You just try and wipe this smile off my face

March 8th, 2010

Burton C Bell

Fear Fac­tory have been announced for Wacken. I’d be doing a lit­tle happy dance right now, except that wouldn’t be very metal. Met­al­beast can con­firm that I ripped off my head­set and threw the horns before I could even vocalise the news.

So first Gojira, now Fear Fac­tory… would it be cheeky to sug­gest a third must-see band, Trip­tykon? They’ll be tour­ing in Europe at the time, surely it wouldn’t be too much a stretch. Wacken, Party.San, Sum­mer Breeze? Anyone?

I did my very first video inter­view in Jan­u­ary, with Bur­ton and Dino from Fear Fac­tory. You can laugh at me here: Soul of an old machine.

Tags:
Posted in bands, woa2010 | No Comments »

Wanted: Festival Factory

March 1st, 2010

Fear FactoryI

Last year, the all-new Fear Fac­tory lineup announced head­lin­ing club dates in Ham­burg (the day after we left) and Aus­tralia includ­ing Perth (two days after we arrived back home). But then those dates were can­celled due to their ongo­ing legal issues and the band went and recorded a new album instead.

They were then added to the Big Day Out fes­ti­val in Aus­tralia, but after most of the dates had already sold out and we weren’t about to pay to go when there was only one band we wanted to see on the bill any­way. So our chances of see­ing them live were snatched away again.

Now the new album, Mech­a­nize, is out (it’s a rip­per) and a set list from a recent show in Ams­ter­dam has a few of the new songs in it. Fear Fac­tory have been announced for the fol­low­ing Euro­pean fes­ti­val dates:

  • Hellfest (France), June 18–20
  • Graspop Metal Meet­ing (Bel­gium), June 25–27
  • With Full Force (Ger­many), July 2–4
  • For­t­aRock (Hol­land), July 3
  • Son­i­sphere (United King­dom), July 31
  • Bru­tal Assault (Czech Repub­lic), August 12–14

Now, to me that looks like there’s some big gaps in there, par­tic­u­larly in July and the begin­ning of August. My bet is that there will be some more Fes­ti­val gigs announced and maybe even some sideshows. Party.San is on at the same time as Bru­tal Assault so that’s prob­a­bly out, but Wacken at the begin­ning of August and Sum­mer Breeze on August 19–21 leave me with hope.

I’ll be keep­ing a keen eye out! Wacken organ­is­ers, you finally lis­tened to me a booked Gojira… here’s another tip for you!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in bands, party.san2010, summerbreeze2010, woa2010 | No Comments »

Success: Gojira added to Wacken

February 27th, 2010

Gojira

Either the Wacken organ­is­ers started lis­ten­ing to what I’ve been say­ing for the last three years, or they got sick of my whin­ing – either way, I’m pleased to note that my favourite French envi­ron­men­tal­ists Gojira were added to the lineup in Jan­u­ary. (The thought that I had noth­ing to do with this announce­ment has, of course, not crossed my mind).

I’ve been a huge fan of this band for a cou­ple of years now, and while I have all their releases (includ­ing the ridicu­lously hard to find debut, Terra Incog­nita), my favourite by far is their sec­ond album, The Link, partly because of the amaz­ing per­cus­sion (includ­ing mal­let per­cus­sion) parts. I’m fairly sure that these days we won’t be hear­ing many (if any) tracks off The Link but never mind, it’s all killer stuff.

I’m also a bit of a sucker for accents, and once lis­tened to the begin­ning of an inter­view where the Gojira front­man said “’ello, my name is Jo-seeeeph Du-plant-i-aaaaaair” about 20 times in a row. So cute. Ahem.

Tags: , ,
Posted in bands, woa2010 | No Comments »

Party.San heating up

January 30th, 2010

Sarke and Nocturno Culto 

In the leadup to Christ­mas, both Wacken and Sum­mer Breeze announced one band every day – in the case of Sum­mer Breeze, some­times more than one – so their line­ups, while not com­plete, are pretty well padded. Party.San didn’t get in on the advent trend, but they’ve made a few announce­ments in recent weeks that make us very happy met­al­heads indeed.

The biggest one for me is Sarke. This Nor­we­gian black metal col­lab­o­ra­tion between Sarke him­self and Darthrone’s Noc­turno Culto played Wacken last year and I made sure I saw it because Tom G War­rior was mak­ing a guest appear­ance for a Celtic Frost cover. While I was expect­ing that to be awe­some – and fuck, it really was – what I wasn’t expect­ing was to be blown away by the rest of their set. But they were great, and I’ve got the album now, and I think it’s going to be really fun to see them play at Party.San espe­cially because it’s going to  be a much smaller and more inti­mate festival.

Other announce­ments that are pretty cool include Suf­fo­ca­tion, Milk­ingth­e­goat­ma­chine (check em out, hilar­i­ous stuff) and Dying Fetus. The full lineup so far is:

AURA NOIR
CANNIBAL CORPSE
DEMONICAL
DEVOURMENT
DYING FETUS
KETZER
MÅNEGARM
MERRIMACK
MILKING THE GOATMACHINE
MONSTROSITY
NECROPHAGIST
OFERMOD
SARKE
SUFFOCATION
SUICIDAL ANGELS
THE CROWN
THE DEVIL’S BLOOD
TRIBULATION
UNDER THAT SPELL
VARG
WATAIN

Tags: ,
Posted in bands, party.san2010 | No Comments »

New plans: three festivals

December 23rd, 2009

 horns!

Well, we decided to harden the fuck up and our 2010 metal extrav­a­ganza tour will now have three stops: Wacken, Party.San and Sum­mer Breeze.

Co-incidentally, this is the same route that Sound­works Metal Fes­ti­val Travel will be tak­ing – but we’re not going with them (although it’s a good deal they’re offer­ing) as we have our own plans before and after.

In the lead up to Anti-Christmas this year, both Wacken and Sum­mer Breeze have been announc­ing a new band every day (in the case of Sum­mer Breeze, quite often two bands are announced). It’s a far cry from last year where Wacken didn’t announce any­thing at all for bloody ages and dis­ap­pointed the hell out of everyone.

We now have an absolutely insane list of bands that we could poten­tially see. Sev­eral of then we will have the oppor­tu­nity to see mul­ti­ple times. It’s absolutely brutal.

Wacken

  • 1349
  • Arch Enemy
  • Can­ni­bal Corpse
  • Cru­ci­fied Barbara
  • Despised Icon
  • End­stille
  • Grave Dig­ger
  • Immor­tal
  • Mot­ley Crue
  • Slayer
  • U.D.O.

And also Alice Cooper, Amor­phis, Cal­iban, Corvus Corax, Die Apoka­lyp­tis­chen Reiter, Edguy, Ekto­morf, Ghost Brigade, Iron Maiden, Kamp­far, Lake of Tears, Orden Ogan, Pri­mal Fear, Stra­to­var­ius, The Devil’s Blood, Tor­frock, W.A.S.P.

Party.San

  • Can­ni­bal Corpse
  • Suf­fo­ca­tion
  • Watain

And also The Devil’s Blood, Demon­i­cal, Aura Noir, Mane­garm, Tribulation.

Sum­mer Breeze

  • 1349
  • Ahab
  • Behe­moth
  • Can­ni­bal Corpse
  • Dark Tran­quil­lity
  • Despised Icon
  • Gor­goroth
  • Hypocrisy
  • Kylesa
  • My Dying Bride
  • Obit­u­ary
  • Ori­gin
  • Sepul­tura
  • War From a Harlot’s Mouth

And also Anath­ema, Asphyx, Bar­ren Earth, Cal­listo, Cumulo Nim­bus, Dark Funeral, Die Apoka­lyp­tis­chen Reiter, Dying Fetus, Eis­brecher, Eis­re­gen, Ensiferum, Feuer­schwanz, Fiddler’s Green, Frei­wild, Gwar, Hail of Bul­lets, Ill Nino, Insom­nium, Kor­pik­laani, Leaves Eyes, Let­zte Instanz, Long Dis­tance Call­ing, Maroon, Mono Inc, Necrophag­ist, Orphaned Land, Pan­theon I, Poi­son­black, Rebel­lion, Sol­stafir, Sub­way to Sally, Swal­low the Sun, The Crown, The Dev­ils Blood, Tracedawn, We But­ter The Bread With Butter.

Tooo… much… metal!

Tags: , ,
Posted in bands | 2 Comments »

Balls to the Wall

November 30th, 2009

l_4bc0cd8326c30b335ca235953f4ffa0d So the good peo­ple at Wacken Open Air (per­haps inspired by the Sum­mer Breeze organ­is­ers) have decided to give us fans a metal advent cal­en­dar. Pretty awe­some. Each day a band will be revealed, along with a clue for who is going to be announced the next day.

As a warm up for every­one, tonight’s clue was pretty sim­ple – which artists cur­rent album is called Dom­i­na­tor. And the sur­vey says – UDO, the awe­somely angry lit­tle man (of Accept fame) with a kick ass voice. What a great start to proceedings!

Posted in bands, woa2010 | 1 Comment »

Anyone been to Metal Camp in Slovenia?

November 29th, 2009

Metal Camp 09

In 2008, we went to Slove­nia to stay with a friend – sadly, it was only for three days. It took less than one day to fall in love with the place – the breath­tak­ing nat­ural scenery, the his­tory that is all around you, the friend­li­ness of the peo­ple, the pivo – oh yes, the beer. Lasko, I miss you.

Lasko, excellent Slovenian beer In Slove­nia, not far from where we stayed, they have a five day metal fes­ti­val, Metal Camp. It looks fuck­ing awe­some but five days is a very long slog. How­ever, I just read a report from Metal Rules about Metal Camp 2009 and from their (14 page!) account, it actu­ally sounds really good, much more laid back than Wacken or some of the other big fes­ti­vals. (If you can’t be both­ered read­ing all of it, skip to page 14 for the sum­mary).

Notably, bands don’t start until early evening, which means that there’s time to relax and if you feel like it, visit some of the local attrac­tions dur­ing the day. Much more civilised than try­ing to simul­ta­ne­ously deal with a hang­over, exces­sive light, queue for break­fast food and watch black metal bands at 11am!

Unfor­tu­nately the dates for 2010 are in early July, which means it’s a bit too early for us to con­sider trekking to. But it’s worth con­sid­er­ing for future years I think!

Has any­one been? What did you think?

Tags: ,
Posted in festival, travel | Comments Off

Is three festivals too many for one trip?

November 15th, 2009

1001 gelbe Konzertfans

Wacken is set in stone. Party.San is look­ing good.

Would adding Sum­mer Breeze, the week after Party.San, be too ambitious?

Pros: Obit­u­ary are playing.

Cons: After two fes­ti­vals we’re likely to be a bit worn out and ever-so-slightly meh. Not to men­tion prob­a­bly broke.

What do you reckon? Over-ambitious or are we being emo?

Is three fes­ti­vals too ambitious

View Results

Loading ... Loading …

Tags: , ,
Posted in festival, travel, woa2010 | 3 Comments »

More 2010 festival announcements

November 8th, 2009

Dave with Arch Enemy bassist Sharlee D'Angelo

Dave and I were for­tu­nate enough to win “meet and greet” passes with Arch Enemy at their show in Perth last week… which was heaps of fun! We got to meet most of the band but the per­son who was really cool to talk to was Sharlee D’Angelo, their bass player. Sharlee men­tioned that while it wasn’t 100% final yet, the band were in nego­ti­a­tions to play Wacken 2010. Cool!

While there haven’t been any more offi­cial announce­ments for Wacken, Party.San, fron­trun­ner for “addi­tional fes­ti­val in 2010” has had Can­ni­bal Corpse, The Devil’s Blood and Demon­i­cal added to their exist­ing list which includes Aura Noir, Mane­garm, Suf­fo­ca­tion, Tribu­la­tion and Watain. We missed CC due to a date clash when they played Perth last, so it would be awe­some to see them – and even more so in a fes­ti­val setting.

Sum­mer Breeze has also had some announce­ments, includ­ing my favourite band Obit­u­ary. That one is the week after Party.San – so when we were plan­ning to be in Poland — but it’s worth keep­ing in mind.

Any­one else mak­ing early plans for the 2010 Euro­pean fes­ti­val circuit?

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in bands, woa2010 | Comments Off

Expanding the festival itinerary

October 11th, 2009

Wacken 2010 tickets

The Met­al­beast and I have been now to two Wacken fes­ti­vals. We are of course in pos­ses­sion already of tick­ets for 2010 – but are think­ing it’s time to expand the fes­ti­val itin­er­ary and take in another event while we’re in Europe.

There’s so many to choose from that it’s going to be a hard deci­sion. Obvi­ously stuff that is close to Wacken – both in dis­tance and tim­ing – is one of the key fac­tors. We might be able to extend our trip to four weeks this time around, and what­ever else hap­pens we def­i­nitely want to spend time in Poland at the end.

Top con­tender for our sec­ond fes­ti­val in 2010 is, at the moment, Party.San. It’s only a few hours from Wacken and is a week after. They have announced a hand­ful of bands already and as their line­ups are typ­i­cally all black and death metal, it’s look­ing very appeal­ing indeed. We could hire a car after Wacken, drive down there in half a day, and use the vehi­cle as a place to store all the crap we will have accu­mu­lated by then. We will prob­a­bly have at least three other Aussies with us so hir­ing a van might be an eco­nom­i­cal and cool option.

Because we have mates in the UK, there’s also the pos­si­bil­ity of Blood­stock. It’s also the week after, although it’s slightly more com­pli­cated to get there. The only thing going against it are the fact that it’s quite expen­sive to eat and drink there, even more so as the Aussie dol­lar is not as strong against the pound as it is against the euro. On the plus side, they’ve already announced Behe­moth (Dave’s favourite band) and Obit­u­ary (my favourite band) for 2010. Given that both those bands are tour­ing in 2010 it’s likely they’ll end up on other bills too, so that’s not too com­pelling a fac­tor just now.

A cer­tain per­son also would like us to go to Headbanger’s Open Air. It’s the week before Wacken, and also in Ger­many, but it’s all thrash and as such, not our cup of tea, so to speak.

Where to go, where to go? Ideas anyone?

Tags: , , ,
Posted in festival, woa2010 | 3 Comments »

« Older Entries