Wacken 2003
Our seventh attendance on the 14th Wacken festival was supposed to turn out to a hole party weekend with many interesting bands. The same procedure as every year? Nearly! After much criticism from other zines, the organizers improved a few aspects which were able to improve: They installed a video screen between the two big stages (True Metal Stage/ Black Metal Stage), improved the toilet situation and took care of winning more area by replacing the food-, non-food and merchandise-stands from the middle to the edges of the festival ground. This year in Wacken played 62 bands on four stages in three days for about 40000 visitors.
Thursday
True Stage: A Night To Remember
Circle II Circle The Wacken Open Air 2003 began with a new group of some well-known person. We talk about Zak Stevens, formerly known as ex-singer from Savatage, whose band opened the party with „Out Of Reach“ and „The Circle“ from the Circle II Circle-debut. Astonishing was the big number of fans (while the first band!) celebrating the new hymns („Watching In Silence“) as the old ones from the Savatage-era („Taunting Cobras“, „Edge Of Thorns“). A highlight was the closing Metallica-cover „Welcome Home (Sanitarium)“. Great!
Annihilator The canadiens introduced their new singer Dave Padden. After some sound difficulties – especially the voice was too low – it was obvious mainman Jeff Waters got a goods fronter. Best conditions for a greatest hits-set („Ultra-Motion“, „King Of The Kill“, „Refresh The Demon“, „Set The World On Fire“, „Never Neverland“, „Allison Hell“, „Shallow Grave“). Nothing more to say!
Victory Long enough I had to wait for a Victory-gig! And long enough I will have to wait for a reunion with my favorite Victory-singer Fernando Garcia! But nevertheless Charlie Huhn did a good job behind the micro (exception: his outfit rememberring me to the german entertainer Jürgen von der Lippe). The hardrockers from Hannover mainly concentrated on material from the first three albums („Chicks On Display“, „Are You Ready“, „Arsonist Of The Heart“, „Checks In The Mail“) and added two songs from the Garcia-phase („Temples Of Gold“, „Don’t Tell No Lies“). Still unnecessary while festival gigs are solos like the one of dummer Fritz Randow.
Saxon The mentioned artist had a second unexpected appearance right after Victory with the surprise guest Saxon who came to advertise for their new DVD „The Saxon Chronicals“ and played three celebrated songs („Motorcycle Man“, „Denim And Leather“, „Princess Of The Night“). We’ll meet them next year at the same place with a headliner show!
Running Wild The german piracy-legend on an open air-festival is after 20 years of existance still unique. They presented classics („Little Big Horn“, „Conquistadores“, „Prisoner Of Our Time“ „Branded And Exiled“, „Riding The Storm“) in combination with old unreleased demo tracks („Apocalyptic Horsemen“, „Prowling Werewolf“). Bandleader Rock ‘n’ Rolf dedicated „Bad To The Bone“ to far right extremists which found much applause. The pirates finished a good, but not fantastic show with the encores „Under Jolly Roger“ and „Chains And Leather“.
Friday
True Metal Stage
Primal Fear To the Power Metal-fivepiece around Mat Sinner and fronter Ralf Scheepers it felt easy to earn support of the fans by tracks like „Chainbreaker“, „Nuclear Fire“, the Judas Priest-cover „Metal Gods“, the new unreleased song „Sea Of Flames“ and the final „Silver And Gold“. Whatever: They stuck on my nerves for another time!
Gamma Ray So did another big group coming from the same country as genre. Kai Hansen and his comrades decided to play the „Skeletons In The Closet“-program consisting of older tracks which hadn’t been played often. I enjoyed „One With The World“, „The Silence“ (with a guest appearance of ex-singer Ralf Scheepers) and the Helloween-cover „Victim Of Fate“, but the rest didn’t convince me.
Twisted Sister Three years after Dee Snider’s solo appearance now it was time for the big Twisted Sister-reunion in original outfit: So they didn’t leave any doubts while the show from the usual opener „What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)“ over the hits („You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll“, „Stay Hungry“, „I Wanna Rock“, „We’re Not Gonna Take It“) who rocked the place. Cool entertaining show, but the solo show 2000 was even a little bit cooler!
Black Metal Stage
Dew-Scented The new german hope for the Death / Thrash-genre had to play while very hot conditions and nearly killed the sun with their power. The band, supported by Obscenity-bassist Alex, brought known hammers („Inwards“, „Life Ending Path“, „Unconditional“, „Bitter Conflict“) as new stuff from their forthcoming album „Impact“ („Soul Poison“, „Acts Of Rage“, „Cities Of The Dead“) to the crowd.
The Crown The Swedes acted with the new old fronter Johan Lindstrand who replaced meanwhile-vocalist Tompa. I carried high expectations to them because of their phenomenal gig at last year’s Party San, but this time they weren’t able to fullfill them. Nevertheless: Good band!
Sentenced This was pure party. Fronter Ville Laihiala and his guys from the land of the thousand seas seemed like they had just waited to play this gig. With „Broken“, „The Suicider“, „Brief Is The Light“ and „The Luxury Of A Grave“ their success was guaranteed. Before the „Amok“-classic „Nepenthe“ Ville won the fans by declaring he drinks to forget. The fivepiece finished a fantastic gig with the encore „The Trooper“ from Iron Maiden.
Testament Long expected finally the time had come for the great return of the Bay Area Thrash Metal-legend whose front-icon Chuck Billy had survived cancer. They confirmed the good impression from the No Mercy Festival-tour: They are back in their best condition! It was easy to make out how happy Chuck, Eric Peterson and co felt about that fact. Playing the classics (“Alone In The Dark”, “Electric Crown”, “Low”, “True Believer”) it was no problem to motivate the fans to ecstatic reactions. With “Over The Wall” and “Disciples Of The Watch” the fivepiece finished a first class gig.
In Flames A first class gig with five stars was graduated by In Flames. After many months of touring the Gothenburg Melodic Deathers seemed to be unbeatable. Starting with “Cloud Connected” (from the current album “Reroute To Remain”), “Clayman” and “Episode 666″ to a clear sound the co-headliner left no doubt about it as with the new single “Trigger”, the classic “Behind Space” or the fans’ all-time-fave “Only For The Weak”. With a cool entertainer like Anders Fridén and with lots of pyro and light elements this gig became a fantastic show which got finished by “Pinball Map” and “Colony”.
Subway To Sally Like their appearance on the With Full Force the Folk Rockers played another show with too much routine and too less songs from the older albums like (“Henkersbraut”). They concentrated on tracks from the latest two outputs (“Falscher Heiland”) and tried to interpret their songs as hard as possible. But that didn’t impress me too much.
Party Stage
Lordi The finnish answer to Alice Copper (musically) and GWAR (show entertainment) and shooting stars of the latest few months impressed with their costumes and many nice show effects. In comparison to their Nightwish last year support tour they had lots of new ideas for this show. But they were also able to rock the crowd with own compositions from their one and only album “Get Heavy” (“Would You Love A Monsterman?”, “Devil Is A Loser”) as with cover songs (Accept’s “Midnight Mover” and Alice Cooper’s “Man Behind The Mask”).
W.E.T. Stage
Rotting Christ The greek Black/Death Metal-foundation played a cool tent-headliner-set and invited to great party in the full tent. In contrast to their latest output they rocked after a long time of live abstinence. Well done!
Saturday
True Metal Stage
Rage ‘Peavy’ Wagner, Victor Smolski and Mike Terrana played a good set for another time and it seemed to be ‘Peavy’ found his ‘Dream Team’ in this threepiece. Celebrated by the fans they performed one hit after another one like “Sent By the Devil” or the set closing “Higher Than The Sky”. Chapeu!
Stratovarius Another band with instrumental geniuses appearing in Wacken is the fivepiece from Suomi. In spite of the accident which happened to singer Timo Kotipelto (His hand got burned in a pyro effect!) on their latest Wacken concert two years ago they brought much more pyro and boom effects on stage this year. This time nobody got injured, so Timo Tolkki and co were able to rock by new songs (“Soul Of A Vagabond” from “Elements Pt.”) as with their classics (“Hunting High And Low”, “Kiss Of Judas”, “Forever Free”).
Slayer The long awaited headliner disappointed totally! The too silent sound wasn’t their fault, but it was obvious how bored and disinterested the front musicians were. They knew they would have success without doing too much, and corresponding to that fact they acted like. The fourpiece played new “God Hates Us All” material and classics like “Dead Skin Mask”, “Angel Of Death”, “South Of Heaven” and “Seasons In The Abyss” as listless as possible, didn’t seem to care about the aspect of having contact to their fans on the very crowded festivalsite and left the stage after “Raining Blood” without any encore. Good night!
Onkel Tom Angelripper Good night? Not at all! As the same procedure as every year the Wacken party got finished by party god Onkel Tom Angelripper. He celebrated with his three comrades and hundreds of fans to old german drinking songs (“Schnaps, Das War Sein Letztes Wort”, “Die Musi Hat Durst”, “Medley”) and own alcohol tracks (“Delirium”). For another time it was also on me to enter the stage to party with the combo and a few other fans on it, as you can see at the stage-pic of Tom, like every year. Like every year? No, there was a video screen next to the stage showing the action of stage. Uhhh…!
Black Metal Stage
Soilwork The Melodic Death-shooting stars concentrated on their latest two albums “Natural Born Chaos” (“Follow The Hollow”, “As We Speak”) and the new “Figure Number Five” (“Recection Role”, “Distortion Sleep”, the title track) combined with classics from their former outputs (“Needlefeest”). The new drummer Richard Evensand fit to his new bandmates. But the main actor besides singer Björn “Speed” Strid was bassist who dranl a little bit too much: Each time it seemed like he was falling on his face he saved himself by a big step forward holding the balance just as much as it was necessary. Besides that entertainment Soilwork showed a fantastic appearance!
Nile Fast, brutal, complicated: These are the main characteristics of the four American Deathers! Usually something for me, but to me according to the sound somehow their gig became monotonous. Celebrated by their and a lot of Slayer fans waiting for the headliner the band convinced most of the crowd anyway by “Stones Of Sorrow” and “Black Seeds Of Vengeance”.
Party Stage
Graveworm The Italian Blackies weren’t able to hold the standards they had set on their outputs as on their newest release “The Scourge Of Malice”. The show included nothing special to mention.
Sinner While Nile Mat Sinner and his fivepiece acted on the smallest Open Air stage. They could have started a cool late night party, but somehow it didn’t work. They motivated the spectators for singalongs to “Judgement Day” and the Billy Idol-cover “Rebel Yell”, but this were the only good moments in a mainly boring show. Another boring element: Drummer Fritz Randow played a long drum solo like he had done while the Victory-gig on Thursday. Unnecessary!
Sonata Arctica Despite the great show at the same place (means: on the same stage) two years ago somehow I didn’t expect that much. But the finish Melodic Metal-band around their very sympathic singer Tony Kakko taught me not to underestimate the fivepiece again. With “Broken”, “Replica”, “Fullmoon”, “The Cage” and “Victoria’s Secret” they fascinated me and many other lunatics in the middle of the night.Besides that it was very pleasant to watch a Melodic Metal-band without any cliché. Sonata Arctica didn’t seem to need it.
W.E.T. Stage
Callenish Circle The big surprise from last year’s Party San Open Air ruled the tent stage! The Melodic Death Metal-fivepiece from the Netherlands realised a fantastic gig and convinced my colleges which I had lead to this show. With smashers like “Forsaken” or “the last title “Obey Me” (“…Two, Three, Go…”) this was no matter for them. In my eyes the winner of this year’s Wacken!
Heaven Shall Burn Metalcore from Eastern Germany in Wacken, does this work? Oh yes, for sure it does! Their set mainly consisted of their second release “Whatever It May Take” as of a few songs from their debut album “In Battle” which is dominated by the Death Metal-style of their early days. Fronter Marcus and his comrades also presented some new material and were able to organize Hardcore-rituals like circle-pits and the wall of death on the Heavy Metal-festival. This experiment worked even better than just well!
Darkane The Death-Thrashers from Helsingborg had to play against Stratovarius who acted on the big stage. But nevertheless the tent was full which shows the state the fivepiece reached with their albums “Rusted Angel”, “Insanity” and the new “Expanding Senses”. The Swedes were very active and conquered the tent which they left after “Convicted”.
Conclusion:
We’ve never worried too much about the latest Wackens, but this year a few things felt much more relaxed than those things had done the two years before. The reasons for this fact are easy two find in the changes and the improvements the organizers obtained which we also mentioned on the top of this article. The billing was great and we had fun in Wacken for now the seventh time! So let’s rock on the 15th WACKEN OPEN AIR anniversary for our 8th time!
At the Wacken Open Air rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi and Melli!!!!!