Wacken Open Air
31.7 - 2.8.2003
Germany
Text by Arto Lehtinen and Jani Koskela
Pics by Arto Lehtinen and Ann Kermans
True Metal stage on left, Black stage on right
Thursday, July 31, 2003
CIRCLE II CIRCLE
On Thursday, Circle II Circle arrived at the stage to kick off the whole
three day festival. Despite being the opening the band of the Wacken
2003, the band appeared damn interesting in terms of high quality musical
approach as well as one certain member involved in the ranks. The member
in question being former Savatage vocalist Zak Stevens! The five piece naturally focused
on doing the material from their debut album Watching In Silence in
front of the surprisingly huge crowd who were definitely keen on finding out
Stevens current band's skills and ability to prove how they work on the
stage. Of course it wasn't any unexpected surprise for old Savatage
fans when two older Savatage tracks roared from the monitors like Gutter
Ballet. Kinda fun that a couple of Circle II Circle guys had
dressed up in huge long sleeve NHL hockey team shirts.
ANNIHILATOR
Canadian old thrash veterans Annihilator has always been culminated
around Jeff Waters' world to carry out his own musical crusade even though
guys come and go. Even now Jeff Water's Annihilator had undergone a change
in the line up when Joe Comeu was dismissed from the ranks and is replaced by a new 27 year old named Dave Padden from Vancouver. The new
guy's voice can't be compared by any manner to Joe's delivery as
Padden's voice is raw and brutal - reminding me slightly of Randy Rampage's
voice but with a better rawer approach. Of course Padden needs more the
obvious training to his voice, but at Wacken his voice properly suited
the older material which the Canadian thrashers hammered out. Yes the set mainly consisted
of older
material, skipping the newer damn good material. However "King Of The
Kill", "Set The World On Fire", "Never Neverland",
"Alison Hell" and finally "Phantasmagoria" were the part of the set. Beside Waters, the band handled
this important festival gig with a tight grip without loosing any control
as Annihilator is known for being a damn hard playing live band which
their Wacken gig definitely proved.
After the gig when asking Padden about the feeling on his debut gig at
Wacken, according to him it was pretty good and no need to be nervous at
all. Padden also confirmed he will be singing on the forthcoming
Annihilator album and he doesn't mind that he is a new Annihilator singer,
besides he has always liked the band since its early days.
VICTORY and SAXON
After the ground-shaking technical thrash metal lesson, the reunited
German Victory had decided to return to the limelight after being on
hiatus over ten years. The former 80's poodle hair rockers could have
stayed on hiatus much longer as the time hasn't been that merciful for
them as the middle aged ex-hair rockers were an entire another band. Of
course expecting them to have the huge hair things like in the 80's was
quite pointless, because of the years that have passed by. Somehow it
felt absurd to witness them on the stage doing the old school hard
hair rock as some kind of nostalgia trip to the past. Even though the
former Accept/Sinner axeman Herman Frank as well as the former Sinner and
the current Saxon battery man Fritz Randow were involved in the ranks....please leave Victory to continue its eternal sleep.
Even though Victory's already a shameful stigmata but instead Saxon
rescued the unpleasant situation by doing a surprise gig with three
tracks. Saxon showed up on stage completely out of nowhere and sounded
crystal clear and heavy right from the beginning riff of "Motor Cycle
Man",
two more Saxon classics ("Denim And Leather" and "Princess
Of The Night") reminded us how good this band is in the live
situation. More Saxon at Wacken 2004!
Doug from Saxon
Biff from Saxon
RUNNING WILD
The semi-legendary Running Wild was basically the headliner on Thursday
and pulled a huge crowd to follow the ultimate pirate metal show. Rockin'
Rolf and company did a typical, but great, Running Wild gig. Running Wild is quite an interesting band nowadays as
Rockin' Rolf
has loyally kept the band running through all these years. All kinds
of various trends that have come and gone but one thing is definitely
sure, the pirate image and aspects will never be abandoned from the
RW concept like at Wacken when the mastermind of the pirate group had
dressed up in pirate clothes and occasionally changed them.
As for the show, it was quite a standard gig unfortunately without any huge
pyro stuff and fighting pirates with swords. Instead the whole look of
the stage was definitely aimed to be simple which makes anyone wonder why
Running Wild never tour outside of Germany nowadays. Anyway, the set list
was a real surprise consisting of naturally newer tracks for instance
"Victory", "Welcome To Hell", "Brotherhood" and of course
plenty of old
classic tunes picked up from their long career. A few of
them included "Genghis Khan", "Branded And Exile",
"Riding The Storm", "Chains And Leather", and of course the mandatory
"Under Jolly Roger" battle hymn also belonged to the set
list! The band, and especially Rockin Rolf, appeared to be damn thrilled
about the huge crowd. Although Running Wild would have
thanked the audience for creating such a great feeling by doing a few tracks
more, unfortunately the running time was limited.
After traveling several hours, lining up to get the pass, and seeing
the opening day with great bands getting to the tent to have a nap after
the long day started feeling like a more and more tempting choice. Sleeping bag
waiting!
Friday,
August 1, 2003