The World's Loudest Acre:
Wacken Open Air 2002
Friday, August 2, 2002
It was a huge, staggering, swampy mess. The stuff was like Jello
pudding, chocolate flavor, except when you stepped in it, you'd feel a
violent sucking on the bottom of your shoe. The entire festival ground
was covered with it. Like the Western Front in World War I: all it
needed was barbed wire and machine guns. Some parts were worse than
others. As I slopped through the stinking vile mess on the way to the
Metal Market, trying to levitate above it so it wouldn't crest over the
low tops of my Vans sneakers, I cursed the fact that my boots were
sitting on the floor of my apartment next to my couch--six thousand
miles away. In a fanatical effort to "travel light," I'd
judged them too heavy to justify lugging them a quarter of the way
across the planet. Note to self: BRING YOUR GODDAMN BOOTS NEXT
YEAR!!!!!!!!!!
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: Ah! The beauty of combat boots
with decent tread. Even though I was wearing a skirt, I found myself
tromping through the mud with no problem in terms of traction because of
my boots. Still, walking (wading?) in this stuff was like walking in
deep snow-a little hard on the legs, which have to make it for another
12 hours at least that day alone. I'd mentioned at breakfast that the
Wacken organizers might bring hay or sawdust to cover the site and was
laughed down. Still, I maintained hope…)
Due to our misadventures in the mud and the still-falling
drizzle--which finally quit around 11AM--we were late getting started
with bands. At the end of the long walk around the festival grounds,
mainly to avoid the sea of mud at the main entrance to the site, we ran
into a grizzled-looking fellow with an Irish accent. "Do you write
for Metal-Rules?" It was our own Punishment Due, who was already on
his sixth or seventh beer of the day. After having another celebratory
beer we navigated the mud toward the True Metal Stage and the real
beginning of Wacken.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: While Muertos, Nomad and the
Punishment Due headed backstage for a drink, I decided to take in
STORMWARRIOR. Although I hadn't heard much of their stuff, I'd seen
their new album prominently displayed on vendors' carts, and with its
obvious power metal cover, I was intrigued. I knew that these Hamburgers
were playing to a "home crowd", and their energy was great!
Tight traditional/power metal, very Helloween…and the album, I later
learned, is very good. Pick it up!
Ah! The Wacken organizers have met their task. In the face of
potential ruin, they bring in giant rolls upon rolls of hay. The
security guards and Wacken crew started to roll it out in front of the
stages, and soon Wackenites were joining in. It's a massive hay party!
Hay is flying! Metalheads start reclining on soft, clean hay piles on
top of nasty mud. A BIG KUDOS TO THE WACKEN ORGANIZERS!!!!
I hook up with the rest of the gang and try to head out to check
out the Metal Markt. Since I have better traction than some of the
others, I get separated in the crowd from our gang. The Metal Markt is
outside of the main festival gates, and metalheads are standing in the
long lines at the entrance gates to go through security. Too late, I
realize that I've lost my group, the line at the Metal Markt is too
long, and now I'm facing the long lines to get back into the Wacken site
(which is still swampy with mud because they started spreading hay from
the stages and working backwards.) Hmmmm…. Do press passes get you
back inside through exits? Yay! One quick wave of my pass and I'm back
in with no half-hour wait.
At the True Metal Stage I run into Francesco, our Italian
Stormlord friend who is a pal of various members of the Italian band
DOMINE. They call themselves "epic fantasy metal", and they
live up to their name. This was a superb performance. The long-haired
Italian vocalist flew across the stage, emoting his heart out with a
strong voice and a fine wail. These guys smile while they play-I love
seeing band members who clearly love performing. DOMINE probably was my
third-favorite act of Wacken.
While waiting for IRON SAVIOR to take the stage I check out an
aggressive death metal act (NECROPHOBIC??). Not bad, but I'm on a bit of
a power metal high and couldn't give them the appreciation they were
probably due.)
IRON SAVIOR played as the rain was ending and everybody was still
trying to find their footing in the muck. I have to admit, as good as
the combination of Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray and now no longer in Iron
Savior) and Piet Sielck sounds on paper, their albums, while very
well-done technical power metal, don't really grab me the way they
should. Iron Savior made up for that during their live performance. They
had a lot of energy, good humor, and a pretty snappy set list
incorporating songs from across the spectrum of their science-fiction
themed albums. On the whole I was impressed.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: Shrug-I was pretty bored by IRON SAVIOR.
I found myself watching the hay in the air more than the band and
decided to wander over to the Party Stage to catch WOLF. I was glad I
did! These guys were on fire! And they're Swedish? Whoda thunk it
looking at them posing like '80's old school classic metal gods???
I ran into Black Goat and Skyklad watching WOLF, and while we
admired the hay bails being spread we noticed an aging hippy-looking guy
taking the large True Metal Stage. Who are these old farts? They started
playing…Hmmm, very nice, slow groove to this doom metal. I look at my
program: "DEBRIS, INC." Stupid name, but nice, plodding riffs.
Black Goat, Skyklad and I exchange pleasantly-surprised nods. This is
some good stuff! Black Goat finds out later that this is Dave Chandler
of St. Vitus fame…no wonder! Glad we wandered this way!)
The next band we saw was ANGRA, whom I was very interested to check
out. Despite being a power metal junkie I've had only flirtatious
brushes with the albums of this South American power outfit, and I've
never actually taken the plunge to buy one for myself. Surprisingly,
their set was very flat. The guitars, drums and vocals were all there
and reasonably well done, but there just wasn't a whole lot of
enthusiasm or energy coming out of these Brazilians. Punishment Due and
I gave up the ghost midway through the set and shuffled back to the
backstage area for more beers. There was now something new to celebrate.
Not only had the rain stopped, but tractors hauling large bales of hay
had magically appeared at various places in the festival grounds, and
the inevitable "hay fights" of juvenile metalheads tossing
straw at each other had the commendable effect of spreading the stuff
evenly around the grounds, for the most part ending our mud problems
immediately. Nearly everyone I talked to was quite impressed with how
fast and how efficiently the Wacken organization responded to the
conditions, and prevented the festival from becoming little more than a
musical pig pen for 40,000 mud-covered metalheads. Hats off to Götz
Kühnemund and the rest of the organization for this one!
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: Although I haven't listened to
much ANGRA, I was interested in seeing these Brazilians from Sao Paulo.
After all, this was kind of turning out to be a power metal Wacken for
me-these guys should fit right in with their Gamma Ray-esque style of
play. The vocalist looks like a wood nymph-first but certainly not last
of the "pretty boy" vocalists at this event. Meh…they were
fine, but nothing special.)
Before our next band a rather bizarre incident occurred backstage. I
was walking toward the bar to get another beer when a long-haired dude
in a soccer jersey tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me,
could you come over here and help us with something?" Naturally I
said sure, whereupon two other guys suddenly grabbed me by the arms and
legs and threw me down on top of one of the large picnic-style tables in
the backstage area. I was then dragged bodily across the table, knocking
beer cups, trash and cigarette butts onto the floor, and set back down
on my feet at the other end. "Thanks!" the guy in the soccer
jersey said. "We needed somebody to wipe off our table with, and
you looked like a good choice!" I noticed he had an artist badge
on, so I said, "Which band are you with, so I'll be sure to miss
it?" As it turned out he was Ted Lundström, the bassist for AMON
AMARTH! While he wasn't exactly apologetic at having used me as a human
paper towel, he did say it was just a joke and offered me a shot of
whisky as compensation. Hey, I can take a joke! So obviously could
Punishment Due and Nomad, who were laughing hysterically through the
whole episode. Actually I had the last laugh. Due to the rainy
conditions I'd put on nylon rain pants that morning, and the gallons of
beer I wiped off the table with my ass rolled off like water off a duck.
No harm done, and at least I got a picture with him…
With the Amon Amarth Beer-Wiping Incident behind us, we moved on
toward the Party Stage. On the way we passed the Black Stage where DYING
FETUS was performing. I confess I've had a certain amount of curiosity
about this band, as I've heard they're as brutal as they come, and
contrary to my public reputation I do love death metal. However, I
wasn't even interested enough in what I heard from Dying Fetus to stop
and give them a substantial listen. All I heard were boring washing
machine riffs. I didn't hear enough to really give them a fair review,
so I'll refrain from making any firm conclusions; I'll leave it to one
of my other festival-going mates to give a more detailed explanation of
their impressions.
The Party Stage was the temporary home of NOCTURNAL RITES, our next
band. They kicked some major ass! Their set was extremely powerful, and
the melodic elements of their music really brought out the best of the
traditional Gothenburg sound that can tend to get muddy (no pun
intended) at outdoor festival performances. The vocals in particular
were very strong, and the crowd was enthusiastic from the get-go. This
was certainly one of the highlights of the first day.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I was looking forward to
NOCTURNAL RITES, the band that metalized Pachelbel's Canon in D.
Straight-forward power metal competently played, I can't say that I
heard anything particularly "Gothenburg" about them, since I
associate that tag with melodic death. Nonetheless, this was a solid
performance.)
After a quick trip to the backstage to wolf down some dinner, we
eagerly sunk our teeth into the next band on the Black Stage, the mighty
BORKNAGAR. By now the festival had truly become a lot of fun. The
weather was perfect; not too hot, not too cold, no mosquitoes, and the
mud was well under control. Thus nothing stood in the way of enjoying
this great band, one of the bands I'd been looking forward to the most.
Øystein G. Brun is a charismatic frontman and obviously the creative
powerhouse behind the band, and his performance was stellar. Both the
black metal elements and the more melodic passages of Borknagar
translated well to the crowd. There was some old stuff in their set as
well as a few nods to my favorite Borknagar album,
"Quintessence." After the festival was over and we were
discussing what the best sets of the past three days were, the name
Borknagar kept coming up. Great work!
Mr. Brun left the stage only to be followed immediately by Mr. Oliva
and the indefatigable SAVATAGE on the True Metal Stage. Much to the
chagrin of fellow Metal-Rules.com reviewer Night of the Realm,
Savatage's studio albums have never been very high on my most-wanted
list, and their music, while undeniably good, never crossed the line to
become a band I could truly love. Judging by this performance, however,
a live setting is truly the way to appreciate Savatage, as their set was
terrific! I don't know a tremendous amount of Savatage songs but the one
most familiar to me--"Edge of Thorns"--was one of the
highlights of the set. Borknagar was a difficult act to follow, but
Savatage rose to the occasion, turning in still another performance that
had most of the backstage crowd abuzz with adulation.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I've never been a huge fan of
recent SAVATAGE albums, finding them a little too "flat" for
my tastes. Sergio, our Basque friend, told us that the new vocalist had
really put new life into their live performance. Turns out this new
vocalist ("pretty boy vocalist" number two, if you are keeping
score) first took the stage in Nashville with his mom as a wee tot,
singing on the same stage as Minnie Pearl-the old hag with the price
tags in her hat-remember her??? Well, he's come a long way, baby. THESE
GUYS WERE AWESOME! Skyklad and I tore many a neck muscle as we banged
our heads to this incredible set. "Hall of the Mountain King",
"Gutter Ballet"-they hit all the old classics No Al Pitrelli,
but who is that guy playing guitar? He looks vaguely familiar----I
remember! The hockey jersey guy from ANNIHILATOR last year-Jeff Waters.
This was my second-favorite set at Wacken this year. Much like after
seeing Strat live, I left the SAVATAGE set realizing that this was a
band who SLAYS live, and whose albums I had better re-examine.)
Did I skip DESTRUCTION to go have another beer? Moreover, if I did,
would I admit it? Well, perhaps--but if it's any consolation, from what
I heard of them, they were loud, they were tight, and they were great!
Unfortunately my blood alcohol level was reaching a dangerous low, and I
figured I could con Punishment Due into buying me another beer. I was
right!
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: While Muertos went to drink with
Punishment, I checked out DESTRUCTION. "The Antichrist" had
gotten more than one spin from me and made my list of Top 20 releases
for 2001. Very tight thrash, I was happy to hear my personal favorite
played from that album, "Nailed to the Cross"-and was happy to
sing along to the chorus-"Nailed to the cross, nailed to the cross,
nailed to the fucking crooooooooooossssssssss!" I'm looking forward
to seeing these guys on tour in the U.S. with Kreator.
I decided to go and take a quick break while waiting for (the)
Bruce Dickinson to take the stage. Sunset over Wacken is a beautiful
thing, in more ways than just the visual, and I took a moment to just
soak in the atmosphere and reflect.
I also went and checked my email in
the "Press Tent", a new addition this year. In you go and, lo
and behold: computers, internet access, current up-to-the minute set
lists, candles on low tables surrounded by lounge chairs for
interviewing bands, electric outlets for re-charging digital cameras and
cell phones, free water and candy. Damn-sweet set up! The organizers
once again did a very good job addressing needs that had been lacking in
previous years.
The Wacken organizers got a lot of bad press this year. I think,
for the most part, that press was NOT warranted. They were accused of
raising beer prices to an unacceptable level. In point of fact, they
increased the beer sizes and only raised the actual prices by 10%--an
adjustment to take into account inflation caused in large part by the
shift to the Euro from the Mark. They were blamed for charging 50 cents
for the bathrooms in the backstage area-but they also had someone
keeping those bathrooms clean and stocked with toilet paper and soap.
They were damned for the mud, which, as a natural occurrence, seems like
a bit of a stretch since this is an OUTDOOR festival, and they brought
in hay to the site almost immediately.
The one valid criticism in the planning nightmare is that they
changed the band running order without publishing it. Although the
changes were caused in large part because bands were delayed by rain,
highway accidents, etc., people missed bands because they didn't know
about the changes. Apparently, the Wacken organizers have promised to
remedy this issue next year by having large digital displays that will
update the running order as changes are made. I just want to say
"THANK YOU" to the folks who make Wacken possible for all they
did.)
Nomad and I are both huge BRUCE DICKINSON fans, and both our
expectations for his performance were extremely high. I've seen Mr.
Dickinson perform twice with Iron Maiden, but never solo. There is a
certain élan that he has when he's onstage with THE GREATEST FUCKING
HEAVY METAL BAND OF ALL TIME, and I have to say he lacks it--just a
little bit--when he's out there on his own. That aside, Bruce's set
crushed. Absolutely crushed! One smashing anthem after another--stuff
from "Accident of Birth," "Tattooed Millionaire" and
"Chemical Wedding" was all represented. The highlight of his
set, and in fact one of the high points of Wacken overall, was the
amazing performance of "Tears Of The Dragon," which I still
maintain is one of the best metal songs of the 1990s, criminally
underrated as a modern classic. I have only two bones to pick with Mr.
D. The first is that he did not play either "Machine Men" or
"Chemical Wedding"; and the second was that, after going back
onstage for an encore (a rarity at Wacken), his final song was a
loathsome and completely ridiculous oom-pah-pah number! I don't even
remember the title of it, but it was not metal and not even vaguely
entertaining. Why would he ruin such a great set by ending that way? I
don't know, but given the strength of everything else he played, I might
be able to forgive him.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: In usual Bruce form, he didn't
stay in one spot for more than a split second. We photographers in the
pit exchanged rolled eyes as shot after shot was lost as he darted from
spot to spot, rarely resting. I should probably post all the blurred
images of Bruce body parts caught as he dashed to the opposite side of
the stage just as we got him in focus. Solid performance, but, sadly,
nothing to write home about. What WAS up with that polka number at the
end? I don't care if we are in Germany-keep the beer hall songs in the
beer hall, Brucey.
The sign this Dickinson fan is holding reads
"Bruce. Give me a Sign. Please!!"
By this time my feet were unhappy with me. I approached the Party
Stage to catch the re-united CANDLEMASS. Yup-there he was in this monk
robe and frizzy halo of hair-Messiah. The words "doom" and
"high energy" are rarely used together, but they must be this
time. A classic set that I didn't want to miss, so I finally asked the
security guys if I could sit with them-my feet insisted. Thankfully,
they let me remain there in the front of the stage even after the set
ended and they started the set up for what was listed on the program as
TORFROCK, some sort of folk metal. Sitting there, I was approached over
the barrier by some German lads. I guess my two quarters of German 101
did nothing, because we could communicate not at all, though not for
lack of trying on their part. The most I gathered was that: (i) they
wanted me to go watch a sex show with them; and (ii) they wanted to know
if I knew Bart Simpson. I answered with the appropriate "no"
and "yes." I live in America, after all.
Up starts the fog machine, down go the lights. Out comes a
long-haired, leather-clad guitar player. This doesn't sound like folk
music. I start to laugh as rest of the band comes out, trying to emanate
evil as the lead singer skulked (minced?) around the stage. First couple
of songs I was unimpressed, and rather amused by the attempts to look
"evil." I left to go to the backstage area to grab a drink and
Muertos to come watch MY DYING BRIDE with me. Grabbing the drink (they
have a full bar with Tequila Sunrises! Woohoo!), I hear the strains of a
version of "Sear Me." Wait a minute! That band was MY DYING
BRIDE, whose albums get much play from me as nice sleep music and who I
was greatly anticipating? I rushed back out to the stage. By now, they
had warmed up and I actually enjoyed the rest of the set as more was
played from their most recent album. Although the final result was a
solid set, I realized that some bands are not meant to be watched in an
open air festival after standing all friggin' day. This was a band for a
dark, intimate club where people sit and smoke looking bored. Any
"oomph" they had was lost in the setting.)
By this time it was getting late and a mite chilly, so we retired
backstage for--you guessed it!--more beer. We saw only one other band
Friday night, that being MY DYING BRIDE, much anticipated by Ice
Maiden--and a colossal disappointment. I found them slow, plodding, and
completely bereft of the energy a band needs to successfully pull off a
Wacken Party Stage performance at nearly midnight. I've not generally
been tempted by MDB before, and after seeing part of their set here I
think I'll pass on their albums in the future. Too bad; they're a
well-respected name with a lot of fans. Ah, well.
Tonight Witch Hunter was smart enough to park off the Wacken site, on
dry pavement. Score! Returning home was a quick trip. I fell into bed
and slept heavily. One more day remained. This Wacken was already
awesome, but we still had twenty-four hours to go before it could truly
take its place in the flaming Valhalla of legendary metal festivals.
Read on... Saturday, August 3, 2002
