Let’s face it: the Germans are *weird* about their power metal.

Manowar and/or Saxon have played at something like 99%* of all Wacken festivals.

Saxon have a new album out.

Are we placing bets, people?

^{* actual number made up, but it’s a lot}

Image by Metal Chris via Flickr

I mentioned way back that I was going to write a little bit about my problem with Iron Maiden headlining Wacken 2008. I guess that time has finally arrived.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I recognise that Iron Maiden are one of metal’s pioneers, yada yada yada. But they just don’t really do it for me. My post Judas Priest vs Iron Maiden: Choose Your Side, posted January 2008 – that is, nearly 12 months ago – is the most popular and most commented post on my enter the goatlady blog, so it’s definitely a hot button topic amongst fans of classic metal.

My issue boils down to this: Iron Maiden toured around the world in 2008 under the “Somewhere Back In Time” banner playing only songs from their “classic” 80’s albums. At a time when metal is undergoing a massive resurgence, when more new music is being released every week than ever before, when there are so many great bands out there in every sub-genre of metal that are current and popular and great, it just seems backwards that the main headlining act of the world’s largest and most respected heavy metal festival is a bunch of dinosaurs who are only playing music from 20 years ago. MetalSucks’ “Vince Neilstein” refers to those kinds of bands as legacy acts and while I believe there is definitely a place for these kinds of bands, the headlining spot of Wacken is not that place.

Compare that with Obituary, who were my highlight act of the festival. Obituary have a 25 year history and are one of the veterans of the Florida death metal scene. They reformed after a 5 year hiatus in 2003 and have released two albums and an EP in that time. Their Wacken set featured material from throughout their career with a quite heavy emphasis on their latest album. The crowd seemed to know much of the new material, responded really well to it, and while 1989’s Slowly We Rot will always be a highlight of the set, here’s a classic band releasing new material that is current and relevant and dare I say it, fucking awesome and their fan base recognises that.

So let’s have a fresh, current and relevant lineup for 2009. It’s looking pretty good so far (and is sold out already!).

Um, that’s us there… in the blue tent, towards the left… [photo from official WOA Gallery]

We went and picked up a new tent in the post-Christmas sales, seeing as we left our last one pitched in a field at Wacken along with a whole stack of other stuff that we figured we would no longer be needing. We picked up some valuable tent-related camping tips last year, but not being experienced campers – or in fact, campers at all - we unfortunately learned these the hard way.

1. You may think, as we initially did, that seeing as you only get a couple of hours sleep a night (if that), that a spacious and/or comfortable camping arrangement is not important. On the contrary. Because you are only getting a couple of hours sleep a night, you want those couple of hours to be as comfortable and restful as possible. If you spend your two previous hours of rest time squashed into a corner wondering what that lump is digging into your ribs, you’re going to be very cranky when you finally do get up (at least you will if you’re me), in which case you might as well not have bothered even attempting to sleep. Metal karaoke goes until 6am and by 8am it’s far too hot to stay in the tent anyway, unless you’re unconscious.
2. A two person tent is big enough for two (undersized, perhaps dwarven) persons, but not big enough for two persons plus two persons’ worth of gear. Our new tent apparently sleeps three. Looking at the additional space, I think they would have to be three VERY friendly persons, but we should be able to get me and Dave AND our packs in there a little easier.
3. You don’t want your head to be in a vulnerable position. We had a good camping spot, nice and close to the grounds and facilities, but this meant that we had more foot traffic then we would have otherwise. Stumbling drunks + metal boots + your head on the ground near the edge + tendency for dudes to unzip and relieve themselves anywhere = recipe for disaster. This year, our tent is 220cmx200cm floor area (last years’ was 140cmx200cm). While the 220cm is meant to fit the three fictional persons across, we’ll be using to let Dave stretch his legs all the way out, which will hopefully mean there’s less chance of his head getting stomped or urinated on. Which is A Good Thing.
4. On day two it rained. Which meant everything turned to mud. Mud + boots + tent = more of a problem then you would probably realise. We needed our boots in the tent while we were sleeping so they didn’t get rained on, soaked with dew or urinated in (the most likely of the three). But because they were covered in mud we had to put them in a plastic bag and try to keep them upright in the corner or else everything else in the tent got covered in mud too. It was a real pain, but anyway our new tent has a zip-up verandah (or at least you’d call it that if it wasn’t so laughably, pathetically small). Which looks like a convenient place to take your boots off before you come “inside”. FTW!

Last year’s tent cost $29.95, thank you Anaconda. This year we splashed out – with the 30% discount, it came to grand total of $38. That $8.05 had better be money well spent.

They’re coming. In among the vikings, the folk metallers, the legends and the sensibly dressed, Motorhead are coming, and when I mean coming, I mean going to Germany. I toyed with the possibility of them going but I didn’t think I’d be that lucky. Whether any other big names decide to make an appearance isn’t anything I’m concerned with anymore. Seeing Motorhead at the most metal of metal shows to play their brand of rock n fucken roll is the kind of thing I refuse to miss out on.

I’ll admit, in spite of my usual sneering at other people as they kneel and worship celebrities and gods, I would gladly pull up a pew at the church of Lemmy and get stuck into the sacramental bourbon. He is rock and roll incarnate. But, you don’t need me to preach to you, through a rockin grapevine of friends I’ve become aware of a movie that can do that for me. Here endeth the lesson.

So here we are in December, and 20 bands have been announced for the line up. Am I excited? Hell yes… let’s see – Machine Head we have already talked about. Recent announcements of Napalm Death, Motorhead and Nevermore make me very excited. Plus a number of bands I’ve heard of (or heard a few songs) as well, that makes for 11 out of 20 bands that I am really looking forward to. The others will depend on any scheduling conflicts. Or beer conflicts. Or Metal Market conflicts.

A puzzling announcement is Bullet for my Valentine (sorry, not even going to link this). Sure, the tag “metal” core is applied to this band, but do they really belong at Wacken? There is quite a bit of vocal dissent about this choice on the Wacken forums, ranging from the usual swearing, threats of violence and “I’m going to sell my tickets on eBay” - to strangely logical suggestions of “if you don’t like them, don’t watch them”.

I probably shouldn’t complain, given there will be at least another 20-30 bands added to the bill, so 1 odd choice won’t matter. But still… I wonder how many other bands could have filled that spot. Ah well, nothing is perfect. Only having 2 arms and 1 liver for example. \m/

Well, we finally have our Wacken tickets in our hot little hands (ok… stuck up on the whiteboard with a magnet). It was a bit of a process though: we first ordered them as soon as humanly possible, back in early September, but our card wasn’t charged. When it finally DID get charged, we got an email from MetalTix saying there was a problem with the card and our order was canceled – despite the fact that AUD ~$760 had been taken out of our account! Needless to say we were losing our minds and it took a few emails back and forth to get it sorted. I didn’t really believe that it was all finalized until we went to the post office and picked up the package.

The line up is fleshing out nicely and I’ll be posting some thoughts on some of those bands soon.

But what I’m really waiting for is Gojira, right? Let’s get those crazy Frenchmen on the bill:

1. They are awesomely good
2. New album The Way of All Flesh is out now
3. Based in Europe already, convenience factor +
4. Did I mention they kick arse awesomely?
5. It’s a perfect match!

goatlady and I have been attending quite a few metal gigs lately, and I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. The band is on stage, they’re rocking the crowd, and the crowd is flashing the horns… but no, half of the people look like they are holding fucking crooked little stumps in the air.

Goddamit, if you are going to flash the horns, HOLD YOUR FUCKING FINGERS STRAIGHT. Don’t give me this limp wristed, half bent elbow wave. Is your hand broken? Do you have no muscle control? Is your mascara running into your eyes causing you too much pain? Come on people… \m/

Ok, I’ve been very slack updating *sigh*… but on the other hand, rather awesome news that In Flames are going to be playing Wacken. We’ve been huge fans for a long time, and goatlady was predicting that they would most likely play this year, and here we are.

What is interesting, is that we’ve really been waiting ages to see these guys live, and they are playing the Soundwave Festival here in February, so we actually get to see them twice. Rock on…

One of the best pieces of news to date about WOA09: Swedish viking metallers Amon Amarth have been confirmed.

All three of us fucking love this band. They were awesome in Perth in January… can’t believe that was over 10 months ago. We bought tshirts and I was blown away by how smart their label was. The DVD of their 2006 Wacken set was killer. And hey, viking metal. Vikings, I mean… how cool is that?

A third band has been confirmed for Wacken 2009 (the big event is in 10 months and one day as I write this) – and it’s Norwegian Viking metal pioneers Einherjer. Thanks Blabbermouth!

Viking metal is something I’ve written about in the past. Although I love Amon Amarth a great deal, I don’t generally get into viking metal as much as say, pirate metal. At least Einherjer don’t sound folksy like Alestorm, although their Wikipedia page suggests that some of their albums are more folk while others are black metal.

At any rate, good to see the announcements continue!