review by - ~Vargscarr~:

Festival Review - WACKEN OPEN AIR 2001 - 3/4 August - Wacken (Hamburg, Germany) Wacken Open Air 2001: some bands in a field with a shitload of Germans. Metal.

FRIDAY

I was feeling pretty chewed up when we arrived at the festival site, having spent the previous night taking in the sights and smells of Hamburg's weapons/porn/terrifying sex paraphernalia shopping district; being sure to be polite to the hookers and dissuading my friend and fellow festival-goer Jez from trying to get his picture taken with them ("I'm serious, their pimps will take your ears...") so after checking in at the wristband hut I promptly went straight to the interview tent for a nap. After all, Deceased didn't sound particularly captivating - at least to my ears that had spent a solid day on a coach and had only lain in the tender embrace of sleep for a couple of hours on the way to the site that morning.

A tired spectator

Just because we're metal doesn't mean we can't be friends

I woke up refreshed and ready for Metal, so Carnal Forge were the first band on my list. Solid Death; with a hint of Thrash, but not so much that they could be called a true crossover. Unoriginal perhaps; but deeply satisfying - great sound and consistently good material. This year's crowd (throughout the entire festival it seemed) was very, very boring; and it was no challenge to fight my way into the small mosh pit where a handful of the faithful were slamming away - about the same number as you'd see if the band were playing a small club, which is very odd considering the size of the Wacken crowd. No matter, the band filled their 45 minutes without letting up; and left me thinking I should check them out on CD. So far, so good.

I should mention at this point the deeply shitty layout of the festival ground as compared to last year. Last year we had four stages - two vast main stages (pictured at left) and two smaller stages off on their left. The smaller stages featured, aptly, smaller bands; the Party Stage hosting old favourites who hadn't maintained their popularity so well as those still drawing the huge crowds; and the Wet stage which theoretically hosts 'new and up-coming bands giving them their first chance to play to a festival sized crowd'. This year, only the party stage was actually in the festival grounds alongside the duel main stages. To access the Wet stage, we actually had to leave the festival site and enter a pathetic little tent on the camp site; half of which was taken up by a bar. This effectively killed any chance of someone wandering in to see a band they hadn't heard of, since getting in and out of the festival site was a lengthy process involving a large security guard molesting you (the female security guards were saved for the female festival goers. This was frustrating.) After a queue/crush that lasted up to ten minutes. Fine if the bands playing in the shitty sounding Wet stage tent were unknowns who I wasn't going to give much thought to; but Arch Enemy (yes, Arch Enemy who have had four albums released to date were being counted as newcomers), Behemoth and Lost Horizon were all bands I wanted to see. Point is: if I was seeing a Wet stage band, it was going to be because I wanted to see them - no chance of any happy accidental discoveries this year.

I deliberately missed Lacuna Coil because I don't like them; wandering back to the main stage in time for Holy Moses; a band I'd never heard or heard of and who didn't impress me: Death Metal with a female vocalist making masculine noises and nothing much else. Unfortunately I wandered off before Doro appeared to perform guest vocals on a cover of 'Too Drunk To Fuck'; but I managed to catch up with her in the interview tent after she spoke with Rhapsody and played a track from their new EP for the first time in public (which incidentally was killer); so I wasn't bitter for long.

Napalm Death are one of the tiny handful of decent British Extreme Metal bands in existence; and they predictably ate their crowd alive - denim and leather and all. They may be a bunch of left-wing hippie-bitches; they may be a little too crusty for me on CD: a little too Punk and not enough Death especially on their early material; but live they slay pure and simple. Intense and brutal; no sound problems and their crowd was into it. In fact, with the exception of In Flames, I'd say Napalm got the biggest crowd reaction of the festival. Huge pit, elbows and hair flying every which way - and I was mightily impressed by a guy actually slam dancing whilst wearing chain mail for the entire set. That is the very essence of Metal (aside from the music obviously). I'm not well versed in Napalm's back catalogue, but they played a good selection of tracks from throughout their career; even fitting in two of the small handful of ND songs I know well and can admit to loving: 'Suffer The Children' and 'Breed to Breathe.'

Although I'd originally planned on seeing Behemoth in the Wet stage tent at this point; another English guy we met up with had recommended Sonata Arctica to Jez and me, and we decided to check them out after he mistook a Lost Horizon track being played in the interview tent for one of Sonata Arctica's songs. We were both glad we'd heeded his advice, since Sonata have to take the award for 'greatest discovery' of WOA 2001. I'd never so much as heard of them before; but they play outstanding Power Metal, and live can indeed be compared to those newly emerged greats of the genre Lost Horizon (I've yet to hear if they compare to Lost Horizon on CD. Maelstrom's Roberto says no, Jez says yes...). A disappointing sound suffered by the vast majority of bands on the Party stage meant they had to fight to put on a good show; but they triumphed over adversity with beautiful leaping solos, galloping rhythms; soaring vocals...everything good Power Metal needs; and obviously sound nothing new when expressed in print. Just trust me, they were killer. A Power Metal band has to be special to grab my interest; and having just been introduced to Lost Horizon a couple of months ago, it's a joy to hear another great relatively new POWER METAL band so soon.

At this point I want to point out the CD stalls had Nargaroth's Black Metal ist Kreig and Tsjuder's Kill For Satan. Both these albums are essential True Black Metal, and since the only bands WOA 2001 booked who even came close to approximating Black Metal were Dimmu Borgir, Dark Tranquillity and Behemoth (and I suppose Naglfar, who are worse than ugly people who sit opposite you on trains and try to engage you in conversation) I feel it important to endorse these albums. The connection to a WOA review may be dodgy at best and feeble at worst; but Kanwulf might sulk if I didn't show my allegiance at this most subtle of opportunities. For the sake of all that's painful and flayed to within an inch of its crawling existence, hear these bands.

I chose Mortician over Therion, which may have been a mistake, since the former played a brand of Horror Death Metal which was, though decent enough, deeply repetitive and often composed of songs clocking in at under a minute. Songs that are less then a minute long are a waste of my time, and are more detestable than those little spiral worms that live in dog shit and make you blind if you ingest them. The band would have been great if they'd just strung some tracks together into a three or four minute composition; but no. Just *Barked introduction - thrashthrashthrash - stop*. Infuriating. But they did have a better sound than a lot of Party stage bands - a much less tinny sounding guitar for one thing, although that could have been to do with my position in relation to the stage.

Helloween are far from being my favourite band in the Power Metal genre; but for their fans they delivered a powerful set. I have to admit that despite standing there for 75 minutes watching them I cannot recall anything other than my vague feeling of 'good if you're into it'; but this may be because of the hypnotic way the vocalist (left) moved on stage. Imagine watching fish in a tank - that satisfying, relaxing feeling was exactly what I got from watching the dude's head swish from one side to another. Like this blonde blur swimming across the stage in a sea occasionally punctuated by the first pyro of the evening (that I saw). Pyro's always fun. So to sum up, good swimming fishness and good pyro; and some music or whatever.

I hate Saxon. Saxon are the very essence of old man cheese Metal; NWOBHM Pop that should have died with the other 80s band-wagon jumpers. I have nothing good to say about them, but obviously the Germans lapped them up. At least they have guitars and real drums.

Dimmu Borgir were about the most disappointing band playing the festival. Killed by an appalling sound, especially for a headlining act, we could barely hear the vocals or guitars for the first four songs. Not that I was bothered, since I only really took a liking to the newest material; and after playing four old tracks at the start of the set that may as well have been a warm up; every song which followed was from the new album. I would have loathed this if I were a long time Borgir fan ("No Stormblast?"). Even when we could hear the guitar and vocals it was only at a tolerable level; and the crowd let the band down big time failing to sing the chorus of their Dee Snyder cover 'Burn In Hell'; one of the best tracks on Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia.. Ah well. Nicholas Barker was impressive as ever on the drums despite fucking up a couple of times; as did their keyboard player which had us shaking our heads in shame for a band who are supposed to be considerably more professional a live act than this. Every band has it's off-days; it's just a pity one of Dimmu Borgir's had to fall on a festival headlining gig.

SATURDAY

Up bright and early for Cryptopsy (right), whom everyone seems to be deeply enamoured with. I was expecting great things since so many have mentioned them in the same breath as Nile; but Nile they are not. Despite being presented as a Death Metal band, to my ear they are more Hardcore - perhaps Hardcore/Death crossover - but too Punky for me at any rate. I like my Death more evil, or more Thrashy than this I guess. Where Nalpam's Death/Grind I can get into when it's presented live, Cryptopsy's Death/Hardcore I cannot. However, credit where its due - they got the crowd going despite being on stage at 11am; and what they played they played proficiently.

Krisiun was a band I'd been looking forward to seeing. For my money, the best Death Metal act on the bill; these Brazilians were pure technical proficiency from start to finish. This is how I like my Death - no politics, no Punk, just brutal, crushing Metal. Stuck on the Party stage, they were fortunately able to make the best of things and delivered their set without too many problems; though there were some aggravating mike problems for the vocalist at the start of the set. Perhaps their songs are a tad samey on CD; but live I really didn't care - when 'Conquerors of Armageddon' hit the speakers Death Metal was Krisiun.

Annoyingly I had to miss Annihilator since their timeslot was shifted, meaning they clashed with Lost Horizon. No way was I missing this band. Despite the appalling sound in the Wet stage tent, and the annoying delay at the start of the set (during which the manic frontman leapt about in an agitated state; occasionally grasping the mike and crying "Let me hear you say thun-der! Thun-der!" several times) Lost Horizon pulled off a staggering set, and had to be the best band I saw play at this year's WOA. Lost Horizon is Power Metal, pure and simple - perfectly crafted songs perfectly executed by this perfect exemplification of all that is Power Metal. I was surprised, having seen no photos of the band, to note the singer is not only bald, but the spitting image of the angry TV producer (who gets stink-palmed) in Kevin Smith's 'Mallrats.' I'm not exaggerating - the two men are identical; and to be honest it took me a while to become wholly comfortable with a small bald man in a cape issuing forth vocals that clearly belonged to a guy with considerably more hair. So much energy was inherent in this band as they ripped through the best of the handful of songs that make up their debut album - hopefully only the first of many.

The crowd at Wacken

Where were Arch Enemy? Due to the re-shuffling of bands (possibly because Annihilator were late, possibly just so Crematory could be added to the bill; who I wish I'd paid more attention to) their set had been shifted; and I believe having asked around afterwards possibly cancelled altogether. A great pity, as they were one of the bands I'd particularly wanted to see especially as they now have a good vocalist and a bunch of new songs from their newest album who's release date seems to have been greatly delayed. Ah well.

A huge response goes up over the festival site as In Flames take to the stage. I can't get into this band - I just don't like the songwriting - but I cannot deny the effect they had on the crowd. Two thirds of the spectators were jumping in unison at the frontman's command (that's it - the songs are too jumpy. I hate that.) and more sang along when they were supposed to than for any of the other bands; including Motorhead and Hammerfall. Good, clear sound and a great set-list for a fan, or so I gathered from fans afterward.

Nightwish played last year, and I thus knew to avoid them - Power Metal with female Operatic vocals. Very popular band, but as far as I'm concerned she uses simply too much vibrato to be tolerable. However, we did crack up when we heard this lilting voice call "Wacken, let's see you fucking mosh!" rather politely to the crowd at the close of a song.

A lot of Power Metal fans detest Hammerfall apparently. I've always liked them; especially their second CD, Legacy of Kings. It has that Thrashy bombast that makes me like Children Of Bodom so much - great riffs; excellent drums. The band are pretty intense when they want to be (for a band playing this kind of Metal anyway) and it was for their faster, bouncier tracks that I sadly missed Opeth for in favour of seeing their live show. And what a live show. One of the best sounding bands for a start, the drums were crisp and the guitars and vox clear as a bell (though far more Metal, obviously); great set list with all the best tracks from the band's previous two albums included - I wasn't so enamoured with the new one, but then I wasn't in a very Power Metal mood when I borrowed it; so perhaps worth another listen. Regardless the newer songs seemed less punchy than the older ones, though at the same time less tedious than I remembered them being on CD. Hammerfall also had the most elaborate stage set of any band on the bill (unless you count Saxon and Motorhead with their big ol' lighting rigs alone), having erected a drawbridge in front of the drum kit for them to emerge from behind as the show started; crumbling ruinous castle pillars and backdrop; and run-ins from the Hammerfall knight of the CD cover art who looked like a cross between Eddie and Darth Vader; clad as he was in black foam-rubber and weilding a vast hammer with which he pounded the stage in an eruption of pyrotechnic flames. Excellent live act if you're into their music - if not you'd be entertained just laughing at them...

Motorhead are not my favourite band. But they are the loudest band I've ever seen. Jesus Brown Christ they are loud. Sadly that is all they are, since Motorhead essentially play the same song again and again; and only get away with it by being really, really loud. They mix the two-hour set up with a few covers, and a guest appearence from Chrissy Hinde (that her name? The chick from the Pretenders, I think. Don't ask me what she was doing there...) but they're still just playing music that is loud and nothing else. The crowd are truely pathetic; Lemmy utterly failing to gain any kind of response from them at all; even before the encore when the bomber lighting rig descends to dazzle and delight for a couple of minutes before it gets boring. Not that Lemmy is the greatest front-man. He mumbles away with his old man's face, voice cranked to a skull-shattering volume; but he remains just an old man mumbling obscenely loudly. Extreme in their day, but not anymore. Unlike Ozzy and Black Sabbath (now there is the quintessential front-man), or Judas Priest, Motorhead simply haven't stood the test of time. Pity Sodom weren't on in their slot as I missed them; and they would have been considerably more entertaining.

All in all I'd say WOA 2001 wasn't as great as it could have been; though I suppose topping last year's festival would have been nigh on impossible for me. Marduk, Immortal, Doro, Venom and Rhapsody are a tough line up to beat as far as my music taste goes; but I think one decent Black Metal band on the bill this year wouldn't have been too much to ask. However regardless of the bands, its hard to fault Wacken as a festival. It's well organised for the main part and despite the vast crowd to be pleased and placated everyone has a great time. You can almost feel the Metal Unity if you're one of those people who says things like that; and the great thing about European Metalheads is, as Mortician's singer said, the fact that the fans don't limit themselves to single sub-genres as they do in the US. Guys in Nightwish shirts are in the pit for Napalm Death; guys in Graveland shirts cheering for Hammerfall. No fights, no problems. Wacken does a great job at catering for all-comers, and since the apparent demise of Dynamo it's about the biggest and longest running European Metal festival in existence. Let's hope it stays that way. Back to top

review by Steppenvvolf:

THURSDAY

It's Thursday, 2nd of August at 7am when I hit the road. The weather forecast on the radio says it's going to be up to 37° in Southern Germany today. No one could have persuaded me to get up so early for driving to Wacken, but my car doesn't have an air conditioner. Seven hours and 700km of driving in the heat and it's only another 40 km to Wacken, but, as last year, I end up stuck in a heavy traffic jam just after Hamburg. Some hours later I will be well reminded of this traffic jam again... 1.5 hours of queuing for my press pass adds to my driving dizziness, but having put up the tent (at right) and opening the first beer I am reconciled with those odds and head over to the festival ground.

The body-wash booths

The opening band, Knight Errant, a Turkish Metal band had left stage by then and Finntroll's set was also almost through unfortunately. While fuddling around with the tent, their Folk-inspired Deathmetal could be heard from the distance. At least I caught sight of their charismatic front in a frenetic dance with an oversized hand drum tattoing to the whipped up audience. Shame on me. Next time they'll be on my must-see list.

Part of why I chose to devote Thursday to the Fest as well was Crematory's performance. First it was announced that they'd show up later, then it was postponed to Saturday, because they were stuck in a traffic jam - guess where? So I had to make do with The Impotent Seasnakes, who were termed as a Sexrock band, and, for their stage acting well worth a look. As for the music, well it was rock... WASP made the background music for me poking about the Metal market with its numerous shops offering everything from shirts to CDs to book specialties and amulets that some Black metal disciples might have eagerly sought. Leather and chains? Here you find it. But forget the concept that Metal is purely non-commercial...

FRIDAY

It's Friday morning, my body reluctantly leaves the sleeping bag for the chilled morning air. The northern latitude compared to Stuttgart and the vicinity to the North Sea shows its impact. I put some tea water to boil on my new petrol stove and have my musli while browsing the running order for today's line up: Deceased, Nightfall, Carnal Forge...go a few minutes earlier to head over to Soilwork... Ok. Here we go.

My shocker of the day was Deceased. How, you wonder, considering that Helloween, The Haunted and others would fill the late hours? It's simply for one song: they covered Kreator's "Tormentor," which in its aggressiveness is still unchallenged by alleged "tougher" bands of nowadays I find. The bare refrain of the song and anticipating a caterwauling "Toorrrmentoor!" followed by the thundering rhythm guitar pattern is still infectious. So it was to others, too, moments after Deceased started playing this song I was c-c-c-c-caught in a mosh ;-), a true tormentor! (crowdsurfing at left).

Lacuna Coil's stage work was probably diminished in effect by the fact they were playing at daytime. Yet, Andy and Cristina's stage play of accusing and spurning each other to the rhythm of their lyrics wore off rapidly and her statement "Probably you don't know it, but you give us energy!" sounded more like an outcry of a band back from a joint holiday in a treatment centre for addicts. Don't misunderstand me, I like to listen to Lacuna's songs; "Falling" or "When a dead man walks" do move me, but on stage I had expected more of a group that encorporates so many emotional elements into their songs.

Next was Blackshine on the Party stage. Even those who'd swear they have not heard anything about them so far be only reminded of "My Pain Is Your Pleasure." It's unlikely you did not hear this song at least once in a metal hang-out since it was released about four years ago. It was only after they played this song that the crowd caught fire on them, but to be fair, many were still at the other stage to see Lacuna to the end. Therefore, they had to play with very shallow response at the beginning. All in all, the vocals were a bit weak I found and somehow they didn't manage to transform their good repertoire into an entirely satisfying performance.

Ever since ten years ago, when Walls of Jericho was mandatory for all of our get-togethers, be it a lively barbecue in the forest with classmates or the parents-feared parties in hobby-rooms, I have always dreamt of seeing Helloween live. But somehow I never got to see them, be it for lack of money or a frightening sudden change of their style (Pink Bubbles Go Ape...uaarggghh!!). So, this Wacken was to make up for my year-long craving.

Helloween's guitarist's stage-acting reminded me of a gnome bitten by a bee, hopping around and posing with his guitar while having his chuckles doing that (the pics of him should prove how difficult he was to exclude on a photo). Later, after leaving the pit, I was queuing in quite some distance in the huge crowd that had gathered to attend Helloween. But instead of swaying to the sound and rising my air guitar just as the guitarist did, I fell into a rather nodding movement and memories of teenage years, when we danced to "Ride the Sky" in the living-room of a friend and inadvertently broke one of those several-thousand-dollar-designer-loudspeakers...

Firebreathing

Female fans

A fan

In contrast to them, I was really looking forward to what Opeth would have to offer. They entered stage and singer Mike Akerfeldt calmly announced "Hello. We are Opeth...from Stockholm." And set off with their first song. To my surprise they didn't play any of the old ones and if you know how they changed their style with their recent album, you know about how disappointed I was. Yet, the audience enjoyed their performance.

After Metalium, Crematory was finally set to play; not as first planned on their "night to remember," since they were stuck in the same traffic jam as I was.

As you know, Crematory will break up this year for various reasons: tired of press reactions, health problems of some band members, the feeling, that it would be better to stop at the peak of success, and the necessity to find their bearings apart from metal (see also their site www.crematory.de for a thorough statement). All this very closely describes the mood with which the band gave their last big performance: tired, but also relieved, accompanied by harsh words to the press and gratitude to their fans. They played a compilation of their best songs. An extra was given by their guitarist Matthias, who sang unaccompanied the final song.

Lost Horizon was one of my must-sees at Wacken, especially after Roberto kept on talking about them in hymns of praise and infiltrating me with CDs. In fact, their power metal has found its way straight to my personal favourites. The W.E.T. Stage was intended for newcomer bands, to give them the opportunity to play for a broader audience. Placed in a rather small tent, the sound tended to be very mushy and so most of Lost horizon's catchy riffs ended up being hopelessly distorted. Had I not known of the quality of their songs from CD, I'd have brushed them aside for an average power metal band. Not their fault though.

Listening to In Flames' material before my coming to Wacken didn't give me the impression I'd miss so much by not attending them, but that would have been one unforgivable mistake as it turned out later. Was it because they made known publicly that they'd be recording this concert for their video? I guess not. With the sun setting, they had the perfect scenery for their shots. A show that carried away the masses, which melted together into a banging and jumping hair carpet, with people being washed on stage above it. Add some fireworks on the stage and you have an idea of the unforgettable atmosphere, that blended in so well to Saturday's dusk.

Almost the same can be said about Dark Tranquility, who had played on Friday. I'd list both as the top bands of this year's Wacken. Next year for sure, I will be there again!

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