ENRAPTURED, WE ARE REBORN (Part 2)
By Michael De Los Muertos
Additional Commentary and Pictures by Ice Maiden
Things looked up the next morning. In our little group, everyone was bright-eyed
and bushy-tailed and ready to conquer the next day of metal. “I bet today will be a lot less grueling,” I
said. Nevertheless, we had plans to
leave early – again, we had no choice.
We had a lengthy drive on Sunday which would begin at six AM. If we valued our survival, it was crucial to
get a good night’s sleep that night.
This time we parked the car in the
VIP/backstage parking lot. Good idea,
but it was a little hairy – Witch Hunter, our driver, was the only one in our
party without a purple
wristband. Convincing efficient,
security-minded German guards to let him in was no small feat. But somehow, we made it.
It was a while before we made it to any of
the stages. Five minutes after we came
in through the backstage entrance, we started to see people worth talking
to. Ice Maiden, the camera jockey –
more pictures! Me with the Gamma Ray
bassist! Me and Ice Maiden with Peter Tagtgren! Cid and Ice Maiden with Matt
Barlow! The metal personalities were
like flies on a windshield out there.
Somehow a bunch of them had decided to wander out to meet n’ greet at
precisely that moment. And speaking of
meet and greet, Morbid Angel was up on the autograph table at 2:00 – had to go to that.
I had a friend back in Portland who eats,
lives, and breathes Morbid Angel. If I
got him an autograph, I wouldn’t have to buy beer for a month after I got home
– he’d buy me round after round in thanks!
[Ice Maiden's Commentary: I caught part of Ancient on my own.
I don't remember what they sounded like,
because I was visually riveted by the vocalist in his little crown and the
nearly naked chick headbanging in an outfit that rivaled Umbra and Imago's as
"Most Lame."]
It was by complete happenstance, once we
finally got down to business at the stage, that I was in a perfect position to
see SENTENCED. The set was a surprising
one. I hadn’t had a lot of experience
listening to this band, and own none of their albums, but I was won over
immediately by their stunning set. The
hands-down winner for Most Surprisingly Good Set, Sentenced roared forth with
catchy, hook-laden riffs, unique vocals, and above-average guitar and drum
work. I know only one Sentenced song,
and it’s the one on the Century Media Declaration
of Independence video – “Noose,” I think it’s called – and they played it much better than the recorded
version. The frontman was energetic and
vibrant, and the music very catchy
and very metal. Yet another highlight of Wacken – along with
October 31, a band who by the sheer power of their set shot themselves to the
very top of my “Buy All Their Albums When You Get Back” list!
My friends from Rome were front-and-center
for LIZZY BORDEN, and I had the courage to join them for a few minutes – but
only a few. They were going nuts, but
the sight of a fat, frizzy-haired, spandex-clad frontman screeching in
stone-age early-80s glam metal fashion left me, frankly, unimpressed. Am I
missing something? The beer and
chairs backstage called me more compellingly than Lizzy Borden did, though I
heard that they did play the one Borden song I like – “American Metal” – as
their final number. Somehow I can’t be too disappointed at missing that. [Ice
Maiden's Commentary: These guys are
pure old school, in the more
decrepit sense of those words. When I
saw them at the backstage area, they were busy oggling Chantal, the sex show
stripper, who was kind enough to give them (and all of us in the backstage
area) a free preview of her…emm…show. Can you say "seedy" boys and girls?]
We missed most of ENTOMBED in favor of the
Morbid Angel meet and greet (we did get an autograph, but only thanks to the charm and perseverance of Ice Maiden), but we
did make it out for the end of their set.
I approached this band with caution.
I was burned severely on their Same
Difference album, which was so dreadfully awful that I couldn’t stand to
have it in my house, and sold it to a used CD store one day after buying
it. Thankfully, Entombed were tasteful
enough to avoid their “new direction” and concentrated on what they used to do
best: old style Swedish death metal.
Unfortunately Entombed was plagued with one of the few technical
troubles I observed at Wacken. While
the guitars weren’t tuned loud enough, the vocals were tuned too loud – L.G.’s wild shrieks made my
ears hurt even through earplugs, and the accompaniment sounded very muddy. But, Entombed kept the energy high and at
least went some of the way toward mending fences with me. The real test will be their next album – but
their Wacken performance was worthy of me giving them the benefit of the doubt
until then.
NIGHTWISH was next. I’d heard some odds and ends of albums from
this band and found them a little weak for my taste – despite the stunning
operatic female vocals – but I was immediately set to rights from the first
second they appeared on-stage. Perhaps
they’d been in the audience during the Stratovarius set the day before, because
they faithfully observed the cardinal rule of symphonic/progressive power metal
bands: be symphonic and progressive, but
don’t forget to keep it heavy! They
kept it heavy. Taria’s vocals were incredible. So powerful that they sent chills up your spine, so powerful they
could crack the sky – and the music behind them was of the same quality. One of the most amazing sights of the entire
weekend was to look out over the crowd assembled in front of the True Metal
Stage during the Nightwish set, and see a forest of heads banging and
devil-symbols bouncing in mid-air to this very melodic, indeed mellow band –
but everybody was loving it. To come to
a crowd of 60,000 metalheads satiated by Hypocrisy, Immortal and other heavy
shit, and to present them an hour of soaring vocals and crystal-clear symphonic
backing and ask them to assimilate it in the same way, is a tall order – but
Nightwish did it. Best set of the
festival after Gamma Ray? Very possibly.
[Ice Maiden's Commentary: Wacken
has the press backstage, and then the true backstage, where only the bands are
allowed to go. Thanks to some friends,
I made my way back to this true backstage. Egads! Over there was Morbid
Angel, over here was Sentenced. And I
got to meet and chat with Tarja! She is
one of those truly beautiful and sweet people, so all you lads keep on having
crushes on her—I wholly approve.]
Hmm, want to know about DORO? See my Lizzy Borden review, above. Lots of hype and excitement – particularly
from my Italian friends – and again I was left cold. She’s old, she’s paunchy, and she just can’t cut it anymore. I’m sorry – I have to be honest! [Ice
Maiden's Commentary: Paunchy? I think not. But I can't say she was my favorite act.]
The last full set for which we were all
together was the mighty MORBID ANGEL.
Again, like Iced Earth, waiting for them to come on stage was like
waiting for a volcano to explode.
Roadies twanged guitars severely down-tuned into the sludgey range –
drum sets were readied for merciless blast-beats – and finally, it was
reality. A rail-thin Trey Azagthoth
spouted noxious, oil-thick layers of caustic death metal onto the grateful crowd. Warbling, tortured vocals – punishing drums
– what more could you ask for? Morbid
Angel began slowly and without a whole lot of energy, but within 15 minutes
they were at fever pitch and turned in one of the finest performances of the
festival. The true genius of Morbid
Angel is the ultimate beauty of their music buried under the layers upon layers
of aural ugliness that shroud it – and being there in front of a crowd that
understood that was as magic as their amazing performance. Debuting several tracks from their new
album, Gateways to Annihilation, the
band also played a fair sampling from all of their eras. Unfortunately, “Where The Slime Live” was
not among them – but I really can’t complain.
With a dying sun bleeding reddish-gold across the chrome on their
guitars, tens of thousands of weary metalheads cheering them on, and the August
sky arching above us, for us Wacken was coming to a thunderous close. In the last few minutes of their set I found
myself reflecting upon the amazing experience of the past few days. Perhaps it was fitting that Morbid Angel’s
last song was called “Enraptured, I Am Reborn” – because Wacken was like that.
There were more bands there, of course;
Venom, Zakk Wylde, Tom Angelripper; some others I wanted to see, like Raise
Hell; and naturally with four stages there were many bands I would have liked
to have seen, but did not, like Liege Lord, Agathodaimon, Steel Attack,
etc. Some of my friends who did see
them can tell you about them. That was
the interesting thing about Wacken – each person who goes sees a different
show, with different bands, and different experiences. But it’s all part of the same glorious
whole. I don’t think a single person at
that show – certainly nobody in our party – was sorry they had come or went
away feeling unfulfilled or as if their expectations had not been met. For everyone – everyone – Wacken was a transcendental experience, from the moment
our troubles began in the Hamburg airport to the lazy dusk during which we
drove back to Hamburg that last time.
Getting back home was indeed an adventure. Many more chapters could be written about
long trips, wrong turns, delayed trains, lying street signs, traffic jams,
delayed planes, unexpected stays in strange cities – but you have to expect
that when you travel halfway across the globe and back. Slowly the metalheads streamed out of
Wacken, and the little town in northern Germany returned to its former sleepy
peacefulness, slumbering amidst dairy cows and fields of gentle green
grass. The long-haired folk in their
leather pants, their death metal T-shirts, muddy shoes and multicolored
wristbands, their cars loaded with dirty camping equipment, rare CDs and
dog-eared Wacken programs, went back to their homes and shops and little metal clubs
in Germany, in France, in England, in America, all over the world. But they’ll be back. A surprising number of them will be back,
because now they know what glory awaits them at Wacken, and what (as Kai Hansen
would put it) a heavy metal universe they inhabit. It is true: enraptured, we are reborn. If life ended at the end of Wacken 2000, it will begin again at
Wacken 2001. And hopefully, I will see
you there.
