|
WACKEN OPEN AIR FESTIVAL AUGUST 02-04, 2007- Wacken, Germany First a brief history of the Wacken Open Air Festival
"Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) is the largest exclusively heavy metal music festival in the world. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. With over 60,000 attendees in 2006, it attracts metal music fans from around the world.
The festival was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and one of the most important in the world and included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia. W:O:A is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area. The 70 or more artists perform across four separate stages over the course of the event. Wacken Open Air is held in such high esteem by artists and fans that some bands have been known to reform especially to perform there."
Well they say better late than never! As I am now fully recovered from my 6th Wacken battle, I will now share with you my experience of the best heavy metal festival ever held. After a pretty sweet flight from Seattle to Hamburg (20 hours of travel, layover time) we safely arrived to the Hamburg airport at 7:45 a.m. Thursday August 2nd. We got our luggage and then headed upstairs to this breakfast buffet place and I had a cup of coffee and german pretzel (These fucking RULE) and some kind of ham sandwich with cheese. Then we headed down to the arrivals area and waited for our friends from Norway and Canada. We rented a station wagon and headed to Wacken. For some odd reason, traffic was not bad at all. We made it to the festival area, past the police dudes that randomly stop cars going to Wacken and to the vip/press accreditations center. We had to stand in a line for the passes and that took about 15 minutes. We then headed to the VIP campground to set up camp and start getting drunk. I met some friends of friends, some new friends and old ones, the Jager and Beer started flowing and then it was time to head backstage and see what was going on before Sodom took the stage! I mingled with friends and drank some more and grabbed one of them killer bbq pit sandwiches they sell backstage every year. I had chicken that time, but they offer beef, pork and two types of sausages Polish and some Wurst one. I checked out the press tent quickly and then stumbled onto the main stage area to Watch Sodom. SODOM played a special 25th anniversary set at Wacken Open Air festival. The intro music began and then before you knew it, Sodom hit the stage and were playing "Blood on your Lips" from the newest self titled release. I was mildly drunk at this point and had moved my way up a little closer, losing the friends I was with. I secured a spot and banged my head with 50 thousand plus heavy metal maniacs!
Sodom fucking killed Wacken. They had excellent sound, Tom's vocals were spot on and the guitars were perfect! And I must say that Bobby was simply amazing behind the drum kit. I have seen Sodom several times before, but this show was special and flat out spectacular for any Sodom freak. All hell broke loose when they whipped into "Burst command til War" and this is when serious headbanging and singing prevailed. This was followed by "Obsessed by Cruelty"!!! At this point I began thinking that I was in the middle of some sort of awesome metal dream. And it just got better and better from there. Sodom thrashed for for about two fucking hours and were joined by several ex-members for a set of songs that have rarely or never before been played live. , Grave Violator (guitar), Athätor (guitar), Frank Blackfire (guitar), Michael Hoffman (guitar), Andy Brings (guitar) and Atomic Steif (drums). Chris Witchunter never showed for some reason. You had to be there to believe it!! Check out the setlist, they ended with five classic tracks. Being the hardcore fan that I am, I was a little disappointed that there was no "Witching Metal" or "Nuclear Winter" included, but all in all, Sodom made the night at Wacken very special. Thanks Guys!! PROST!!!!!!
SODOM SETLIST:
01. Blood on your lips
02. Wanted dead
03. City of god
04. Bibles and guns
05. Burst command `til war
06. Obsessed by cruelty
07. Christ Passion
08. Magic Dragon
09. Tarred and feathered
10. The Crippler
11. Get what you deserve
12. Abuse
13. Scum
14. Frozen Screams
15. Warlike conspiracy
16. Genocide
17. Lords of depravity
18. Sodomy and lust
19. Ausgebombt
20. The saw is the law
21. Outbreak of evil
22. Bombenhagel So after Sodom, I wandered backstage to drink massive amounts of beer. After that, we ended up back at the camp with 2 liters of Jagermeister. Thus beginning my "drunken phase" of the festival. And also my classic "Missing Bands Syndrome". Thursday I missed Rose Tattoo and Blitzkrieg (but could hear them and they both sounded great). I have seen Rose Tattoo at a previous Wacken and they always play a great show and really work the crowd. Funny how huge they are in Germany. In their homeland, they could play a club and pull maybe 30 to 40 people if that. Yep, Germany loves Rose Tattoo. I also missed fucking Overkill after Sodom and was pissed, so I drank more and then got so drunk that I finally decided to crawl into my tent and call it a night. I woke up at around 9:00 am to the sounds of sound check down at the main stages. Drums pounding and guitars crunching....I was super super hungover. My head was splitting and I just layed there for like what seemed like an eternity. I sat up. Oh shit. I had a sudden wave of nausea and felt the urge to vomit. It was coming fast and I unzipped my tent and hung 1/2 way out of it and puked. After puking I got up out of the tent and thought "I am not going to drink much if any today". I grabbed a huge bottle of water from camp, politely refusing the offer of a cold beer. My head was really splitting, so I took two Naproxen Sodium (Aleve). Then I wandered down to the backstage area bathrooms and there was a stand next to it selling this killer sandwiches for 3 euros. They had Ham and Turkey, Bologna and Egg Salad. I bought, a Ham and Cheese sandwich, chocolate milk and some Earl Grey tea (with lots of cream and sugar). I went back to camp and sat and had my breakfast, and I was then starting to feel a little better. I finished eating and then someone asked if I wanted a beer and I said "Sure", so I cracked my first beer at around 11:00 am Friday. I ate another one of the bbq'd flesh sandwiches backstage and drank more back there missing Suidakra AND Amorphis. I went back to camp and drank more beer and jager and we could hear Napalm Death ripping it up. We then made our way to the main stage area to witness the Possessed reunion! Possessed were sick as expected. Jeff Bercera might be in a wheelchair but that did not stop him from headbanging and singing his ass off. Songs from Seven Churches gave me gooseflesh. Wacken is the best festival in the world. I always enjoy covering this awesome event. And look forward to covering this festival again in the not so distant future! Cheers and Strong German Beers! Scott Cameron aka Blizzard Beast
|
Live Reviews 
