Last Saturday night at Casa Goatbeast: an intense meal of Goatlady specialty chili, followed by an intense Blitzkrieg planning session, followed by an absolutely satanic chocolate berry baked cheesecake, courtesy of the Full Metal Campground Chef Vagrant and his lovely lady.

The end result? Some very full bellies and a tour diversion: after Party.San, we spend one night in Stuttgart, cross the border into France to stay one night in Strasbourg, then over to Switzerland, for a night in Zurich, before heading back into Deutschland for Summer Breeze. In ten minutes we managed to double the number of countries we will be visiting.

Three countries in three days is a tad intense, but we’re a discerning lot and the prospect of the diversion of French pastry and Swiss chocolate before heading back for more German beer is very appealing. Operation: Croissant will be accompanied by the soothing sounds of Gojira, while Operation: Chocolate’s soundtrack will feature the unholy Fischer trinity of Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Triptykon.

Help us out: what must-see and must-do things are there near these spots?

Operation: Croissant and Operation: Chocolate is a post from: hell bent for metal

If you graphed my general mood over time the last few weeks, no doubt the line would mirror a similar graph of the currency exchange rate, Australian dollar to Euro. Sad but true, the amount of fun we can have on Blitzkrieg Tour 2010 largely depends on how much beer our measly Australian pesos can buy.

Last week were on a high – the Euro had tanked against the Aussie dollar, no doubt due in part to the problems with Greece’s economy and the suspicions that Spain and Portugal were likely to follow them into bankruptcy. 1 Australian dollar was buying 71 Euro cents, at its highest.

Then our idiot government decided to tax the hell out of mining companies and the Aussie dollar took a massive slide to it’s lowest point in 10 months. 1 Aussie peso is now worth a measly 65 cents. Thanks guys. It might not sound like much but over the course of hundreds of dollars it really starts to add up.

Here’s hoping things stabilise a little in the next few weeks so we don’t end up bored and sober! There’s 70 days to go…

Currency exchange rates is a post from: hell bent for metal

So I was having a quick Google to see if any metal gigs were coming up while we are visiting Krakow, Poland. Came up with a few entries, all either just before or after we leave. I was about to go do something else (attention span of a gnat), when I clicked a few more links, and HOLY SHIT. Gojira (one of our favourite bands) are playing a club gig in Krakow a few days after we arrive. After sprinting to tell goatlady with much excitement, I read further, and not only that – but Lost Soul, a band I just got into and who are totally, ass kickingly awesome – are the support act. Cue more sprinting to tell the sleepy goatlady, and trying to work out how to book tickets.

What is even more amazing is that this gig costs … $24 Aussie dollars. That is a crazy price!

The metal stars align is a post from: hell bent for metal

At some point in the last few months our epic three festival tour has developed the codename Blitzkrieg 2010.

Current Blitzkrieg Tour status:

• festival tickets: Wacken, Party.San, Summer Breeze: check
• flights: booked and paid for: check
• tent and backpacks: check
• accommodation between festivals: still to be sourced
• car hire: still to be sourced

The Festival buddy system is in full swing, with Charp set to actually attend his first Wacken after bailing out on his two previous attempts. Zoe Zombie and uh, “Roger” will be at the Holy Grounds on their Full Metal Honeymoon, and Vagrant is making it two Wackens running as well as joining the full Blitzkrieg-in-a-bus experience (as honorary pastry chef) and rocking on for a week of post-festival alcoholism in Krakow. The motley English crew will be in attendance in some configuration or another as always, and we’re trying as hard as we can to get Metal As Fuck’s Biodagar on board. She totally fucking needs to do it.

And who knows, there will probably be other randoms that we know as well, including the dude who works at our local computer store (*waves*), Alex, a hot chick from Sydney I’ve been talking to that found us via this blog, and the Perth peeps joining the Soundworks Metal Travel tour.

As of this evening, 144 days to go!

Blitzkrieg Tour 2010: all systems go is a post from: hell bent for metal

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.

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?

Anyone been to Metal Camp in Slovenia? is a post from: hell bent for metal

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 many for one trip? is a post from: hell bent for metal

So all along, we’ve know that this year we were going to Wacken, and spending more time in Poland. But how we would spend our time in between these two locations was still up in the air.

Last year, we went (far too briefly) to Slovenia, then spent a week in Italy. We were thinking of spending time this year in Norway and Sweden, but in the end we’ve decided to go to Switzerland instead.

Why Switzerland, you may ask? Well, not for Toblerone, mountains, cheese, clocks or Swiss bank accounts – but for art and black metal. From Hamburg, we’re going to fly to Zurich, then take the train to Gruyères to visit the HR Giger Museum. We have four nights all up and will divide our time between these two places, although exactly how we have not yet decided.

If possible, I’m also going to try and get my hands on a death mask made by Tom Gabriel Warrior, of Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Triptykon fame. These masks are gorgeous works of slightly unsettling art and while I’m not sure I’d trust delivery to the regular postal system, in-person pick up is apparently sometimes possible. Fingers crossed.

The land of chocolate, cheese, and bank accounts is a post from: hell bent for metal

Decibel magazine’s blog has some timely death metal tourism advice for us in Adam (Hate) Lists Top 5 Things To Do In Poland.

1. While we won’t be actually doing suggestion Number 1 – Play Polish death metal – we’ll certainly be trying to find some local stuff to check out in the numerous bars of Krakow.
2. Number 2 is Fight Christianity – well, that’s all in a day’s work, right?
3. Next up is Climb Tatra Mountains – that one is on our todo list also.
4. Spend time by the Baltic Sea eating pierogi and kilbasa – we’ll be doing a variation of this one, but just in Krakow. I for one intend to consume pierogi pretty much for breakfast, lunch and dinner, although Dave can keep the kilbasa (sausage) all for himself.
5. As for number 5, Visit Białowieża – that will be a little difficult in our limited time. This forest, home of the rare Polish bison “zubr”, is quite some way away from where we’ll be. But Dave recently finished off some Polish bison vodka – complete with prairie grass stalk in the bottle – and we’re both pretty amazed by the Zubr web site (super-cute!) so that will have to be close enough.

So what are we going to do in Poland? is a post from: hell bent for metal

An important part of a trip like this one is budgeting. Enter Pint Price — a web site that shows the price of a pint of beer in 140 countries. A very useful metric indeed — the site claims to be “the only travel and short-break holiday guide you really need” and I’d almost be inclined to agree.

Baseline: Australian average price according to PintPrice.com: AUD $5.04 (Perth specifically shows $4.41)

Poland: AUD $2.26 (Krakow $1.79 — woot!)

Slovenia: AUD $3.17

Italy: AUD $7.16 (Rome $8.54 — ouch!)

Germany: AUD $4.37 (no specific price listed for Hamburg)

What this means is that Poland and Slovenia could be very messy indeed. Germany will be about the same as home, and Italy… well, let’s just hope we can find some cheap pubs.

International beer prices is a post from: hell bent for metal

The Wacken Open Air festival itself is from July 31 to August 2… but we’d be nuts to fly halfway across the planet and not visit anywhere else. Plus Dave isn’t allowed to set foot inside the continent of Europe without visiting his relatives in Poland. I don’t even want to think what the consequences of that would be.

So, the plan of action is thus:

Monday 14th July: leave Perth at around 4pm. 2 hour stopover in Singapore (just enough time to stock up on extra memory cards and various other electronic necessities)

Tuesday 15th July: arrive in Frankfurt at an ungodly hour of the morning. Hang out in the airport for 3 hours and then board plane to Krakow. Arrive Krakow at 10am, refreshed, rested and ready for our holiday (yeah right).

We’re spending 6 nights in Krakow. Apparently this place has more pubs per square metre than anywhere else in the world. As well as giving Dave some time to catch up with his relatives, we hope to visit some of the local attractions (like these insane salt mines), eat much of the local food (pierogi anyone) and hopefully catch some authentic Polish death metal. So if anyone is reading this and knows where to find out about upcoming gigs please let us know!

Monday 21st July: fly from Krakow to Munich to catch connecting flight to Ljubljana, Slovenia. From here a friend of Dave’s is gonna pick us up and drive us to his home town of Jesenice, where we will drink volumes of the local beer which I’ve heard is excellent. We may even have time to look around at what life in a small town in Slovenia is like.

Wednesday 23rd July: fly from Ljubljana in the early afternoon to Vienna then onto Rome that evening.

We’re spending 5 nights in Rome. We’re essentially going to walk around looking at old stuff and eating. Saturday is Al’s birthday so I imagine there’ll be drinking as well. Also if there’s any metal to be found, we’ll be onto it.

Monday 28th July: An afternoon of flying, from Rome directly to Hamburg.

Hamburg is our last stop before Wacken, so we’ll be mentally preparing, doing some liver conditioning, and stocking up on things we may need (sleeping bags, booze, snacks etc). Then on Wednesday we’re hiring a car and driving the hour-odd to Wacken, a tiny village of (normally) around 1800 people. Approximately 65,000 other people will have the same plan, so it should be fun.

The festival starts on Thursday 31st July and goes til Saturday 2nd August, so we’ll be camping four nights from Wednesday for whatever sleep we may need (probably not much). We’re going to bring a big-arse Aussie flag to attach to the car somehow so we won’t get too lost (hopefully).

Then on Sunday 3rd August in the morning we’re packing up and driving back to Hamburg to stay the night, where we will need to shower several times each I’m sure. Another day in Hamburg, then Monday night we fly back to Perth with another 3 hour stopover in Singapore (it’ll be Tuesday 5th August and very late at night when we get in). I imagine we’ll be too broke to buy anything by then.

Itinerary, or what we’re actually doing is a post from: hell bent for metal