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DAY 1. ANNIHILATOR, DEEP PURPLE, RAMMSTEIN (1-8-2013)

DAY 2. TRISTANIA, GOJIRA, POWERWOLF, IHSAHN, PRETTY MAIDS, SABATON, MOTORHEAD, LEPROUS, AMORPHIS (2-8-2013)

DAY 3. FEAR FACTORY, ALESTORM, DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER, LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX, DANZIG, CANDLEMASS, NIGHTWISH, LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA feat. RAGE, SUBWAY TO SALLY (3-8- 2013)

What should you know about Wacken. First of all hurry up with buying tickets. It was too sad for thousands of metalheads when they realized that all the tickets for Wacken 2014 were sold out during only two days. 25 years turn this local festival at the very north of Germany into most ambitious and famous metal festival over the World.

Why? Why Wacken? Sometimes we can see more stars at Hellfest or Graspop but the status of Wacken is indisputable. I think that I know the secret. Inner life and village of this festival give you an incredible spirit and unforgettable emotions. Line-up, performances, signing sessions, metal market – all they have the secondary importance. The most important things are talking with neighbors, long and loud nights, cold mornings, queue to shower, meeting old friends and dating with new people.

This year no any big changes have been donу with stages and locations. W.E.T. stage was moved far from central area to the lateral of Wackinger Village in 2012. Metal battle, a lot of interesting performances under the roof, some legendary bands like ANVIL, darkness and beautiful lighting – this is about the stages at Circus.

SKYLINE set at the first day was without an abundance of the famous guests. 8 songs and the Wacken open air was opened. ANNIHILATOR’s set was incredible energetic. It was like the storm under the bright sun. Really ideal beginning of the main program. Best of from six albums.

The most interesting fact was that first day headliners were not metal bands in in the true sense of the word. DEEP PURPLE are the living legend of hard rock. But every metal fan understands that influence of DEEP PURPLE on the development of metal should not be underestimated. RAMMSTEIN are the shining example of mix between metal and Neue Deutsche Härte.

Full-time set from DEEP PURPLE. Interesting moment: W.O.A. changed tour setlist of the band. All previous concerts the opening song was “Fireball”. Wacken performance was opened with another great song. First riffs could not be confused with anything, because they were chords of “Highway Star”. Generally this concert was part of the tour in support of the very new album of DEEP PURPLE called “Now What?!” They played three new songs: “Above and Beyond”, “Hell to Pay” and incredible “Vincent Price” which much more appropriate for Alice Cooper or Ozzy Osbourne due to its dark grim sound. Of course there were hit songs without which it was impossible to imagine DEEP PURPLE’s performance: “Space Truckin'”, “Into the Fire”, “Lazy”, “Hush”, “Strange Kind of Woman” etc. “Smoke on the Water” was performed together with Uli Jon Roth.

High professionalism and best qualities of frontman helped Ian Gillan to become master of the situation. There was a feeling that it was 5^th or 7^th performance for DEEP PURPLE at W.O.A. The audience greeted the band with enthusiasm. I wasn’t sure whether the audience to sing along with hard rock veterans. But it was in vain. Everyone from young to old sang the songs of DEEP PURPLE that will always relevant for any fan of rock 'n' roll.

RAMMSTEIN! There was only one act at that stage due to huge amount of huge amount of scenery and pyrotechnics. Long intro and the reign of fire was declared. Till Lindemann at the top of the stage began the performance in his pink coat. Already the second song was accompanied by pillars of fire and fireworks, next to it was Keine Lust and everything was drowned in the smoke. During the bridge of "Sehnsucht" the stage turned to island of red fire. Surely “Feuer Frei!” forced to sober up everyone. The heat from the stage was intense and could be felt 50 metres away. Dressed as sadistic chef Till mocked poor keyboardist who was planted in a giant pot during "Mein Teil". But Christian Lorenz definitely survived and without any problems began to play intro to wonderful ballade "Ohne dich".

Then RAMMSTEIN played long "Wiener Blut" and "Du riechst so gut" accompanied by a poisonous green color. Till as a crazy gas station worker performed "Benzin". Two great hit songs: "Links 2-3-4" and "Du hast" – of course they were sung by audience. Basically the difference between German concerts of RAMMSTEIN and concerts in other countries is very simple: in Germany not less than a half of people sang every song from the beginning to the end. "Bück dich" (overly perverted and vulgar song with another rude mockery of keyboardist) and "Ich will" finished the main part of set. Encore included three songs – piano version of "Mein Herz brennt", renowned "Sonne" and funny "Pussy", of course, with the soap gun.

NEAERA and TRISTANIA were opening bands for the second day. Honestly performance of TRISTANIA was very weak and looked at the main stage of Wacken inappropriate. The next band was GOJIRA but the most surprise was about the next heroes of that day. Audience in 40 or even more thousand people arrived to see power metal band in the dinner time. Can you trust this information? Yes, it was unpredictable but it was true...

POWERWOLF gathered enormous amount of people. Some years ago no one knew about this band. Some funny freaks with make- up in the style of black metal bands and with songs about werewolves and vampires but with power metal sound. The world has changed again. 15 years ago HAMMERFALL and EDGUY undertook a successful attempt to revive from the ashes power metal. They could do it. But recent years this genre have been in crisis again. Two bands changed everything. One of them is POWERWOLF, another one headlined W.O.A. a bit later. “We drink your blood” and another great songs from POWERWOLF for one hour and something absolutely different after that.

IHSAHN. few people, a strange sound, weak atmosphere. When Ihsahn announced about reunion of EMPEROR Wacken exploded. All those years he was still considered as EMPEROR’s frontman despite very interesting solo albums.

Legendary PRETTY MAIDS from Denmark were greeted warmly but most people prefer to have a rest instead their set. By the way performance were outstanding. Two songs from the very new album. It was completely perfect mix of heavy metal and AOR. Of course there were two songs from Pandemonium. This album gave the band a powerful impetus some years ago. 6 songs from albums “Future World” and “Red, Hot and Heavy” which can be considered as classic of heavy metal were expected. It’s impossible for instance to imagine PRETTY MAIDS performance without long version of “Future World”.

Hardcore grandparents AGNOSTIC FRONT. As always, out of competition. Circle pits, energy and total madness invariably accompany the band for over 30 years.

7-8 years ago, they were happy to see at least 500 people during their show. Three years ago they were opening band for a lot of summer festivals. This year they are headliners for the most famous events over the Europe. In their songs a lot of military history, WOW II, history of Sweden, famous battles and so on. They have their own specific power metal way: strong vocal, choirs, pathetic melodies etc. SABATON! Most noticeable phenomenon in power metal nowadays. They gave an awesome performance with his songs and a lot of discussion with audience, Joakim Broden even said that he could observed the most amount people over the years and concerts.

A lot of interesting bands could be noticed at Party Stage which was traditionally to the right of the mains stages e.g EISBECHER, UGLY KID JOE anв SOILWORK. By the way the day was opened by RUSSKAJA. More often you can see this funny band at Wackinger Village with their colleagues like FEUERSCHWANZ. The evening time at the Party stage was occupied by CORVUS CORAX.

Not less interesting acts were at the Circus. Absolutely different band like deathcore pioneers WHITECHAPEL, progressive madmen LEPROUS (they were also live band for Ihsahn), heavy metal legends ANVIL performed at W.E.T and Headbanger stages.

Now about sad situation. It was very warm day. At Wacken everyone knows that chilly cloudy weather is usual, but the incredible heat is more unpleasant disaster than rain and mud. MOTORHEAD stopped their performance 15 minutes later after beginning due to Lemmy’s problems with health. At the same time Wacken was only summer festival where MOTORHEAD could be seen. It was really important in spite of urgent grunts of many journalists.

DORO show included a lot of special guests e.g. Chris Boltendahl (GRAVE DIGGER), Biff Byford (Saxon), Uli Jon Roth, Eric Fish and Frau Schmitt (SUBWAY TO SALLY), Joakim Broden (SABATON) as well as CORVUS CORAX for the song “All We Are”.

Famed NDH act ASP was one of the last bands for the Saturday. At the same time AMORPHIS performed set that included some acoustic songs. But electric sound was much more better that night. But the very last band was GRAVE DIGGER. They began their performance of the night and ended up at 3 a.m. VAN CANTO helped them again (first time they had done it in 2010) but the colleague during “Rebellion” was another guy. In 2010 it was Hansi Kursch of BLIND GUARDIAN, in 2013 it was Joakim Broden who took to the stage for the third time that day.

Third day brought rain and new magic moments at Wacken Open Air. Big people and rude music from the main stage: FEAR FACTORY show was going on. At Party stage something absolutely different, funny and frivolous. Pirates, freebooters, corsairs, taking on board the ship, gallows and rum, parrots and treasure. Could you feel all this rubbish? No? that way you missed ALESTORM performance.

DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER meaned flags, BDSM-show, acrobatic etudes by frontman, funny songs with mountains of humor and sarcasm.

LAMB OF GOD. Recent year was two difficult for the band. In 2012 the Czech police arrested Randy Blythe for his actions during a 2010 concert in Prague. Then 19 year old fan climbed up onto the stage with him. The teen hit his head on the floor when he fell and later died of the injury. Blythe was indicted on the charges in December 2012. On March 5, 2013, he was found not guilty. One of the most influential groove metal bands gathered a lot of people despite the heavy rain. At the same time SONATA ARCTICA at Party stage gathered

It was fantastic thrash metal performance by ANTHRAX. Joey Belladonna was inimitable. After "Among the Living" and "Caught in a Mosh" he showed all his vocal range with a capella version of bridge for "Efilnikufesin". Powerful set full of hits and energy that charged everyone.

Then were expressive and interesting performance of DANZIG as well as TRIVIUM.

Most Wacken audience preferred to see the performance of legendary Alice Cooper. The king of shock rock gave a 90-minutes set full of hits and theatrical actions. Of course there were straitjacket, guillotine and risen Alice. But at the Party stage there was also very interesting show by CANDLEMASS with Mats Leven at the microphone stage. Messiah, Robert Lowe, now Mats Leven, a longtime friend of Leif Edling, the founder and leader of the band. Mats showed that he could sing everything: power metal, traditional doom in any manner.

NIGHTWISH. There was official information the band would record DVD / Blu-ray during Wacken. It was one of the final shows of Imaginaerum World Tour. Floor Jansen (vocal) and Troy Donockley as well as unique stage decoration will long be remembered by the fans.

LINGUA MORTIS feat. RAGE played three RAGE songs and 4 new songs by this project. The good tradition at Wacken: two years in a row shows with orchestra. In 2012 it was DIMMU BORGIR.

After promoters farewell & thanks SUBWAY TO SALLY finished the festival. It was TENTH! Time for the band being at Wacken Open Air.

Cold morning. More than 10000 tickets were sold. Only one day more and all the tickets were sold out. Why? Actually Wacken Open Air is number one metal festival. That’s the main cause.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the organizers of the festival for granting accreditation.