Wacken Trip, Pt 3
Aug. 19th, 2008 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thedarkprojectYeah, this one is long, because I thought I may as well finish up here while I can still remember things. EDIT: Actually, I may as well split it in two, at least.
Friday 1st August:
Once he emerged from his tent, Chris and I must have pottered around the shops for a while before making our way nice and early to the inappropriately-named Party Stage for Primordial, due to be on at an equally inappropriate 11am. Not much to say really: they played well, with Mael Mórdha's Gerry filling in on bass again. I think there were enough people watching to have justified a better slot, but I guess that's not always how it works.
After this, Chris went off to read in his tent or something, and our campsite was pretty much deserted, so I went off back to the arena, and ended up wandering around on my own almost all day. I caught small bits of Job For A Cowboy (not very interesting at all), Ensiferum (as good as usual, but the novelty wore off for me years ago), Kamelot (special-guest laden power metal which was better than I would have expected), Soilwork (who get worse every time I see them, the clean vocals this time being especially worthy of criticism), and Sonata Arctica (who played well, although the more recent material is a bit samey). I saw more bands this day than any other at Wacken, probably because I was on my own and not having to worry about whether someone else was bored or not.
After this, I got myself into a good position in the crowd to see Opeth. However, I've no idea why I did this, because I was quickly reminded how boring Opeth are live by about the third song into their set. Not only are they quite boring, but Mikael Åkerfeldt has developed a rather rude and arrogant on-stage persona that just wasn't there when I first saw them back in 2003. "If you don't know this one, you're a cunt", said he, introducing one track. Lo, I must have been one as I have no idea what that song was, but it was shit enough that I don't terribly mind my own ignorance here. I left shortly afterwards.
Most of us were back at the campsite when Children of Bodom came on. It seems strange to think that many of us assembled there used to like them, but as with so many bands these days there's little longevity to their sound, and eventually the faux-American 80s rock star attitude from the frontman wears thin. Chris and I headed back to the metal market that evening and had just emerged from another tour of tacky wristband vendors to catch Corvus Corax on the big screen. This is some sort of pseudo-medieval act which was quite impressive, but suffered from having songs that (a) went on far too long and repetitively, and (b) had little sense of resolution, usually just arbitrarily ceasing after repeating one motif 16 times or something. Great stage show though! The Haunted were competing with them on another stage, but does anybody care about them these days?
We ended up chatting to a German lad near the campsite, who was bemoaning the state of his country, saying how young Turkish people come in and ignore all the laws, but how they can't do anything about them because then they're accused of 'returning to Nazi times'. Interesting stuff. This conversation also continued to prove a certain point, ie. that Germans always mention the Second World War first, despite the traditional stereotype of Britons being told "don't mention The War!"
Yet more time was spent back on the campsite after that, with the urge to catch up on dearly-missed sleep being denied, as I wanted to stay up and see Gorgoroth. A black metal band, further up the bill than Opeth? I wondered what all the fuss was about, and so at the appropriately unholy time of 2am, I headed back to the arena for the last time that night. And I was glad I did, as that show was an experience I doubt will be matched for quite a while. Mock crucifixions, goats' heads mounted on stakes, a barrage of fire and flames, and an impressively evil-looking frontman added up to a quite unique atmosphere, though presumably nothing new to fans of the band. I was disappointed to see it end.
Friday 1st August:
Once he emerged from his tent, Chris and I must have pottered around the shops for a while before making our way nice and early to the inappropriately-named Party Stage for Primordial, due to be on at an equally inappropriate 11am. Not much to say really: they played well, with Mael Mórdha's Gerry filling in on bass again. I think there were enough people watching to have justified a better slot, but I guess that's not always how it works.
After this, Chris went off to read in his tent or something, and our campsite was pretty much deserted, so I went off back to the arena, and ended up wandering around on my own almost all day. I caught small bits of Job For A Cowboy (not very interesting at all), Ensiferum (as good as usual, but the novelty wore off for me years ago), Kamelot (special-guest laden power metal which was better than I would have expected), Soilwork (who get worse every time I see them, the clean vocals this time being especially worthy of criticism), and Sonata Arctica (who played well, although the more recent material is a bit samey). I saw more bands this day than any other at Wacken, probably because I was on my own and not having to worry about whether someone else was bored or not.
After this, I got myself into a good position in the crowd to see Opeth. However, I've no idea why I did this, because I was quickly reminded how boring Opeth are live by about the third song into their set. Not only are they quite boring, but Mikael Åkerfeldt has developed a rather rude and arrogant on-stage persona that just wasn't there when I first saw them back in 2003. "If you don't know this one, you're a cunt", said he, introducing one track. Lo, I must have been one as I have no idea what that song was, but it was shit enough that I don't terribly mind my own ignorance here. I left shortly afterwards.
Most of us were back at the campsite when Children of Bodom came on. It seems strange to think that many of us assembled there used to like them, but as with so many bands these days there's little longevity to their sound, and eventually the faux-American 80s rock star attitude from the frontman wears thin. Chris and I headed back to the metal market that evening and had just emerged from another tour of tacky wristband vendors to catch Corvus Corax on the big screen. This is some sort of pseudo-medieval act which was quite impressive, but suffered from having songs that (a) went on far too long and repetitively, and (b) had little sense of resolution, usually just arbitrarily ceasing after repeating one motif 16 times or something. Great stage show though! The Haunted were competing with them on another stage, but does anybody care about them these days?
We ended up chatting to a German lad near the campsite, who was bemoaning the state of his country, saying how young Turkish people come in and ignore all the laws, but how they can't do anything about them because then they're accused of 'returning to Nazi times'. Interesting stuff. This conversation also continued to prove a certain point, ie. that Germans always mention the Second World War first, despite the traditional stereotype of Britons being told "don't mention The War!"
Yet more time was spent back on the campsite after that, with the urge to catch up on dearly-missed sleep being denied, as I wanted to stay up and see Gorgoroth. A black metal band, further up the bill than Opeth? I wondered what all the fuss was about, and so at the appropriately unholy time of 2am, I headed back to the arena for the last time that night. And I was glad I did, as that show was an experience I doubt will be matched for quite a while. Mock crucifixions, goats' heads mounted on stakes, a barrage of fire and flames, and an impressively evil-looking frontman added up to a quite unique atmosphere, though presumably nothing new to fans of the band. I was disappointed to see it end.
