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Hey folks, making this post because there's a few fellow metal heads and it might interest them (I know Slayer wanted me to get some pics of this year's festival). Here is my summary of the festival shenanigans and I'll post pictures up later (everything is still packed).

Anyhow I got back from Wacken 2013 today, the world's biggest metal festival, it was my 4th year going. On Tuesday I caught my bus from just outside Cambridge and 22 hours later I arrived in the scenic farming town of Wacken, near Itzahoe in Germany. And it's where I set up my tent and enjoyed myself right around till Saturday and finally on Sunday, packed everything up and made the bus journey back to merry old England.

The weather was a lot better than last year (it mostly rained last year), the sun was out for almost all of it, there was some rain on the Saturday to cool things off. Friday was ridiculously hot, I was able to use the water in my tent to give myself a hot shower - I bet I could have brewed a cup of tea with it as well. As a result, I was passed out for my of the day, but livened up once the sun went down. Sadly it did mean I ended up sleeping through most of Issahn. I don't get along with the heat very well, I am a human radiator in general, so whilst it means I'm awesome in the winter, it means I suck in the summer.

Anyway, this is the list of the bands I ended up watching:

Alestorm
Alice Cooper
Amorphis
Annihilator
Corvus Corax (Partially)
Deep Purple
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter (I was passed out for most of it)
Doro Pesch
Ihsahn
Lamb of God
Meshuggah
Nightwish
Pretty Maids
Rammstein
Soilwork
Sonata Arctica
Thunder
Trivium (unintentially, I was getting read for Alice Cooper and they were on)

The top bands of the weekend?
Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Nightwish, Rammstein and Doro.

Deep Purple still had it. They were old men on a stage, but they had a lot of energy and musically they were brilliant.

Alice Cooper is a showman and he loves the theatrical and he made no exception for Wacken. He died a few times on stage. He also did some decent cover songs, like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles. He snuck in Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" for School's Out, which I thought was a nice touch.

Nightwish is currently usign a guest singer whilst Anette is having kids. She was replaced by After Forever's Floor Jansen and wow, she was good. She was the best possible choice they could have made for it. She always had a big vocal range for After Forever. Nightwish used most of their pyro (which were pretty awesome to watch) and Floor managed nail both Tarja's and Anette's materials, despite the vocal styles being extremely different. However, I think the only place she suffered as that the songs were written for either Tarja or Anette and Floor has her own personality and style, which she was unable to completely mask. However, I would be very happy if she stayed permanently.

Rammstein was awesome. Their music was very good, but these are a band you not only listen to but also watch. They're pyromaniacs on stage with their own customers flame throwers, setting people on fire and well...just general fire. Some of it could be amusing, like them using their flame throwers to cook their keyboardist in a giant cooking pot. Being Rammstein it was not without its homoeroticism, during Buck Dich there was gay sex (staged, not real) and the did 'relieve' himself on the crowd, it was fake.

Doro Pesch had her 30th anniversary at Wacken, she's an old school metal chick from the 80s, she's a German icon and she's good fun. Her music is cheesy, but it's fun, kind of like a party band. She coverred a few songs as well, she coverred a Saxon song with Saxon's lead singer Biff and had a few guests - including a crowd of fans to help her sing the Wacken Hymne (she wrote a song specically for the festival). She also coverred breaking the law, sadly Rob Halford didn't appear on stage to help. The only annoyance was she couldn't stop thanking people, she was like a Hollywood actress accepting an award for the first time, several times over.


A few samples (yep, people already started uploading to YouTube, thank you German TV):

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water (after a little guitar bit at the start) - warning, a little nudity

Rammstein, 3 songs - Wiener Blut, Du Riechst So Gut and Links 2, 3, 4

Alice Cooper - Hello Hooray

Doro - Rock Till Death

Sonata Arctica - Full Set



Some Memorable moments:

We had a Latvian guy on our bus, he came on at London, with a pirate hat and had snuck on some rum. He ended up getting pretty drunk on the bus and well I think he was a little crazy anyway. He provided some entertainment at least, to much annoyance of the bus drivers. Such as leaving his bag in strange places, getting his stomach pump and managing to find a bar in Hamburg when we were only there to drop off people at the hotel.

Despite me not being much of a Trivium fan (okay, I don't enjoy them), but I was taken aback when they decided to end on One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, so I did have a bit of a fangasm there.

On the campsite, we had some trolls, who blasted this through their stereo for most of the day and most of the night for every day of the festival. Still, preferable to Rick Rolling.


We met a couple of Germans when leaving the arena who were drinking and when the realised we were English they started singing, "there are 10 German bombers in the air, the German bomber in the air, 10 Germain bombers in the air, in the air, the RAF shot one down and now there are 9 German bombers in the air".

I found people were generally very friendly (people always came over to talk and were very sociable), the atmosphere was fantastic and the Germans love to have a good time. They also have a good sense of humour, despite their reputation. (Knock knock, who's there? The Gestapo) Most of them of course were drunk and I did get some funny looks from bar staff when ordering a Coke. However, when ordering shots, I found them to be more generous than the English, in England you buy 1 shot in a drink, whether you're drinking it stiff or mixing it and that's not even at a festival (festival in the UK do the same, but for twice the price). For about the same price as a 1 shot in a bar in England you get about 3 or 4 at Wacken. Everything is very well priced, unlike English festivals where it seems extortionate. The actual food you're eating is good quality as well.

As part of the festival there is a medival area with various medieval stools and activities. You could buy medieval food, drinks, clothes, accessories and equipment (yep, including swords). Also, they have a stage in that area for folk and folk metal bands to add to the atmosphere. It was also the best place to eat. There was also a makeshift stage made with a bar underneath with a very Post-apocalyptic setting, with various raider bikes and quads decorated around the stage. On top of the stage there was a band called Megabosch, who kept playing at different times throughout the days. Essentially it was very much like Fallout meets Vikings meets metal. I've got some pictures and I'll post them up.

Also, they've put the Christmas tickets on sale today, which have consequently sold out. Also, the line up is looking very awesome so far for next year. I'll be sure to snag another ticket.

Next Year's Line-up so far:
Amon Amarth
Apocalyptica
Arch Enemy
Avantasia
Behemoth
Children of Bodom
Emperor
Iced Earth
King Diamond
Kreator
Prong
Schandmaul

Not a bad set of announcements for 1 day after the festival finished this year. I suspect tickets will sell fast as Emperor was announced, I know I will really want to see them.


Out of interest, any other festival goers about?

Nice blog, Sep! Thanks! !
Seems you had a great time. It's cool to see some footage that early after a gig, but yeah...it doesn't take too long to put some vids on youtube these days.
How where Ihsahn and Gojira? Not as good as you'd hoped?
Also...when I read the names of next years line-up....whooooaaaah...Emperor??
That's awesome!! Didn't know they're coming back! Hopefully...also a new album! That would really be sick!

Ihsahn were really good, despite me being asleep for most of it. I was hiding under the shade underneath one of the Relentless stalls and passed out from the heat. Unfortunately I missed Gojira, I can't remember why though.

Also Meshuggah were amazing, the drummer was especially awesome. Doro also had a decent drummer. Alice Cooper had Orianthi playing guitar for him and she was very good.



Oh yes! I better hurry up and get a ticket though, seriously, they've already sold 40,000 and they've only just gone on sale today. Thankfully the company I booked the bus with hold tickets back, so I won't have to jump into the frenzy, considering the only money I've got left in my account is enough for food until I next get paid.

I suspect the quick sales will be down to Emperor being announced. Just as well, I need some new Emperor merch, the design on my Emperor shirt has completely faded since I've worn it so much.

http://www.wacken.com/en/woa2014/main-news/news/ansicht/article/wahnisnn-wacken-bereits-40000-tickets-zum-vvk-start-des-woa-2014-verkauft-8810/

I'll post more about the festival once I have pics up, I'm too sleepy to actually concentrate on anything - sleeping on a coach is near impossible.



Aye, it was the same last year. However, I suspect there will be some you won't find, like Nightwish, simply because they're going to be selling a DVD for the performance, so I doubt they would have shown any of it on TV, which is pretty much where all the footage is coming from. Having said that, In Flames' show from last year is on YouTube and they're turning that into a DVD as well.


But what always surprises me everytime I go to Germany for a festival and coming back to England is the contrast. You really notice the difference in how miserable English people are (in general, we're not all misers). I know it's a festival and people are generally more jolly. But even outside of the festival. I actually live right next to a hippy festival, which is getting bigger - the villagers just keep complaining and complaining and by all means I'm not a fan, there are some inconveniences, but I'm like, for goodness sakes it's only 3 days a year, let people have their fun.

Wacken on the other hand, everybody's like, "yay, festival goers! Come, let me cook you a barbecue and sell you some beer!" Even the old biddies from the village get involved, it's awesome seeing a local old grannie wearing a Wacken t-shirt. Rather than moan about having a festival, quite literally on their door step, they join in. The only person to have a problem as far as I could see was the preacher holding a placard telling us we're going to hell, (I took some pics), people tended to treat him as part of the festival and had their picture taken with him. I didn't see any abuse thrown at him, trolling yes, but not abuse.

Also, if you were ever sat or stood alone, it's almost guaranteed somebody will come over and talk to you.

I've uploaded some photos, I didn't get many good band photos on the account of only having my phone, which only has digital zoom - however, I don't think the pictures I did take were too bad quality for a mobile. They were taken on a Nokia Lumia 800.

My sister brought her camera with her and got much better photos, so I'm just waiting for her to upload them.

I had my picture taken with a couple of guys from Megabosch


We also encountered a street preacher telling everybody we're going to hell, he had signs in English and in German, but as you can see his English isn't good. He was entertainment for most, nobody found it offensive, they just had their picture taken with him, which is exactly what I think we should do with WBC.


With the medieval village we encountered a travelling folk band, who were kinda fun.



Also, I've mentioned how much the village gets involved. Here somebody turned their driveway into a bar selling alcohol.


Some band pics (waiting for my sister to post the rest):
Alestorm (they were drunk, as normal):

Annihilator

You can't sleep while they play, man!
On the other hand, I've never seen 'em live yet, so...shame on me!


Yeah, Thomas Haake is one of the best metal drummers on the planet.
I remember Doro Pesch from my younger years when I started listening to metal. She was a (female) metal icon back then, and she still has it. She's also still good looking.


That's a shame, dude!
Maybe next time, aye?


Geeeeeeeeeez, that whent fast! But, kinda 'normal', considering the names on that list. Emperor is still regarded as the best black metal band of all times, and the fact that they're celebrating the 20th anniversary of their "In The Nightside Eclipse" album, really makes a difference.


Really nice photos, man! Uhm...but, who's that cool dude with the kilt?


Is it allowed to film during the festival? If so, there'll be a few vids popping up on youtube, I guess.


That's good. Sounds like the right ambience for a gig. Here in Belgium, we also have a good attitude when it comes to Festivals. Maybe not appreciated as much by everyone, but it's doable.

I'll say it again, very nice blog, Sep! It shows you're into writing.

I saw enough to enjoy it. Annoyed that I did fall asleep, but as I say, I'm not good with the heat.



Old enough to be my mum, but she looks like she's barely aged since the 80's. I wonder if metal helps combat the signs of aging? That would be an interesting Oil of Olay advert. Somebody wiping some clay-like cream on their face with Doro kicking down the door followed by a cover of Twisted Sister's "You Gotta Rock!"



And it's also the 25th Anniversary of Wacken, people seem more interested in going at each milestone. Oh and last update from this afternoon, 60,000 tickets sold. Given approximately 80,000 people go each year, I don't think we'll last until the end of the week. The events company we use haven't put their tickets on sale yet, but they tend to pre-order them and also let you reserve them if you're unable to pay up front (just as well because I'm skint this month on account of going to Wacken).



I wouldn't worry about him, he's a loser, I mean Christ, he thinks he's a pirate.






Hopefully. Normally when I miss a band, I catch them again some other time (like Amorphis, Tyr, Napalm Death etc.). A lot of these bands play again. Unless of course it's somebody who very rarely plays, then I'd be kicking myself. Hence it was imperative that I watched Deep Purple and Rammstein, luckily they were one after the other - it also meant I was drunk for both of them. I had a guy run up and hug me during "Du Hast" screaming "Du hast mich" (You hate me), I was tempted to turn around and say, "nein, ich liebe dich" (no, I love you).




Cheers man, I just need somebody to employ me as a writer. Yes I do writing for my job (they're letting me update their technical documents as the current ones suck) but I'm only doing it as an offhand thing when work is quiet.