Wacken Open Air - Wacken 2007 (Day 3)

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: - (daylight)
Total: 7.5






THE VISION BLEAK (Ruth Gräbeldinger)

THE VISION BLEAK is a gothic metal band from Germany formed in 2000, consisting of former EMPYRIUM member Ulf Theodor Schwadorf and former NOX MORTIS member Allen B Konstanz. The band's themes are most notably orientated towards horror.



Music & Performance
While some people are still regretting the end of EMPYRIUM, Ulf T. Schwadorf's famous Metal/Folk project, in 2002, he has been and is still playing in several bands during the last years, amongst them the Gothic Metal formation THE VISION BLEAK. The band is a duo consisting of Schwadorf and Allen B. Konstanz, also a member of EWIGHEIM. I very much like their fantastic compositions, often being able to create a gloomy atmosphere and reminding of horror movie scores. The two musicians name horror films as well as literature as a main influence for their songs, and they are frequently using samples or textual excerpts from them. Their latest album "The Wolves Go Hunt Their Pray" has just appeared at the end of August via Prophecy Productions.



Schwadorf and Konstanz came on stage wearing white make-up and ancient clothing and delivered a fantastic show together with their live musicians. It is nearly impossible to bring their compositions on stage adequately, but they managed to show a different side of their songs to their numerous fans who had come to the W.E.T Stage to party with them.

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: - (daylight)
Total: 9.1






TYPE O NEGATIVE (Anne Kuhfuß)

TYPE O NEGATIVE is a band from Brooklyn, New York. They are notable as one of the earliest successes in the Goth / Doom metal style, complete with distorted guitars, frequent keyboard use, and the low, operatic vocals of Peter Steele. In addition, however, the band has always balanced a variety of non-Goth influences, such as THE BEATLES (sometimes referring to themselves in jest as "The Drab Four").



Despite a dramatic lyrical emphasis on themes of sex, romance, depression, and death, TYPE O NEGATIVE is also known for an irreverent and self-deprecating sense of humour. Their popularity grew in 1993 with the album ‘Bloody Kisses’, which featured the provocative hits ‘Christian Woman’ and ‘Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)’. Their most recent album is 2007's ‘Dead Again’.



Music & Performance
When a friend told me TYPE O NEGATIVE would play at the Wacken instead of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, I first didn’t know what to think about it. I had never seen them performing on stage but reading some other reviews about them, they were supposed to be really interesting. I was standing in the far back and although they had their huge screen, there were so many people that I couldn’t see they were doing on stage. So, I can only judge their music and the music was just great! His voice, the guitars, the drums, just great! I really liked it and I’m definitely happy I decided to watch their show!

Rating
Music: 8
Performance -
Lights: 9 (+ daylight)
Sound: 9
Total: 8.7




IMMORTAL (Anne Kuhfuß)

IMMORTAL is a pioneer black metal band from Bergen, Norway. The band was formed from the remnants of Amputation, a death metal band from 1989. Immortal decided to split during the summer of 2003 for personal reasons of the band members. However, in mid-October 2005, Abbath, Demonaz, and original Immortal drummer ARMAGEDDA reunited, and along with ex-GORGOROTH bassist King ov Hell and ENSLAVED guitarist Arve Isdal, they began work on a new project, dubbed I. This new band entered the studio at the end of April 2006 to record their debut album and was released November of 2006. Demonaz is the primary lyricist for the band. In July 2006 it was announced that IMMORTAL would reunite for a string of summer shows in 2007. They were headlining the Inferno Festival in April, the Tuska Open Air festival in June/July, Metal Camp festival in July, and the Wacken Open Air festival in August.

Music & Performance
IMMORTAL entered the stage and the crowd just freaked out. Hands flew up in the air and growling started everywhere. It was interesting to see them performing with all those spikes all over their bodies. But they managed it and their show was just great. The lights were awesome, just as always and their make-up just completely matched the image of the band. They always looked “trve” but hearing them talk to the audience, you could see that weren’t as bad as they always tried to be. You couldn’t understand a word they were growling but it was still fun. I didn’t really know stuff from them before, so I was excited to see how their music would be if they perform live. And I have to say, I’m happy I didn’t miss that concert!

Rating
Performance 10
Music 9
Lights 10
Sound 9
Total 9.6


IN FLAMES (Anne Kuhfuß)

IN FLAMES is a melodic death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden founded in 1990. Along with DARK TRANQUILLITY and AT THE GATES, they pioneered what is now known as melodic death metal. The band was founded in 1990 as a side project of Jesper Strömblad who was at the time in a death metal band called CEREMONIAL OATH.



Music & Performance
The music they did in the last couple of years wasn’t really my thing but I really like all the old stuff they were doing back in the days, so I hoped for old stuff to be played that day. And my wish came true. I really enjoyed looking at them at the screen and seeing him just rocking the stage as good as he could. The sound was great and contributed to the whole great music. At the end of the show, I actually was sad. In my eyes, they could have played even another hour!

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Lights: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9






HAGGARD (Anne Kuhfuß)

HAGGARD is a German symphonic metal musical group founded in 1991. The group combines folk, classical, renaissance and medieval music with melodic death metal. Currently, HAGGARD are working on their fourth album, ‘Tales of Ithiria’, which will be based on a fantasy story, according to an interview given by Asis Nasseri to folkmetal.de in August 2005.The release of 2Tales of Ithiria2 has been postponed by Drakkar Records, although the band assures it will be out by September 2007.

Music & Performance
HAGGARD consists of many people standing on the stage, so it’s really fun to watch all the people performing up there. The concert was at the party stage which is really small, so it looked kinda funny how this big group of people was standing there. Although, the singer Asis Nasseri was the only one really acting and talking on stage, you could see that every single person was having fun performing in front of this huge crowd. You can’t just listen to HAGGARD, you have to feel it. That’s the impression I got from the concert that day. All these different kinds of instruments just perfectly matched together, so the whole setting was just right. You could almost hear every single instrument on its own. Just phenomenal!

Rating
Performance 8
Music 10
Lights 8
Sound 9
Total 8.8


SUBWAY TO SALLY (Anne Kuhfuß)

SUBWAY TO SALLY was founded in Potsdam, Germany, in the early 1990s. It is a rock band with clear folk and medieval influences, later also with gothic and metal elements added to the mix. With their continuous inclusion of oriental sounds and elements of classical music (noted for instance by the use of the arrangements of the backup vocals) and the use of instruments less frequently seen in metal bands, such as bagpipes, shawm, violin, hurdy-gurdy and lute, the band has acquired the label of medieval metal. They have released 8 studio albums, one live album and one live DVD. Their fame is mainly in the German-speaking countries, having played only a handful of concerts outside of their "turf".

Music & Performance
People told me their last performance at the Wacken last year wasn’t good at all, so now they tried to redo that with all different kinds of fire coming up from the ground, shooting a live-video and constantly talking to the fans. Basically, for me, it was too much. But the contrast for that is definitely that the only song they played as a bonus was ‘Julia und die Räuber’ which wasn’t really quite enough although it was the last concert of this year’s Wacken. They played all different kinds of song from their past albums and of their current album ‘Nord Nord Ost’ which was really great. The audience just screamed along with every song they played that night, so the mood was fantastic. The instruments were played perfectly and so, the music was just as great as always!

Rating
Performance 7
Music 10
Lights 10
Sound 9
Total 8.7


SPELLBOUND (Ruth Gräbeldinger)

SPELLBOUND was founded in 1999 and they are resident in Überlingen which is directly at the lake of Constance. The current line up is Dave Maier (guitar, lead vocals), Daniel Tschoepe (guitar, backing vocals), Andy Flache (drums) and Hannes Jäger (bass, backing vocals). The concept of the musicians is based on combining old school 80ies Thrash Metal with modern elements without sounding antiquated or sterile. After having played live at some festivals and the “W:O:A Roadshow-Tour 2006”, the band had to deal with several line-up changes.



SPELLBOUND entered the Stage-One-Studio again in November 2006 to record the ‘Incoming Destiny’ successor ‘Nemesis 2665’ together with Andy Classen. The result is an outstanding evolution of the typical “spellboundsound” which should help the band catapult them to the top of the German underground! Beside the musical adjustment, the textual contents are another important component to the band. Thus text writer David argues with theories of confidential knowledge and conspiracy theories. But different to most of the other bands, which deal with this “topical” themes, David is not looking for culprits but lights up rather the consequences in the form of interpretations beyond the human imagination.



Music & Performance
With their latest output "Nemesis 2665" in baggage, which has been recorded under very difficult conditions, as their former singer and bassist had left the band shortly before entering the studio, SPELLBOUND had come to the Wacken Open Air. They played a short gig in the press tent. Their original singer Dave has taken up the microphone again and does a pretty good job. Though, according to some critics, their new album had needed a little more time to age, I liked their stuff when played live, and I guess most of the attendees in the press tent would agree with me, and I hope to see them again soon.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7



All pics by Ruth Gräbeldinger
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