For three days the rural fields transformed into a second home for metal fans from all over the globe with headliners such as Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, and Motörhead.

Below you'll a review of some of the highlights of WOA 2011's last day.

»» Click here for a review of WOA 2011 day 1.
»» Click here for a review of WOA 2011 day 2.

The Haunted
Swedish thrash metallers The Haunted, featuring Per Möller Jensen on a relatively small Tama kit with Evans heads and Meinl cymbals, was the first act of Wacken 2011's last day we saw. Per, who joined the band in 1999 replacing Adrian Erlandsson, showed he has come up with tasteful drum parts. Original vocalist Peter Dolving's voice was in a good shape and the band seemed to enjoy themselves, in particular when the first circle pit of the day was created.

Dir En Grey
Next band was Dir En Grey, nerve-wracking avantgarde Japanese black metal. Not our cup of tea.

Mayhem
We do appreciate the skillful Jan Axel Blomberg ("Hellhammer"), who performed with Mayhem on Pearl drums with Paiste cymbals and Evans drumheads. But the beautiful weather and happy metalheads all over the festival grounds made Mayhem's frontman Attila Csihar evil grimaces and evocations seem out of place. WOA wasn't dark, cold and misanthropic enough.

Iced Earth
It was a special show for American power metallers Iced Earth: long time Matt Barlows performed his farewell show and said goodbye to the group and their legion of fans worldwide. An emotional moment shared by band and fans. Like the rest of the band, skinsman Brent Smedley, affectionately nicknamed'" Deadly Smedley", had a hard time preventing misty eyes.

Skeleton Witch
The next act we saw played at the WET Stage: Skeleton Witch from Athens, Ohio. Only five months ago drummer Derrick "Mullet Chad" Nau had parted ways with the group and this was one of the first major festival shows for new timekeeper Dustin Boltjes, who did a great job. He nailed every song, adding to the the sheer brutality of the tunes. Dustin simply shined all set long. So did the rest of the band.

Hail of Bullets
Powered by the pummeling beats and heavy double bass rolls of drummer Ed Warby (formerly of Gorefest among others) and fronted by Martin Van Drunen (Asphyx), Hail of Bullets is an old school death metal band influenced by the first generation of death metal bands from the late 1980s. Hail of Bullets was loud. Very loud. Even for a metal festival. You could feel the low tones in your stomach, as if a stoner rock band was performing. They also have a lot of mid-paced tracks (compared to modern day's metal standards) making them the musical equivalent of a tank rolling down the street and slow pointing its gun barrel in your direction.

Kreator
Of the 'big three' old-school Teutonic thrash bands - Destruction, Sodom and Kreator - the latter is clearly the biggest. Drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil has propelled the Essen-based thrash metallers since day one with his tight playing. As might be expected, they delivered a very exiting, uplifting show with a great sound. Starting with Choir Of The Damned relatively new songs such as Warcurse, Enemy Of God and Destroy What Destroys You were mixed with classics like Endless Pain and Pleasure To Kill. The usual closing trinity of Betrayer, Flag Of Hate and Tormentor got a huge, well-deserved ovation. Kreator performing at Wacken is always a special show. Awesome.

Motörhead
Like the two previous days, the festival headliner on Sunday was again a British band: Motörhead. Drummer Mikkey Dee and his hard rocking crew kicked off with the classic song Iron Fist, immediately putting the crowd the right mood. Mikkey displayed his flowing technique with an amazing solo on his Sonor kit and Paiste cymbals during In The Name Of Tragedy. Nothing surprising, but top notch nonetheless.

Wrapping up
Once again 2011 was a great installment of Wacken Open Air with a friendly international crowd, an enormous lineup and great weather. One of the detriments of such a huge festival as Wacken are the time overlaps: multiple bands playing simultaneously, giving you a hard time to choose. Of course, that's a luxury problem.

With a Best of Show by Ministry, the return of Amon Amarth, plus an Anniversary Show by Hammerfall already confirmed for the next edition, we expect WOA 2012 to become an excellent festival again next year. See you at Wacken!