Sarcophagus“, „Lashed To The Slave Stick“ and „Black Seeds Of Vengeance“.
Carach Angren The Symphonic Black Metal trio had to play against numerous spectators leaving the Tent Stage. The corpsepainted Dutch blackies tried to combine orchestral elements and pure Black Metal sound resulting in tracks like „The Funerary Dirge By A Violinist“ and „Bitte Töte Mich“. Anyway, it didn’t convince me as many others at all.
Der Weg Einer Freiheit Some kind of Progressive Black Metal was shown deep in the night. The quartet from South Germany created by compositions as „Lichtmensch“ and „Der Stille Fluss“ an atmosphere which caught much more attention than the formation before. No surprise the innovative band was invited to the Euroblast Festival one year before.
Grand Supreme Bloodcourt I still don’t know why this band needs to exist as long the three main persons also play pretty similar Death Metal in their main band Asphyx. Anyway, Martin van Drunen knew how to entertain by several football comments while the second Dutch of this year’s Knüppelnacht band concentrated on the set basing on their only longplayer „Bow Down Before The Blood Court“ by „Circus Of Mass Torment“ and „… And Thus The Billions Shall Burn“.
Shining 04:10 a.m.: The right time for sicko-fronter Niklas Kvarforth and his little different strange Black Metal band to entertain the left fans which of course got reduced to a fewer audience than four hours ago. But those ones shouldn’t have left the tent disappointed. Kvarforth wasn’t in stupid scandal mood and concentrated on „Han Som Mater Människran“, „Lat Oss Ta Allt Vran Varandra“ and the final „For The God Below“ which sent the supporters to their tents.

Saturday
Main Stage
Dew-Scented The leading German band combining Thrash with Death Metal had the exercise to wake up the visitors, not for the first time in WFF-history. Lead by fronting mainman Leif Jensen they did well again by „Cities Of The Dead“, „Arise From Decay“, „Thrown To The Lions“, „Turn To Ash“ and the final „Acts Of Rage“ causing pit as headbanging action.
The Unguided In my opinion the position betwen the Swedish formation and the opener Dew-Scented should have been switched because of the different number of releases as of the popularity. Whatever, the band mainly consisting of ex-Sonic-Syndicate-members played a similar sound known from their ex-band attracting many curious fans by their catchy choruses. „Inception“ and „Eye Of The Thylacine“ from their new „Fragile Immortality“ – release earned much applause.
Carnifex Polite applause changed to several wild circle-pits when the fivepiece from San Diego performed their Deathcore smashers „Slit Wrist Savior“, „Dead But Dreaming“ and „Until I Feel Nothing“. After considering by „Dragged Into The Grave“ as the title track from their new album „Die Without Hope“ they finished the probably most brutal appearances of this weekend by „Lie To My Face“.
Walls Of Jericho This fivepiece from Detroit had developped to one of the most wanted bands in the WFF-audience. No wonder regarding the energy female shouter Candace Kucsulain and her four bandmates invest each show. Starting with „All Hail The Dead“ and „A Trigger Full Of Promises“ they kept the crowd in motion resulting in circle-pits and walls of death. And this action continued while „The Prey“, „Revival Never Goes Out Of Style“ and „The American Dream“. By „Relentless“ they presented a new still unreleased song straigt leading to our personal list: WFF-hammer-show → check. Next: A new hammer-album!
Ignite A new album is what many fans expect from the following quintet which brought much more melody on the festivalsite. It’s been eight years and four jubilated WFF-appearances now since their amazing „Our Darkest Days“ – masterpiece. But the fifth was supposed to be the last one before their forthcoming album. This one got advertised by the final „Nothing Can Stop Me“. Before that the five guys from Orange County, California, animated the numerous fans to singalong and party from the opening „Bleeding“ over „Fear Is Our Tradition“, „Veterans“, „Poverty For All“, „My Judgement Day“, „Know Your History“ and the U2-cover „Sunday, Bloody Sunday“. One of the best shows of the whole weekend! After this we hurried to watch the end of Argentina’s 1:0 vs. Belgium in the soccer world championship quarter final.
Devil You Know The band from Los Angeles is the new one of ex-Killswitch-Engage-vocalist Howard Jones. And this for sure was the reason to get such a high billing position with their one and only debut album „The Beauty Of Destruction“. But they weren’t able to transport the intensity on stage as their both forerunners had done. So just a few supporters in the first rows celebrated „Seven Years Alone“, „Crawl From The Dark“, „It’s Over“ and „Shut It Down“ which were unknown to the majority of the audience.
Amon Amarth After canceling last year’s WFF-appearance the vikings entered the Main Stage to give back what the fans had been waiting for. Except for „We Shall Destroy“ the fivepiece placed newer material from the latest record „Deceiver Of The Gods“ in the beginning of their set by the opener „Father Of The Wolf“, the following title track and „As Loke Falls“. Supported by several pyro effects the best of program containing „Death In Fire“, „Guardians Of Asgaard“, „Cry Of The Blackbirds“ as the final „Twilight Of The Thunder God“ and „Pursuit Of Vikings“ a special atmosphere attracting much applause and headbanging support.
Rob Zombie The main attraction of the billing was the slot of the ex-mainman of White Zombie and his praised show. But before the concert we asked ourselves why there were just 60 minutes planned for the headliner slot. Is Mr Zombie that old demanding it? Opening with „Teenage Nosferatu Pussy“ the red lighted stage set and the horror-outfits were the main visual effect for the first half of the show. But what even disappointed more was the seemingly unmotivated performance of Mr Zombie presenting their Industrial Metal like „Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown“, „Living Dead Girl“ or „Never Gonna Stop“ as the covers of Diamond Head’s „Am I Evil?“ and Alice Cooper’s „Schools Out“ nearly bored us as the majority of the audience. Just the hits „Superbeast“, „Dragula“ and the White Zombie – classic „Thunder Kiss 65“ got more support. After too much smalltalk of Rob Zombie between the songs and the uninspired show it was even finished too early. Just the scintillating effect guitar was cool to watch. But the soccer world championship quarter final penalty drama between the Netherlands and Costa Rica with its 4:3-result was much more tensioning.

Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Emil Bulls For the third time the Bavarian quintet appeared at the Hardbowl. And for another time they rocked by a sympathic as energetic performance the filled tent. „Here Comes The Fire“, „The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea“, „The Jaws Of Oblivion“ and „When God Was Sleeping“ invited to party and the crowd took part in. Cool!

Tent Stage: Saturday Night Fever
Eskimo Callboy The German sixpack sounded pretty international with their Crossover combining Metal-riffs with Techno-beats a bit reminding to Enter Shikari. Mainly considering material from their new release „We Are The Mess“ they showed this combination worked very well in Roitzschjora.
Psychopunch For another time the Swedish Punk Rock constant participated in the Saturday Night Fever. Many fans knowing about their live qualities waited till 1:05 a.m. celebrating „On My Own“, „Make Up Your Mind“ and a couple of further Rock ‘n’ Roll tracks.
Malignant Tumour When the four Death ‘n’ Rollers started into their set the tent had become pretty exhausted. Just a small crowd had stayed to support very Motörhead-influenced numbers like „Earthshaker“, „We Are The Metal“ and „Overdose & Overdrive“.

Sunday
Main Stage
Volksmetal This day began even hotter than those ones before. Maybe one but for sure not the only reason why the combo playing a mixture between German Folk music with Metal riffs like in „Da Deifel Is A Oachkatzerl“, „Fuerstenfeld“ or the EAV-cover „Küss Die Hand, Herr Kerkermeister“ didn’t attract that much spectators. Their gig wasn’t nearly as entertaining as for example Elsterglanz or A.O.K. as fun openers the years before.
The Ocean The quality level raised enormously when the experimental quintet from Berlin entered the stage. Just a bit to early considering their usual light as background movie show putting the compositions in the right atmosphere. The artists set their main focus on the recent masterpiece „Pelagial“ which turned out to an awesome show astonishing lots of spectators. Next time in a later position please!
Death Before Dishonor Boston Hardcore invaded the festivalsite, but not too less. Shouter Bryan Harris and his four comrades ran the stage up and down and animated the crowd to the first remarkable moshpits by „Break Through It All“, „Count Me In“ and „Born From Misery“.
The Dillinger Escape Plan What followed probably was the madest performance of the whole weekend, musically as regarding the performance. The so-called Mathcore icon from New Jersey showed their spectrum between extreme brutality, high-approached technical skills, songwriting talent and even a bit catchiness. So attackers like „Room Full Of Eyes“ or „Crossburner“ met by „One Of Us Is The Killer“ owning pretty much hit-potential. Fronter Greg Puciato climbed up one of the high box towers – and I just thought, „he really won’t jump down there …“ – before he really jumped down without getting injured. Wicked in every of its senses!
Madball Not really less agile shouter Freddy Cricien presented himself, and so did the NYC Hardcore – institution running the stage up and down and animating the crowd to several moshpits.The numerous fans celebrated classics like „Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop“ as „DNA“ from the brandnew output „Hardcore Lives“.
Sepultura On the only day without soccer world championship game appeared the Thrash Metal groove machine from the hosting country. The quartet presented by the opener „The Vatican“, „Impending Doom“ and „Manipulation Of Tragedy“ three songs from their current album „The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart“ showing they still produce stirring material. Of course the final section consisting of „Arise“, „Refuse/Resist“, „Ratamahatta“ and „Roots, Bloody Roots“ was the most jubilated one. They got special applause when Motörhead’s guitarist Phil Campbell entered the stage to perform the cover „Orgasmatron“ together.
Behemoth The live quality of this band from Poland had increased enormously over the years. According to this fact Nergal & Co opened by „Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel“ and „Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer“ with songs from the new release „The Satanist“. Its title track should follow later on. Even more support achieved the well-known „Conquer All“, „Slaves Shall Serve“, „Christians To The Lions“ and „Ov Fire And the Void“. So the Black Metal fourpiece finished the headbang party with „At The Left Hand Of God“ and „Chant For Eschaton 2000“.
Bring Me The Horizon The young Metalcore fivepiece from Sheffield created a sound which couldn’t feel more home than at the WFF. The festival area was packed with motivated supporters. The band itself took the risk to concentrate almost the whole set on their current release „Sempiternal“ by the opener „Shadow Moses“, „The House Of Wolves“, „Go To Hell, For Heaven’s Sake“, „And The Snakes Start To Sing“, „Empire (Let Them Sing)“, „Can You Feel My Heart“, „Anti-Vist“ and the final „Sleepwalking in contrast to the older „Diamonds Aren’t Forever“ as „Chelsea Smile“. Especially the younger part of the audience freaked out to the show.
Motörhead Young isn’t the world to bring in conjunction with the Rock ‘n’ Roll icon. After canceling last year’s participation mainman Lemmy Kilmister felt better although this year’s heat was comparable to that one in Wacken eleven months ago when they broke off because of Lemmy’s health problems. This time everything worked well beginning with „Damage Case“ over „Metropolis“, by „Lost Woman Blues“ a track from their latest release „Aftershock“, „Going To Brazil“ and „Killed By Death“. The stageacting of Mr Kilmister was pretty static, and the fact they obviously played slower songs emphasized my impression Lemmy still isn’t even nearly at 100 %. Maybe „Ace Of Spades“ and „Overkill“ (supported by Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser) were the last songs many spectators had seen of this band, or maybe not. We’ll see and all the best to Lemmy!

Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Comeback Kid A lesson in energy and how to pack it into 60 minutes on stage was shown by the quintet from Winnipeg. Especially fronter Andrew Neufeld probably ran a few kilometres, most of them backwards by the way. They performed a well-balanced set between the title track from the new album „Die Knowing“, Hardcore-hymns from the Symptoms & Cures“ – masterpiece by „Do Yourself A Favor“, „G.M. Vincent And I“, „Because Of All The Things You Say“ and „The Concept Stays“ as classics like „Broadcasting“ and „Wake The Dead“. The packed tent celebrated them all. Awesome!

Tent Stage: The Last Supper
Finntroll The ending of each WFF is marked by the great The Last Supper. This time it started with superfluous Folk / Black Metal before continuing with better bands. The decision to wear artificial Star-Trek-Ferengi-ears which were supposed to be fantasy-troll-ears must have been felt in the darkest drug phase of someone’s poor person. Anyway, the appearance turned out as rediculous as the outfits. But a couple of fans had fun with „Nattfödd“, „Bloodsvept“ and „Trollhammaren“. Whatever, why!
Moonspell The Portuguese Gothic Metal original probably appeared for the fourth time at The Last Supper, and for another time bandleader Fernando Ribeiro and his band knew how to hold the crowd in the tent by little costume gimmicks and a musically created atmosphere guaranteed by „Night Eternal“, „Axis Mundi“, „Alpha Noir“ and „Em Nome Do Medo“. But most jubilation got provoked by Moonspells big 4 known as „Opium“, „Vampiria“, „Alma Mater“ and „Full Moon Madness“.
Twilight Of The Gods Behind this pretty new formation stand well-known musicians as vocalist Alan Averill from Primordial, drummer Nicholas Barker from Lock Up and three Norwegian musicians from Thyrfing, Aura Noir and Einherjer. Logically their set consisted of tracks from their current output „Fire On The Mountain“ like its title track and „The End Of History“ which sounded very retro. Too retro for many spectators who left the tent during the show.
Long Distance Calling This became a disadvantage for the final band of the day as of the whole WFF 2014. The Instrumental formation from Münster would have probably hosted much more visitors, but those ones who had stayed couldn’t leave this atmospheric 40 minutes filled with a well-balanced set including the recent album „The Flood Inside“ – track „Ductus“, „Arecibo (Long Distance Calling)“ and the final „Black Paper Planes“. Fantastic!

Conclusion
This year the structure of the area wasn’t changed that much as it had done especially the two years before. Everything worked as well as we are used to at the WFF.
The happy-end of the soccer story is well-known: The German team became world champion. One element of this success was seen in Roitzschjora as many more musical moments for every visitor had happened. Several ones are probably unforgettable for each person. So it’s up to everybody to return, we will for sure!
Our special thanks go out to Madeline Friedemann and the WFF-team!!!!! At the With Full Force 2014 rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte and Ailuj!!!!!