Oct 18, 2007
Wacken Open Air 2007 Review

Oi! Long read ahead! Here's my impressions of W:O:A 07. Enjoy~

Wednesday 01.08

Mambo Kurt
Well, the festival didn't really start until Thursday but as a bit of a warm-up Mambo Kurt played at the Wednesday. This little bald fella and his keyboard makes some pretty funny or at least different covers of famous songs. Slayer, Metallica, ABBA etc… Charmy, but I wouldn't call it good. ^^,


Thursday 02.08

Blitzkrieg
Finally the festival started for real. These NWoBHM:ers made a really nice appearance, and even though I thought they were good they got some great support from the crowd. I guess everyone was just happy the bands finally started playing. Nice start, but not too spectacular.

Krossbreed
I took a little walk to the Headbangers Ballroom to see how the atmosphere was there and this band was playing. Was some Black, but with very melodic lead guitars. I liked it, sounded nice. I only saw the last 2-3 songs thou.

Rose Tattoo
Angry Anderson and his lads plays some nice hardrock. It's not really my cup of tea, but they made a really nice performance nevertheless. Spreading their message about love and stuff.

Sodom
For me this was one of the highlights of the entire festival! Great performance, great choice of songs from all eras, great atmosphere in the crowd. They had a lot of past members coming up playing with them, I don't know their history enough to say if it was all of them and I don't remember their names… but there was at least 4 guitarists (might have been 5…) and 2 drummers.
And the crowd was wild. There was at least 3 different moshpits going constantly and always at least 2 people crowd surfing, but always just for the fun of it not that violent kind.
Towards the end they played Napalm in the Morning and a loud cheer came from the crowd, aborted by some really cool pyrotechnics that resembled real napalm. Awesome!

Saxon
Heavy Metal Thunder! These old men know how to rock. Really nice performance, and again a really nice mix of songs. Cool to see Tobi Sammet (Edguy) sing Strangers in the Night with them also, he did a good job considering he'd never heard it before… ^^,
The big highlights were of course the classics like Princess of the Night and Denim and Leather etc. For me I stayed back and just sang a long and raised my fist, relaxing a bit after the überviolence of Sodom. But I heard people were even moshing to Saxon also… how odd. ^^
Nice finnish of the first festival day anyway. :]


Friday 03.08

Suidakra
I have one album of these guys (Command to Charge) which I don't like very much at all, I pretty much just went to see them because I didn't have anything else to do. So I was really surprised to find a kinda folky Death Metal band, because I didn't remember any folk elements on the CD I have. Good for me! So I rather enjoyed this gig, and maybe I should get some other albums from them also.

Then I was waiting for Amorphis to start on the other main-scene but some stupid bastard dropped a cigarette and started a minor fire with lots and lots of smoke. So they had to do some rescheduling, instead Napalm Death started earlier and they shortened the sets a bit and such. I didn't really want to see Napalm Death, but since the speaker dude was only explaining in german at first I had to stick around to see what happened and since I didn't want to miss Amorphis… made me miss Communic which is a shame, so I bought their CD instead…
But the crew handled it all very smoothly, was just some minor delays on the coming 4 bands or so then all was fine. Good job and thumbs up to the Wacken-crew!

Napalm Death
I'm no fan of Grindcore overall, and as I wrote above I only saw them because I didn't want to miss Amorphis. But with that said, if I ever listen to Grind it's Napalm that's on top of the list. They made a nice solid set, good enough.

Amorphis
Really well-played set and a nice mix from all albums. A friend who's a pretty big Amorphis fan was really happy with the gig, me I thought it was OK. I'm no big fan of them, their songs is generally a bit too slow for my taste. But nice nevertheless, and worth the delay.

Therion
I never quite imagined Therion as a good live-band, their music just doesn't seem like something you play live. So it was a pleasant surprise to see them! Becouse this gig was really nice! With their new singer Thomas Vikström (Dark Illusion) and Snowy Shaw doing most of the vocals from behind some bars in the back next to the drums and the guitars and base in the front. Odd set-up. ^^
And the music worked very well live also, very sing-along friendly. And nice to see Kristian playing live also (he works at a youth center where I live so I see him now and then). He had a really nice looking Ibanez guitar… :]

Possessed
Hell yeah, fucking POSSESSED! Their frontman might be sitting in a wheelchair, but that ain't stopping him from rocking out as much as anyone. A true Metal-hero! This was another of the highlights of the festival for me. Every song had me headbanging, very rare with such good sets! And I know I wasn't the only one who enjoyed this gig. Jeff Becerra (singer) was quite obviously touched also.
Oldschool Death/Thrash at it's very best! I'm very glad I got to see them, since I have a feeling they'll probably not going to do so many more gigs.
DEATH! DEATH! DEATH! METAL!

Grave Digger
I've been wanting to see Grave Digger since pretty much the first time I heard them, but the bastards never come to Sweden. So it was really nice to finally see them! They certainly didn't disappoint. Their setlist wasn't what I'd chosen thou, was kind of a slow start, but it got a lot better towards the end with The Grave Digger, Tunes of War, Rebellion, Heavy Metal Breakdown etc etc…
Chris is starting to look a bit old me thinks, but it kind of suits him. And he certainly haven't slowed down, he's a really good frontman keeping the crowd going all the time and always happy. Mannis guitarplaying was also really nice. Just what you expect from a old class band like that. :]

(J.B.O.)
I didn't see them, but I was sitting outside the festivalarea resting a bit and eating a bratwurst and getting some rare shadow. My first thought was like "german Manowar?", but after some more songs that's not really the case. I dunno, but I got the impression they're kinda goofy and that you have to understand the german lyrics to really get the point of this band. Oh well.

Sabbat
Another highlight of the festival! They certainly made Headbangers Ballroom deserve its name. That was a really intense gig, and it's a shame they only had a short set. There was only one small downside, and that was there was one of those who're really too old, too heavy and too drunk guys bouncing around being very violent. Don't think he realized his strength, or that people were standing with their backs at him and had no chance of seeing him coming. Oh well, everyone survived. :P
Great songs, great show! Gotta get the Sabbat discs soon…

Black Majesty
Took a water-break after Sabbat and went to my tent saying hi to my camp-buddies. I actually thought it was Chthonic I was skipping but apparently they had skipped times and when I got back into the Ballroom Black Majesty was playing their last two songs or so. They where pretty much as expected, nothing out of the ordinary just like their albums. Still good thou, but I'd probably been bored with seeing an entire set of their happy Power Metal. :P

Chthonic
So since I didn't miss them I stayed around to see this Taiwanese Black Metal band… well, purists will probably not call it Black Metal, since they have keyboards. And not only one, but two! Musically it didn't feel like the second keyboard added much thou. I think a good keyboard player could've probably played it alone. Ahwell. And to make them even less true they have a female bassist. Haha. :P
Oh well, they were a decent band, but nothing special really.

Lacuna Coil
Don't know if Chthonic finished early or it was me who was quick but I catched the end of Lacuna Coil while heading for Blind Guardian. I don't really like them much, didn't plan to see them. But nice music while waiting for Blind Guardian. :P

Blind Guardian
By now the crowd was immense… the entire area in front of both mainstages and all the way to the entrance was pretty much packed. I wasn't in the mood to fight through that huge mass so I stayed back and got a decent view at least. The set was really nice with a lot of old songs, and performed flawlessly. I'm no big Guardian fan, but I really enjoyed their gig. Well, until I relaxed too much and got a crowd surfer's boot in the back of my head so hard that I got a nosebleed. :/
Thanks to the german guy who reached two rows in front of him to his girlfriend to get me tissue to stop the bleeding! Which is by the way a good example of the whole atmosphere of the festival, everyone was so nice, happy and helpful all the time. Great. :)
Stayed a couple of songs after that, but then I felt I had to go wash some blood off myself. Funny how I survived some really violent moshpits and stuff without a scratch but got knocked down at a wussy band like Blind Guardian… haha. :P

Dimmu Borgir
I didn't have the energy to fight my way through that huge crowd again so I actually stayed pretty close to the entrance (and it was lots of people there as well!) and watched the show on the big screen. Which was as well really, since Hellhammer has broken his arm I didn't see any major reason to see Borgir. Pretty nice band, but I've never really gotten in to them. Besides, it was almost as wild back where I stood as it was more up front, haha.
The set was pretty nice anyway, they played most songs I recognize by them and well the last song was of course the mightiest (Morning Palace). Overall a nice gig, but Shagrath wasn't nearly as evil as Abbath. ^^

Iced Earth
Again I stayed at the same spot as I was at for Borgir. This was a nice performance, Ripper shined with his singing and Jon certainly didn't disappoint on the axe. Many sing a-long songs and I heard the crowd all the way to where I was standing. They played some new songs from the upcoming album, which in my opinion fitted nicely into the set so that's promising pretty good for the future. The light show looked pretty cool from where I was standing also, the scene was just a blur of colours at times.
Good job, and a solid performance by IE. :]

Kampfar
I actually planned to see Samael, but my tired feet decided that it was much closer to go to the Headbangers Ballroom than all the way to the far away Party stage (which I never was at in the entire festival actually! :o ). No regrets there thou, because Kampfars folky Black Metal was really nice and they got some really cool support from the crowd. I hadn't heard them before, but they certainly convinced me to get their albums eventually. Very nice finnish of day two!

(Die Apokalypsenischen Reiter)
As I was walking to my tent I was listening to Die Apokalypsenischen Reiter, which I thought sounded pretty interesting. I think I might have enjoyed their gig had I stayed and not been so tired. This is one of those bands I've never even heard of, but still they were playing a big stage. Guess they're famous in Germany?


Saturday 04.08

Sacred Reich
Felt like there was many reunions at this Wacken, Sacred Reich was another one. And despite playing so early they had a really big crowd. Which was noticeable when they played Warpigs and wanted the crowd to sing along. That was probably the highlight of their gig, but their other songs where also nice.

Mike Terrana
Not a band, but Mike had a drum clinic at the Metal Market and since I think he's one of the very best drummers around I of course had to see him again. He didn't disappoint, and played some nice songs from various artists he's been with and an extra long version of his classic drum solo that was even more insane than usual. Awesome!

And damn, I'd liked to stay in the Metal Market longer… was some crazy amount of CD's and stuff there that I'd gladly taken a closer look on, especially since they were in such disorder… But alas, so much else to do. Maybe next year. :)

Dir en Grey
Was nothing else to see, and my friend wanted to see them so I tagged along. Well, the best thing I can say about them is that at least they're original… Didn't like them much. Crazy singer thou, scratching his stomach until he was bleeding drinking his own blood and stuff… Yeye, that was a long hour anyway… :P

Rage
Ah Rage, for the third time! And now with the Lingua Mortis orchestra. Which was certainly a new touch, but I actually think it worked the wrong way for them since their songs felt slower somehow. And I also missed Mike Terrana behind the drums. Oh well, watched a couple of songs then I went to the tent to have some water. Came back just in time to see Higher than the Sky which is definitely one of my absolutely favourite sing-along songs of all times. Good timing there. :)

Destruction
Then it was time for Destruction, hell yeah! They had without a doubt the coolest intro that I saw. "Welcome… the Mad Butcher!" then he was on stage going rampage with a chainsaw. The drums started, the guitar-riffing kicked in and *BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM* some awesome pyrotechnics got the first song started.
The crowd was wild, not quite as wild as during Sodom (well, actually it was pretty much just less crowd surfers which is certainly OK with me!). Then came Alliance of Hellhoundz, of course with guests. They brought out Angelripper, Peavy and Oddleif Stensland (Communic) to help with the vocals. Sweet!
And since Destruction was celebrating their 25 birthday (I think they celebrated one year to early thou?) there was of course old band members also. They actually brought out all of the past members! Especially cool was the three drumsets. Musically it just sounded like one set… then you step back and think a bit. Yes, they were THAT tight! Awesome!
Was a really awesome set-list and really cool show also, whenever you weren't busy headbanging there was always stuff happening on stage to look at; Mad Butcher running around slashing his cheerleader pleasuregirls, cool pyrotechnics, nice guitarduels etc.
And then they finish it all off with 25 years of Destruction on stage at the same time. Mighty, and a gig to remember!

Benedictum
Then I headed off to the Headbangers Ballroom again to see Benedictum. Unfortunately they were running a bit late, but Veronica (vocals) kept the mood up in the crowd by coming on stage and cheering with us and even went down behind the fence and talked to the fans in the first row and gave away some hugs. Nice gesture!
And the show was also very nice, once it started. Really good shredder at the guitar and Veronicas voice is really nice! The support was kinda lame to start with, but after some songs and lots of pushing from Veronica it picked up and they got what they deserved. Don't get me wrong thou, I don't think there's any bad support at Wacken… it's just in the beginning of this show it was so little compared to what I'd gotten used to. ^^

Ah well, thanks to the delay I missed Moonsorrow since I rather headed off to see…

Immortal
Say what you want, Immortal is always Immortal! This time the crowd was equally huge as the day before, but with some determition I got a pretty good spot. By the way, I always get a bit surprised to see who actually listenes to Black Metal. Okay, that dude standing with his arms across his chest in a long black robe and long black hair is obviously a Black Metallist. But that blonde girl in a white t-shirt and a skirt? Well obviously, since she was headbanging like a maniac and singing a long to every song…
Ah, back to Immortal. They where pretty much exactly what I expected, which is a good thing! This is how Black Metal should be performed live. And Abbath is a really evil bastard. He hardly spoke at all between the songs, he just stood there looking evil. Spitting once in a while. He didn't really have to do anything else, the support from the crowd was huge anyway. Well, I guess mr Evil felt that too, since he even said "Thank you" once… how un-trve off him. But with such crowd (all in all 72 000 people and I think most of them were there), who wouldn't be touched? ^^
I have no complains whatsoever. Really nice gig.

In Flames
So In Flames played the other main-stage but I decided to stay in front of the Black Stage waiting for Cannibal Corpse and watching In Flames on the big screen instead. I guess they did a pretty nice job, I didn't really pay any attention. I heard the classic songs, and was surprised about how gay Anders seemed in between the songs with his talking. :P
I was pretty much sleeping awake.

Cannibal Corpse
So, since I didn't pay any attention to In Flames I didn't really catch when they stopped playing and didn't notice when Cannibal Corpse came on stage and started grinding at once. Woke up and realized I was in the middle of the hugest fucking moshpit I've ever seen! It covered the entire front of the stage! Must've been like a hundred people in it, insane! And it was hell to try to get out of it, took me like 4 songs! Bastards kept dragging me back in. ^^,
Didn't stay for so many songs more once I got out of the mosh since I wanted to see 1349 who played at the same time. Or well, was supposed to play at the same time. That earlier delay in the Ballroom had spread and when I arrived Unheilig was playing. Don't understand what they where doing at this festival at all, was some electronica shit. And when they finally got off stage (with a loud cheer from all 1349 fans I might add) I had to go since I was supposed to meet a friend. So I missed 1349 alltogether and as things turned out I could've seen the entire Cannibal Corpse set. So that sucked. :/
And while waiting for my friend in the Biergarten I was listening to Subway to Sallys entire set. Didn't really catch my attention. Can't even recall what they sound like. Shame there wasn't a good band playing the mainstage… oh well.


All in all this was one hell of a great festival. I'm back next year for sure. Hope to see you people there. :]