During the past years, the fact that Wacken sells out is more of like a tradition and with Savatage and Judas Priest on the bill, one can only expect another sold out edition. Thousands of metal fans from every corner of the world come to at Wacken to have fun and celebrate the metal way, for whole four days.
Wednesday
Unfortunatelly the weather was far from good, the rain transformed the whole festival into a huge mud pit. I’m still not entirely sure whether 2015 was the worst year rain wise or if it was 2005. However, the weather goods were out drinking…
Swedish rockers Europe did hell of a show and their set was with classic.
Probably the fact that they played in the Bullhead City Tent was one of the best things that happened this year at Wacken. A few thousand people came to hide from the rain and listen to good music already on Wednesday. Actually so many people came that already during the second song they stopped the crowd access because the tent was already filled.
Thursday
Photo: Alfred Nitsch
It took us a while to get to the main festival area, by then the rain had just stopped for a few hours and then we finally got to see Rob Zombie. Rob Zombie is the definition of Hollywood and he didn’t disappoint. To some known as a movie director/producer, to others as the ex-singer of White Zombie (thus his name!), he manged to get the frozen people finally start moving and for 40 minutes we actually managed to forget about the weather. His set was a mix of Rob Zombie hits combined with a few White Zombie songs and even a weird cover of Metalica’s Enter the Sandman. I would probably prefer to see him under different circumstances, less rain and probably during the night. However, he delivered all the way and it was the perfect start of the evening.
Photo: Frank Schwichtenberg (Schwicht de Burgh Photography)
Like many others, I have been personally dreaming about this reunion for many many years. Savatage’s show was not only a reunion, it was the most perfect an outstanding show I have probably witnessed. Even though dancers don’t really fit in when it comes to heavy metal, I must agree that everything was so well planned and rehearsed that it felt almost too good to be true. To my knowledge, Savatage is the only band that has played on both stages at the same time and that says a lot.
Photo: Andreas Lawen
Setlistwise, they began with Gutter Ballet, leaving almost everybody with a wide open mouth after the first few minutes. Who could have imagined that they would sound better than they ever did after such a long break?
Everything was simply just perfect and they played pretty much all their important songs. They went off the stage, but not before they ended their set with probably one of their best songs ever “Chance”. On our way back to the camping, I saw more than a few people over forty years that had simply been left in the tears after the concert. Hopefully we won’t have to wait that long before Savatage gets back on stage again.
Friday
We started the day in the same manner as we ended it the previous night – with melodic heavy metal and this time was Brazil’s turn with their national heroes also known as Angra. I had never seem them live so I didn’t really know what to expect. They didn’t disappoint at all and the sound was really good, especially considering the fact that it was rather windy. Obviously they ended their set with no other song than Carry On.
This was probably Opeth’s 4th visit in Wacken during the past 10 years and even though Åkerfeldt doesn’t really look like a metal guy anymore, but rather like a hippie, his growling is as deep as it used to be. They started their set with songs off their psychedelic album and as I was ready to leave they suddenly shifted back into the music that made Opeth famous. They ended gloriously with their masterpiece Deliverance.
It was then time to move to the Party Stage to watch Jeff Waters & Co. Even though he is a great musician and King of the Kill is one of my favourite albums ever, I still have a hard time listening to all their classic songs with Jeff on vocals. Unfortunately, Jeff has already said that he is tired about all line-up changes and hunting down new vocalists, which will probably mean that he will hold on to the singing duties for a good while… Sun and Annihilator is always a good mix, and beyond the fact that some songs sounded a bit dull due of the above mentioned reason, the Canadians did a really good gig (but not as good as the one just 2 years earlier). A big bonus for the fans present at their gig was to see Mike Mangini go up on stage totally unprepared and play Set the World on Fire. Apparently, it was the first time in 20 years…
At The Gates brought their typical Swedish death-metal riffing, this time promoting their latest At War With Reality. Unfortunately, their time has gone and for every day that goes by they feel more and more like a band that is in the game just for the prize. At the gates should have stopped after their legendary show at Wacken in 2008. The same can be said about Queensrÿche, another band that didn’t know when to say stop. After all the drama with their ex-singer Jeoff Tate, they decided they should continue, slowly drowning in mediocrity that lacks any real depth.
Watching Dream Theater straight after having seen a dull version of what used to be the forefathers of progressive metal made the whole experience a bit weird. It was the first time I saw them with Mike Mangini and I only realised it towards the end of the gig. He is such a great musician that it’s near impossible to distinguish the fact that Portnoy is not in the Dream Theater boat anymore… All in all, a really good gig, a lesson Queensrÿche should learn from their once upon a time fans.
It was then time for yet another Swedish band – In Flames having reached something of a special guest status in Wacken and for that reason they return almost every second year. Their fantastic stage show combined with a state of the art lights show carried their music away into the night and reached out to the 75 000 metalheads who were watching their gig. Brilliant!
Running Wild ended the day for us, although I could have lived without having to see Rolf making a fool of himself, stating last gig ever only to announce a few years later that he’s returning with a new studio album. Fortunately, it’s one year left until the album will come out so that give’s Rolf enough time to make it right, this one last time. The set included no more than 5 brand new songs, which in my eyes is a total no-go. I was probably not the only person of the same opinion, since you could clearly see people giving up and retreating back to the camping. By the time Rolf played his second encore, I would estimate that only half of the crowd was left. Some people really don’t know when to retire and that is sad.
Saturday
Khold and Kataklysm kicked in the last day of Wacken and the sun finally returned as well. Unfortunately, these two bands overlapped meaning that we had to choose and it considering that fact that Kataklysm were not at their first visit in Wacken, we went to see the Norwegians. I had high expectations and the Norwegians delivered, though the sound was quite weird. They did their best under these circumstances. They would have probably sounded better in the Bullhead City tent.
Rock meets classic sounded like a good concept and we were really looking forward to see all those famous singers backed up by an orchestra. Dee Snider seemed to really enjoy himself and for some reason it looked like he was the Boss on stage. Unfortunately, even though the songs chosen made a really good set, sometimes it gave me the feeling of late karaoke on Sunday night. I really enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean part though…
Bloodbath has been playing pretty much every major European festival this year which makes me wonder, how do they really do sale-wise? Especially if we are to compare them with Obituary who got downgraded to the Wet Stage for a reason unknown to me. The major change in the Swedish death metal camp, is that they’re not only Swedes anymore now that they fronted by Nick Holmes from Paradise lost. Nick did a pretty good job, but that still doesn’t explain why they got such a good slot on the main stage. Obviously they have a good deal with the management agency.
Until this day, the grand success that Sabaton achieved is a pure mystery to me. I can still remember seeing them like 10 years ago on the Party Stage, making a few thousand Germans scream of joy when they announced the song that lyrically is about how Germany got its ass kicked in the second world war. Might have to do with this political correctness that has been poisoning Europe for a good while now. Still, it seems that their primitive riffs have earned a good reputation among Germans and Sabaton seem to be surprised themselves by the huge amount of people that they dragged to the main stage to watch them. I still like to think most of the people were actually there waiting for the highlight of the festival – Judas Priest.
The Priest returned to Wacken with a new album – Redeemer of Souls. It is seldom that such an old band can come with a really good album, especially if we are to compare them to their younger “brothers”, Saxon and Running Wild. I thought I would miss KK Downing more, but in this late time I have to agree to the band that they found the perfect replacement in Faulkner’s person.
The setlist didn’t disappoint a second and all the hits were there, as well as the best songs from the new album. The victory was complete when they ended their concert with Living after Midnight as the clock showed 00:00.
Mud-apocalypse is a synonym to WOA 2015, and despite the fact that it was literally the worst festival weather I’ve ever experienced, I’ve never seen so many merry people under so bad conditions. After all, it was either being depressed or getting drunk and continue to party. Not even the rain managed to damage this festival’s reputation, at least judging by the fact that WOA 2016 is already sold out, just a few days after the people just managed to escape from the mud pit.
