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It's August the first, Thursday, 6 clock in the morning. My alarm-clock kills the silence and I jump out of my bed : I am ready for a new Wacken weekend, THE festival of the summer. My plane leaves Geneva at 0900 and we are supposed to arrive at 10h30, Hamburg time. At this stage, this is the "bad" news of the weekend, I must take a plane. Anyway … We land at Hamburg on schedule and take delivery of our rented car
in no time, thanks to our pre-Internet reservation. We arrive at the
hotel (situated at 30 kilometers from Wacken) just before lunch time
and our rooms are really fantastic considering we paid only 49 euro
per night. Last year, we were camping at the festival - I am sure you
still remember Chris' review - and I swear at that time I will never
do it again. I am too old for this - my name isn't Danny after all ?.
Well, this is the main reason we are "camping" this year at
the hotel. Considering the announced weather on Yahoo, we are more than
happy to have chosen the hotel facility. At this time, I am far from
knowing that a storm is about to strike the North of Germany. I will
come back to the water later on. Before taking delivery of our backstage
passes, we decide with my friend to go to the famous Hellion Records
CD-store at Itzehoe to buy some CDs. Rarities, very good prices and
a large choice of shirts !!! I will finally buy more than 20 CDs for
a matter of 250 euros :)). Pfff, huge start for my wallet. |
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My heartbeat takes a rush at the Wacken's highway exit.
We leave the highway and a few meters later two police cars are waiting
for us. In fact, the police decided to control the numbers of visitors
this year and only people carrying their ticket will be allowed to pass
the police check point - the policeman never asked us to show our tickets.
The number of cars in front of us is impressive considering it is 15h00
and I am wondering if we will arrive on time to see the opening act,
Messiah's Kiss. Last year, we were also trapped at this point
and we took more than two hours to enter in the festival area. This
year, we "fly" directly via the backstage road.
We receive our backstage pass after 30 minutes of patience. The organization
for the press is really impressive. We enter in the arena in no time
as we parked our car in the backstage parking, situated at 2 minutes
from the entry. As the show stars, I must admit that so far, this is
my best ever arrival at Wacken (hotel, backstage pass, bracelets, parking).
Something tells me its gonna be my best ever Wacken festival. Let's
just hope that the weather will not kill this wonderful rising feeling.
We knew before leaving Switzerland that the weather will be pretty bad,
at least for the first two days, but this year the weather has decided
to play with the metalheads and Wacken's organizers. The show of Messiah's
Kiss (opener) was under the sun … logical considering we are
in August !? Well, the time to think about the bloody weather and Kotipelto
sees the storm falling on his head. The lights-show of the two main
stages - Black & True metal - are "dancing", both stages
directly hit by the stormy wind and the lights-show gives the impression
to fall at anytime. At this moment, we are far to know that the storm
will hit hardly Hamburg's streets, 40 kilometers ahead of the festival.
If the storm had chosen Wacken on that Thursday, the festival would
have been immediately stopped. Imagine 30'000 metalheads obliged to
return home due to a tempest in the middle of summer :( The rain will
fall hard all the day, but the worst of the storm is falling in Hamburg,
thanks God ! |
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Blaze and Doro will
somehow be the real opener of this Night To Remember. Blaze is
perfect on stage, running and "shooting" like never before.
The musicians are really united around Blaze. Nice show. There is no doubt
Blaze has found its path. Doro arrives in "conquered land".
She is jumping all over the scene, shouting, running, singing perfectly
at the same time and she is acting like a kid with a new toy. There is
no doubt Doro is happy to be here. Her band seems behind, leaving her
"alone" on the stage as the lady captures the audience. At the
end, the performance of Doro will be one of the best of the festival.
The woman is back and this lady rules :)
The rain continue to fall on our heads, so we decide to take a pause at the backstage bar ahead of Rose Tattoo's show. The rain falls pretty hard since 18h00 and we pray the festival area will not become a swimming pool. Rose Tattoo, without Pete Wells on guitar, mixing old & new songs, will deliver a very honest show considering the mess that is slowly but surely taking place thanks to the rain : car trapped in the parking, swimming pool camping area, strong wind and cold air (12 degrees !!!) etc, etc, etc. Rose Tattoo will be in fact the warm wind of this terrible weather condition. Can you believe that the police ordered at some stage to stop the festival ! We will knew it only a few days after the festival. Congratulation to the guy(s) who took the risk to continue :) Like Ari Vatanen - the famous car-rally pilot - my friend Paolo drives us outside the swimming pool parking and I made the sign of the cross at some stage when our Ford K passed inside the slime. I though to myself that the car will be prisoner here, like it was the case in front of us (Renault Megane) diving in the slime. Holy shit, we have reserved an hotel and we gonna stay in the car if my friend does not take us away from this "slimy" trap. The Ford K respond perfectly to the "gas" and Paolo's driving … so we were lucky enough to rejoin our hotel. As we arrive in front of the door, I (we) realized we forgot the key of the entry. We are obliged to wake up the charming lady …. which almost kill us with her wonderful eyes. "Don't ever forget your 'schlussel' (keys) !!!" she shouted ... and we all went to bed ! |
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The next morning (Friday), the weather is simply …. as awful as the night before. Rain, rain, rain !!! I am looking at my friend while eating the breakfast and I said to him "Shit, this gonna be my worst Wacken if the weather continues that way! Shall we take an umbrella ? Shall we buy rain-boots ?". The more I question myself, the more it rains. Yahoo's weather prediction was more optimistic from Friday's evening, so we decide to trust the prediction :) We arrive at the festival at 12h45 for Iron Savior. This time we park the car outside the backstage parking. The whole festival still dives in the slime, but the organizers are rushing from everywhere with straw in order to "contain" the slim. What a mess ? After 10 minutes, my shows are full of slime and this will be definitely my worst Wacken festival :( Again, at the exact minute when I was asking myself what the hell I am doing here, the sun appears. Yes the sun, the non-expected sun was hitting Wacken again. Thanks God ! The air is warm again, the beers flow again and the festival seems safe. Let's party ! Iron Savior will have all the possible problems with their sound
and I suppose that the night has been quite terrible for the stage (rain)
and for the security trying to safe as much as they can the festival
area. As we are watching the show - Piet was laughing on stage considering
all the problems he had with his guitar - the organizers are doing their
best by unrolling straw everywhere to pump the slime. After hours of
rush, they will succeed. The whole arena is now safe, full of straw
and the slime will be just a bad "souvenir". Two thumbs up
for all these "anonymous" guys who run right, left and back
and saved the whole Wacken's arena that day. Fantastic great job guys
!!! |
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Wolf, the Scandinavian Iron
Maiden's clone, will deliver a nice performance on the Party Stage, ahead
of the very expected show of Nocturnal Rites. Wolf will
have a much better sound compare to Nocturnal Rites.
I don't know what happen with the sound check for Nocturnal Rites, but one guitar wasn't working and unfortunately the first three songs will be almost unrecognizable due to this very poor sound - what the hell is making the guy at the sound-table :( ... he fall asleep or what ? The guy will somehow get on my nerves the whole show. That was the first time I add the chance to see one of my favorite bands live and it turns to be a complete mess (sound only). The show is cool and the new singer is a very good front-man. Jonny Lindquist's vocal confirms Nocturnal Rites has done the right singer choice. Let's hope next time the sound will be at the "rendezvous". Angra proves on this Friday their strong form on the True metal stage. The singer tear off the blue sky and the Brazilian metal show is one of their best I have seen. Andre Matos seems very far behind and the Brazilians will execute a wonderful "drums-show", playing with the crowd. Nice, very nice. Pretty Maids follows Angra. As usual, Pretty Maids executes one classic after another, but there is absolutely no doubt Pretty Maids is making a wrong choice on stage : this band desperately needs another guitar player, because this "high-pitched" keyboard is killing their original heavy metal sound. The voice of Ronnie Atkins is still a one of the best around, but the guitar which sounds so heavy on studio, sounds here very "cheap". What a shame ! We will not really have the time to claim on Pretty Maids, because
the best performance of the week-end is about to take place : Savatage.
Wooaaww what a sound, what a f**king crystal sound ! Except Blind
Guardian nobody else will do better. The show, the set-list - all
classics - the keyboard of Oliva, the vocalist, Jeff Walters (from Annihilator)
as guest-guitarist, everything is perfect and when Gutter Ballet
hits Wacken, this is 30'000 mouths wide open who are all asking themselves
: Simply the best show so far. |
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Destruction, playing on the Black metal stage, will almost explode Wacken. This reunion is one of the best these years and you can read on the face of the musicians their happiness to be on stage. Great sound, hot show and except the last song - the guitar will "die" on stage - the German crowd is proud of their thrasher. Dickinson plays just after the German thrash metal band and has been a huge deception. I really like Dickinson's songs and he is a wonderful front-man, no doubt about it. But on this particular day Bruce plays the star, the bad mood star. First, he become totally crazy in front of the cameraman filming him on stage. I (we) will never really know what happened to Bruce … but let's say Bruce exploded one of his fuse on stage. He will order to stop immediately the filming of the show and believe me the way he asked it was very impolite (Wacken's contract was not stipulating they could film Mr. Bruce). At the end, Bruce delivered a "mild" show and response precisely to our pre-show worries "Can Bruce be a solid headliner for Wacken ?" : the answer is 'No'… because expect a few good moments - Iron Maiden's songs to be precise - the show was boring, Buce was boring. Sorry man, but that's the reality :( Why the hell Savatage … We decide to have a rest at the backstage bar and find again the good
mood with some beers. Lots of musician are talking to the media. Between
two beers, we got the time to take a picture with Peavy (Rage),
shake the hand of Mike Teranna (Rage's drummer), listening to
Mike (Destruction, guitar) and so on … We were supposed
to stay until Warlord's show scheduled at 02h00, but our over-tired
bodies drive us back to the hotel for a restful night. |
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The day after start for us only at 13h15, with the arrival of Thunderstone (Party stage). Like it was the case for Nocturnal Rites, the sound is far to be good and the biggest problem of that stage will become evident that day : this stage is near the Black stage and you hear two bands at the same time. Irritating ! The show will be however good enough. Shakra follows and this was the first time I could see (and hear) the new singer. Great show from our Swiss patriots! Following this live, I have no doubt the band has found the right singer - Shakra's original vocalist is ill and has been obliged to leave the band. Next on schedule is Falconer, but I am thirsty and I need something to drink : Eh! the sun is back and it's hot in the shade :) As I am walking to the backstage bar ... guess what ? I fall on the nose of Hansi Kürch (Blind Guardian's vocalist) who was going to the "signing table". My reflex immediately hold out a pen and I kindly ask him to sign my metalreviews.com shirt. He will sign my shirt with a large smile on his face following my "best ever possible show for tonight". As Hansi leaves the place and goes to the "signing table", time restarts again. What a strange feeling ! The whole scene was may be 10 seconds long and I felt the time stopped forever. Whaaaoww, I talk to one of my favorite vocalist and I have his autograph on my shirt. Beer please, I need to celebrate … :) |
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As I come back from my "Blind Guardian's dreams", Sinergy is ready to start at the Party stage. The planning of that stage will be again jeopardized that day : with the cancellation of Angel Dust's show (due to split), I knew I have to choose between Sinergy & Immortal. I decide to see the beginning of Sinergy and finish with Immortal. In fact, I will leave Sinergy as soon as lady Kimberly will enter the scene. What an ego, what a bad attitude against the crowd - she will even spit on people. Alexi & Kimberli's performance send me immediately to the Black stage (thanks again) … coinciding exactly with the first notes of Immortal. I run to the Black metal stage in 60 seconds. The Norwegian legend is here on stage. What a show, what a sound, what a pleasure to see this black metal band. I consider Immortal's show as the best extreme metal performance this year. This is what I call black metal. Abbath is a big Kiss fan (like me) and as the show goes on, one classic after another, I am drawing a parallel between Kiss and Immortal. Cannibal Corpse will play later that day, but as far as I am concerned, Immortal should have played later that night. I am sure it would have been magical to see Immortal by night, with the same lights-show Children Of Bodom used the night before. Of course, Cannibal Corpse is a "logical" headliner for the Black Stage, but Immortal deserved a better "timing". Anyway, after this wonderful live and considering the response of the crowd, I am sure next time Immortal comes back to Wacken, they will play at night. |
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We found an hour for the Metal Markt - the world's biggest heavy metal market - in another words, I found a way to lose again 200 euro in Cds. Next band for us will be Dream Evil. I like so much their album (Dragonslayer) that I can't really miss their live show. Even though I am obliged to choose with other great bands (Exodus & Hypocrisy), the party going on at the Wet Stage is fantastic. Dream Evil will play the whole record and it is unbelievable to see how the public already knows Dream Evil's songs by heart. Crystal clear sound, powerful and true metal as pure steel. This is the only show we followed at the Wet-Stage, which is definitely
too small for the bands (scene) and for the crowd (almost no air). |
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Edguy is next on the list. I have seen Edguy many many times and believe me this has been their best performance I ever seen. The crowd is totally bewitched by Tobias' performance. Pyrotechnic, lights-show, sound … everything elevates Edguy as a future monster of rock. The vocals of Tobias Sammet are better than ever and this time the band plays at 19h00, which mean in front of 30'000 metalheads. |
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Congratulation for this fantastic heavy/speed metal show. Of course, some people in the crowd dislike the acting of the kids on stage, but remember Def Leppard twenty years ago, there were exactly the same. Edguy is growing and I am sure this little boy will be the next big thing in Germany - actually he is already the big thing in Germany. At least so far Tobias has made no error with his carrier. Who knows one day, Edguy might become the headliner of the weekend ... |
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After a painful hour listening
to Cannibal Corpse - sorry, that's definitely not my cup of tea
- Blind Guardian arrives to rescue my ears. The light goes off,
two dragons flags cover the left and the right part of the scene and the
show starts. The first slam will be the sound: nobody else will do better.
There is not a single Blind Guardian's hit within the set-list that is
not sing at the same time by the whole audience (more than 30'000 metalheads).
While the crowd sings Welcome To Dying, Nightfall, Mirror Mirror or
Into The Storm, all my shaggy were erected like nails. The performance
of Hansi cannot be described, nor can the show. You had to be there to
feel it, to hear it, to believe it, to live it. The end of the scene was
recovered by a white "shroud" and the lights-show was the winner
of that night. This will be the best lights-show of the festival. The
bands decided to play two hours - the longest show for an headliner here
in Wacken - and recorded live this performance for a future DVD. Virgin
record knows that Blind Guardian is the best metal band these days and
for those of you who were not able to see that show, you will understand
my impression once this DVD will hit your TV screens. Curtains !
The performance of Kreator and U.D.O. follows Blind Guardian. A difficult task, an impossible mission somehow. Kreator will deliver a powerful show, even though the crowd has been atomized by Cannibal Corpse and Blind Guardian shows and is having a resting time at the bars ... or down the hill. The set-list of U.D.O turn to be tasteless. Instead of choosing unknown U.D.O songs, I would have dipped more in Accept discography, considering the imp was playing live in Germany, at home. The new songs are not totally assimilated by the crowd, which was only responding to Balls to The Walls, Fast As A Shark or Metal Heart. This will be our last show. We go back to our hotel for another restful nigh : our brain is full of images, full of souvenirs that will stay in our heart until next year. Wacken is something you have to live on time in your life if you claim to be a metal fan. This is the Mecum … the Metal Mecum. Don't let the chance pass your way, you have to feel it once in your life. Wacken is heaven on earth. Even though the organizer had a bad time this year with the weather, even though your back will be totally destroyed after three painful days, even though the organization in the camping seems not perfect yet (if not chaotic), only the good souvenirs remains today alive and tattooed in my memory. This is the ultimate experience to live for any metalhead on this planet. Don't miss it for nothing !!! |
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