Carcass was the highlight for me.
Here's a rundown of ALL the bands I saw (In order of when I saw them) and what I thought
Wednesday:
Metakilla: As far as tribute bands go these guys had it pretty much down, but for some reason they didn't play as well as vids/mp3s I had seen before auggested they could. They changed structures of songs ever so slightly which was annoying, especially when tryin to air guitar / drum and they also seemed very nervous which inturn led them to play out of time every so often, play bum notes, wrong fills etc. I left after like 20mins to go and meet the PBB folk at the beer garden, which proved much more fun!
Thursday:
Lauren Harris: Offspring of Iron Maiden does not equate to an equally good show. Poor vocals, boring music but she was hot, and so was the weather so I stuck about for a beer or 9.
Airborne: These guys were tight and bassy as fuck. Great sound from them. Very AC/DC sounding with alot of energy, running around going mental and generally a great fun band. Stayed for half their set of so before heading to the WET Stage to see...
Negura Bugnet: Black/Folk metal hailing from Timisuara in Romania, which used to previously be in the region of Transylvania (Which is where my friend is right now), this was a very class act. Using traditional Romanian instruments like massive woodblocks, regional styled glockenspiels and panpipes etc they created a very haunting and hugely entrancing sound. I'll be going to see these guys again when they tour with Opeth and Cynic in November.
Avenged Sevenfold: Unfortunately I had to sit through this drivel as I was claiming a good spot for Iron Maiden who were on after these jokes. They had good sound and the drummer was tight, but the rest of this shit band was just terrible. The music is so cheesy and laughable and I got monumentally drunk at this point to block out the sound.
Iron Maiden: This was the first time I ever saw Iron Maiden and it lived up to the hype. Brilliant stage show, backdrops, lighting and banter from Dickinson. He truly is a fantastic entertainer. Although where we were standing the sound seemed to dissipate into quieter levels, the show was still immensely enjoyable and I lost my voice singing along. The entire 70,000 people must have been crammed into the arena which made it a massive crush and near impossible to move anywhere. We could see everything and other than the slightly less-loud sound had perfect spot. I went up on my friends shoulders and the view behind me was just jawdropping. I had never seen so many fucking people, was just a sea of arms and heads. Reminded me of Monsters of Rock in Russia where Pantera played, but obviously alot smaller. A Great night.
Friday:
Grave: First thing in the morning to full on old school fucking death metal. And what a sound! Fast, heavy and non-stop. I'd listened to these guys before so knew what to expect, and I really enjoyed them. Kind of dragged on a little bit towards the end so I went to check out...
Primordial:... which was a mistake. After 2 songs jogged back to see Grave played their last fucking chord. Was a bit annoyed here. Primordial were very, very niche and a bit wishywashy. Granted they were playing on the Party stage which for some reason made all bands who played here over the festival sound a bit shit, but these guys were bad. Less said about them the better.
Cynic: American jazz-tech-melodic-prog metal or something. Very eclectic and diverse sounding with many layerings of effects and vocal harmonies through digital synths. Amazingly tight band and highly enjoyable if you like music which holds alot of subtle complexities. I heard lots of people complain about how shit this band was because they were 'too weird' but I really liked them. Can't wait to see them again!
Unearth: Big beatdowns and laughable hardcore elements. But great fun live. The heavens opened just after they started and started pishing down with torrential rain, which only added to the fun. They sounded thick and in your face and played very well. I'm not normally into this overly American nu-core kind of metal but for how I was feeling at the time they were great.
The Rotted: Previously 'Goreotted' from England I'd seen these guys previously a month ago and gotten to know the guys and what they were trying to do with their new name/direction. Punk/Thrash and very fast. Great chants and grooves to bang your head along with. During the last 2 songs their bassist (From Scotland) announced it was his last show, so he left the stage and joined the pit to play the final 2 songs, during which he began crowd surfing while playing! By the end of this gig my neck felt like melted cheese. Fantastic band. I managed to catch up with the bassist a couple of times after wards and chatted about his new direction. He said him and nick barker are currently in the talks of a new thrashy-testament like band, so that should be interesting to look out for.
Soilwork: I watched about 30mins of them but I have never been overly into them. They sounded shit hot, and I love their tone they get both on CDs and live but at this point I wasn't in the mood for them. So I went to the tent for some drinks while Opeth bored everyone.
CoB: After Opeth had finished I headed back into the arena to see that CoB had already began, so I missed the first half of their set because I was too hammered to know what fucking time it was. Eitherway, I got there to see them plough through a few songs off their older albums and then play Cumdrunk. I used to like this band but they irritate me more and more now. Near the end of their set (Which was steadily getting worse because of Laiho being useless and drunk) they played a cover of Umbrella and Jump. Probably the highlight of their set tbh.
Nifelheim: Crazy as fuck Norwegian black metal, wearing all the garments of spikes, leathers and everything else. An amazing stage backdrop and lighting added to the suspense of what these guys were going to be like. They were brilliant! Totally enjoyable and very steady with their changes and tempos. They kept the music uncomplicated but without making it boring. I really liked this band and I'm glad I decided to see them!
The Haunted: I got to the Party Stage where they were playing about a 1/3 into their set and stayed for the majority of the rest. These guys had great rhythm and very interesting patterns, the only downfall was the sound. There was a band called Corvus Corax on the big stage which was a huge orchestra of traditional instruments which leaked over and was mixing badly with the sound from The Haunted, but aslong as you put the poor sound down to that than the band you could tell these guys were really good. The only thing I thought bad about them was they seemed like more of a melodic-metal template than anything. There was nothing that grabbed me as being clever or different from millions of other similar bands, but I've heard their stuff before and I know they're better than the live show granted them. But good fun nonetheless!
Avantasia: Boring and cheesy. Very German or whatever. The only thing keeping me awake was the chick with massive tits on the big screen and the fact I was about to go and watch Gorgoroth's circus show shortly!
Gorgoroth: Last band of the day, and a good ending in my opinion. If you put to the back of your mind that this was no longer really Gorgoroth at all, and more Gaahl and his buddies. And the fact that Gaahl is a raving poofter, vegan, satanic, fashion mincing clown that is only playing because of his notoriety through 'torturing' someone at a party, then you'd have a great time seeing him! Which I did! The stage set was brilliant with 4 or 5 huge crosses with naked men and women masked and tied to them, acting dead or something, with masses of skinned pigs heads on spears littering the front of the stage and not to mention Gaahl and his band caked in corpse paint and bondage gear! It was about as far from black metal as you could get, but eitherway it was a fucking good show. I headbanged right the way through and loved every minute of the naughty cabaret act
Saturday:
Exodus:: A bit off hassle finding out whether or not Exodus were going to play occured when we arrived to see them on schedule. Some Irish cover band were on where Exodus should of been and everyone looked mightily puzzled. I approached a number of people to ask if we had missed them and noone know, in fact everyone I asked seemed to think this stupid rock band WAS Exodus, which further enraged me. What had happened was Stone Gods (The band formed from The Darkness after DBS quit) had cancelled their wacken show, so this band took Exodus' place because Exodus took the later place that Stone Gods had. So we finally got to see them and they were fucking GREAT. These guys were one of the main bands I came to see and they played a blinder of a set. Sounded fanstatic and played material right through their albums, from Bonded By Blood to Atrocity Ex. They got great response and created one of the biggest pits I'd seen (Until At The Gates anyway!). I always enjoy seeing Exodus and always will.
Obituary: Another class act put on the bad stage
Regardless they sounded great and played well. Was nowhere near loud enough but with sun beating down and everyone headbanging hard as fuck it didn't matter. They even played a Celtic Frost cover which was very fucking cool! Played most of their hits and were as tight as you would expect them to be. Good show.
As I Lay Dying: Came down as these guys started because Carcass were up next and I didn't want to miss any of them. They were completely hardgore gayness but they do have that one song they played which I quite like. The song is called 94 Hours and was in that Death video which was on here for a while with the collection of suicides and explosions, murders etc to the beat of this song. I didn't know who it was until it came on at Wacken and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the rest of their set too because it kind of loosened me up and I was getting pretty fucking drunk in prep. for Carcass!
Carcass:: The band of the weekend by fucking far. Everyone again was in here, but nowhere near as busy as Maiden (Alot of people which the Maiden gig so busy were day tickets just to see them). Just before they started we were quite far back but I told my mate fuck this, we're heading in. As we headed in bumped in Bren as he was heading in the same direction. Me and my mate then plunged our way through the crowd, much to everyone we passed's annoyance, but there was no way I was not getting to the front for this. Nearing the front I saw 3 of my other pals right up there so shouted their names and just fuckin tore through people to there hahaha. But it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to get right up there. When they began everyone just erupted. Being right at the front was fucking boiling and really hard to move haha, but I ended up creating a little hole in the crowd for me and my mate to head bang to which others joined, freeing up space. After a few songs my mate thought it would be a good idea to throw me corwdsurfing, which I didnt want to do because I wanted to stay and watch! But they through me over and I crowdsurfed a pitiful 3 rows before getting to security who directed me to the side. I just pummeled my way right back to the front again and did the same to my mate hehe. After a few more times of this happening we decided to get some beer and watch the final half from further back and enjoy the sound. So we headed further back and to the left of the stage where it was a great view. Gosow from Arch Enema came out and sang for Incarnate Solvent Abuse which kind of pissed me off, and she sang over the solos
But afterward Steer shouted "I still think Arch Enemy are fucking shit" or something similar. Later on Ken Owens came out and played some drums, which is impressive for a dude who should be dead and said some words of thanks. He got a huge applause, as he should. The rest of the set was blinding and I've never had so much fucking fun in a gig! Can't wait to see them again in Leeds in November!
Killswitch Engage: Watched about 10minutes of these guys but I was on such a high from Carcass and drunk of my ass I was just running around and dancing like an idiot for no reason. So we headed back to tent for more beer and food.
At The Gates: FUCK! This was the 2nd best band of the fest. Ultimate tone, massive sound and all the songs were just crushing. They fucking destroyed me and the pit they created was fucking massive! The whole arena's crowd just opened up and went fucking mental. Excellent shit!
Nightwish: This was the 4th time I'd seen nightwish, and the worst. Because of the new singer. It's not that she is 'bad' but just really fucking boring. She sounds like Wing as well, a little fuckin gook with a nasty nasally voice. Ruined Nightwish. And I used to quite like them. Ah fuck em, I only watched about 15mins of them and then went to see...
Watain: These dudes are fucked up. Black metal as fuck and look fucking insane. These guys shower themselves in menstrual blood before shows and look like Satan. By this time I was near passing out with tiredness and drunkness, but I managed to push in some more hedonistic fast as fuck black metal grind. Fucking insane, but a bit too overly clouded out distortion so couldn't make much out. Then again I was fucked. I would have liked to have stayed but I needed a kebab so I fucked off after about 20minutes haha.
Kreator: Holy fuck, once again Kreator fuck my neck up in a bad way. I can never avoid seeing these guys without waking up the morning feeling like a fucking paralyzed idiot. I love it
A massive set and sounding brilliant they played song after song with hardly any banter. Was very constant and nearly killed me. Infact it did. I passed out after these guys on the grass and don't even know how I made it back to the tent. I wanted to see Lordi who were the last band but my body denied me.
So that was Wacken 08 for me! And to be honest, I'm gutted as fuck to be home. Until next time
I'm thinking about tryin to get to Metal Camp in Slovenia next year too! We shall see eh.
