Once again the gods of Metal were calling to gather in Wacken for the 13th time. So why not drop a few lines about the world’s biggest Metal party? While Nhashi was camping once again, Ramon shared a double room with Jeff Brown. Surely no Metal attitude but apart from clean toilets and a shower this turned out to be even more comfortable as the weather gods obviously had declared war upon the gods of Metal – at least on Thursday. Walking in Wacken was great ‘fun’ on Friday morning until tons of hay were used to get the ground dry. One thing we don’t really understand is all the criticism many people unleashed upon the Wacken organizers this time: compared to everyday life the slightly more expensive prices were still acceptable and as long as you’re male: no problems concerning the toilets (rent a room – Ramon)! Okay, missing CANDLEMASS was a fucking shame but as far as we heard, their gig was even shorter than their appearances at Sweden Rock or the Bang Your Head!!! and PRIMORDIAL who played at the same time were just brilliant! When attending Wacken you have to accept that you’re going to miss one or two of your favorite bands for sure. It’s been this way for ages, ever since more and more stages were added, so what the heck! It’s an excellent party, chaotic and exhausting but great fun! 

FRIDAY

The Thursday only offered a couple of poser bands like Kotipelto and Doro, so the first band to watch on Friday morning 12:00 was Swedish NECROPHOBIC. The guys simply rocked the Black Stage with six songs from all their albums, great annoncements like  “It's time to cleanse the world from the christian filth.” etc. And musicwise this band simply does not disappoint. Tight as fuck and with such songs they simply don't need much stageacting, they are simply aggressive and dark by being there and perform and nothing else. Simply don't understand why a band like this needs to play early in the morning while other bands (DYING FETUS, BORKNAGAR, CHILDREN OF BODOM to name but a few…) play later. But some things go always wrong... (nh)
Austria's Black Metaller DORNENREICH had already started to play on the Party Stage while NECROPHOBIC hadn't finished. The place of the stages was actually a big problem this year, except for the poor sound on the main stages on Saturday, this maybe really the biggest. Standing halfway in front of the Party Stage you could see the band on the Party Stage but listen to the band from the Black Stage. DORNENREICH with their very sophisticated but in my opinion simply dull and silly concept are neither lyric- nor musicwise my cup of tea. And so I didn't like their music on stage either. All in all they are simply too pathetic and artificial. Who’s afraid of loneliness? – I could cry... But after all I must admit that they had, even though this does not fit to such an ‘intelligent’ concept, a hell of action on stage, all of the three of them banging their head off etc. – so at least optically this was okay. And if they one day will start to drink a beer or two, they'll perhaps begin to write good songs and good lyrics.(nh)
“You want Heavy Metal?” – It was time for METALUCIFER. And hell yeah, they fucking rocked. The band with Gezol from Sabbat and with Husky from Desaster didn't need to do too much and had the audience behind them because they were simply Heavy Metal. I can't imagine any band except Cranium for example that I would enjoy playing this kind of music, so simple, so effective. And nearly every song starting with the two divine words “Heavy Metal…” And as the audience was enjoying themselves more and more, the band enjoyed the gig more and became better and better. The grand finale was when the Japanese rhythm guitarist smashed his guitar to pieces during the last song… simply all clichées there, and that is Heavy Metal.(nh)
The first extreme band I watched on Friday was DYING FETUS and it was amazing how many people they drew at that time of day. Especially their singer had quite an aggressive stage presence and the rest of the bunch did a good job as well. Still, I’m not the band’s greatest fan (maybe I should see them in a small club one day) for their songs are brutal but lacking the atmosfear I worship so much in bands like Immolation, Nile, Morbid Angel or Incantation. Getting more and more brutal for brutality’s sake alone seems to become a trend again regarding those masses of fans in front of the Black Stage. Call it a blessing that there are still talented young bands like Necrophagist, Ingurgitating Oblivion and others not jumping on today’s band wagon. But as DYING FETUS belong to the originals, they have any right to play the style they’re good at. Cool gig anyway.(rc)
PUNGENT STENCH were introduced by Austrian Rock Hard writer Bruder Clé which fitted just fine as the band entered the stage in priest’s robes and at festivals you usually meet Bruder Clé wearing his monk’s robe anyway. Obviously their fans had waited for this reunion show as both hair and hay kept flying throughout the whole set. Then, after ‘Shrunken And Mummified Bitch’, PUNGENT STENCH took off their clerical robes. Underneath they wore their s/m outfit! What a shock. Or maybe not? Well, nowadays I’d doubt so but coming from a catholic area this might be a little different for the band. One thing for sure: this was great entertainment! Good music, good show: thumbs up! (rc)
King Bruce landed in Wacken and his people were gathering. With a good performance of his band and BRUCE DICKINSON himself running again miles on stage, a hell of a setlist (including the MAIDEN-classics ‘Revelations’, ‘The Prisoner’, ‘Bring Your Daughter… To The Slaughter’ and ‘Powerslave’) and the last rays of the sun he couldn't do anything wrong at all. Perhaps he could have left out the songs from his “Skunkworks”-era, but beside this, everything was perfect. (nh)
For me it was a struggle to enter the W.E.T. stage’s tent and see PRIMORDIAL: first of all I was still close to tears (Bruce Dickinson’s ‘Tears Of The Dragon’ always has this effect on me, sorry) and Bruce hadn’t finished yet. Secondly, the sun had been shining for most of the day and as the tent was absolutely packed one could hardly breathe. Maybe I should start smoking myself in order not to notice? Just look at that poser!!! Once Alan’s pack took the stage by storm, all my complaints were forgotten: mystery, power, aggression, sadness, agony, all this and more was put on stage with even more intensity than on CD. It was awesome! The new material sounded great in between the old stuff and Alan proved to be a perfect entertainer. Even though quite a few fans had been expecting Eisregen to play at that time (typical Wacken chaos), the charismatic singer drew in almost everybody. Among other flags there were 2 or 3 Irish and an Australian one (the Destroyer 666 guys I guess?) waved from the audience. By the time I started to appreciate the tent stage as very often the magic escapes at an open air once it is set free. And then there is nothing left. Even without alcohol (not my fault, Nhashi drank it all ;-)) (the ration from the Voices-Headquarter was too small… It wasn't my fault either :-P – Nhashi) the air felt electric and as I don’t experience such moments too often any more: thanks a lot to PRIMORDIAL! Even better than the excellent Blitzkrieg gig on Saturday! See you on tour. (rc)
Obviously there's not so much to add to Ramon's view except that PRIMORDIAL simply were the best band of the festival, A.A. Nemtheanga was simply best frontman of Wacken, and that every Voices-reader needs to come to the European tour in autumn. This is a must! And I am already fucked because I won't be able to visit that tour… (nh)

SATURDAY

It was more curiosity than being a great NUCLEAR ASSAULT fan which took me to the True Metal stage and watch Dan Lilker and Co. but they played an enjoyable gig indeed. In the burning sun it became a constant struggle of keeping the balance between hiding in the shadows and watching the gig. “Who took a shower the last 2 or 3 days”, the band wanted to know. “Nobody? Well, please keep your arms down, then!” (rc)
The more I think about it the more I wonder if IMMORTAL are more and more becoming the biggest faggots of Black Metal, even bigger faggots than Dimmu Borgir. I have seen IMMORTAL now for a couple of times but from gig to gig they become worse and except their stage-acting and their playing, this time also the setlist was a fuck. Only one song from the master-album “Pure Holocaust”, namely the opener ‘Unsilent Storms In The North Abyss’, no song from their genius work “Battles In The North”, but a lot of their uninspired “Sons Of Northern Darkness”-stuff and I can't believe that one of the Norwegian bands really is practicing this “Raise your arms clap your hands”-games with the audience. Where have we come? What is this? At least, the decline of IMMORTAL is so drastically that only fools and blind people will ignore it. May they be buried and forgotten… (nh)
The EXODUS gig didn’t really turn out to be more than just okay. The band wasn’t too active (okay, it was hot, but aren’t those guys from San Francisco?). Most of the songs were cool, like ‘Lesson In Violence’, ‘Piranha’ or ‘Bonded By Blood’ but when Souza announced two new songs, I was worried and afterwards even more: ‘Angry’ would be an okay song in between a collection of killer tracks: fairly slow and groovy. But ‘Throwing Down’ turned out to be a bad Machine Head rip off: a trendy piece of shit for which I would claim my money back! If their appearance at Wacken was their farewell show: okay, but I guess EXODUS are just about to destroy their legendary status. Furthermore, I think they were the only band taking 20,- € for a shirt (without a back print), whereas the other band shirts were between 15,- and 18,- €! Plus: not every photographer was allowed to take pics from the photo pit: rock stars? One could have tried to talk to Century Media but what the heck! Disappointing! (rc)
HYPOCRISY have always and will always remain a great live-band, although I must admit that I neither like their latest albums nor do I think that this year's Wacken-appearance was their greatest show ever. This may also result from the fact that the sound on Saturday was so bad that it wasn't really enjoyable at all. At least, HYPOCRISY played an hour songs from all their albums, from “Penetralia” to “Catch 22” and all in all, this was good. Only good because we all know that HYPOCRISY can do better. (nh)
The intensity of a CANNIBAL CORPSE gig is always impressive and standing in the middle of an enthusiastic crowd supports this even more. A massive crowd was hailing one of the biggest and most influential Death Metal bands on earth going crazy about songs like ‘Staring Through The Eyes Of The Dead’ or ‘Stripped, Raped And Strangled’. By the time two negative aspects about the CANNIBALS were shining through: Corpsegrinder’s announcements never vary too much and the drumming sounds fairly monotonous after some time. What about varying the blast beats a little bit from time to time? (rc)
SINERGY-slut in all beds Kimberly Gross and her crew promised not to play any ballads or something but to give full-speed. Yeah, if this was already full-speed I don't want to watch that band on a bad day. Uninspired, lousy songs, performed by an uninspired band (except Kimberly who seemed quite engaged). Do we need such bands? Actually I wonder if she really knows what some band members are thinking and talking about her, hehe… “Suicide By My Side”? – Please do so …. (nh) (sorry, I like her voice and I admire her courage of leaving the US for Metal but I’m not Metal anyway, right? - Ramon) HEATHEN started their set a little too late (technical problems?), but they turned out to be one of the festival’s best acts. Their guitarist Ira Black had just played with Vicious Rumors, but he didn’t seem to be tired at all: together with Lee Altus he did some magic on the guitars and the Vicious Rumors guys seemed to enjoy the show as well. Songs like ‘Open The Grave’, ‘Death By Hanging’ or the Thin Lizzy cover ‘The Holy War’ made everybody GO! Yeah, the hay was flyin’ high again and the singer knew how to communicate with the audience; something you don’t have very often any more. Finally a reunion that makes sense! (rc) UNLEASHED still had their long hair and they used it for what it was made for! The band moved a lot and obviously enjoyed themselves a lot on stage. The crowd just loved tracks like ‘Hell’s Unleashed’, ‘Victims Of War’ or ‘Shadows In The Deep’. In between the songs Johnny took his time: “I’m drunk. You know that.” What a cool gig! Great light show. Welcome back, guys! (rc) One of my favorite gigs at the W-O-A was played by NWoBHM veterans BLITZKRIEG. Somehow singer Brian Ross has always been around, first with Satan (the band that later on called themselves Pariah; 2 of the guys from Satan formed Skyclad, by the way). Then for almost 2 decades he played with BLITZKRIEG. He may not be the best singer, but he’s damn charismatic. Among countless classics like ‘Inferno’, ‘The Wraith’ or ‘Unholy Trinity’ we heard ‘Blitzkrieg’, the song Metallica covered when they used to play Metal. Additionally, BLITZKRIEG played quite a few songs from the forthcoming album like ‘Feel The Pain’ (about Jesus’ thoughts at the cross) or their tribute to Judas Priest called ‘Metalizer’. Usually it’s a mistake to play that many new songs at a festival but as the new songs truly rocked, the audience kept banging their heads anyway! Absolutely brilliant! (rc) After Blitzkrieg I was still able to watch the last 40 minutes of KREATOR playing. A friend of mine told me I had not missed too much as until then the band had been playing too much new stuff (even though the new album is great I prefer hearing old songs at festivals). When I arrived at the Black Stage, KREATOR were playing ‘Extreme Aggression’ and went on with a good mixture of both new and old stuff (‘Pleasure To Kill’, ‘Flag Of Hate’, ‘Tormentor’). Mille expressed the great impression the audience made on him and communicated quite a bit with the fans (still hiding under his hair, though). Good gig by Germany’s finest Thrashers. (rc) Finally: GREEN CARNATION. In fact I really enjoyed their latest 60-minute-opus “Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness” while listening to it on CD. But on stage I somehow didn't like it too much. I don't know but the performance of the guys around Tchort was too static to keep me late at 1:00am near the stage for an complete hour.  At least, I have never seen a Metal band with two keyboards… Anyway, some bands shouldn't try to enter stage as their music simply does not work as good as it can on CD with a candle and a glass of wine, completely concentrating on the music. Not bad, but not as outstanding as the album. (nh) 

Nhashi (nh)
Ramon Claassen (rc)
Pics: Ingo Stührenberg (HEATHEN, NUCLEAR ASSAULT), Ramon Claassen (rest)

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