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You just try and wipe this smile off my face

Monday, 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.

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Wanted: Festival Factory

Monday, 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!

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Success: Gojira added to Wacken

Saturday, 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.

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Party.San heating up

Saturday, 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

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New plans: three festivals

Wednesday, 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!

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Balls to the Wall

Monday, 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!

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More 2010 festival announcements

Sunday, 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?

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New announcements?

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

I was check­ing a cou­ple of facts on the Wacken Wikipedia entry when I noticed that there’s a cou­ple of extra bands listed for 2010 in the entry: Devour The Masses and Cry­sis. They’re not listed on the offi­cial Wacken site (Ger­man or Eng­lish ver­sions – the Ger­man ver­sion often gets updated first) and a Google search does not bring up any­thing. Accord­ing to the edit his­tory of the page, Devour the Masses was added a cou­ple of days ago and Cry­sis at the end of August.

Of course, the fact that it’s on Wikipedia does not make it true (duh). But it’s inter­est­ing nonethe­less, yes?

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First bands confirmed for Wacken 2010

Friday, August 21st, 2009

image

They don’t waste any time, do they?

The first bands announced for Wacken 2010 are the mighty Immor­tal, and seri­ous but out-there medieval met­allers Corvus Corax.

I’m pretty impressed that announce­ments are being made already. Per­haps the organ­is­ers learnt their les­son from 2009, when they got ham­mered on their own forums and else­where for not releas­ing any infor­ma­tion about the line up for such a long time – mean­ing the infor­ma­tion when it did come couldn’t pos­si­bly live up to the hype and antic­i­pa­tion that sur­rounded it. Last year’s first band (Machine Head) wasn’t announced until mid Sep­tem­ber, before tick­ets even went on sale.

What­ever the rea­son, I’m excited as hell (don’t for­get, any pic­ture can be improved by adding Immor­tal to it) and will be eagerly await­ing fur­ther announce­ments, as always!

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Running order… decisions decisions!

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

Peo­ple are always com­plain­ing about line up clashes at fes­ti­vals but really I think there’s not a lot that can be done– no mat­ter how you arrange the bands some­one is always going to be dis­ap­pointed. Last year I missed out on some bands I wanted to see and no doubt the same thing will hap­pen this year.

To help peo­ple make sense of the order — there is, after all, about six dif­fer­ent stages — the organ­is­ers this year have made a plan­ning tool avail­able. Sim­ply check off all the bands you would like to see, and the tool gen­er­ates a timetable for you with the clashes marked.

I put in my pref­er­ences and this is what I got:

Wednes­day 29. Jul. 2009
22:00 — 01:00 down Movienight Soc­cer­field
00:00 — 01:00 up Mambo Kurt W.E.T. Stage / Head­bangers Ballroom
01:00 — 06:00 empty Metal Karaoke / Disco W.E.T. Stage / Head­bangers Ballroom
Thurs­day 30. Jul. 2009
17:00 — 18:00 empty D:A:D Party Stage
18:30 — 19:30 down Anthrax Party Stage
18:45 — 19:25 up 5th Avenue W.E.T. Stage / Head­bangers Ballroom
20:15 — 22:00 down Run­ning Wild Black Stage
21:30 — 22:30 up The Bosshoss Party Stage
22:30 — 00:00 down Heaven & Hell Black Stage
23:00 — 00:00 up Lacuna Coil Party Stage
Fri­day 31. Jul. 2009
14:15 — 15:15 empty Gamma Ray True Metal Stage
15:30 — 16:30 empty Walls Of Jericho Black Stage
16:45 — 17:45 empty Nev­er­more True Metal Stage
21:15 — 21:55 down Nerve­cell W.E.T. Stage / Head­bangers Ballroom
21:45 — 23:00 up Motör­head True Metal Stage
23:15 — 00:30 down In Flames Black Stage
23:35 — 00:15 up Eths W.E.T. Stage / Head­bangers Ballroom
00:45 — 01:45 down Doro True Metal Stage
00:45 — 01:45 up Sarke W.E.T. Stage / Head­bangers Ballroom
02:00 — 03:00 empty Amon Amarth Black Stage
Sat­ur­day 01. Aug. 2009
12:00 — 12:45 empty Napalm Death Party Stage
14:15 — 15:15 empty Cathe­dral Black Stage
15:30 — 16:30 empty Tes­ta­ment True Metal Stage
16:45 — 17:45 empty Bork­na­gar Party Stage
19:15 — 20:15 empty Pain Party Stage
21:20 — 22:00 down Engel W.E.T. Stage / Head­bangers Ballroom
21:45 — 22:45 up-down Machine Head Black Stage
21:45 — 22:45 up Enslaved Party Stage
23:00 — 00:30 empty Saxon True Metal Stage
Table Leg­end:
down: Time over­lap with next entry
up: Time over­lap with pre­vi­ous entry
up-down: Time over­lap with both, pre­vi­ous and next entry

That’s a lot of angry red clashes! I’ve got to do some think­ing over the next few days… plus, I’ve just realised that bands play­ing in the Wackinger — like Swash­buckle, who I def­i­nitely want to see — aren’t included in this tool.

Gah! tough deci­sions to be made. Who would you cut?

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