With three open-air stages and a festival tent is was impossible to see all acts perform. You can find some high-lights of WOA day 3 below.

»» Click here for a review of WOA day 2.
»» Click here for a review of WOA day 1.
»» Click here for day 3 drummers photos.
»» Click here for photos providing an impression of the festival atmosphere.

WOA day 3: Saturday August 4, 2007

Sacred Reich
The first band to perform on the True Metal-stage was Sacred Reich. Their complete line-up, including drummer Greg Hall, decided to reunite eleven years after releasing their last studio album. They delivered like in the old days with many songs of their older albums (\'Ignorance\', \'Surf Nicaragua\' and \'The American Way\'). In fact, Sacred Reich gave the best performance of all bands on Wacken 2007! Lead vocalist Phil Rind\'s voice sounded surprisingly good and guitarist Wiley Arnett\'s riffs were dominating as always. Greg Hall played tight as a metronome. His Gretsch kit and Anatolian cymbals sounded wonderful. The complete band grooved deeply! What a great way to start the WOA 2007\'s last day!

Stratovarius
Lead by Finnish guitarist Timo Tolkki, and featuring German drummer Jörg Michael and Swedish keyboardist Jens Johansson among others, Stratovarius has an international line-up. On stage Jörg Michael, playing Premier drums and Meinl cymbals, made clear why he has played an important part in shaping power metal drumming. Michael is an adequate player who\'s quality leven is very consistent.

Heaven Shall Burn
It was kind of a home game for German band Heaven Shall Burn, featuring Matthias Voigt on his Mapex drums. Between the songs frontman Marcus Bischoff took his time to address the audience, encouraging them to start crowd surfing, doing a circle pit and a wall of death. The participation of all in front of the stage was overwhelming.

Dir En Grey
All the way from Japan came Dir En Grey, delivering their own brand of \'Visual kei J-rock\', the Japanese version of glam rock. \'Visual kei\' could be translated as \'visual style\' and refers to a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of eccentric, sometimes flamboyant looks. This usually involves striking make-up, unusual hair styles and elaborate costumes, often coupled with androgynous aesthetics. Drummer and co-composer Shinya Terachi, endorsed by Sabian cymbals and Pearl drums, and the rest of the band have been touring extensively for the last six months. Fans were fearing that the band had become tired of their busy schedule, but nothing indicated in that direction during Dir En Grey\'s driven live show.


Mythlorian
Dutch band Mythlorian had won the Dutch preliminaries of the international Wacken Metal Battle and secured a gig at the W.E.T. stage. They performed their five songs well, with loads of energy and great enthusiasm. Despite minor sound problems, their performance was a professional one. Mythlorian drummer Argarath (Tom Heijnen), using Pearl drums, Paiste cymbals and Balbex sticks, called it \"a fantastic experience\":

Man, it was awesome to see so many people going crazy, sing along, build a pit... just great. Really, I got tears in my eyes by the audience\'s enthusiasm!\"

Type O Negative
Type O Negative\'s blend of goth/doom metal (slow but heavy, gloomy and melancholic) grew popular in the \'90s, but after the 1996 album \'October Rust\' their success diminished. Type O Negative latest album, \'Dead Again\' (issued in 2007), was a strong comeback. Unfortunately the band performed quite below their average on Wacken. Drummer Johnny Kelly wasn\'t to blame. It was frontman Peter Steele who wasn\'t sober, threw wine, played sloppy and simply disappeared from stage at a sudden moment. Clearly not a show to remember.

Immortal
Reunited black metallers Immortal started their set with The Sun No Longer Rises, including two breaks that seemed to last an eternity, building up a huge suspense. They continued with classics like Sons of Northern Darkness, Tyrants, At The Heart Of Winter, and One by one. Immortal frontman Abbath showed a peculiar sense of humor with his presentation in between the songs. Drummer Horgh (Reidar Horghagen) is one hell of a drummer with impressive feet technique. The rolls on his kick drums are incredibly fast.

Municipal Waste
The show that was most fun to watch, was definitely Municipal Waste\'s energetic, pure and entertaining performance. A party on stage. The band\'s old school crossover of thrash metal and hardcore punk is strongly influenced by the \'80s. But their underlining of fun and simply having a good time on stage, is perhaps the band\'s most important contribution. Drummer Dave Witte kept up the fast tempos without losing tightness. Guitarist Ryan Waste had a hard time to keep up with him. Even the intermezzos involving bodyboards and the notorious beer bong did not slow down the show. Municipal Waste is gonna fuck you up!

Cannibal Corpse
You can\'t get it much faster, harder or louder than Cannibal Corpse. There aren\'t many vocalist who sound more brutal than George \"Corpsegrinder\" Fisher. The American death metal outfit gained some infamy for their horror fiction-themed album covers and lyrics. For years some of their albums were censored and banned in several countries. For several years the group were not allowed to play any song of their first three albums in concert in Germany. Wacken 2007 was a special gig for Cannibal Corpse: they played their first un-banned show in Germany. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewic has been with the band since they founded in 1988. He and the rest of Cannibal Corpse celebrated the lifted ban by playing the song Hammer Smashed Face.

Vital Remains
Those who had expected Vital Remains, were waiting in vain. Despite their announcement in the festival\'s program, the band did not play. Amazingly, guitarist Dave Suzuki played all drum tracks for the studio recordings of Vital Remains albums such as \'Dechristianize\' and \'Icons of Evil\'. For their live shows the band recruited Antonio Donadeo. Unfortunately Vital Remains canceled their Wacken show for unknown reasons.

Avantasia
Avantasia\'s Tobi Sammet was also missed on Saturday. Sammet couldn\'t make it to the scheduled press conference as had to have his appendix taken out in an emergency surgery. Sammet, who joined Saxon as special guest for a duet on Friday, had planned to announce his performance with Avantasia live on stage as headliner at Wacken Open Air in 2008.

To conclude, Wacken is a special festival, where the love for musical aggression is celebrated very peacefully. A festival where all bands demand a lot of their drummers: the ask for technique, creativity, musicality, speed, power and endurance. Rain or Shine, see you at Wacken 2008!