PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Friday Day Two at Wacken reviews include Skid Row, Santiano, Children Of Bodom, Apocalyptica, Saor Patrol, Rabbit At War, Motorhead, Carcass and Slayer.
Skid Row by Sheila:
Skid Row kick-start their early performance on the True Metal stage with ‘Let’s Go’ then ‘Big Guns’. Even though it’s just after midday there is a sizeable crowd and folk aren’t showing too many signs of hangovers as they jumped and sung along to the songs.
The guys are on form today and treating us all to a great tight set, ‘Piece of Me’ then ’18 and Life’ go down really well before Johnny talks about being different and they launch into ‘Thick Is the Skin’.
They dedicate ‘Psycho Therapy’ to Joey Ramone RIP and then play ‘I Remember You’ before speeding things back up with ‘Monkey Business’. Johnny talks about their new EP that was released that day in Germany before they play ‘We Are the Damned’. ‘Slave to the Grind’ was next up before they close their superb set off with the anthemic ‘Youth Gone Wild’ which the crowd really enjoys.
Setlist:
Let’s Go
Big Guns
Makin’ a Mess
Piece of Me
18 and Life
Thick Is the Skin
Kings of Demolition
Psycho Therapy (Ramones cover)
I Remember You
Monkey Business
We Are the Damned
Slave to the Grind
Youth Gone Wild
Santiano by Louise:
I tuned in to the Live Stream of Wacken Festival for German folk metal band Santiano. Only having heard of them an hour beforehand I wasn’t sure what to expect. With it flautist sounding opener and German lyrics I immediately though Jethro Tull meets Rammstein. I didn’t see a flautist on stage but the sound could have been synthesised, as there was definitely a laptop. This band are obviously extremely popular in their home country as there was a sea of hands in the air and everyone appeared to be singing along.
I didn’t catch all the song titles but the second song was very Pirates. A worthy Sea Shanty which had members of the audience surfing albeit the crowd rather than a sea. Dave Bradbery said these guys reminded him of the Von Hertzen Brothers. It looked hot and sunny over there in Wacken which had many of the audience topless, unfortunately for Santiano it seemed to be only the male audience members!
The next song was very The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band meets Scottish Reel. Make that The Devil Went Down to Loch Lomond! I managed to catch the title of the next song Blow Boys Blow a song Shane McGowan and The Pogues could do well. This was followed by Califonio and lots of gold streamers flying, which suited the ‘Wacken Party Stage’ to a T. Whilst bass player Bjorn Both took the lead vocal on most songs other members took the lead in places but whoever took lead the vocals were well harmonised. Dave Bradbery said the violinist reminded him of Rick Wakeman, whereas I though Bill Oddie in a blonde wig! Lancashire is closer to Yorkshire than London and Pete Sage is indeed a Yorkshire man so I was nearer – geographically anyway! It was like a Who’s Who as one of the guitarists reminded me of Andrea Bocelli with a curly perm and the other was a dead ringer for Emperor Ming.
A Didgeridoo was brought out for the next song, which started gently with the sounds reminding me of whale song but I definitely understood the words Jump, Jump, Jump. Rolf Harris meets House of Pain? Painful or not the crowd surfers looked to be having a whale of a time! Diggy Liggy Lo with its fast fiddling had a hillybilly sound and some members of the audience looked to be enjoying a hoedown! Whereas Wasser had the band doing a can can!
For penultimate song Pete’s fellow Yorkshire man Biff Byford joined the band and announced ‘This songs all about Wacken’ and I caught the words 25 years and the festival is indeed in its 25th year although somewhat bigger that it was back in 1990! With its Celtic feel this one had all the audience clapping and singing along and the band doing their own version of Riverdance but I don’t think it was choreographed by Michael Flatley! To conclude their set Santiano played popular Irish folk song Irish Rover ending what had been a hugely entertaining set on a high. The final words I caught were ‘That was it Wacken’
Children Of Bodom by Nikita:
Wasting no time Children of Bodom enter the stage, greeted by a colossal roar and blast straight into their set with Bodom classic ‘Needled 24/7’. With no words exchanged the band follows on straight into ‘Kissing the Shadows’ – an excellent start to the band’s 8th Wacken appearance. With minimal conversation and big praise to Wacken, our ears are pleasured with yet another fan favourite – ‘Bodom Beach Terror’. Before long we’re inevitably delivered the newer ‘Halo of Blood’ but rapidly return to a legion of older, favourable tracks including ‘Hate Crew Deathroll’ – introduced by front man Alexi Laiho as “something faster” and “heavier”. An hour later and with full crowd participation throughout; including a little lyrical teaching/learning for ‘Hate Crew Deathroll’ chorus and a constant wave of crowd surfers; the band close the victorious set with ‘In Your Face’. Tonight’s show was not in short supply of entertaining death metal goodness!
Setlist:
Needled 24/7
Kissing The Shadows
Bodom Beach Terror
Halo Of Blood
Scream For Silence
Hate Crew Deathroll
Lake Bodom
Angels Don’t Kill
Are You Dead Yet?
Towards Dead End
Hate Me!
Bodom After Midnight
Downfall
In Your Face
Apocalyptica by Heather:
As the evening sun sets, instruments are warmed up behind the WOA curtain on the True Metal Stage as a sea of black (with the odd inflatable banana and sombrereo thrown in) await the arrival of the Finns that they have taken to heart. Like nothing I know to have been seen at Wacken before, Apocalyptica brought a 20-something piece ochestra of strings, wind, brass, percussion and keys with them to Germany for their fourth appearance at the festival. Their set was a fantastic amalgamation of material from their albums some of which isn’t normally played live, including Rage of Poseidon from 2010’s 7th Symphony, which gives the feeling of going into battle. As well as material from their latest project Apolcalyptic Sympony and Ludwig – Wonderland from their previous project Wagner Reloaded, for which the fast time signature leads to some down and dirty cello playing.
Apocalyptica have opted to leave a vocalist behind for this show, but as their set draws to a close, they need no singer when they have Wacken to sing Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters for them. Just three cellos and a large share of the festival’s 80,000 strong crowd. As they encourage the crowd’s cries for more, having paid tribute to their orchestra, Apocalyptica opt for Greig’s Hall of the Mountain Lion to end their set. What can only be described as an epic festival performance that will take some topping.
Setlist:
Čohkka
Burn
Quutamo
Fight Fire With Fire
Rage of Poseidon
Bittersweet
Worlds Collide
Grace
Path
Ludwig – Wonderland
Inquisition Symphony
Encore:
Nothing Else Matters
Hall of the Mountain King
Saor Patrol by Sheila:
What do you get if you have five men, three sets of drums, a set of bagpipes and an electric guitar all on the Wackinger Stage? The answer is Scotland’s own Celtic/Medieval Rockers Saor Patrol!
The guys had been perfoming at Wacken for numerous years and were playing everyday at this year’s festival. I went to see them on the Friday night to see what they were like. Arriving as they were just about to start their 2nd song ‘Where I Am’ I was greeted by a small slice of Scotland, the sound of the bagpipes being started up followed by a wall of thundering drum beats before introducing the sweet serenade of the electric guitar.
Charlie announced ‘Bad Holly’ as a fun track and it was indeed as we had a conga line going along, with more and more of the sizeable crowd joining in and a fair few people attempting to do some Highland Dancing in the dust!
After all that activity, the guys on stage have a wee nip of Whisky before continuing on with the show with the track ‘Duncarron’ before playing ‘Ten Mair’ from their brand new album ‘Outlander’ and then ‘Black Bull’ before they closed their set off with the title track from ‘Outlander’ where all five of them beat the drums together!
They have been called a ‘unique sound of Scotland’ which to be honest really does sum them up. All the tracks are instrumental, however I would be surprised if anyone could resist their foot stomping beats. The bagpipes and guitar just blends in so well and there really was a party atmosphere there.
Rabbit At War by Sheila:
I was walking around the Wastelands after Saor Patrol and stayed to watch Rabbit At War’s set. Unfortunately it was all in German so I never caught the names of the songs, however their catchy electro rocky beats made for a great set. The band were joined by 4 female dancers on the Wasteland Stage which got people dancing along with them.
Motorhead by Louise:
Phil Campbell strolled on stage in a beanie hat and camouflage t-shirt then Lemmy suddenly appeared and announced ‘Hello again. Are you alright’ he mentioned that this was the 25th Wacken, the longest lasting festival in the world ‘Good Luck to Them. We are Motorhead and we play rock ‘n’ roll’ and Motorhead opened their set with Damage Case. Dressed all in black with a gold skull and crossbones motif on his black hat and wearing dark shades; Lemmy looked remarkably well for a man nearing seventy, who has had a very recent health scare. He took his usual stance, head back singing up to the mic and didn’t move around too much but the sound was the usual hard, fast sound which Motorhead are renowned for.
Mikkey looked like a King on a throne up there, surrounded by gold, in his case drums and cymbals and he was playing as though his life depended upon it with awesome speed and precision! The crowd were having a right royal time too cheering and clapping. Phil said ‘I’m going to count to three, then I want everyone to make more noise than ever before’ after the count one, two, three there were loud cheers but not loud enough for Motorhead as Phil, who appeared to be supping a mug of tea, declared it to be terrible. Lemmy agreed that it was terrible and dedicated the next song to everyone who made a noise ‘and me’ and that song was Over the Top. The Chase is Better than the Catch came next. Both popular with the crowd and keeping the crowd surfers active. It looked like crowd planking has become the latest craze.
‘Cheers’ said Lemmy. ‘About a hundred years ago we made an album Another Perfect Day which went nowhere, but I thought it was a good one! This one’s called Rocket’ a fast song with some great riffs. The next song Lost Woman Blues a much mellower, bluesy number and I noticed a guy in the audience managing to crowd surf and hold a pint without spilling a drop! This one sped up towards the end. There were a lot of heads shaking and fists pumping in the audience, which included a guy in a banana suit, fitting for Going to Brazil, Brazil being a major banana exporter, although whether this was the reasoning behind the costume I don’t know. Lemmy dedicated this fast song reminiscent of Chuck Berry’s Johnny Be Good to Roger, Eddie and any other Brazilians in the audience.
Ace of Spades came next and needed no introduction, the sky seemed to have gotten darker after Brazil and the stage had some fantastic light effects with spotlights going into space and what looked like fires burning. This Motorhead classic ended the set on a high. Phil then threw plectrums out to the crowd, Mikkey came down from his lofty throne and threw his drumsticks out to the crows. Motorhead took a final, and well deserved, bow to rapturous applause. Only a half hour set but it was fantastic to see Lemmy looking well and still playing the infamous Motorhead Rock ‘n’ Roll!
Set List:
Damage Case
Over The Top
The Chase is Better Than the Catch
Rocket
Lost Woman Blues
Going to Brazil
Ace of Spades
Carcass by Steve:
The return of Carcass has been hailed as one of the triumphs of this year’s festival season and by the size of the crowd gathered in front of the Party Stage, today’s show was one of the most anticipated of the whole weekend. On the back of Surgical Steel, their set drew a fine selection of songs from throughout their career.
Jeff Walker’s sarcastic charm is still there and his old cohort, Bill Steer, ever the riffing wingman, took up position to his left as the strains of intro 1985 ring out in front of the impressive backdrop (Surgical Steel was definitely one of the most impressive album covers last year). Daniel and Ben have settled into the band fantastically the bands performance today is a tour-de-force of extremity. As dry ice formed a haze over the stage in front of the setting sun Jeff joked “Everyone knows we’re a party band” and they tore into ‘Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System’ with Bill grinning from ear to ear and throwing guitar shapes with vigour.
Wacken has to have been the largest crowd Carcass have played to this year and their blend of thrash death gets the pits moving. Jeff asked us “What are u doing here? – Motorhead are in the field nearby. Oh I know. You feel this is your last chance to see me perform live as well”. During ‘This Mortal Coil’, Walker, Steer and Wilding take to the centre monitors almost like Accept the night before like a string trio shooting the crowd in the front row. ‘Corporeal Jigsore Quandary’, Captive Pistol Bolt’ and ‘Incarnated Solvent Abuse’ all made appearances but the loudest roar from the crowd was for set closer and ultimate finale, ‘Heartwork’.
Carcass are a band that very much still have a canvas to paint and it’s great to have their rotting cadavers back. Jeff’s final words summed the show up in two words;”Fucking killer!!!!!!”
Slayer by Sheila:
I had last seen Slayer in June at Hellfest but was disappointed with their set as Tom was suffering vocally, so to say that I was hoping for Tom to be back on form this evening was a bit of an understatment. I left the Press Area after waiting for an interview and headed out into the Arena during ‘Mandatory Suicide’. Once outside I was very happy to hear that Tom was sounding great this evening while I worked my way through the huge crowd to get to the True Metal Stage.
Slayer weren’t holding back this evening as they served up a fantastic set, however apart from the pit right infront of the stage the crowd seem quite docile, even through the well known songs ‘War Ensemble’, ‘Post Mortem’ and ‘Seasons in the Abyss”!
As ‘Raining Blood’ filled the air however, a lot more crowd surfers appeared in front of us, forming lines as they were carried towards the front and over the barrier, it’s the same throughout ‘South of Heaven’. They then bringing their set to a close with’Angel of Death’, which rounds the set off well.
Slayer did what they do best, play a tight set with no unnecessary breaks/banter in between songs. Tom’s voice did give out a little at times however this didn’t hamper the performence in anyway. I am very happy to see them back on form once again :)
Setlist:
Hell Awaits
The Antichrist
Necrophiliac
Mandatory Suicide
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Postmortem
Captor of Sin
Disciple
Seasons in the Abyss
Born of Fire
Dead Skin Mask
Raining Blood
Black Magic
South of Heaven
Angel of Death
