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Wacken 2014 – the review

Finally home after 5 intensive days in Germany. It’s time to come out of hibernation and to share the experience of this year.

If you do not like crowds then last week in Wacken was the wrong place to be. This year, Wacken had 92,000 people. While it is fantastic to see so many rockers in the same place, the crowds can be very stifling. Of course, (almost) everyone well-behaved, polite, but the magnitude of seeing 92,000 people in black together can overwhelm you.

Skyline: I was told that this band is made up of Wacken founder and his friend and that they kick off the festival every year. Covers of Manowar, Maiden, Van Halen, AC / DC , it was lots of fun and sing along.

Hammerfall: The band came from a break of two years with a special set, consisting of only of the “Glory To The Brave”. They started with “child of the damned” So as you can understand that the songs weren’t played in the same order as the on the album.

Biff Byford, has a voice that can take your breath away. Not a big fan of Saxon, but I always rejoice when hear live songs like “Crusader”, “Denim and leather”, “Princess of the night ‘, etc. Saxon has been one of the best performances at Wacken this year.

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Accept: It’s hard to explain how good they can sound live with the new singer.Tornillo and Wolf Hoffman are a great combo. I would even go so far as to say that in times it sounds better than Udo. If I would not be a King Diamond fan, I would have said that they were the best band at Wacken this year.

Skid Row started playing already at 11 in the morning and they were the first band that I saw on Thursday. I did not hear much new stuff and they sounded quite ok. Of course, I know that Johnny Solinger’s no Sebastian Bach, but it was nice to hear songs like “When the youth Gone Wild” or “Slave To The Grind”.

P. Schwichtenberg

Children of Bodom sound good but unfortunately i’ve seen them a little too often so I can’t appreciate their gigs as much as I did some years ago. Well played but nothing special…

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I’ve never been a big Carcass fan but I heard only good things about their new album. They played at the same time as Motorhead and Hell, two bands that I appreciate more. Leaving aside the ironies about Lemmy, Carcass did a very nice show combining many of their songs from their grind period with songs from the last album.

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Lemmi’s definitely not in his golden years, but considering his health problems it is impressive that he can stand on stage and do a show from beginning to end. Mikkey Dee and Phil Campbell were on fire as usual, greatly offsetting the lack of vigor of Lemmy ages suffers of.

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Slayer was a very unpleasant surprise. Araya’s voice does not age well and the bad sound (mostly due to strong winds) gave the feeling of like a very weak rehearsal. However, many fans seemed to be in ecstasy, judging by the mosh pits.

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King Diamond embodies perfection and that’s what he brought at Wacken this year. All bias aside, King and his wife Livia sounds better than ever. Add a fantastic stage with more details and a morgue/cemetery atmosphere and then you can understand why King Diamond was the best concert of the year. The set ended with two song Mercyful Fate, “Come to the sabbath” and “Evil“ surpassing all expectations.

Although I did not watch the entire Wasp gig, I couldn’t stop thinking about the way Blackie Lawless looks noawdays. But if you can ignore the appearance and their attitude then you will surely enjoy a show Wasp. But I could not …

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It has been exactly 10 years since I had seen my first Arch Enemy gig on the same stage and several things happened meanwhile. Angela Gassow left and 2-3 guitarists later, we have an almost complete new line up.
Unfortunately songs that sounded best were the old ones, proving that the new singer may sound good, but the songs from the new album are the real problem.

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Behemoth were exactly as I had expected. Intense and flawless, they put a heavy set with a lot of fire and blood!

Watching Devin Townsend felt like going to a stand up comedy show. Although I like even the stuff he released with his solo project I miss the image he promoted back in Strapping Young Lad. As for the show at Wacken, it was 100% Devin Townsend, a lot of poo and alien-jokes.

The Emperor reunion has been something I’ve been looking forward to since their last gig at Wacken back in 2006. They performed the entire “In the nightside eclipse” and even though I like that album a lot I think that it’s a bit overrated to play an entire album, especially when Emperor play as seldom as they do. It was really cool that they ended the set with a Bathory cover.
Kreator ended Wacken this year for me and although they played almost the same setlist as just two years before, I have enjoyed seeing them live again. Mile held fewer political speeches and played songs from the “pleasure to kill” album that they usually do not play. A very pleasant surprise indeed!

Although this year’s Wacken just ended the 2015 edition is already sold out and the first names are already announced:

Running Wild – only show 2015
In Flames
In Extremo
U.D.O. – With orchestra
Sabaton
Amorphis – Tales From the Thousand Lakes exclusive show
Death Angel
Powerwolf
Ensiferum
Kataklysmos
Cannibal Corpse
Sepultura
Thyrfing
Savatage – only European show
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – only European show