Wacken Open Air - Saturday
5 August 2006
Wacken, Germany
After their superb performance at Bloodstock Open Air, Metal Church`s last minute addition as replacement for Nocturnal Rites was most welcome. Even if it did mean an early start, as Ronny Munroe put it "Not a bad way to wake up!". The band run through a truncated version of the BOA set, with just as much infectious energy. As before there seems a real band spirit, with interaction and laughs. Typified when Munroe points at Kurt Vanderhoof during Start The Fire, amending one line to, "He`s a metal man of destruction." With a large crowd it`s the perfect opportunity to do some filming and the band return at the end of their set to run through Mirror Of Lies once more for a new promo video.
Metal Church set list:
A Light In The Dark / Ton Of Bricks / Start The Fire / Watch The Children Pray / Mirror Of Lies / Gods Of Wrath / Beyond The Black / Metal Church / Mirror Of Lies
Arch Enemy are huge now, verified by the massive crowd who don`t seem to mind the band being ten minutes late. It did mean they lost ten minutes at the other end of the set however. On home turf, Angela Gossow addresses the crowd in her native tongue. From a casual glance around its noticeable how many girls had turned up for Arch Enemy. It goes without saying that Gossow is unique and obviously something of a role model. For the first three songs the lack of real volume and occasional breeze caused the guitars to drift away in the wind and with no guitars Arch Enemy`s attack is pretty blunt. By Burning Angel things were better, but we`re half way through the set now due to the late start. Michael Amott & Fredrik Akesson`s dual guitar tapping during Dead Bury Their Dead was something of a highlight, but all too soon the band sign off with We Will Rise. All in all, apart from being too short, it did feel like just another stop on the summer festival circuit for Arch Enemy.
Arch Enemy set list:
Nemesis / Dead Eyes See No Future / My Apocalypse / Burning Angel / I Am Legend - Out For Blood / Dead Bury Their Dead / Ravenous / We Will Rise
Gradually over the weekend it had got hotter and hotter and Saturday was absolutely baking. Fear Factory had to be good to hold my attention, but I`m afraid they weren`t. The band`s once cutting edge has been rendered blunt over time with Devin Townsend`s Strapping Young Lad heading into much more interesting territories with a similar sound. The minimalistic cyber sound becomes quite tired after a few songs and the formula of shouty verse, hymn like chorus has seriously waned over the four albums since Demanufacture. Of course songs from that album receive the biggest cheers, or that`s what it sounds like as I wander off to cool off with a shower.
Fear Factory set list included:
Slave Labor / Demanufacture / Cyberwaste / Archetype / Linchpin / Walk / Replica
After the disappointment of Fear Factory, Morbid Angel are exactly the opposite. They may be relying solely on material over ten years old but it still sounds relevant today. Whilst Trey Azagthoth may be a bit deluded in stating, "There`s nobody playing music like this", Morbid Angel were one of the first, and on today`s performance, remain one of the best. I`d caught an excellent show in London by this reunion line-up, though this time Eric Rutan is manning the second guitar, and today they proved they could recreate the evil in scorching sunshine. With his return David Vincent has proved he isn`t just the best frontman for this band, he`s surely the only frontman. His presence is immense and he has the crowd in his palm as he beckons them to sing the orchestral section to Immortal Rites. Morbid Angel aren`t Kiss though and can`t tour their first four albums forever. It`s now time to prove they can still create the magic in the studio.
Morbid Angel set list:
Rapture / Pain Divine / Maze Of Torment / Sworn To The Black / Lord Of All Fevers & Plague / Immortal Rites / Fall From Grace / Chapel Of Ghouls / Dawn Of The Angry / Where The Slime Lives / God Of Emptiness
One of the problems with Wacken is that there are so many good bands playing it`s difficult to find time to do anything but watch them. I`d been planning on visiting the extensive metal market all weekend and looking at the remainder of Saturday`s schedule decided to forego Gamma Ray on this occasion. However, given the dip away from the stage and back up to the metal market, not only are Gamma Ray audible, they are also visible from the metal market and provided an excellent soundtrack to some heavy metal shopping!
Gamma Ray set list:
Gardens Of The Sinner / Man On A Mission / New World Order / Blood Religion / Fight / Heavy Metal Universe / Rebellion In Dreamland / I Want Out / Somewhere Out In Space / Send Me A Sign
Reputation regained! Atheist had been the real disappointment of Bloodstock Open Air, but today they delivered what I`d hoped for. My plan had been to watch a bit and then head over to check out Soulfly, but I simply couldn`t budge. Kelly Schaefer was the latest in a line of frontmen sniping at the band on the opposite stage, snarling, "I`m not a fan of nu-metal anyway". I think that was already apparent from Atheist`s incredibly technical sound. Having played across Europe, Atheist really seemed to have gelled with new guitarist`s Chris Barer and Sonny Carson stepping up to the plate. Bassist Tony Choy was surely keeping one eye for holes having disappeared through the stage at the Evolution Festival in Italy but dazzles us with his dexterity, with an extended solo during Mother Man. Said song closed rather bizarrely with Kelly Schaefer recreating bird tweeting at the end. Piece Of Time closes the set triumphantly, but with a tinge of regret that I may never see Atheist again.
Atheist set list:
Unquestionable Presence / On They Slay / Mineral / Unholy War / Retribution / Air / I Deny / An Incarnation`s Dream / Mother Man / And The Psychic Saw / Piece Of Time
Sandwiched between technical death and black metal, Whitesnake were actually a welcome change of pace. Whilst his vocals may not be as smooth as they once were, David Coverdale still acts like a man a generation younger than he actually is, prancing round the stage in an open neck shirt, pulling shapes with his mic stand. Deep Purple`s Burn, which included a portion of Stormbringer, opened the set but then its Coverdale`s Whitesnake hits all the way. Is This Love is probably the soppiest song on the entire weekend and we`re surrounded by canoodling couples! A new song Ready To Rock hints that, when it does surface, the next Whitesnake album will be in the 1987 vein. Resembling Animal from the muppets, Tommy Aldrich`s solo demonstration of how fast he can play was amusing given Emperor`s Trym and his blastbeats are up next. The one-two of Here I Go Again and Still Of The Night raise the crowd`s noise levels before the band depart with Bad Boys.
Whitesnake set list:
Burn (including Stormbringer) / Fool For You Loving / Love Ain`t No Stranger / Ready An` Willing / Is This Love / Ready To Rock / Doug Aldritch & Reb Beach Guitar solos followed by band jam / Crying In The Rain (including Tommy Aldrich drum solo) / Give Me All Your Love / Here I Go Again / Still Of The Night / Bad Boys
Whilst the reunion appearance by Emperor was greatly anticipated, given the odd sound issue over the weekend, it was also one with a degree of trepidation. Fortunately, by second song Thus Spake The Nightspirit things had fallen into place. There`s no big fanfare about Emperor`s performance, it just oozes class as the band simply get down to the business of playing the songs. The video screens give us a great close up look at proceedings and Trym hardly breaks a sweat whilst delivering a barrage of percussion. Having never toured Prometheus, In The Wordless Chamber is given an airing and despite the band`s debut album being most heavily featured in tonight`s set, it`s the more technical nature of the Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk and IX Equilibrium material that comes over best. Such material showed how far the band had come from their early blurred black & white photos, hiding in the woods wearing corpsepaint, even if Ihsahn wore his spiked shoulder piece late in the set.
Emperor set list:
Into The Infinity Of Thoughts / Thus Spake The Nightspirit / An Elegy Of Icarus / Curse You All Men! / With Strength I Burn / Towards The Pantheon / The Loss & Curse Of Reverence / In The Wordless Chamber / I Am The Black Wizards / Inno A Satana
Having seen Motorhead three times over the last year I decided to pass on seeing them once more in favour of a much needed sit down and a beer. Fortunately the video feed was being relayed to a flatscreen in the backstage bar and from what I saw Motorhead`s set differed little from those three shows. Presumably the band will freshen things up when touring their new album Kiss Of Death.
LINKS:
Wacken Open Air
Finntroll
Motorhead
Emperor
Whitesnake
Soulfly
Atheist
Gamma Ray
Suidakra
Morbid Angel
Orphaned Land
Fear Factory
Arch Enemy
Metal Church
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