Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Rieden-Kreuth / Germany
Concert date: August 27, 2009
Attendance: 8,000
Ticket price: €80.00
After a wild first-day celebration with assorted sweet liquors of the alcoholic kind and hanging out with the fascinating In Extremo, the first real festival day finally arrived, with both stages firing up: the smaller one inside the hall, called the “Wet stage”, and of course the bigger one on the open grass, the main stage. I want to stress one thing: Slayer. Wacken Rocks South hit its peak on day two, because the headliners closing out the night were none other than the legendary thrash metal giants Slayer. It was the band’s first show of the year in Europe at all, and Slayer’s second and last European gig this year followed the next day in the German town of Aurich, at the Wacken Rocks Seaside festival.
We spent the morning very usefully. We drove out to Burglengenfeld, a town 15 km away. It’s a little taste of the medieval idyll of these Germanic small towns, with a castle looming on top of the hill. We grabbed a bite there, fought unforgettable battles with wasps, and fortified ourselves thoroughly for the assault on the afternoon-and-evening metal session!
| 9MM: 12.05-12.35 |
First we slipped over to peek at what was going on at the “wet stage”. And there was plenty to see. Up on stage, the filthy German rock n’ roll “lumberjacks” 9mm were tearing it up! Lyrics entirely in German! The band is led by singer and rhythm guitarist Rock Rotten, with guitarist Richie, who has Puerto Rican roots and, going by his build, fits the formula for the volume of a sphere, a true giant of rock, plus bassist Maubi and the not-yet-of-age drummer Bommel keeping him company. 9mm were one of the best discoveries of the festival, because they came across unbelievably convincing. Not just the dirty, cranked-up sound with a bit of rasp, built on a recipe of rock n’ roll that doesn’t do complicated, only simple “one-note” combos of walking around the “squares” of the guitar neck (two-string riffing in fifths), but of course Rock Rotten’s vocals too. The man has unbelievable power. It honestly seemed like Rock wanted to blow out every single monitor membrane with his voice. A harsh, piercing vocal. Bordering on dictator-style shouting from the best Hitler-era days, with a brazen, arrogant stare and deliberately mugging grimaces. Incredible charisma that pulls you over to his side instantly. The band’s sound and presence were all full-balls pounding, straight to the forehead, goofily. Plenty of staggering heads were crashing into each other below the stage. Picture a mosh pit of drunk wine flies, that is, a mosh pit in slow motion, where even the most famous NHL hockey players could draw inspiration for their body checks. So an unbelievably hard and dirty rock n’ roll variant where the muscles pop with no brakes! Ich will…erst Hart meant that before it, Rock stopped the show and asked the male half of the crowd: “How many of you are going to be having sex tonight?” (the actual original question sounded way more perverse, of course). Some mumbling in reply. Rock repeats the question more clearly, and the male half of the crowd answers with a huge roar. Well, of course we all will, obviously, for us guys! Then the same question goes to the female half of the crowd. But we heard nothing more than a kind of moaning from two lost female souls. Anyway, the lead verse of that song also contains the sequence of words …ich werde ficken…, built into a typical rock n’roll lumberjack rolling riff. Pure messing around, down to the foundation! Let me quickly break down roughly what 9mm are. Take Motorhead, add a bit of Running Wild speed, and throw big AC/DC-style balls on the plate! Believe me, at a 9mm show things always fly in every which way! Spin the song Kampfschwein and it’ll all be clear to you right away!
| AXXIS: 12.40-13.20 |
We showed up at the main stage while our good old acquaintances Axxis were already busily “rattling” away on it. We visited them exactly a year ago at the biker festival in Pula (Croatia). Interestingly, Axxis announced the official release of their new studio album “Utopia” just one day after the show at Wacken Rocks South. Even so, they didn’t present it at the show, and instead played songs from the album “Doom Of Destiny” (2007), like Tales Of Glory Island, which they opened the set with, and later, in the middle of the show, Bloodangel. Of course they seasoned the set with classics like Little War and Touch The Rainbow, which they played in an acoustic version. For the occasion, Bernhard once again invited a girl on stage, put a tambourine in her hands and coached her on how to handle it so she wouldn’t accidentally “carry it off in her own direction” away from the basic rhythm during the song. A moment that hugely amused the audience and the band on stage alike. Guitarist Marc has grown lush long hair in the year since our meeting in Pula, and Bernhard Weiss remains a special stage figure with a unique vocal approach you can’t miss every time the plucky fellow opens his mouth. The singer keeps up a brilliant form, and the band has excellent working chemistry on stage. Axxis wrapped up their 40-minute set with the classic Kingdom Of Madness, which brought back the band’s former glory days as hard rockers. A few years ago, after all, Axxis turned into pure symphonic power metallers!
| HERMAN FRANK BAND: 13.25-14.00 |
After 9mm, former Accept guitarist Herman Frank stepped onto the “wet stage” with his band. He eagerly presented his new studio album “Loyal To None”, from which the ultra-shrapnel Bastards Legion stood out in particular, written in the classic “bad to the bone” Accept manner. Herman is still an indestructible rock, with a polished stage look and incredible charisma. The band conjured an extremely cranked-up, voluminous sound that filled the little hall and quickly subjugated everyone loyal to the petrified form of heavy metal of original German origin. On top of that, the band hammers out the song Kill The King, with excellent, polished vocals of a theatrical sort tying the performance together with confidence, mid-paced tempo and flirty, poisonously aggressive riffs, and the cup is full! The lineup of Peter Pichl (bass, Nektar, Running Wild), Stefan Schwarzmann (ex-U.D.O., ex-Running Wild, ex-Helloween, Godiva,…) and Greek-born singer Jiotis Parachidis, surrounding Herman Frank, told a similar story to the one that repeated a little later on the big stage when U.D.O. took it over. Winning!
| HEAVEN SHALL BURN: 15.35-16.20 |
Around half past three in the afternoon, German metalcore guys Heaven Shall Burn took over the main stage, cheered on by a big crowd of a good 3,000 followers of the band. In one of his between-song speeches, the singer masterfully “teased” the crowd into running a full circle around the tower housing the mixing desk, 100 m from the stage, which kicked up real salvos of dust. During Heaven Shall Burn we enjoyed the sight of enormous “mosh pitting” as well as intense “crowd surfing”. The security guys were literally enjoying themselves below the stage catching the scrambled Heaven Shall Burn fan heads. That’s a Heaven Shall Burn show tradition, and both security and crowd get it, which is very important. The energy of total letting go was unspoiled. Sure, the band dresses deliberately “scruffy”, as if they’d stopped by Caritas before the show and grabbed a few old rags in a pinch, which is the style of the new-age bands with the “core” suffix, but they play great and confidently command the stage. And that’s what matters in the end. The band walked through a repertoire that included the following songs, among others: Behind The Wall Of Silence, Endzeit, Voice Of The Voiceless, Counterweight, Like A Thousand Suns, Murderers Of The Murderer, The Weapon They Fear. Heaven Shall Burn closed their intense set with a cover of Edge Of Sanitiy’s Black Tears.
| U.D.O.: 17.05-17.50 |
A few months ago, the heart of every heavy metal fan caught fire when they heard the news that good old Accept were back together and ready for a new tour and album. But Accept will have one big flaw: the unmistakable Udo Dirkschneider won’t be on vocals! So the only logical substitute for an Accept fan is going to a U.D.O. show, the band Udo founded when he left Accept back in 1987. It’s even better when U.D.O. play at the festival you happen to be at. The band works on the foundations of the old Accept school, every track bets on an excellent riff that leads to a insanely catchy chorus, and the whole thing is spiced up with Udo’s screeching vocals. Right on the announced time, Stefan Kaufmann, Igor Gianola (both guitars), Fitty Wienhold (bass) and Francesco Jovino (drums) took their positions on stage and started with the intro part of the classic Metal Heart, and a wave of enthusiasm swept over the people in the front rows. One of the most recognizable songs of the German school of heavy metal is simply the perfect reason for headbanging and a fist in the air in support of the band! Where was Uncle Udo in the meantime? Once the instrumental overture was over, he came toddling out from backstage and started singing. Singing? Anyone hearing him for the first time surely cracked a smile at his singing. Closed eyes, grimaces on his face and a screeching, raspy, fairly high voice recognizable from a mile away. Together with his short, slightly hunched figure, he looks truly comical. But what this little fellow has done for heavy metal! While I was pondering everything I’ve roughly described, the show went on at the speed of light. We heard four Accept classics and four songs from the U.D.O. era, and from the latter the guys served us a “bit of a mix”: the older They Want War (1987) and three relatively newer pieces. Throughout the show all eyes are on the band’s frontman, the old chief, who has a charisma without equal. When the instrumental parts followed, Udo moved to the back of the stage and left some crumbs to guitarists Kaufmann and Gianola too, who thus got a few moments of self-promotion. The band did its job with distinction: below the stage it pushed the fans’ heavy metal pulse to the max, the front rows were in a delirium, and I’m sure that even in the back, tracks like Princess of the Dawn and Balls to the Wall did what they’re meant to do: a good heavy metal party!
| ALESTORM: 17.55-18.30 (show rescheduled to 08/29/2009, at 2.30 a.m.) |
A quick word about the pirate drunkards from Scotland, Alestorm. The lads, whose show was announced for a bit before six in the afternoon, were late getting to the venue. So they were pushed to 2:30 a.m. the next day to play the wet stage. As we were walking from the main stage toward the camp, right when Alestorm should have started playing, a good pile of furious heads was leaving the hall with the “Wet stage”. One of them described the situation roughly like this: “If you go to the Alestorm show, know that the band is invisible, that the whole crowd in the hall is invisible, and that Alestorm are playing so quietly that absolutely nobody can hear them!” That was his way of saying the show was cancelled. Well, eyewitnesses who made it to 2:30 a.m. were able to report the next day that Alestorm did in fact turn up on stage. They turned up as a trio, without a drummer. They played to a drum machine and sounded worse than an average band at a regular rehearsal. Hoarse, with tons of mistakes while playing and slip-ups singing the verses. So much for whether they’re worth all the fuss and the support from the “crazies”, who obviously took them to heart because Alestorm are head over heels for barrels of English ale, but as far as musical vocabulary, their own authorial vibe and charisma go, there’s less of it you can actually touch than there is black under the fingernails of your average Bosnian Hamdija swinging a trowel and plastering away somewhere high up by the old Ljubljana Opera building. Alestorm? Boo and yuck!
| DORO: 18.35-19.35 |
Doro Pesch is a legendary heavy metal singer. Her charisma, positive attitude, openness, humility and approachability can be a great example to other musicians. The lady has been through big things in her musical career and can only teach the rest of us a lesson. Practically the one and only woman on the planet who can boast a very successful solo heavy metal career, Doro is the only legitimate heir to the Warlock legacy. She’s gathered around her a backing crew of “Latin lovers”, sad looks, neo-makeup, tattoo mania and other kitsch. Among the names in the lineup, drummer Johnny Dee definitely stands out, fascinating during the set with his perfect use of the double bass drum pedal, which contributed the lion’s share to controlling the dynamics and variety of the songs, especially in terms of the ebb and flow of the air! The man flagged up his quality with some excellent “rolling” fills on the transitions too. Doro keeps her voice and presence in exceptional shape. Her charisma radiates extraordinary energy on stage. She holds eye contact with the audience the whole time, and she inherited quite a few stage moves from the excellent Ronnie James Dio as well. Doro built her setlist so that she mostly played Warlock songs. So the attack kicked off with Earthshaker Rock from the second Warlock record “Hellbound”. The first five songs of the show were a perfect Warlock assault! Later on there was an interesting pairing of the song Celebrate, which suddenly and brilliantly flowed into Metal Racer, a new Warlock classic from the debut “Burning The Witches”. Fantastic. Especially because it was a unique setlist, quite changed compared to the other summer shows Doro has already done this year. We also got a tribute to the makers of the heavy metal bible, Judas Priest, when the band tackled a cover of Breaking The Law. It was opened by guitarist Luca Pinciotta in a wittily recoded acoustic manner. The band played one round of the song (pre-chorus, chorus), then erupted with cranked-up distortion into a real magnetic avalanche that brought the whole crowd to its knees. The sign that we were at the peak of the show was the arrival of the best-known and obligatory Warlock song, All We Are, during which it hardly needs saying that by far the most alternating energy flux flowed through the air. Doro also reminded us with the songs Night Of The Warlock and Celebrate that her fresh new album “Fear No Evil” (2009) is out. The band crowned its intense, flawlessly executed show with the song We Are The Metalheads, which Doro wrote specially for the 20th anniversary of the Wacken Open Air festival, showing great respect to the organizer who keeps the metal flame so very much alive. No two ways about it. After an experience like that, only one thing follows. You absolutely have to see the band in Zagreb, on the October headline tour coming up this year!
| DER W: 20.20-21.30 |
“Der W” is former Böhse Onkelz bassist and bandleader Stephan Weidner, who in his later years tried his hand at being a lead singer! He’s backed by a lineup of two guitars, bass and, of course, drums. Der W is thus also the name of his band. That same band released its debut album “Schneller, höher, Weidner” last year, and played the whole thing at the Wacken Rocks South show. Böhse Onkelz have cult status in Germany and Austria, and Stephan didn’t have to strain himself on stage in any great detail to keep the crowd eating out of his hand. Honestly, you can tell Stephan spent most of his career on bass, and he still needs quite a few more helpings of buckwheat mush before he’s a polished singer. First of all, the stage act is witless, with monotonous pacing back and forth on the left and right side of the stage; second of all, there’s too little emphasis on a more impressive stage look. Despite a version of rock that didn’t fall far from the legacy of Stephan’s mother band, meaning simple chord tightening, simple sentences, with a bit more emphasis on building an intense curtain of riffs in the background, but not overdone! The vocals are fairly ordinary, punk-style, but with a committed and confident approach. In a few parts the guys proved that they’re not only at home with monotone blasting, but that they’re excellent musicians who can pull off more demanding stuff when needed. That includes more interesting moments conjured up by some (admittedly rare) solos from both guitarists and more demanding drum fills on the transitions. Otherwise, the surface feeling Stephan’s approach brings to life is a kind of “self-pity” and emotional mourning for better days gone by, but oh well. Popularity is popularity. The German crowd found the whole thing hugely appealing, which is why Der W drew by far the biggest crowd below the stage up to that point. And believe me. They didn’t let it down. Not even with the cover Gewinnen kann jeder, by Nordend Antistars, a band Stephan was also once involved in. For an outside observer, though, a Der W show is something that sadly doesn’t leave a particular feeling of satisfaction.
| VOLBEAT: 22.15-23.20 |
Every, absolutely every band wrestles with the same question when it’s founded. How do you win over fans, and with them fame, as fast as possible? The Danes Volbeat have apparently found the answer. In a relatively short time (they started playing in 2001) they’ve become household names and with that headliners of huge festivals, of which there were really quite a few for the Danes this summer. One of those festivals was Wacken Rocks, where the organizer even considered them the second pillar of the event after Slayer.. Everyone can make up their own mind about that fact and a look at the other bands, but I personally don’t quite agree with the organizer.
In a flood of newer bands dressed in the same colors, where it’s hard to find any recognizable trait that would make them unique, Volbeat are a bright star standing out from the gray average. They presented the audience with their unique sound, which matches the style of frontman Michael Poulsen, a kind of mix of rockabilly and heavy metal. The musical horizons of the Volbeat members are very broad, so besides those two genres you can hear influences of punk (they played a cover of Misfits’ Angelfuck) and country (they dedicated one of the songs to the eternal legend Johnny Cash). The colorful sonic picture went down well with the crowd, and at the venue you could spot the biggest number of longhairs so far. Beside Poulsen, who draws eyes with his interesting looks (white shirt and rockabilly hairdo), the newest addition, guitarist Thomas Bredahl, also stands out on stage, radiating loads of energy and never standing still. In a set a good hour long they covered songs from all three studio albums so far, with an emphasis on the still-current Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood, released last year. The title track of the latest album, Still Counting, or say the last song played, We, are hits that wonderfully capture the real Volbeat spirit, which the crowd felt too, dancing along with the Danes until the hour-long set came to an end…
| SLAYER: 00.10-1.25 |
Late in the evening, really already at night, the time finally came for the stars of the night and the whole festival. The headliners of the first Wacken Rocks South festival were the flag-bearers of the American “Bay Area thrash” scene, the mighty Slayer. In Slayer’s 2009 tour calendar you can spot only two European shows, and this night was the first one. Already the next day they were loosening up their fans’ necks in northern Germany, and that’s it. So Rockline was at one of only two Slayer shows for miles around, in both time and place. Tom Araya, Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King and Dave Lombardo is the lineup that shyly began writing its story in 1981 and put out a few cult records in the late eighties that are and always will be metal “evergreens”, which every thrash metal band plays at the start. After Metallica’s self-destruction off the throne of the thrash kings, Slayer are today, with still very solid releases, the driving force of the genre, and as they showed, only their (already announced) retirement can take the crown of thrash kings from them.
Darkness of Christ, the opening track from the album “God Hates Us All” (2001), has been the “tape intro” of Slayer shows ever since that album came out. The stage was wrapped in fog, a morbid atmosphere you could smell in the air, captured very aptly in the intro, and after a minute and a half of anticipation and heart pounding, it happened! The guitar trio charges onto the stage and kicks off with the logical continuation, Disciple, another song from that album. The very first heavy riff launched the gathered crowd, the biggest of the whole festival, into the air, and behind the first rows a fight for survival began, also known as a moshpit. What an unforgettable experience it is to watch the King & Hanneman guitar duo on stage! The legendary “twins”, who have worked together for almost 30 years, gave everyone there a proper lesson in tightness and infallibility, which, given the constant touring, is only logical. Kerry King’s fearsome look and his ice-cold attitude toward the crowd, which he couldn’t care less about and doesn’t grant so much as a glance all show, are the two things about Kerry that stand out most. Despite his grotesquely scary appearance, it was easy to notice that he stays unsure on the solos, even laughable. With Jeff Hanneman, I get the feeling that despite his important role in the band, he enjoys playing in the shadow, in the background, since King often overshadows him completely with his personality. The view of Dave Lombardo was blocked by a huge drum kit, so watching what was going on behind the drums was a bit difficult, but Dave wasn’t bothered. He proved once again what he’s made of! The already slightly gray Tom Araya, who makes his living as a vocalist as well as playing bass, is unstoppably aging, which shows in the growing strain on the vocal duties. The biggest proof is Angel of Death, where he doesn’t do the opening high scream at all, but with a smile on his face leaves it to the crowd. Most of the time Araya stays in the mid vocal waters, which gives him no trouble, while on the (rare) high screams he adapts his voice to his age, dropping it a notch or two. Otherwise he’s an exceptional frontman! He keeps the crowd in check the whole time, his performance is convincing, the audience gasps for his exhaled words, and he’s generally the only one of the four who communicates with the audience at all (in whatever form). The other three don’t let themselves be bothered. Not by a long shot.
The setlist was extremely predictable, with not a single sweetie thrown our way. As expected, they totally ignored the albums from the mid-nineties, and played, among other things, the new single Psychopathy Red, which will be on the upcoming “World Painted Blood” album, out in the fall. Until that song, King had huge technical trouble, with the connection between his guitar and the PA acting up, which the techs finally managed to fix. The peak of the show, especially for those seeing Slayer for the first time, was the last few tracks, whose riffs raise every hair on your body and will always be written in gold letters in all the metal textbooks. A predictable show by the old tomcats, it went smoothly and as expected. Since the most is always expected from Slayer, this meant an exceptional end to the night. We saw complete command of the stage, the radiating charisma of all four, and last but not least, we saw something of the greatest in the thrash metal world that ever trod on Mother Earth!
| text: Urban Bolta (U.D.O., Volbeat, Slayer) |
| text: Aleš Podbrežnik (intro, Axxis, 9mm, Herman Frank Band, Heaven Shall Burn, Alestorm, Doro, Der W) |
| photos: Aleš Podbrežnik |
Setlists
11:15 – 11:55 DEBAUCHERY 12:40 – 13:20 AXXIS 14:11 – 14:50 HANK III 15:35 – 16:20 HEAVEN SHALL BURN 17:05 – 17:50 U.D.O. 18:35 – 19:35 DORO 20:20 – 21:30 DER W. 22:15 – 23:20 VOLBEAT 00:10 – 01:25 SLAYER WET STAGE 10:45 – 11:10 AGE OF EVIL 12:05 – 12:35 9MM 13:25 – 14:00 HERMAN FRANK BAND 14:55 – 15:30 BAI BANG 16:25 – 17:00 SAHG 17:55 – 18:30 ALESTORM 19:40 – 20:15 PARITY BOOT 21:35 – 22:10 SUIDAKRA 23:25 – 00:10 SECRETS OF THE MOON 01:30 – 2:10 KRYPTERIA 02:30 – 3:00 CHROME MOLLY 03:15 – 03:45 SILVERLANE U.D.O. set lista: 1. Metalheart 2. They Want War 3. 24/7 4. Vendetta 5. Princess Of The Dawn 6. Living For Tonight 7. Man And Machine 8. Balls To The Wall DORO set lista: 1. Intro 2. Earthshaker Rock 3. I Rule The Ruins 4. Burning The Witches 5. True As Steel 6. Night Of The Warlock 7. Fuer immer 8. Hellbound 9. Celebrate / Metal Racer 10. Burn It Up 11. Breaking The Law 12. All We Are 13. We Are The Metalheads VOLBEAT set lista: 1. Intro (End of the Road) 2. Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood 3. Radio Girl 4. Hallelujah Goat 5. Sad Man’s Tongue 6. Mr. & Mrs. Ness 7. Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza 8. Mary Ann’s Place 9. Angelfuck 10. The Human Instrument 11. The Garden’s Tale 12. Caroline Leaving 13. Still Counting 14. A Moment Forever 15. We SLAYER set lista: 1. Darkness of Christ 2. Disciple 3. War Ensemble 4. Jihad 5. Psychopathy Red 6. At Dawn They Sleep 7. Chemical Warfare 8. Ghosts of War 9. Eyes of the Insane 10. Payback 11. Dead Skin Mask 12. Spirit in Black 13. Angel of Death —encore— 14. South of Heaven 15. Raining Blood
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