What a great weekend! Didn't go on the Thursday, watching MSG and the scorps is not high on my list of "must-see" bands. Decided to get pissed on the Reeperbahn instead, much nicer
Good Bands:
Mystic Circle (big suprise), Wintersun, Nevermore, Soilwork, Korpiklaani, Celtic Frost, Amon Amarth, Vried, Aborted, Arch Enemy, Morbid Angel, Fear Factory, Atheist, Emperor and Motorhead. Sadly I dodn't get to see Finntroll cos my coach left as they started. My mate did cos he camped and said they were brilliant.
Bad bands:
Danko Jones, what a crock of shit!. Legion Of The Damned were formulaic as hell, bored me to tears. Caliban did nothing for me at all but the low point had to be Whitesnake, truly awful. Hated every minute of it.
If I haven't mentioned a band they either did ok or were missed - there were lots of clashes so it wasn't possible to see some. The one that really clashed for me was Metal Church but Aborted were so good I couldn't leave them!
Good times:
Morbid Angel and Atheist moshpits were full of nutters wanting some friendly violent fun. Lots of surfing and smiles. Got an Atheist drumstick thanks to a load of fellow nutters who I either spent time pushing and shoving with or hoisted skyward for a surf. They literally handed it to me, which I have to say was the coolest thing I experienced over the weekend. If you read this and you were one of them thanks for a truly excellent time! Motorhead were hilarious as normal, Korpiklaani were a great laugh too, the moshpit was full of nutters! Amon Amarth put on a great day-closer for Friday, looking forward to the new album soon. Also, hats off to Aborted who played a blinder and suprised everyone with a kick ass set.
Bad stuff:
Two things really - First, what were whitesnake doing at Wacken??? Still I suppose it was the perfect time to have some food Second, Emperor fans just have to be the biggest bunch of lame assed wankers I have ever seen. Pulling down crowd surfers, stopping mospits by crowding them out - what is their malfunction? I had one such individual in front of me stood like a statue looking as though his world was about to end. He looked in utter disdain at those of us who wanted to liven it up a bit so I 'got him involved' in any moshes that started as often as I could He hated every moment of it lol!!!! But on a more serious note I saw one crowd surfer downed in a pretty nasty fashion when someone literally jumped up in the air and brought him down by slam dunking him. Don't know if the victim was ok or not but the prick who did it seemed very pleased with his work. So I made sure he 'got involved' in a few moshes as well which I'm sure pleased him no end
Band, or more accurately bands of the weekend were Celtic Frost and Atheist, with Morbid Angel not far behind. My mates didn't even have Celtic Frost on their list to see but came away utterly blown away by the sheer power of their performance. They were inspired and left a lasting impression on a lot of people from what I saw. Atheist - well, they were just totally on the money and played a blinder and the crowd were brilliant to boot - a total contrast to Emperor's spoilt brat fans.
Overall though an excellent weekend!
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Hail Santa...