Wacken Open Air 2010
For another time the Wacken Open Air organization was able to present a unique high class billing! Two years after their first participation they were able to confirm by Iron Maiden one of the biggest Metal bands ever. Besides them Alice Cooper and Mötley Crüe appeared in Wacken for the first time playing as Iron Maiden on thursday, and the headliners of the following days, Slayer and Soulfly were further big representatives of a high class billing, not to forget the special sets like the 25th anniversary of Atrocity or the album classic shows of Tiamat and Grave Digger.
The organization was excellent for another time. 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. So nobody needed to be afraid about horror scenarios as they had happened just two weeks ago at the Love Parade in Duisburg. For the safety of the crowd the organizers decided to forbid circle pits by proclaiming it on the screens as to forbid bands to produce a wall of death which lead to a discussion with one band.
The weather played a wonderful role and the spectators from all over the world celebrated the biggest Metal party of the world several TV stations reported about. Like in 2009 the organization offered a Wackinger Village with several viking as medieval shows and market, the Bullhead City tent or a Jägermeister bar bringing you to the height of 50 metres above the festival offering you a great view on itself besides some drinks. But of course we mainly concentrated on musical issues to report about. To the writer of these lines it had been the 14th WOA – participation, and still everything worked well. At this year’s Wacken Open Air 75 bands appeared on the four regular stages (besides several shows on the Beer Garden Stage, the Medieval Stage and Bullhead – City Tent as lots of competitors within the Metal Battle contest as further performances on the W.E.T. Stage on wednesday) in the three days for about 75000 visitors (Sold out in february!).
Thursday
True Metal Stage
Alice Cooper The master of Hard Rock chose by ”School’s Out”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “I’m Eighteen” a hit ensemble of his own to open a show leading through all eras of his huge discography. Supported by a tight young band Alice Cooper was the doubtless main actor in a horror rock show in which he got killed for several times. But nevertheless classics like “Go To Hell”, “Poison”, “Black Widow” or “Feed My Frankenstein” rocked a great performance which found its end by “Elected” and “Schools Out” for another time. Instead of the last mentioned one I would have wished “Hey Stoopid”. But this was the only wish left open.
Iron Maiden After their brilliant live presentation of their golden ages of the late eighties in front of the “Powerslave” stage set everybody was curious what their heroes would offer them two years later. Starting by “The Wicker Man” and “Ghost Of The Navigator” many fans got more and more disappointed by realizing their faves just considered material from the three albums of the post – Bailey – years of the recent decade. By “El Dorado” they even introduced one track from the forthcoming “The Final Frontier” release. After eleven titles and a good performance by especially Bruce Dickinson and a new Eddie the band played by “Fear Of The Dark” and “Iron Maiden” as the encores “The Number Of The Beast”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “Running Free” too less classics too late. The fact the band renounced pyro effects, etc. didn’t improve the show.
Black Stage
Skyline The band with which the whole WOA idea started opened the main program. And they did it supported by Doro performing the Wacken hymn “We Are The Metalheads” and the Warlock classic “All We Are”. After a few Metal classic covers they finished the show with Udo Dirkschneider playing by “Heavy Metal WOA” another newer festival hymn and the final “Balls To The Wall” an Accept cover.
Mötley Crüe The Sleaze chiefs rocked the crowd down by a hammer opening consisting of “Kickstart My Heart”, “Wild Side”, “Shout At The Devil” and “Live Wire”. Wow! But who thought the band had played all their highlights was wrong. Even the songs of the current album “Saints Of Los Angeles” (“Mutherfucker Of The Year” and the title track) fit very well in the program as the evergreens “Primal Scream”, “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” and “Same Ol Situation (S.O.S.)” did. Vince Neil showed a good performance as his tight musicians. So the band finished by the encores “Dr. Feelgood” and “Girls, Girls, Girls” an awesome Hardrock show.
W.E.T. Stage
Ghost Brigade The innovative fivepiece showed a great performance while they had the bad luck to play against Mötley Crüe. Nevertheless songs like “Deliberately” from their “Guided By Fire” debut as “Into The Black Light”, “Lost In A Loop” and their hit “My Heart Is A Tomb” from their strong current masterpiece “Isolation Songs” impressed by their different dark, silent as hard atmospheres.
Gojira The Prog Death Metal band from France needs to be called innovative as well. And the handicap to play against Iron Maiden wasn’t one. The tent got filled more and more while the big headliner disappointed. And the French around the Duplantier brothers played a massive gig by “Backbone”, “The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe”, “Flying Whales” as by “Toxic Garbage Island”, “The Art Of Dying”, “A Sight To Behold” and “Vacuity” compositions from their new “The Way Of All Flesh” opus as by the classic “Wisdom Comes”. An amazing show!
Friday
True Metal Stage
Amorphis Much too early for such a great band the Finnish acted in the sunny noon. Supported by a clear sound they began by the newer “Skyforger” songs “Silver Bride” and “Sky Is Mine” before presenting by “Against Widows”, “The Castaway” and “Alone” hits from their discography. So they did the rest of their gig considering songs from all phases ending with “Black Winter Day” and a “My Kantele” passing.
Ill Nino There had been times the thought having bands like the Latin Americans in Wacken was simply impossible. In 2010 we saw numerous crowdsurfers and the whole crowd jumping and partying to the opener “If You Still Hate Me”, “This Is War”, “The Alibi Of Tyrants”, “God Save Us” as the final “Liar”. No doubt: Modern Metal plus extra percussion works very well in Wacken nowadays.
The Bosshoss The Country Rock formation got confirmed for Wacken for the second time. It was a bit controversial about their participation. Anyway they entertained a respectable number of spectators especially by their own cover interpretations of Beasty Boys’ “Sabotage” and Ministry’s “Jesus Built My Hotrod”.
Kamelot The band from Florida with international line-up strengthened by Swedes and Germans had built up a huge fan base which sent a big welcome when they started with “Ghost Opera”. The band seemed to have invested a lot into the show full of pyros and other effects showing a tight band between numerous of flames. Furthermore they introduced by “The Great Pandemonium” and “Hunter’s Season” two new tracks from the forthcoming album “Poetry For The Poisened”. So Roy S. Khan, Thomas Youngblood & Co closed a jubilated set by the classics “Karma”, “Forever” and “March Of Mephisto”.
Grave Digger When I went to my first WOA in 1997 a band named Grave Digger performed after the release of their concept album “Tunes Of War”. This album got played by Chris Boltendahl & Co in full length beginning with the intro played by a few bagpipers. During this special set they got supported by Van Canto as backing choir for the whole set, Doro Pesch and Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kürsch for one song each. The fans would have enjoyed this rare event much more with a good sound. So the classics of other albums “Ballad Of A Hangman”, “Excalibur” and “Heavy Metal Breakdown” finished a gig that didn’t fulfill its approach to be special in a completely positive way.
Anvil After the awesome movie “The Story Of Anvil” and its hype it was time to let the music do the talking. And the Canadiens showed where their real home of art is. After the festivalsite had become emptier the classic beginners “March Of The Crabs” and “666” as the title track of the latest output “This Is Thirteen” entertained the present fanbase. But the trio could have renounced Lips’ dildo guitar solo while “Mothra” and Rob Reiner’s drum solo within “White Rhino”. It was easy to see the musicians enjoyed it playing on such a big stage which they left by “Forged In Fire” and the band hymn “Metal On Metal”.
Black Stage
Dew-Scented The German Death / Thrash attack welcomed the crowd by several smashers while hottest heat. Nevertheless a respectable crowd celebrated brandnew “Invocation” material like “Arise From Decay” as classics like “Soul Poison” and “Acts Of Rage”.
Orphaned Land This formation from Israel has its own sound for sure combining Metal with oriental sounds. On the other hand this didn’t find a too big number of people in front of the stage. The band celebrated new “The Never Ending Way Of OrwarriOR” tracks like “Barakah”, “Disciples Of The Sacred Oath II” and “Sapari” including a female belly dancer nobody needed as older ones like “Ocean Land (The Revelation)” or the final “Norra El Norra (Entering The Ark)”.
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter This band always guarantees big fanships in Wacken. So they did this time getting celebrated from the beginning set by “Wir Sind Das Licht” and Revolution” over “Es Wird Schlimmer” and “Adrenalin” till the end marked by “We Will Never Die” and the encore “Seemann”. And the fivepiece performed for the very first time the new unreleased track “Die Boten” on stage.
Endstille The Black Metal commando from Kiel had to fulfill their slot in the sunny afternoon. Anyway they reached their supporters by just two tracks from their recent release “Verführer” (“…Of Disorder”, “Depressive/Abstract/Banished/ Despise”) and many older ones (“Feindfahrt”, “Dominanz”, “Frühlingserwachen”, “Navigator”)
Arch Enemy The filled up festivalsite showed the popularity the Swedish band with the German voice had raised over the latest years. And the band showed why with a brilliant instrumental as fronter’s performance. So the crowd headbanged to the opener “The Immortal”, “Ravenous”, “My Apocalypse”, “We Will Rise” and the encore “Nemesis”.
Slayer The cult Thrash fourpiece from the Bay Area were the next very big band on this year’s WOA billing opening by the title track and “Hate Worldwide” from their current “World Painted Blood” release. Tom Araya & Co appeared for the second time in Wacken reaching thousands of metalheads getting wild with classics like “War Ensemble”, “Dead Skin Mask”, “Seasons In The Abyss”, “Hell Awaits”, “Mandatory Suicide” as the definite Slayer finish consisting of “Raining Blood”, “South Of Heaven” and “Angel Of Death”. But nevertheless we need to mention the band performed their set pretty experienced, let miss the passion, and there was no special effects show to cover this. Besides that the sound was much too low.
Corvus Corax Under the name of Cantus Buranus the band performed an extremely bombastic show. Supported by the Passionata Cho(i)r Berlin, the Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Prague, knights initiate fight scenes and several different instruments they showed real theatre. What leads us to the question if this was right placed on a festival stage. The left crowd seemed to have slept in or to be entertained in the deep night anyway.
Party Stage
End Of Green The quintet from Southwest Germany was the right band to open a sunny day on the Party Stage. Their Gothic Rock ‘n’ Roll attracted a respectable number of fans rocking to “Killhoney”, “Drink Myself To Sleep”, “Highway 69” and the video single “Goodnight Insomnia” from the forthcoming album “High Hopes In Low Places”. I just missed the classic “Death In Veins”.
Job For A Cowboy The Death Metal fivepiece from Phoenix played a smashing set considering material from their both releases “Genesis” and “Ruination”. But this was suddenly interrupted by switched off electricity because the band had motivated to a wall of death which was forbidden in the contracts between the WOA organization and the appearing acts.
Voivod The Canadiens were supposed to play in Wacken twelve years ago which they needed to cancel because of a hard bus crash on their way to it. The place in front of the Party Stage was pretty much filled showing their innovative Thrash Metal is still attractive. From the self-titled opener and its follower “The Unknown Knows” on it was clear this was a classic set in which “Global Warning” showed the new tracks are even able to hold the high self-defined quality standards. With the Pink Floyd cover the quartet left a happy fanship.
Frei.Wild The group from South Tyrol attracted a respectable crowd in front of the stage. Their lyrics are in german and the music as the whole attitude made the impression the band is a complete Böhse Onkelz rip-off.
Tarja Turunen The ex Nightwish siren had a big fan crowd waiting for her appearance. And this one had ironically its best moments when she performed by “Sleeping Sun” and “Wishmaster” tracks from her ex-band. Her solo songs like the new “In For A Kill” and “Until My Last” from the upcoming new output “What Lies Beneath” (Not to mix with the self-titled movie!) didn’t really rock, just her voice stuck on my nerves. By “Still Of The Night” (Whitesnake) and “Over The Hills And Far Away” (Gary Moore) Tarja and her sidekicks also interpreted two Rock classics. But this show didn’t convince.
1349 Playing against Slayer is not a spectators’ attracting issue. So the Norwegians performed for their fans new “Demonoir” tracks like “Psalm 7.77” and familiar ones like “Nathicania” and “Sculptor Of Flesh”, so those got satisfied.
Atrocity The formation celebrated its 25th anniversary of existence. So they presented a best of set containing “Necropolis”, “B.L.U.T.”, “Willenskraft” and “Die Todgeweihten” before considering the two popular “Werk 80” releases by Camouflage’s “The Great Commandment”, Visage’s “Fade To Grey”, “A-ha’s “The Sun Always Shines On TV” and Tears’ For Fears’ “Shout”.
W.E.T. Stage
Ihsan The tent got pretty filled up with fans who were curious to see the ex-Emperor mainman who had found talented young musicians to perform his artistic vision, and this worked very well. They mainly concentrated on the new “After” album beginning with its opener “The Barren Lands” until the set closure “Frozen Lakes On Mars”. Between that “Scarab”, “Misanthrope” and “Called By The Fire” showed a wonderful mixture maybe described as Prog Black Metal. After some sound problems in its beginning it turned out to a great show!
Secrets Of The Moon Germany’s leading Black Metal quartet switched its billing position with Raven. So the tent was just rare filled. But those who were there celebrated “I Maldoror” as “Lucifer Speaks”. Good show and good songs made this gig feel really short!
Saturday
True Metal Stage
Caliban One of the leading German Metalcore bands returned to attract the masses while the sun was shining hot. The newer “Love Song” as “I Never Let You Down” showed from the beginning what it was about: Action, on stage as on the festival gorund. Fronter Andy Dörner regreted several times they’re not allowed to animate a wall of death, but the fans showed they can have fun without it celebrating “I’ve Sold Myself”, “24 Years” and the final “Liar”.
Overkill After starting with the opener of the new release “Ironbound” (“The Green And Black”) the Thrash Metal icon served a classics battalion by “Rotten To The Core”, “Wrecking Crew”, “Hello From The Gutter” and “Coma”. After considering by “Ironbound” itself and “Bring Me The Night” two further new tracks with their hymn “In Union We Stand” in between the fivepiece from New York City finished with “Fuck You” and the Motörhead cover “Overkill” a massive gig.
W.A.S.P. The US legend showed a phenomenal beginning by “On Your Knees”, “The Real Me” and “L.O.V.E. Machine” before considering by “Babylon’s Burning” the only new “Babylon” song. Blacky Lawless and his comrades gave their fans what they wanted: Classics! The fans partied to “Wild Child”, a’ medley of own classics, “Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The New Morgue)”, the phenomenal “The Idol” and the set finishing band hymn “I Wanna Be Somebody”. Just our impression there happened pretty much playback avoided full party pleasure.
Edguy The German Melodic Metal formation had played in Wacken for several times. So it was no surprise the festival ground was pretty filled after their popularity had raised over the last decade. The supporters celebrated “Mandrake”, “Vain Glory Opera”, “Lavatory Love Machine” and the final “King Of Fools” having a good time meanwhile. Not to forget: Helloween’s Markus Großkopf supported the band for this one show because they’re usual bassist was becoming father during the Wacken days.
Soulfly Max Cavalera and his companions acted in Wacken for the second time, both times as headliner. And his Modern Metal worked well again. The crowd jumped and banged to “Prophecy”, “Back To The Primitive”, “Seek ‘n’ Strike” and “Eye For An Eye”. The most action of course happened while the Sepultura classics “Troops Of Doom”, “Refuse/Resist” and “Roots Bloody Roots”. So this turned out to a real triumph for the Brasilians, so nobody cared about the sound.
U.D.O. The german tank and his band had began with “The Bogeyman” and “Dominator” by two tracks from the recent “Dominator” album before he mixed the U.D.O. classics (“Independence Day”, “Man And Machine”, “Animal House”) with Accept evergreens (“Princess Of The Dawn”, Midnight Mover”, Metal Heart”, the final “Balls To The Wall”) which worked very well showing he still rules the German Metal scene.
Black Stage
Ektomorf The Hungarians showed for another time why they’re just known as a bad copy of Sepultura. Especially fronter Zoli Farkas presented himself as a mislead Cavalera rip-off for another time. Anyway the fans crowded the festivalsite in the hot noon to watch and hear the newer opener “Rat War”, “Outcast” and the final “I Know Them”.
Unleashed The Swedish Death Metal machine started with “Winterland” and “World Of Lies” into a massive set causing a lot of headbanging action. After the new “As Yggdrasil Trembles” track “Wir Kapitulieren Niemals” Johnny Hedlund dedicated “Into Glory Ride” to the passed Pete Steele from Type O Negative and Ronnie James Dio as the following “Legal Rapes” to their friends of Cannibal Corpse. With “Death Metal Victory” and some singalong games with the fans the fourpiece finished a jubilated gig.
Lock Up The multinational all star Death Metal / Grindcore band around At The Gates shouter Tompa Lindberg and Napalm Death bandleader Shane Embury were back in Wacken. The latest release is five years old, but they’re still attractive for big festivals. And they showed what blastbeats mean. To a part of the crowd this band was to hard leaving the place, others stayed having pleasure while about 20 tracks.
Cannibal Corpse And the sound stayed hard: The Death Metal fivepiece from Florida began by the newer “Evisceration Plague” track “Scalding Hail” to let follow several neckbreakers as “The Wretched Spawn”, “I Will Kill You” and “Make Them Suffer” before leaving with “Hammer Smashed Face”. But the Corpsegrinder and his bandmates reentered the stag to play the encore “Stripped, Raped And Strangled”.
Immortal The return of the Norwegian Black Metal icons should become a bombastic one! Supported by just a little pyro and light show the band let their music do the talking. And they could: I hadn’t seen Immortal that musically tight for a long time. They showed their new material from the recent “All Shall Fall” album, which they considered surprisingly pretty much, worked well, too. So the opening title track, “The Rise Of Darkness”, “Hordes To War” and “Norden On Fire” fit pretty much to the classics “Sons Of Northern Darkness”, “Damned In Black”, “Withstand The Fall Of Time”, “Beyond The North Waves” and “One By One”. This show surprised totally, more of that!
Fear Factory After five years vocalist Burton C. Bell and guitarist Dino Cazares found back together to reunite their band with Byron Stroud and drum machine Gene Hoglan. The band opened by the new album’s title song “Mechanize” they also played by “Powershifter” and “Fear Campaign” two smashers from and showed they are a real band again. The rest of the agile as tight performed show consisted of Industrial Metal classics like “Edgecrusher”, “Linchpin”, “Demanufacture”, “Self Bias Resistor” and the final hymn “Replica” followed by huge pyro flames from the towers. For the last time of this year’s WOA a crowd felt animated to bigger headbanging and pit action. So this comeback has to be described as successful!
Party Stage
Smoke Blow To start a festival day with a good live Rock ‘n’ Roll band is always the right decision. So it worked well with the group from Kiel which performed besides own tracks like “Alligator Rodeo” and “Mexico” cover versions from Danzig (“Mother”) as from Billy Idol (“Rebel Yell”) which set the first party standards of the day.
Kampfar The Norwegians began with the first three tracks from their latest output “Heimgang” (“Vantro”, “Inferno”, “Dodens Vee”) before playing older ones from their back catalogue which they finished by “Ravenheart”. Black Metal fans enjoyed it, others didn’t.
Delain After Within Temptation, After Forever and Epica the next female fronted Symphonic Metal band from the Netherlands played the big festivals. There seems to be a factory in our Dutch neighbourhood. They began with the title track of their last year released album “April Rain” and attracted an astonishable number of fans in front of the Party Stage. For three tracks they got supported by Orphanage vocalist George Oosterhoek. The band got much applause after the show.
Stratovarius I didn’t expect that much after all the trouble between band founder Timo Tolkki and his bandmates including the qutting of the first mentioned one. But I really got surprised: The new bandmembers on guitar as on bass did a great musical job and it seemed the band found back its unity. The new “Polaris” tracks “Higher We Go”, “Deep Unknown” and “Winter Skies” fit pretty well into the set and the classics as the opener “Hunting High And Low”, “The Kiss Of Judas”, “Against The Wind” and the final “Black Diamond” rocked anyway.
Candlemass The Swedish Doom Metal legend with their new American vocalist Robert Lowe known from Solitude Aeturnus convinced with their slow, but massive appearance interpreting the opener “Mirror Mirror”, the newer “If I Ever Die” as “Hammer Of Doom”, “At The Gallows End” and the set finishing “Solitude”. Solid gig!
Tiamat Many fans were looking forward to this special as unique concert seeing Tiamat playing their masterpiece “Wildhoney” from 1994 in full length chronologically. Supported by a nice light show and projections the 20th anniversary of the band’s existence got the right shape to get honored. “Whatever That Hurts”, “The Ar”, “Gaia” or the silent “Pocket Size Sun” created a wonderful atmosphere, and in a positive way this show made me a bit tired. A fabulous idea as show itself! More of that, Mr. Edlund!
W.E.T. Stage
Die Kassierer The Fun Punk band from Bochum-Wattenscheid finally made it to Wacken, and how many supporters had been looking forward to it showed the totally packed tent, so many needed to watch the gig from the outside which turned out to a big party including the hits “Sex Mit Dem Sozialarbeiter” as opener, “Blumenkohl Am Pillemann”, “Das Schlimmste Ist, Wenn Das Bier Alle Ist” or “Mein Glied Ist Zu Groß”. This show had nothing to do with political correctness at all, and it made fun.
Sólstafir The quartet from Island played a strong gig. Their very innovative Hippie Metal Rock ‘n’ Roll rocked the tent enormously. And the band was the only one I know who filled 45 minutes with just three songs. Their epics “Köld”, “Pale Rider” and “Ritual Of Fire invaded the tent and caught every present soul to take part in. Amazing!
Lake Of Tears The aspect of Hippie atmosphere also plays a role at shows of the Swedes. Tracks like “Boogie Bubble” stress this, but it wasn’t the only wonderful composition celebrated. The opener “So Fell Autumn Rain” as the great final consisting of “Sweetwater” and “Raven Land” satisfied every single fan.
Rotting Christ The Greeks started with the title track and “Eon Aenaos” two beginners of their new album “Aealo” and showed darkness was reconquering the tent. The also new “Fire Death And Fear” and the finisher “Noctis Era” expressed their songwriting and heavyness combined with good stageacting which animated lots of headbangers. Good show!
Conclusion:
Our 14th Wacken Open Air experience turned out to another wonderful one. There was no short-termed band cancellation, the weather god seemed to be a Wacken fan and the atmosphere on the festivalsite was an awesome one bringing together metalheads from all over the world. As we mentioned in our introduction the WOA – organization worked very well again which isn’t a matter of course keeping the more than 75000 spectators in mind. All these sounds from different Metal subgenres fit together in Wacken and found high acceptance by the spectators each. The prices for food and beverages stayed the same as the years before (e.g. 3,50 € for a 0,4 l beer or softdrink).
We enjoyed our Wacken – stay a lot and are looking forward to the 2011 – edition when it will be the 15th for the writer of these lines! See you in Wacken 2011 – rain or shine!
Special thanks go out to Britta Kock and the WOA-team!!!!!
At the Wacken Open Air rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte and Dumbo!!!!