Despite the blazing sun, the swamps around our tents and the fact that there weren’t too many unusual bands scheduled (except for SATAN, HOBBS ANGEL OF DEATH and NOCTURNO CULTO), the 15^th Wacken Open Air turned out to be a surprisingly cool event! And this time we didn’t notice a single change of the running order that hadn’t been announced at the Wacken homepage in advance. The fact that the WET stage was pretty much reserved for unknown bands this time was an excellent move (cheaper and more interesting) although we didn’t see much of that, mainly due to the climate in the bloody tent. Tear down the fucking walls! (rc)

THURSDAY

The first relevant band this year was MOTÖRHEAD and they were there to kick our asses. Not. Honestly, I’ve never seen a bad show with the current lineup but this one reminded me a bit of the SLAYER show last year: not loud enough and just an “okay” set list. I think they neither played ‘Orgasmatron’ nor ‘Iron Fist’ or was I chatting too much with my record dealer? Returning to our campground it had turned into a swamp. It almost dried out in the mornings but became wet over the day again - despite the tropical temperature! Luckily it didn’t smell, so it was water I guess but we never found out where it came from. By the way: we were camping next to two Dutch sickos - one of them Eric (formerly PREMORTEM). Anyway, he now plays in a Death’n’Roll band (forgot the name) but he agreed on sending over stuff as soon as something is recorded, so we’ll keep you posted. (rc)
If there is anything to say at all about controversial act BÖHSE ONKELZ that may interest our readers it has certainly nothing to do with their music (which is nice but unspectacular, dirty Rock - rc). Admittedly everyone stayed peaceful, as far as I know or have seen. There were no fights between Metalheads and Opel-drivers, I just thought that the stage-appearance of those guys were incredibly boring and I don’t think their split is a loss at all. I just hope we will be spared from bands like this one on future festivals. (nh)
What surprised me as a former ONKELZ fan (they simply became boring, especially – as Nhashi said – in a live situation) was that some people I would have never thought to know the band knew the lyrics better than me! Secondly, I’m pretty sure this was the biggest crowd I ever saw in Wacken. Everybody was watching. Some for curiosity, others with passion. For an open air festival and for a farewell show (really?) they played too many new songs. Boring. (rc)

FRIDAY

Usually I like to get up with some “True” Metal but in Wacken I finally decided not to like PARAGON from Hamburg too much. Maybe I was just in a bad mood because of the damn sun. I had tried to make up my mind about the band from the first PARAGON gig I had seen in Bremen supporting BREAKER in 2000 or so. Since then I went to countless shows (support your local scene, eh?) and was never fully satisfied. Well, on Wacken-Friday I noticed their (pretty original) singer is simply getting on my nuts. Solid show, powerful songs, grateful crowd – except for me, the bastard!
I’ve never been a CATHEDRAL fan, mainly because of Lee Dorrian’s vocals and because they’re too groovy but as they were the only Doom band I decided to watch the legend. Possibly it would turn out to be some kind of initiation to get into their world. Unfortunately it didn’t. I noticed some magic going on between the band and the fans but was left outside alone. The vocals, you know? Somehow the gig reminded me of the impressive TROUBLE appearance at last year’s Rock Hard Festival but somehow I didn’t get access this time...
After I had taken my first break from the sun I returned for the last ARCH ENEMY song. Professional – and the fans obviously liked it but somehow new singer Angela seems cold and not very sympathetic to me. Talented – yes, but not exactly nice. Maybe there are prejudices after I heard about her attitude at a small festival a friend of mine had put up a couple of years ago. There Ms Gossow had played with her old band and already behaved like a star. Well, I wasn’t there but I heard about this from many people. Who cares about my opinion anyway? (rc)
Luckily enough MAYHEM have no longer “the true” in their logo because they simply are not “the true MAYHEM” and I may say so despite the fact that they managed to deliver the best album since 1994 and despite the fact that their appearance at this year’s Wacken was their best gig I have ever seen of them. With the GEHENNA-guitarist on second guitar, for the first time one could finally distinguish the songs without the announcement as the drums were not everything you heard. They started their set with ‘Deathcrush’ followed by ‘Carnage’ and were clever enough to only include one song from “Grand Declaration…” as well as only two songs from their latest effort. Some may say they only live from their old cult-status and one cannot deny that whole-heartedly but is there anyone who is not thrilled by the “De Mysteriis…” - masterpieces? From the very beginning, four pig heads were set aflame, remembering anyone of a glory time now gone. Maniac impaled those pigs with a two-edged knife, and at least two of those heads found their way to the audience. While playing with those pig heads, Maniac once dropped the knife and one of the edges broke loose on the ground. It jumped up again and cut Maniac – unintended – in his right hand. The hand never stopped bleeding throughout the whole set, but Maniac certainly knew how to handle this injury and smeared the blood onto his chest as well as waving the hand that much that some drops of blood even reached the audience. And talking about Maniac: he is certainly not the best vocalist MAYHEM ever had (remember Dead as well as god-like Attila, right?)  and he is certainly not really a good vocalist at all but he nevertheless did quite a good job, was very agile, ran around and one could see that he enjoyed the crowd. All other band-members hardly moved at all. Although this is still not MAYHEM like I imagine them having been back in the glorious days, this was a quite solid gig. And I stayed longer than I had imagined, because I only left after classic ‘Pagan Fears’.
And was only able to watch the last two songs of SATAN. This is typical for a multi-stage-festival: there are only half a dozen interesting bands and those play at the same time. But the two songs I have seen from SATAN were incredibly well-performed. This is how NWOBHM has to be performed. Just hope that this was not a once-only appearance. (nh)
SATAN absolutely turned out to be the first true highlight of this year’s W-O-A. These veterans originally were scheduled for the second Keep It True festival in the South of Germany but decided to play Wacken exclusively (BLITZKRIEG replaced them at the KIT, by the way). Never heard about SATAN? Well, they went through lots of lineup- and bandname-changes over the years (PARIAH, for example). Original lead singer Brian Ross (who did this show of course) left to form BLITZKRIEG in the early 80s (METALLICA covered the band hymn when Mr Ulrich and Co. used to play Metal instead of crap). SATAN pretty much played their cult album “Court In The Act” as this was the lineup of the show, except for the drummer: due to some injury Sean Taylor had to be replaced by the BLITZKRIEG guy. Brian Ross’ vocals were much better than at the BLITZKRIEG show at the Keep It True Fest. In fact, he was singin’ an’ screamin’ like a young god and the rest of the band was doing a great show as well: Russ Tippins on guitar and SKYCLAD members Graeme English and Steve Ramsey who cut his hair since I last saw him a couple of years ago. In this case, the history lesson was fun. More!
After SATAN there was enough time to make my way into the bloody tent where the WET stage was located to see HOBBS ANGEL OF DEATH. I will never understand why the Wacken guys don’t tear down the tent’s “walls” – the air cannot circle, it smells like in a circus, the sun is blazing and I’m going mad! If there was just the roof it would give shelter from sun and rain and the wind could bring some air to breathe. In that case you’d see me nowhere else but at the WET stage! Just like the glorious year when AGENT STEEL and JAGUAR played at the two perfect tent stages! This HAS to change again! By the way: I’m sure the tent was bigger last year. Anyway: HOBBS ANGEL OF DEATH (wow, these guys look old) were full of energy at their first European show and the packed tent was boiling. After the Aussies had played ‘Satan’s Crusade’ I was happy to leave this deadly place, though, with the excuse of shooting a couple of photos of Nhashi with his heroes MAYHEM and SATYRICON backstage. (Dear Ramon, neither MAYHEM nor SATYRICON are heroes of mine, at least not with the current line-up and / or albums. In both cases the magic has long gone vanished. – nh) (so what do we need the silly photos for? Okay, I agree: Maniac’s red hand looks stylish, but apart from that… - rc) (Photos featuring me, are never never silly, and it’s probably a bit of sentimentality nevertheless. – nh)  But if you’re a HOBBS fan and didn’t go to see the show you definitely missed something!
Up next was David “Rock” Feinstein. First he played some classic THE RODS songs (wasn’t MANOWAR’s Joey DeMaio in the band for a short time before MANOWAR was founded?). Then the lineup changed into the current FEINSTEIN one where David isn’t lead singer anymore (why? He’s still good at it!) but concentrates on the guitar instead. The new material is more Metal than Hard Rock and as German Metal Hammer’s Andreas Schöwe put it: a cousin of Ronnie James Dio can’t write bad songs. True, but it didn’t blow me away, either. For one song or so, special guest Joey DeMaio did join the band on stage. Talking about the stage: not too many people seem to remember THE RODS, so the Black Stage was definitely too big. There were far more people going crazy with former STRATOVARIUS singer KOTIPELTO at the Party Stage (just like the WET Stage I bet the Party Stage was bigger last year). The same with MISERY INDEX: for them the WET stage was way too small and the masses didn’t find access to the friggin’ tent – including me, so no impressions of MISERY INDEX, sorry, but according to some friends of mine they were massive! (rc)
And when I was thinking about going to see DIO – since I am not that fond of his solo efforts (What??? Don’ tell me you don’t like “Holy Diver” and “The Last in Line”! And what about RAINBOW? - rc), but I really do like his BLACK SABBATH works “Heaven And Hell”, “Live Evil” and “Dehumanizer” (!!!) which I think has always been completely underrated (It truly is, I agree! Just like the DIO “Magica” album, for example - rc) – I got a phone call  from Gunnar, Metal Hammer Germany. He asked me to collect all his recording and photo equipment (they had recorded a MAYHEM vs. SATYRICON Black Metal-quiz earlier and without telling too much, MAYHEM deservedly won 16-11 points. Sometimes it probably pays not to be only befriended to SLIPKNOT) and to arrange a shuttle to a hospital from which he and Maniac should be collected. Maniac’s hand simply had not stopped to bleed – some persons also accused a certain other musician of shaking that particular hand too hard but I will refrain from joining such speculations – and the Red Cross had ordered Maniac to be taken to hospital where his hand was sawn with several stitches. Thus I went to the hospital with a particular nice (ehm …) female shuttle bus driver to collect Gunnar and Maniac. Upon arriving there, the treatment still was going on and so we had to wait a couple of minutes until everything was fixed. The trip back turned out to be a really funny happening with a Maniac hardly being able to stop talking and despite the pain he probably had, he still was joking and telling a couple of very interesting things, bands he plays in etc.  I am certainly still not too fond of his vocal works for MAYHEM, but Maniac definitely turned out to be a very sympathetic person indeed. Back in Wacken, a very caring “mother” Hellhammer was already waiting for the return of Maniac. I may have missed DIO, but in fact the time was very well spent nevertheless. (nh) (Sounds good to me and no problem ‘bout DIO: go see him in a club, there he’s even better! - rc)
The second true highlight in Wacken definitely was DIO. ‘Children Of The Sea’, ‘Heaven And Hell’, ‘Stargazer’, ‘Man On The Silver Mountain’, ‘Holy Diver’ and so on: he played millions of his classics and with his larger than life personality and a voice you’ll never forget, this could have been the best gig at Wacken 2004 for me if I hadn’t watched DARKTHRONE. Still, I even prefer watching DIO in a club so I can see his face. After the show, Joey DeMaio gave some lifetime achievement award to DIO. Sure, DIO inspired MANOWAR and thousands of other bands as well as countless fans. Still, I found this Wacken award and DeMaio’s speech a little cheesy but it contrasted with the fans’ reaction and even more with Ronnie James Dio’s unpretentious down-to-earth mentality. Somehow it made him even more sympathetic. What else happened on Friday? Hamburg’s shooting stars SUFFERAGE played the gig of their life at the WET stage (I took a peek at the Death Metal outfit’s appearance during Craig Goldie’s (DIO) guitar solo – not as packed as MISERY INDEX but nevertheless the tent was full). Then I missed DESTRUCTION but returned for a surprisingly good DORO / WARLOCK 1986 gig. The main reason why I left my tent after DIO was because I heard some IRON MAIDEN tune: special guest and former MAIDEN singer Blaze Bayley had taken over DORO’s microphone and sang ‘The Trooper’ and ‘Man On The Edge’ together with DORO’s symphonic orchestra. (Where I am quite certain that they started their set with ‘Fear Of The Dark’!!! – nh) (Oh, I suppose it’s true: ‘Fear…’ surely woke me up and until I was ready for action again, some time had passed by – rc) Especially ‘The Trooper’ sounded great with strings ‘n’ horns ‘n’ stuff. Then DORO returned for some more of her songs and JUDAS PRIEST’s ‘Breaking The Law’, joining her orchestra again. Chris Caffery (SAVATAGE) joined her for ‘Für Immer’ and ’All We Are’. Then there was a changeover: the orchestra was kicked out and WARLOCK 1986 entered the stage. WARLOCK 1986? Well, according to what I heard, the guitarist who left the band after the second album (“Hellbound”) – that would be Rudy Graf – has the rights to the name WARLOCK and the rumors said that as he wasn’t part of the show, he wanted 250.000 bucks! Therefore: WARLOCK 1986 and not a single penny to him. The band was highly motivated, played tons of classics (there had been an online voting) like ‘Evil’, ‘Burning The Witches’ or ‘Hellbound’ and the next morning Eric (ex-PREMORTEM) told me I had been dancing with my sunglasses still on. Well, I seriously doubt the latter but WARLOCK surely was a childhood dream come true. I’m just happy the shirts looked too crappy to buy, so nobody’s gonna make fun of me... (rc)

SATURDAY

Too much sun, too much fresh air: due to some nasty little headache I could only watch the last DEATH ANGEL song.  I think they’re much more intense in a club (actually the best DEATH ANGEL gig after the reunion I witnessed was the show in Groningen, Holland) but there is no doubt that the band is one hell of a live act on big stages as well. Unfortunately their set was too early and way too short.
Mighty UNLEASHED were celebrating their 15^th anniversary at the 15^th W-O-A. Among countless classics (that’s the way a festival set gets people going), they played ‘Before The Creation Of Time’ for the first time in Germany ever and dedicated their cover version of ‘Evil Dead’ from DEATH’s debut album to Chuck Schuldiner and Quorthon, looking forward to seeing them in Valhalla. The last time I wrote a review of UNLEASHED at Wacken a couple of years ago it was for a German mainstream Metal (?) print mag. That review definitely was a positive one as well but back then the editors had to add stupid shit like: “Nevertheless we (which wrongly included me) think that UNLEASHED are outdated”. Not that I’d fear Voices-Frank would do something like that, especially not with UNLEASHED, but please note: this band still rocks! Catch ‘em live on tour by the end of the year! (rc)
I know that Frank may feel the urge to never let me write a single word for VOICES once again, but my opinion on UNLEASHED is definitely quite contrary! I have only seen two songs and still found those so boring that I couldn’t stand it no more! I mean, I have never been a fan of UNLEASHED that much anyway, but I personally think that the UNLEASHED-reunion is as much useless as the reunion of DESTRUCTION and 90% of all other reunions. Yes, I think one could say that in my opinion the band IS outdated. I never thought that I would share the same opinion with the crappy mag Ramon once did write for. I rather would have preferred to watch DEICIDE since I have never seen them before, and UNLEASHED were no substitute in my opinion.  (nh) (DEICIDE were good on their last tour, yeah, but I really don’t understand why some people don’t like UNLEASHED. Among the old Swedes, they’re pretty much my faves: most of their songs absolutely catch me and their stage presence even reminds me of MOTÖRHEAD. Whatever. Nhashi, in case Frank sacks you, you can always start writing for that lousy mag I used to write for: with the opinion of yours they might gladly take you. May your first interview be PAPA ROACH, harrharr – rc)
As my headache wasn’t gone I didn’t watch ANTHRAX as I had seen them several times lately and I think the line-up change on the bass wasn’t the band’s most brilliant idea ever, especially live. Well, one of the few bass players who can replace Frank Bello is definitely band whore Joey Vera (FATES WARNING, ARMORED SAINT, etc.) and he probably did a solid job once again. The set list at least was excellent: ‘Caught In A Mosh’, ‘Got The Time’, ‘NFL’ or ‘Indians’ as well as some new material I only know from the recent concerts. Listening to ANTHRAX in the V:ery I:mpotent P.athetics area, Black Metal expert Nhashi surprised me: didn’t recognize SAXON when at the soundcheck but knew that ‘Antisocial’ originally was performed by French TRUST. Respect, man. (I certainly had my lesson in Metal history, I didn’t start with “A Blaze …”, though I am still glad being introduced to old heroes I didn’t have the luck to witness in the early 80s due to my age. Like with SATAN on the way to Wacken. – nh) (Festival preparation rocks! - rc)
Then I took a glance at the Dutch AFTER FOREVER because they always get great live reviews. Unfortunately their rather sweet Metal got on my nerves pretty quick. Still, the cover of MAIDEN’s ‘The Evil That Men Do’ (if I remember correctly) plus Tarja (NIGHTWISH)-soundalike and Corpsegrinder-bangalike singer Floor Jansen left a positive impression after all. A propós Corpsegrinder: CANNIBAL CORPSE’s lineup change didn’t seem to change very much – at least on stage: Jeremy Turner (ex-ORIGIN) doesn’t move much more than Jack “the statue” Owen but surely knows how to play the songs. No ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ in Germany of course – pretty much business as usual.
Among thousands of other fans, NEVERMORE’s Warrel Dane loved the CANNIBAL gig and even jokingly announced playing ‘HSF’ but chickened out in order not to have to go to jail. I doubt he’d have to but it would probably become expensive for the band playing a banned song. I bet the German censors would never recognize the song (especially because they wouldn’t go to Wacken anyway) but probably the press would be so excited they couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Anyway, I didn’t pay much attention to NEVERMORE as the sound was utterly bad and the band doesn’t play SANCTUARY classics any more. A solid gig. Nothing more, nothing less.
Did anybody watch HYPOCRISY? Okay, I guess so but I didn’t. The sun and the new CD made me keep the distance.
Up next were SAXON celebrating their 25^th anniversary (next DVD therefore coming soon) at the 15^th W-O-A. Actually, the band had only changed their name into SAXON in August 1979. What can I say? Two hours packed with classic hits nonstop: ‘Wheels Of Steel’, ‘747’, ‘Dallas 1 p.m.’ and so on. Of course there were boring solos and the countless special guests like Jörg Michael, Chris Caffery, Schmier, etc. stole precious time for more songs but SAXON were definitely the band that handled their situation in Wacken best. They truly have experience with big audiences. I guess I was “dancing” again and could have left for my tent after the show with a smile on my face. Of course I stayed for SATYRICON and NOCTURNO CULTO of DARKTHRONE, together with ten thousands of Black Metal fans – among them DEATH ANGEL singer Mark Osegueda and Voices writer Nhashi. And although Nocturno Culto seemed a little stiff in front of such a crowd without too much live experience over the last couple of years, his magic took possession of ten thousands of his sheep… (rc)
Well, I had mixed feelings about the appearance of SATYRICON and NOCTURNO CULTO / DARKTHRONE at Wacken, especially since I was told that he wore baggy-pants during the gig in Oslo in 2003. Probably 80% of people visiting Wacken have no clue what DARKTHRONE is about and certainly Wacken is no underground event any longer, there is no need to discuss such things. So, bearing in mind these facts, both acts did extraordinarily well. And this certainly was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, because I really do doubt that we will ever come as close to DARKTHRONE on stage as with this gig. One should not forget that Satyr as an example was part of DARKTHRONE’s last live-line-up in 1996 when they performed with DISSECTION in Oslo. SATYRICON started with the intro from “Dark Medieval Times”, followed by ‘Walk The Paths Of Sorrow’ and ‘Night Of The Triumphator’. The sound was really close to the “Dark Medieval …” - phase then, meaning a rather omnipresent keyboard which however fitted perfectly. With ‘Angstridden’ the first “Volcano” - song popped up, and with four songs in-between (luckily only one song from the crappy Bla$t-era album, but unfortunately not the “Volcano” - titlesong) , the “The Shadowthrone” - classic ‘Hvite Krists Dod’ finished the Satyricon-show and the band left. Minutes of silence. There it was: “Agathos …… Deimon …..”, it still gives me the creeps while I am typing this. The SATYRICON-line-up re-appeared through the fog, Satyr himself played guitar now, and then NOCTURNO CULTO entered the stage. “This is … 'A Blaze In The Northern Sky'!” Consequently, the first song was ‘Kathaarian Life Code’, followed by the “Panzerfaust” - classic ‘The Hordes Of Nebula’, ‘Under A Funeral Moon’, “Transilvanian Hunger’. Finished. The band disappeared. It was so unbelievably quick – although the set lasted about 30 minutes of course – that it seemed that as soon as the band arrived they left the stage again. Like a dream. NOCTURNO CULTO has certainly gained weight over the years, but he still just needed to be on stage to impress. And his voice is to be recognized within thousands of others. All my objections were vanished. Everything. I just stood and watched. Amazed. This was as good as DARKTHRONE could get under these circumstances. Impressive, cold, merciless. Razor-sharp. A fist in the face of god, as the Nocturno Culto-merchandise told everyone who wanted to know. Certainly this was still not the end, as the masses – of which I still think did not understand this at all – shouted for an encore. And the encore came. Obviously one of the all-time classics of Norwegian Black Metal was still to come as it had not turned up in the regular SATYRICON-set: ‘Mother North’ With Nocturno Culto on guitars. “For the first time since our tour in 1996”, as Satyr proudly exclaimed. The last raging storm. And then there was silence. As I have said before, this was so unbelievably impressive. I really do hope that bootlegs of this gig exist in one way or another. Anyone knowing of the existence or owning a tape or whatever should feel free to contact me. As for next year’s Wacken, I still would like to see BEHERIT as the next headliner since BATHORY is impossible now. But we shall not waste too many words about Wacken 2005. SATYRICON / DARKTHRONE were a very worthy headliner 2004, and my personal highlight. (nh)

www.wacken.com

Setlist SATYRICON / DARKTHRONE:

Walk The Paths Of Sorrow
The Night Of The Triumphator
Angstridden
Filthgrinder
Fuel For Hatred
Forhekset
Repined Bastard Nation
Hvite Krists Død

Kathaarian Life Code
The Hordes of Nebula
Transilvanian Hunger
Under A Funeral Moon

Mother North

Festival report: Ramon Claassen (rc) / Nhashi (nh)
all pics: Ramon Claassen

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