Wacken 2001
Thursday : “A night to remember”
W.A.S.P. : This was my first ever WASP show – so I was really interested in watching the show … and was totally disappointed … for me it was kind of playback show … and this evening i think nobody can say that this was a live gig … so we better forget about this “Night to rememember”…
Friday:
Double Mega Stage:
Lacuna Coil: Gothic Metal’s most creative and best performing act from milano showed pretty hard versions of their two albums and two ep’s with the biggest accent on their latest release “Unleashed Memories”. Supported by a clear sound they earned enthusiastic resonances in the audience.
Holy Moses: Wow – what a voice … can we call it voice ?? 😉 They played pure 80s thrash metal and songs like “Lost in the mace” or “Current of death. The duet with Doro Pesch (they played the Dead kennedys song “Too drunk to fuck”) was one of the hightlight od the show …
Paul Di’ Anno: The performance of Paul (former singer of Iron maiden) and his band was ok – they played some old Maiden songs (like Wrathchild and Murders in the rue morgue) and some songs from his band Killers (like The beast arises). But in my opinion the audience ( like me) prefers the old Maiden songs…
Nevermore: Seattle’s Finest performed in Wacken the second time, but the first time on one of both main stages. They presented their album “Dead Heart In A Dead World” in a very strange outfit (singer Warrel Dane looked like a gunman) by those hymns like “The Heart Collector” or “Inside Four Walls” and were celebrated by excited fans. Again THE festival highlight.
Therion: Once again Therion brought a 8 men choir on stage and songs like “Birth of venus illegetima” from the “Vovin”-CD and “To mega Therion” from the “Theli”-CD really sound impressing with the support of the choir. But when they start to play “Revelations” from “Iron Maiden” the crowd (and me, too) went crazy … GREAT !!!
Helloween: Helloween played in Wacken for their first time and presented a couple of their undying classics – but without any motivation and spirit. By doing this I got so bored that I decided for the best opportunity I could have taken and slept in. I woke up after the last song. Respect to the teutonic metal heros.
Saxon: I´ve seen them a few times live yet – but this gig was the best ever (ok – just my opinion…). They got a great setlist – all hits were played … while the song “the eagle has landed” a great “light eagle” came down the stage – what an atmosphere. And when they startet to play the song “Crusader” – WOW – one of the greatest moments in my festival career so far … 🙂
Dimmu Borgir: The Norwegian black metal band a much more than on the “metal odyssee 2001″-tour. They concentrated on their bombastic new material and closed with their hit “Mourning Palace” a pretty good set for those who survived the late night hours.
Party Stage:
Soilwork: The Melodic Death Metal band from Helsingborg concentrated on their breakthrough album “A Predator’s Portrait”. With the variable voice of fronter Björn Strid and killers like “Needlefeast” or “Like The Average Stalker” they were the first festival- highlight.
Kamelot: The American Power Metal band with the Swedish ex-singer of the legend Conception Roy S. Khan presented themselves much better than expected. They concentrated on their last two studio albums “The Fourth Legacy” and “Karma” and performed “Nights Of Arabia” with a female guest singer. King Artus would have been proud of them.
Sonata Arctica: The finnish newcomer sensation started with an a capella version of some finnish traditional. They impressed by a very sympathic performance and the ballad “Replica” was sung by thousands of fans.
The Haunted: The Swedish thrashers of a few ex-At The Gates members burned down the party stage by an intense performance. With hits called “Bury Your Dead”, “Revelation” and “Hollow Ground” The Haunted made me do it.
Wetstage:
Trail of tears: I really like their first CD – but the first gig of them I´ve seen at the Dynamo Open Air was horrible… nowadays – with a new female singer i think – the show was much better … great songs … i think i have to check out their latest release soon …
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Saturday:
Double Mega Stage:
Brainstorm: The new singer Andy B. Franck (also known from Symphorce and ex-Ivanhoe) helped Brainstorm evolving from a hopeful to the Power Metal highlight in germany. I’m looking forward to their forthcoming album “Metus Mortis” in October.
Dark tranquillity: This band is one of my faves… and so I really enjoyed the show… it was a fantastic gig – starting with “The wonders at your feet”… they mostly played songs from their brilliant lastest 2 cds … but also songs “Zodijackyl light” and “Punish my heaven” from their early days … can´t await to hear new stuff from this fantastic band …
Rage: This Three-Peace makes much more fun than the latest classic bombast they did. They combined their new „Welcome To The Other Side“-material with old classics and reached great reactions in the audience. But please: Especially on a festival where Rage just had 45 minutes to act guitar- and drum-solos are definitely superfluous.
Grave Digger: The band of Chris Boltendahl recorded a live album in wacken. They played the faves of their fans and closed their set with their hymns „Knights Of The Cross“, „Rebellion“ and „Heavy Metal Breakdown“. It’s the second time I watched them in wacken and they’re (especially Bolle’s voice) still not my cup of beer.
In flames: Right now this band is my personal No.1 metal band … i love their songs….”Bullet ride”, “Embody the invisible” and “Only for the weak” …. GREAT!!! please come soon back to germany… and hopefully you got a live video from Wacken 2001 … I MUST HAVE IT !!!! :-)))
Nightwish: Nightwish is very popular here in germany … thousands of people really went mad when the show started… and the show was much better than the 2000 show … they got a better sound and played songs like “Sleeping sun” (for the 1st time here in germany) and “Walking in the air”…great gig …
Hammerfall: I really don´t know why this group is so sucessfull … sorry … their stageacting is awful … the songs, too… so the only way to survive the gig was to get drunk as fast as possible … after a few litres of beeeeeeeer all songs become hits … “steel meets steel” and “Heeding the call” – GREAT 😉
Motörhead: “We are Motörhead and we don´t care who you are” – with these words Lemmy started the show … Saxon got the light eagle on stage – and Motörhead the light-“Bomber” – the hightlight of their great on stage light show. I tink all people know songs like “Ace of spades” and “God save the queen” – so nothing more to say. A great Motörhead gig ….
Sodom: This evening Sodom recorded a live DVD – so they use lots of pyro-effects on stage and combined it with a great “best of” show. Songs like ” Ausgebombt”, “Wachturm”, “Remember the fallen” and “Agent orange” were real classic hits… and the stuff they played from their new CD sounds also really good… (e.g. “M16”) … GREAT show and the last band on the main stage of Wacken 2001 …
Party stage:
Vintersorg: They’re definitely on a rise to higher levels. Their set consisting of classics like „Till Fjälls“, Ödemarkens Son“ and new staff from the „Cosmic Genesis“-album was well balanced between old and new. Mr. Vintersorg was a great singer with a very variable voice. Please more of that.
Tad Morose: It had taken so much time to watch the other bollnäs power metal lunatics besides Lefay. But I was just one of a few because the crowd in front of the stage was pretty small. Those who were there saw a motivated band with a great set mainly considering the „A Mended Rhyme“ and „Undead“ – albums. Well entertaining frontman.
Annihilator: With their cool looking annihilator hockey jerseys Annihilator took the fans to a time ride through their classics like „Never Neverland“, „Set The World On Fire“ and „King Of The Kill“. They introduced their well-known new lead singer Joe Comeau and the new album „Carnival Diablos“. But next time they have to play on main stage.
Jag Panzer: The tyrant and his bandmates rule, especially live. After their first triumph in wacken ‘99 they celebrated another one on the same stage. Hits like „Shadow Thief“, Chain Of Command“, „Black“ and even songs from their brandnew album which had been released just twelve days before where celebrated by the excited crowd.
Opeth: The four-piece from sweden didn’t waste too much time by talking or singalongs. They focused on their songs and they played four (from their latest four masterpieces) of them to fill 45 minutes. But what stuck on my nerves was the too loud main stage with the „…steel meets steel … ooooohhhhh…“-games (how cute). Remains to say that Mikael Akerfeld is a fabulous fronter and „White Cluster“ is a hit. And the band is CULT!!!
Wet stage:
The Traceelords: The traceelords are germanys hottest rock´n´roll band – some Rockhard writer says…. and they´re right … The band of former Sodom guitarist Andy Brings (also Powergod´s guitarist) played great rock… highlights of the show were the cover-versions of Boney M´s “Daddy cool” and “I Want you” from Kiss… keep on rockin´…
Night In Gales: This young band was the biggest surprise of the festival. They kicked ass with smashers like “The Fast Livin’ Song”, Deadmouth Daisies”, etc. The W.E.T.-stage tent became hot like hell and the audience were one big pit. With one of the most talented and best entertaining fronters they should be counted to one of the leading death metal bands in Europe in the near future.
Conclusion:
Another great festival… but this year there were too many visitors… there shouldn´t be more than 12000 fans … CU next year …
Thanx to CMM, Renegade (Carlos and Ana), Tobi, all the Wacken people …
Lotte & Tobi Wan Kenobi