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Events and Reports - Wacken Open Air 2003 - Nina´s Wacken report
Well, the time had come to visit the mekka of Metal, beer and the wild life in general again, and I was ecstatic! We left Denmark around 10 o'clock in the morning in big busses heading for the event of the year, The Wacken Open Air festival!
Thursday 07/31/03
After meeting up with the other guys in the RevelationZ camp, it was time to pick up my backstage pass. To do that, I had to walk a long way to the city center. Well, I could live with that, but I bought some beers in town and was lucky enough to get a ride back to one of the entrances to the festival ground but there I was told that I couldn't enter that way, so I had to walk all the way around the festival area in the streets! This took about an hour and caused me to miss Annihilator!
Well, my first musical experience was Running Wild, though I didn't really experience it fully as I was busy discussing music with my fellow RevelationZ staff member, Anders. 38000 people were present at the gig so it's no wonder I chose to stay a good deal away from the stage. From what I could see Running Wild did put on a great show and when they played "Under Jolly Roger" I found myself banging my head and singing along!
Friday 08/01/03
The Crown is one of the bands I just can't help but really like despite their lyrical concepts which I admit are not exactly up my alley. But the Thrashy, raging version of Death Metal has always been something I appreciate a lot! Having never seen this act before, I was up early this morning to witness their show. Well, the experience turned out to be a medium quality one. First of all the sound was so bad, especially the very fast drums were difficult to get a structured impression of. It surely lowered the listening experience! The band played fine but still something was lacking, though I can't really put my finger on what. Maybe it was the lack of energy among fans (at least where I stood), maybe it was the daylight and early time.! Never the less I didn't see the concert to end, but when I stood at the waterpost and heard the intro to "Executioner - Slayer Of The Light" I must admit I regretted my decision! This song rocks! Overall, from what I saw and heard the concert wasn't bad but not totally fantastic either!
The audience at Freedom Call
The second band I was to witness was Freedom Call who belong in the top of my favorite bands, so naturally I was looking forward to seeing this outstanding act live for the 9th time! Their ultra melodic style and positive feeling in the music have always had a special place in my heart, and live they normally rule! Today was no exception!! Right from the first note, they spellbound the audience and gave all they could give! Last time I saw them (at the Blind Guardian Open Air) , singer Chris Bay had a few problems reaching the high notes, but this time he did perfectly! The band worked together in a very tight way and all members had big smiles on their faces during the show and looked like they really loved playing! The audience was also very active and alive! Highlights were "Ages of Power", "The Quest", "Freedom Call" and "Warriors" where Chris Bay, Ilker Ersin and Cederic Dupond did a little choir in the beginning without music! Thrilling! I would have liked to hear some more songs from the debut album and a few lesser from the latest "Eternity" release but no complaining, this concert was a highlight, for sure and a reminder of why I love this band so much!
Next up on my schedule were Swedish Thrash heroes Raise Hell, who played at the Wet Stage! I was very exited to see this band perform as they just got a new singer, Jimmy Fjällendahl, and this was the first time I should see if he could live up to the challenge. From the first moment it was clear that he could! He sounds pretty similar to Jonas Nilsson, which is a good thing and I think he did an outstanding job!
He also had the nessesary charisma and personality to put on a great performance and create a good contact to the audience! Raise Hell played a great set of songs including "Dance With The Devil", "Not Dead Yet", "Nightwatcher" and my personal highlight, "Death Race"! The atmosphere was great and I couldn't help but bang my head through the entire show! Their groovy, energetic version of Thrash came across great in a live situation, thanks to a musically fit band and this was another highlight of the festival!
Later, Gamma Ray entered the True Metal stage and you never know what to expect when you are to see this band. I've seen them do fantastic gigs and some..well, not so fantastic ones too! The concert started out problematic due to some technical problems, but it was fixed pretty quickly and I was swept away by the powerful sound of these Power Metal gods! Dan Zimermann is a wizard behind a drum kit and the very personal voice and great guitar playing of Kai Hansen, along with the heavy riffing of Dirk Schlächter and Henjo Richter is a great combination!
After last year's "Skeletons In The Closet" tour, where the concept was to play some songs that were not hits or didn't get played very often live, the band chose to follow this direction and gave us some special treats!
Ralf Scheepers (ex-Gamma Ray, now in Primal Fear) made a short apperance on stage and sang a few lines in "The Silence", but I was wondering why they didn't do a whole song together with him? He's one of my favorite singers so I wish he'd done just one more, full song with Gamma Ray! Well, the concert was surely a treat for any fan!
Gamma Ray
After darkness had fallen over the festival ground, In Flames entered the Black Metal stage to deliver their at the same time melodic yet aggressive Metal to the masses.
I don't really know the new stuff from them but have been told it sounded very different and that seems to be true. It's hard to judge things you've never heard on record live, but I didn't really like it. The old stuff on the other hand sounded killer and In Flames had a very good live performance and lots of pyrotechnics and fireworks!
Last band of this day for me was Lordi. As we walked towards the party stage, I heard the sweet sound of Accept's "Midnight Mover" and got so exited I hit Steen with my spikes.ups! I was curious to see this band as they have a very outrageous image, dressed up as monsters in full costumes! After watching and listening for a little while I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I had heard Lordi's first single "Would You Love A Monsterman?" before, and after this gig I think my answer to that would be "no!". Well, I should have known what to expect musically; a pretty tame version of hard rock with songs mostly consisting of two riffs and a catchy chorus, being repeated endlessly. Hmm, seems like they spent too much time making the costumes to have the time to write songs..! I guess I went to this concert with bloodlust in my eyes, hoping to see some sort of great show...but what I got was five Eddie look a likes who barely moved around and certainly not had any entertaining features (where the fuck was that blood and guts?). Well, I suppose the music had its catchy moments but overall the concert was pretty tame!
After this strange experience it was time to party a little at the backstage bar though not much was going on. But, well, at this point of the day, it was just about drinking as much as possible and chat a little with other Metalheads! Late in the night, when Steen and I left the backstage area to go to our camp, the festival ground had been closed. We thought it wouldn't be a problem to get one of the guards to open two gates (we could even see the camping ground) but it was! We were told to take a long walk around the whole ground to be able to reach our camp and there was nothing we could do or say to change their minds! Well, we found an easier way, but we were pretty annoyed!
Saturday 08/02/03
In the morning Steen, Tajs and myself had a short meeting (very serious!) regarding our interview with Masterplan. A lot of ideas for questions were also brought up by the always helpful Tommy, such as "How many bottles of Woku can you consume during one Wacken week?" and "What's your favorite sun lolly?" (an ice cream with various flavors, that you freeze yourself in your freezer) When we finally ended up talking to Roland Grapow of Masterplan, I was so twisted in my mind I decided it was best that I just remained silent not to ruin the interview..!
After the Masterplan interview and a little drink, I went to see the last part of the Metallium concert which was about halfway finished. I only have their first record ("Millennium Metal - Chapter One") and find it to have a handful of really great Powerful songs but also a lot of fillers and the overall impression lacks variety! Well, live I think they lived up to what you can expect from a band like that, after all they are all experienced musicians and the show was filled with energy! For fans I believe it must have been very good, but the only song I remember banging my head to was the great "Free Forever"! At the end of the show the female singer from the band Weinhold came on stage and did some lead singing together with Henning Basse. She seemed very enthusiastic to be there and did an okay job.
Then it was time for something I had been looking forward to a lot: Masterplan! After their excellent debut album I've really come to love this band, who has a somewhat unique approach to Power Metal! As everyone know from their background in Helloween, Roland Grapow (guitars) and Uli Kusch (drums) are some outstanding musicians as well as songwriters and the rest of the band is just as awesome! Alex Mackenrott is a god behind the keyboard and also moves ecstaticly around stage when not playing, cheering up the audience and Jörn Lande is an amazing vocalist as well as a cool frontman! Not only is he technically a great singer, but the emotions and spirit he displays on stage as well as his charismatic stage performance is so cool! They played most of the songs from their selftitled debut where my favorites are "Spirit Never Die", "Crystal Night" and "Crawling From Hell" but all songs rocked! A concert to remember!
Well, I was thinking about seeing Rage next, but I decided to take a little time off from Power Metal and go see Ancient Rites, though I didn't really know this band, but somehow I was curious! This turned out to be a very wise choice, as they were great! Maybe it's also because it was refreshing to go see some (to me) completely new music, sometimes it's good to take a chance and luckily I was rewarded with some cool music!
The style is kind of Black Metallish with very fast and detailed drumming, but the keyboard and guitarwork had a nice amount of melody which made the overall sound pretty harmonic in my ears. A healthy dose of 80's inspiration completed the interesting mix! The vocals were pretty raw, but not the typical Black Metal snarling. I thought Ancient Rites did a great job and everyone in the Wet Stage tent went crazy and gave the band the support the deserved! A cool experience!
What can one say about Stratovarius? A lot of things, but one of them is that they always do very well live! I've seen them quite a few times and they have never played just halfway bad. So naturally I was looking forward to this gig and damn, they were good! Jens Johansson is one of the best musicians in this field and to see him play is always a pleasure! The set consisted mostly of the more speedy songs and to be honest this is my only small critisism. It could have been cool to have a little more variation, but then again Stratovarius is not the most diverse band in history, right? It was a cool gig displaying a very skilful band and lots of energy!
Stratovarius
I don't really know what to say about the concert of Slayer, eehh..I'm ashamed to say that I actually walked away from this concert before the end of it! I just had to do something else than seeing bands for a moment, so I heard the rest of the concert from the back of the festival place. They played the whole Reign In Blood album live - a treat for any fan! I like Slayer but they've never been among my fave bands for some reason.
Sonata Arctica
Last band at this years Wacken for me was the great Sonata Arctica!
The brutal sound of Vader playing at Black Metal stage a little further away mixed with the symphonic, harmonic tones of Sonata Arctica made this a strange experience..well, I had a wish about hearing both Sonata Arctica and Vader but not at the same time! In the quiet part of "Replica" I could hear the machinegun drums and brutal growl from Vader, and this actually made me laugh for some reason.
Otherwise the concert was cool and I think the people in front couldn't hear Vader.The new keyboarder is really good and fit the band well and as a live act the band have grown very much since the beginning! Sonata Arctica also have a good sense of rearraging some of the songs, so they sound a bit different in a live situation than on record. Excellent!
Sonata Arctica
This ended my year in Wacken, at least musically. It's a tradition for some of us not to sleep at all the last night at Wacken Open Air, because there's plenty of time for sleep at the bus home and because this feeling that the festival is over too soon calls for a desperate need to party till the very end! So we blasted up our Manowar records, got some beers and banged our heads! Never the less I broke my promise to myself and slept for a whole hour before going to the bus, tired but happy!
| You can click all pictures for a bigger version.
Running Wild
Freedom Call
Freedom Call
Freedom Call
Throwing some hair around at Freedom Call
Raise Hell
Raise Hell
Gamma Ray
Gamma Ray
Relaxing in the press tent
Back at the camp
Masterplan
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Slayer
Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica
All pictures taken by Steen, except pictures of Masterplan & Running Wild courtesy of Metaltix | Written by Nina
Sunday, August 17, 2003 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Widow (Anonymous) - Friday, May 21, 2004 | you need more fucking pictures of SLAYER!!!!
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| Comment by Morten (Anonymous) - Friday, May 21, 2004 | I did'nt know they fucked at WOA03, they totally sucked anyway...
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