The 2011 edition of Wacken Open Air (WOA), probably the biggest open air metal festival in the world, took place from August 4-6 at Wacken, Northern Germany.
Below you'll a review of some of the highlights of WOA 2011's second day.
Ensiferium We started WOA's second day with Ensiferium's cheerful sounding 'party metal'. From behind his Pearl kit drummer Janne Parviainen looked approvingly how approximately ten crowdsurfers simultaneously went crazy on the music in the early afternoon sun. To sinish the set with a proper rock 'n roll vibe, one of the guitarists played a solo with his guitar on his back/ on his shoulders during the last song. Just lovely.
Suicidal Tendencies As frontman Mike Muir asked "What the hell is going on around here?", the famous first line of their classic You Can't Bring me Down, it was instantly clear: Suicidal Tendencies were back to destroy. Phenomenal drummer Eric Moore II played accurate and in the pocket on his DW set. With compulsory grooves as a foundation for the rest of the band, he sometimes played more loosely and funky, only to rush forth the next moment. Eric isn't a drummer who cloggs his playing by using too much double bass strokes, but who prefers a variety of fills. During a short drum solo Eric showed his huge technical skills and showmanship, as well as his musical competences. His timing and groove fit Suicidal Tendencies like a glove.
Morbid Angel Throughout music history, only a handful of artists have been able to rise to a truly iconic level within any given genre. And Morbid Angel have mastered that level for death metal. They performed at WOA without Pete Sandoval but with Tim Yeung, who sat behind his Ddrum kit and Sabian cymbals. Not surprisingly, Tim proved to a proper replacement drummer to execute all those incredibly fast blast beats and bass drum rolls. While a small plane circeled above the festival with a banner stating 'I Am Morbid', the band delivered their scorching, gritty death metal that sounded surprisingly thrashy every now and then.
Sodom Markus "Makka" Freiwald on Kirchhoff drums, Meinl cymbals and Gibraltar hardware, Bernemann on guitar and Tom Angelripper on bass and vocals. Collectively better known as Sodom, one of the 'big three' old-school Teutonic thrash bands, along with Kreator and Destruction. It was a home game, but frankly a bit boring.
As I Lay Dying They may have started as a typical metalcore band featuring deep grunts combined with clean vocals, catchy choruses, heavy breakdowns and slow grooves, but As I Lay Dying have evolved into something more. Just call it modern metal for the lack of a better term. Jordan Mancino, a notoriously powerful drummer, played a DW/PDP set, and was the engine of the band's performance that was stuffed with boundless energy. Done really well!
Morgoth Resurrected German death metallers Morgoth featured Marc Reign (formerly of Destruction) on Premier drums. When frontman Marc Grewe performed with the all-star project Insidious Disease at WOA 2009, we were completely blown away. It made us curious to see the vocalist's own band but we soon learned that Morgoth had disbanded a decade ago. Luckily, they reformed in 2010 and now we could enjoy a smooth running death metal machine. We gladly agreed that they did not disappoint.
Kyuss Lives Kyuss is dead, long live Kyuss Lives. Three quarters of the original lineup of the Stoner rock legends - including Brant Bjork on drums - proved why they have influenced so many rock and metalbands from the nineties until today. Although the introvert, static frontman John Garcia did not even try to interact with the audience, nobody seemed to bother since everybody was glad to hear the desert rock tunes live. Brant turned out to be the same firm, impressive-looking drummer who likes to show his deep pocket and great feel.
Judas Priest It was their only Germany show in 2011, and so they had a two and a half hour headline set. That's quite a lot even for the British heavy metal gods they are. But Judas Priest headlined the True Metal stage presenting the classic hits from 40 years of the band's history. Drummer Scott Travis led the crew trough an entertaining set, featuring many classics from Breaking The Law (that was introduced with the arrival of a huge black motorbike on stage) to Painkiller (started with a short drum solo by the always flawlessly playing Scott).
