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Events and Reports - Wacken Open Air 2007 - Tommy´s Festival Report
This year my Wacken report is going to be kept to the point. Steen and I saw pretty much the same shows and also agreed to a large extent in the evaluation (Read Steen's report), anyway here goes a glimpse back at another entertaining Metal Mecca.
After a slice of Metal warm-up on Wednesday, Steen and I arrived at Wacken in the afternoon on Thursday, quickly settling in at the press area we took it easy with a drink...Saxon were still many hours away.
Saxon
5 hours, additional rounds of cola, Beam and Daniels later I found my self at the bar in front of the stage with Saxon laying down a solid groove on stage.
Somehow this wasn't as phenomenal as the other times I saw the band here, the classic songs where there with some cool additions (Witchfinder General rocked big time) and the band played tightly...but the spontaneity and electric nerve was not burning with full force.
With 747 (Strangers in the Night) Tobias Sammet joined in for an entertaining version and I also remember a thrilling executing of Dogs Of War so all in all a decent show.
I had a hard time finding Steen, Nina and Mads afterwards (or was it the other way round?)...When we finally meet up we decided to pay a visit to the Metal Disco and continue the Whisky theme. Good company, cold drinks and classic Metal tracks blasted through some competent speakers, not bad at all.
Five hours later neither my legs or my German language skills were functioning quite right, which one of the Wacken guards got to experience...until he had enough and let me pass on my alternative route home towards the tent.
Wacken Open Air had hereby been consecrated.
Friday
The sun was shining bright early Friday morning, Steen not looking too marked by the adventures of the night before decided to hit the bottles right away resulting in a highly entertaining and spectacular gesture to some Dutch people later on ...weird how they decided to keep a distance from that moment.
Communic
First band up were Progressive Power Metal trio Communic.
Through some very trashy rhythm passages they managed to keep touch with the headbanging audience.
Under A Luminous Sky came off forcefully with a massive guitar attack and the band really kept things together throughout the show displaying a firm execution of some highly technical music.
A more lively stage presence wouldn't have hurt but a steady start to the day.
One of the great things about Wacken is the different kind of "steak im brot" accompanied by cold Smirnoff Ice and Whisky and coke, that's just tradition and the backstage area offers a nice range of temptations between the shows.
Grave Digger
Steen and I met up with Nina and Mads before Grave Digger, always attracting a large audience.
The show was a two-sided experience. The new songs worked out pretty well live, especially Silent Revolution with its hymn-like vibe. It was really cool to hear the ultra heavy The Grave Dancer and a groovy version of Last Supper and with Rebellion they simply can't go wrong.
On the other hand they had problems coordinating Knights Of The Cross and I didn't sense that the band were really on fire today, especially the "frontman role" by Chris was static and untimely.
Problems with a crappy sound didn't help either, but still a fairly good performance.
Blind Guardian
Having never seen Guardian before I was really looking forward to this next gig, but something went wrong from the start.
Letting Blind Guardian start their show 10-15 minutes before schedule is unforgivable and unrespectable. I missed the beginning and so did a lot of other fans, what the hell happened here?
What was left of Born In A Mourning Hall came off pretty convincingly and the band continued playing a range of personal favourites, including The Script For My Requiem, Traveller In Time, Punishment Divine and a surprisingly entertaining version of This Will Never End from their newest and quite disappointing release.
Credit goes to lead guitarist André Olbrich for delivering a phenomenal performance. Unfortunately Hansi's high-toned voice sounded rusty but his "intense style" convincing as always. On another note he really needs to take the communication with the audience serious, first off try and say something that makes sense, secondly try and get some positive vibes going and thirdly, SPEAK ENGLISH.
One of the festival highlights were Lord Of The Rings, perfected through live fires on stage, a tight execution with room for detail and a majestic all-embracing mood.
Mirror Mirror ended the show with extreme vigour.
Iced Earth
Iced Earth had been given a late spot and my legs where beginning to feel pretty busted but I was looking forward to seeing Tim Owens handle the vocals on the classic songs from one of my favourite bands.
Burning Times opened the set with a solid groove and Owens displaying impressive range and depth.
My guess is that the band had expected a more vivid audience, not that people wasn't involved but it had been a long day in the sun for many fans.
The fierce tempo of Violate provided an energy boost and the band continued with a handful of old classic, including Stormrider with Schaffer laying down the raw vocals while his machine gun riffs blasting from the stage, he still impresses me with his rhythm skills.
New song Charge To Keep sounded promising and very catchy while My Own Savoir was a clear highlight, everything clicked here and the whole band played extremely intensely.
The Something Wicked trilogy captured most of the magic of the album version, Owens again managing to transform the vocals into his own style without damaging the piece. Barlow and Owens are two very different singers and even though I love the original versions, I find a lot of pleasure in the "new" ones too.
Regretfully the band ended 10 minutes early and with the track Iced Earth, a neat song but not among their best and tonight it also appeared a bit pale, so this was not quite the finale I had hoped for.
There is still place for a tighter sound and I also felt that the gap between what happened on stage and in the audience could have been smaller but this is still a fantastic live band.
Saturday
Saturday morning felt better than on Friday, so after a round of Metal hits on Steens portable stereo we decided it was time for some serious shopping.
When talking about traditions at Wacken, visiting the Metal Markt and buying a substantial pile of new CD's is another "must do thing", you can find a lot of great stuff here and this year things got a bit out of hand.
I personally hadn't much I needed to see on the final day, so there was plenty of time to hang around and enjoy a few drinks.
Stratovarius
In the afternoon Finnish veterans Stratovarius had been handed an hour to stir things up, and let's just say they seized that opportunity.
A catchy dose of Hunting High And Low, a vivid take on Speed Of Light and things were off to an intense start.
Timo Tolkki and Jens had numerous guitar/key in-fights adding lots of spice to the show while Timo Kotipelto shined both vocally and as a frontman, there is a lot of other singers at this year's Wacken that should take a look at his energetic style.
The new song Last Night On Earth had a cool hypnotic key melody and it was pretty daring to play Visions with such a short set...a great atmospheric version here.
Distant Skies never really got to fly but closing with Black Diamond was a sure winner.
The crowd really enjoyed this performance and gave a lot back the other way.
Impressive!
Rage
Knowing that Rage would bring the Lingua Mortis Orchestra with them, this concert had top priority and let me say that this was the most interesting, consistent and best show I witnessed this year at Wacken.
Peavy sang with dedication, strength and a convincing rawness, Smolski gave guitar playing new meaning with his timely extravagance and new drummer André Hilgers laid down a fierce beat.
On top of that the orchestra enhanced the sound with a thick wall of bombast but also sophisticated moments of tenderness. This was truly a unique show and songs like From Cradle To The Grave and Alive But Dead shined bright.
I was deeply impressed by the Suite Lingua Mortis found on their new disc, heavy, melodic and compact.
With Turn The Page a personal favourite of mine was delivered with high emotional credibility and some nice crowd participation.
After the orchestra had left the stage, the band came back on and with Refuge they blasted everything completely away...pure force and a cool way of ending things.
Spellbinding!
Later on I saw Turisas play an impressive and bombastic gig in a smoking hot Headbangers Ballroom tent and in the evening Kai Hansen joined Stormwarrior to sing a range of old Helloween tracks, the band played tight and Kai screamed like a Metal God, why isn't he singing like that with Gamma Ray...anyway this was a cool retro moment.
With Iron Maiden, Avantasia and Sonata Arctica already conformed for next year things are already looking promising...with a firmer grip on the sound problems and a long time overdue dose of Hard Rock and Progressive Metal it could be brilliant.
| Click pictures for a bigger version
Communic
Communic
Communic
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
All pictures taken by Steen | Written by Tommy
Monday, September 10, 2007 |
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