With full force 2003 (10th ANNIVERSARY)
The tenth aniversary of the well-known WFF promised to become a big event. The billing was a first class who-is-who of all harder or somehow extreme genres of the music scene. The festival area was set at the airfield in Rojtzschora near Leipzig. There played 71 bands in 73 appearances on two stages in three days. For about 25000 till 30000 people visited the festival and partied there each day. To us it was the first time at this festival and we were curious about what will happen.
Friday
Main Stage
Napalm Death The grinders from the UK had to play with one guitar less and with Nick Barker known from Dimmu Borgir / Lock Up who replaced the usual drummer for a short term. Grunter Barney Greenway surprised by his short cut hair and the band thundered hits like “Scum” or the final “Nazi Punks Fuck Of” into the crowd.
Prong It was a long time ago I had seen a Prong show (1994!) – and I’m still not a big fan of them. Tommy Victor’s band played much “Cleansing” material. To me this show was boring besides the classics “Beg To Differ” and the set finishing “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”.
Subway To Sally Another boring gig. To me the sevenpiece from Potsdam is less spontaneous than in the “Foppt Den Dämon”- and “Bannkreis”-days. The folk-rockers brought four tracks from the new output “Engelskrieger” (including “Falscher Heiland”) as old singalongs (“Mephisto”, “Henkersbraut”). In the last years they earned a lot of routine, probably too much.
Hatebreed They are one of the upcoming bands in the growing hardcore scene. And the Us-Boys showed why. The very sympathic fronter Jamey Jasta seemed to run kilometres and the crowd created one of WFF’s biggest moshpits which had its final in the cracking „You’ll Be Heard“ from their current smasher „Perserverance“.
Six Feet Under The first real moshpit was achieved by Chris Barnes and the Death Metal-machine from Florida. The crowd moshed to “Victim Of The Paranoid”, the german version of „Bringer Of Blood“ (“Bringer Des Blutes”) and especially to the AC/DC-cover “T.N.T.” (including the “Oi, Oi”-fan-choirs).
J.B.O. The co-headliner of friday were the party-metal-group from Erlangen (Southern Germany. They gueranteed a sympathic party with “Ein Fest”, “Arschloch Und Spaß Dabei” and “Verteidiger Des Wahren Blödsinns”.
Soulfly I saw them at the Dynamo 1998 for the first and got very disappointed. Last year at the same festival they surprised me with a good show. And this time at the WFF there was no doubt about Max Cavalera and his combo evolved – in contrast to their hit “Back To The Primitive” – to a band with real headliner qualities. Well done!
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Caliban The Metalcore-shooting stars from Essen triumphed in the tent in the afternoon. With smashers like the new songs „The Seventh Soul“ and „Forsaken Horizon“ from the forthcoming album „Shadowhearts“ they won the fans easily. Fronter Andy was always active by running and skipping. So it felt easy to convince their fans which started many circlepits and the wall of death.
Roger Miret And The Disasters The ex-Agnostic Front-fronter and his bandmates started with their old songs which tendentious belong to the punk genre. By the time they spread more Agnostic Front-classics in the program except the The Clash-cover „Career Opportunities“. Roger and his guys organized a cool punk-/hardcore-party which they finished with the unofficial oldschool hardcore-hymn „Got To Go“.
Discipline The PSV Eindhoven-fans with the hooligan-image stands for simple but effective oldschool party-hardcore. And that’s what they did: Party! Nice guys, by the way.
Slapshot There is nothing new to tell about the hardcore-legend from Boston. They still play strong shows, especially at the WFF. Fronter Choke, suited by a Pierluigi Collina (the most famous FIFA-soccer-referee) – shirt, hit another time a glass bottle on his head till it was bleeding. In my opinion not necessary at all, but who cares?
Ryker’s Another last show of the hardcore legend from Kassel, probably just another latest show? Hopefully because Ryker’s shows still mean pure energy and intensity on a high level. Best example: Singer Huppse who jumped around while the first song with the result of a triple torn ligament. With this painful handycap he acted the complete gig! The crowd flipped out to the classic „Cold Lost Sick“, the hymn „You’ll Never Walk Alone“, the Venom-remake „Witching Hour“ and the show closing „My Justice“ and „True Love“. Bow down for Huppse who realised a painful as great show and hopefully we’ll see them again (without any injuries).
Tent Stage: Knüppelnacht
Amon Amarth The most interesting friday late night show was performed by the vikings from Sweden. Again they burned the crowd away, especially with the usual final “Victorious March”.
Saturday
Main Stage
Entombed The Swedish Death ‘n’ Rollers didn’t leave any doubt about their class. Guitarist Uffe was handicapped and sit on a chair, but LG Petrov and co definitely rocked with my favourite “Damn Deal Done”, the classic “Left Hand Path” and presented with “Retaliation” a new track from their forthcoming output. One of the top highlights!
Madball The New York-hardcorelers seem to have a lot of fans. So this gig was predestined to become a good one. And it became! To one song shouter Freddy Cricien got assisted by Agnostic Front-vocalist Roger Miret. The biggest assistance by the crowd he earned while „Streets Of Hate“ and (of course) „Demonstrating My Style“.
Clawfinger I have never seen an intenseless Clawfinger-show. So also this time the swedes put so much energy in their crossover that it was a real pleasure. Especially bassist André Skaug presented himself by helicopter-banging as active as a musician is able to be. Another active guy on stage was Entombed-guitarist Alex Hellid dancing as balancing on an amp with his bottle. Zak Tell and his bandmates didn’t take this too serious and excited the crowd from the beginning (“Rosegrove”, “Nigger”) till the end (“When I Grow Up”) of the show.
Destruction I still don’t understand the hype around Schmier and his “Hey, let’s reunite when the time is up to earn money”-combo. Okay, they have their fans which enjoy especially the old tracks like “Mad Butcher” or “Thrash Til‘ Death” and the band seemed to care about those by distributing merchandise among them. Bad luck for the band which was forced too have a break because of a breakdown of the guitar amp. To me it were a few comfortable minutes.
Sepultura Such a great band with a so long history and to me it was one of the nowadays rare live act-debuts and the Brasil’s finest around Andreas Kisser and the giant behind the microphone Derrick Green fulfilled my hopes. They began with a song from the new output “Roorback” (“Corrupted”) and they didn’t spare with cool new tracks. But it were the old classics (“Slave New World”, “Troops Of Doom”, “Arise”, “Refuse/Resist”, “Territory”, “Roots, Bloody Roots”, “Ratamahatta”) which let the crowd freaking out in a positive way. A special moment for sure was the U2-cover „Bullet The Blue Sky“. A note besides: Six years after Max Cavalera left the band the WWF was the first festival having Soulfly and Sepultura on the billing.
Type O Negative Compared to the brasilians Pete Steele and his comrades preferred a show with more silent tones, but without missing any intense at all. Under the unavoidable mixture of green and black they opened with “I Don’t Wanna Be Me” and let follow some tracks from the new album “World Coming Down”. The fourpiece reached highest reactions by „I Know You’ re Fucking Someone Else“, „Christian Woman“, „Kill All The White People“ and the final „Black No. 1“. I missed the two „October Rust“-classics „My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend“ and „Cinnamon Girl“, but nevertheless: First class gig!
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Born From Pain The new hope of european Hardcore comes from the Netherlands. And they confirmed their reputation by playing the groovers from their current output „Reclaiming The Clown“ as a few tracks from their debut „Here Lies Civilization“ which were celebrated by a surprisingly big fancrowd at this early time. Shouter Chè Snelting ran the stage up and down and finally he organized a big circlepit.
Die Kassierer Die Kassierer are a simple punk band with party songs, mostly combined with german pornographic texts. So they entertained the fans with songs like „Blumenkohl Am Pillemann“, „Mein Glied Ist Zu Groß“ or „Die Stinkmösenpolka“ and actions like taking of all clothes (the singer…äh…fronter) or putting the fist somewhere into the drummer whereve you can imagine….
Roger Miret And The Disasters It was up to Roger and his comrades to celebrate another party because of Discharge’s short-term cancellation. Their showcase was pretty the same to the one the day before completed by five minutes more and some guests from Discipline, Most Precious Blood and Madball.
Tent Stage: Saturday Night Fever
J.B.O. This was also the second gig of the Comedy Metal-fourpiece. But in contrast to Roger Miret this show was planned as a ‘Birthday Special’. They covered Metal-classics the comedian way and earned a big tent party.
Samael The extraordinary Death Metal-band from Suisse took care of another great concert. Supported by a nice lightshow it was no big matter to Vorph, Xy and co to convince the spectatorship by their majestic songs („Year Zero“, „Together“, „Rain“, „Jupiterian Vibe“, etc.) Phenomenal!
Sunday
Main Stage
Mambo Kurt It was up to the WFF-all-time-comedian to open the last day of the festival. And as the night before when he had played a cool gig in the backstage-tent he pleased the spectators with his own organ-versions of diverse tracks like „Mother“, „Hells Bells“or „Black No. 1“. While the people were celebrating his backing band called „Bossa Babes“ Mambo Kurt preferred crowdsurfing. Cult!
Raging Speedhorn The UK-Metalcore-band played – like their name suggests it – a fast set varied by their two fronters. Those seemed to have partied a lot the day before. That became obvious as they both puked alternately on the stage. Mmh, delicious! Nevertheless: Good show!
Die Happy The german Alternative Rockers concentrated on presenting songs from their new output „The Weight Of The Circumstances“ including the single „Big Boy“. The group around its female singer Marta Jandová is usually much closer to MTVIVA-Airplay than to the normal WFF-Billing. The gig was nothing special, but okay. The most reactions they got while the former single „Supersonic Speed“. But the singer should work about her comments between the songs!
Overkill Something for the Speed Metal Fans! Bobby „Blitz“ Elsworth and his band presented mainly songs from their new output „Killbox 13“ added by a few classics like the hymn „In Union We Stand“ and the traditional final „Fuck You“. Many fans liked it, I disliked.
Stone Sour The side-band of Slipknot-vocalist Corey Taylor seemed to be pretty well-known for just one album. Accordingly to this they got celebrated to songs like the opener „Get Inside“ and „Inhale“ and Corey thanked a lot for this. Good show! The only track missing was the ballad „Bother“.
Sodom In contrast to Overkill Tom Angelripper, Bobby and Bernemann played with „Napalm In The Morning“ just one track from the latest album „M16“ and preferred concentrating on classics („The Saw Is The Law“ „Remember The Fallen“, „Outbreak Of Evil“, „Wachturm“, „Ausgebombt“). Highlight of the show was Toms „liaison“ with the rubber doll while „Die Stumme Ursel“. With the encore „Bombenhagel“ the thrashers finished an well-entertaining gig.
Anthrax What a return of the thrash/mosh-kings this summer! Lead by super voice John Bush the band started with „What Doesn’t Die“ from the new album „We’ve Come For You All“. The trackchoice was well-balanced between old („Antisocial“, „Caught In a Mosh“, „Got The Time“) and new („Inside Out“, „Only“, „Safe Home“). Bassist Frank Bello deserved the title „Most Acitve Musician Of The Festival“ and the whole band had much fun on stage. Highlight of the show was the last song „Bring The Noise“ assisted by the rapping Corey Taylor from Stone Sour who left the impression singing this title every sleep each night. At present Anthrax is the hottest live-act!
Sick Of It All This didn’t seem to be a part of the „American Pride“-tour (huhu)! But honestly: They are still one of the biggest bands in the hardcore-scene and while their gig they left no doubt about it. The Koller-brothers and co smashed tracks like the opener „Fuck Everything“, their biggest hit „Scratch The Surface“ or the closing „Step Down“ into the pit. The hole fourpiece attracted attention by their high activity and energy which transferred on the crowd practising the wall of death. Besides that they introduced two new songs („Relentless“, „Can’t Wait To Quit“) to their fans.
Ministry The Industrial-kings are back! Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker acted with as many drummers as guitarists: Two! They all created a soundwall in which the fans found all they wanted to listen to („Psalm 69“, „Just One Fix“, „Animosity“, „Unsung“, etc.). To me it felt like a horrible mix of uncoordinated sounds. But so many happy people couldn’t be wrong. Cool was the Black Sabbath-cover „Supernaut“ assisted by Anthax-bassist Scott Ian on the guitar.
Slayer The favourite vote of the WFF-fans played the second year in a row at the festival especially because of its birthday. The thrash legend rewarded them with a couple of classics like „Hell Awaits“, „South Of Heaven“ and „Angel Of Death“. With the encores „Postmortem“ and the unavoidable „Raining Blood“ the Mr’s Araya, King and co finished their set. To me they didn’t really seem to be very motivated and the show was boring, but most fans enjoyed it.
Tent Stage: Hardbowl
Pyogenesis The german punkrockers around fronter Flo Schwarz introduced their new album „She Makes Me Feel I Had A Gun“ to the fans and concentrated mainly on the new material like „I Feel Sexy“ or the VIVA Plus-rock chart hit „Don’t You Say Maybe“ combined with tracks from the former albums („Twinaleblood“, „Love Nation Sugarhead“). The band organised the party and the „kids“ had much fun. Well done!“
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Tent Stage: The Last Supper
Doro The well-known metal siren from Düsseldorf still knows how to excite the crowd. So all different kinds of fans celebrated „Für Immer“, „I Rule The Ruins“, „Burning The Witches“ and of course „All We Are“ with her, me and my posing own included (huhu!).
Moonspell The portuguese fivepiece began with „In And Above Men“ and „From Lowering Skies“ from their new output „The Antidote“. It seemed like singer as bandleader Fernando Ribeiro and his colleges found their way back. Back to classics like „Vampiria“, „Opium“ or „Full Moon Madness“ which got the best fan reactions.
My Dying Bride The doom-legend from the british island opened with „My Hope, The Destroyer“ from their current album „The Dreadful Hours“. Fronter Aaron and co let them follow tragic epics („Turn Loose The Swans“, „The Cry Of Mankind“). Not as sensational as last year in Wacken, but nevertheless another great gig!
Opeth Even my favourite band was supposed to be the last band. But Mikael Akerfeldt’s fourpeace didn’t care about that fact and were excellent for another time. After the opener „Godhead’s Lament“ („Still Life“) followed „The Drapery Falls“ („Blackwater Park“), „Deliverance“ (title track from the current album besides the „Damnation“-acoustic-output) and the final „Demon Of The Fall“ („My Arms, Your Hearse“) weren’t just the four best tracks, it were all songs (each track from one of the latest albums besides „Damnation“) in 45 minutes! Sure, the swedish super musicians kept in their function as the last band of the festival a big crowd continuing the party. But next time a band with this class deserves the main stage at some earlier time.
Conclusion:
The With Full Force was a great event which caused a lot of fun to us. Its fascination bases on its mixture between metal, hardcore, punk, rock and other styles. Besides the music the visitor had the opportunity to watch skateboard championchips and mortorcyle stunts. But the fantastic billing is the main reason for our euphoria. Besides that, but not much less important were the prices which were as „down to earth“ as close to the fan.
So we want to thank the organizers and are looking forward to WITH FULL FORCE 2004!!!!!
At the WFF rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi and Melli!!!!!