August 4th & 5th, 2023
Wacken, Germany
Words & Photos By: Billy Klare
Note – The aerial pic above provides a partial view of the Wacken festival grounds from above – most of the farming fields are utilized for camping.
DAY 3 (THURSDAY)
After waking up well rested again in my tent, I was immediately focused on the day’s band running order. This was going to be a day of tough choices. Wacken has so many bands playing throughout the festival grounds at the same time, you need to decide what bands to skip and who is a must see. As a fan of all metal styles (with the exception of most black metal), this is particularly hard for me as I tend to be interested in such a broad range of bands. Careful planning is required to make the best use of time.
The biggest issue I faced today was a dreaded triple overlap between 1) the headlining Iron Maiden show on the main stage, 2) a special Deicide event where the band was playing their entire Legion album and 3) one of my favorite death metal bands – Dying Fetus. What’s a metal fan to do? Since I already caught this special Deicide set in New York and I got to see Dying Fetus on their last American tour, I decided to pick Iron Maiden. Also, you never know how long Maiden will continue touring so I figured it’s best to see them while I can.
Also interesting to note, Day 3 would normally be the last day of Wacken. Coming out of the pandemic shutdown, many large European festivals added a fourth day beginning in 2022 with Wacken doing the same. The four day festival remained in 2023 and continues again for the sold-out 2024 festival as well. A fourth festival day means pacing yourself to successfully make it to the end.
WEATHER UPDATE
The weather greatly improved on Day 3 with little rain and mostly sunny conditions. Wacken organizers used the opportunity to improve walking conditions adding wood chips to the mud and placing large boards on key walking trails. The grounds dried out throughout the day with the help of the Sun (I even got a sunburn). This was absolutely the best day of the festival from a weather perspective. I’m in a pic below wearing an “I Listen to Metal on Vinyl” T-shirt. Also interesting to see people abandoning their boots so early… but they would soon regret this decision.
FIRST BANDS OF THE DAY
Being at the halfway point of the festival, we decided to start the day at a slower pace knowing we had a busy second half of Day 3 and a packed Day 4 still to come. The plan was to grab a few beers at the beer garden facing the Headbanger & WET stages so we could see some bands from there. The first band I saw was The Raven Age from the UK who I would classify as groove metal / metalcore. Next up was Employed to Serve also from the UK combining equal parts of death metal, hardcore and punk, I enjoyed that set. My favorite band playing in the early afternoon was Dust Bolt, an excellent modern thrash band from Germany. Unlike the first two bands, Dust Bolt was a must see band for me. They attracted a large hometown & international crowd all there to hear Dust Bolts catchy hook infused brand of thrash metal. Good stuff.
The last band I got to see from the beer garden was Depressive Age, another band from Germany. These guys were incredibly unique (in a Voivod type of way) with songs that ranged from full-on thrash to hard rock (and even alt rock). Lots of interesting riffs and time changes combined with a very unique vocal delivery. They made a real impression on me and I dug into their discography when I got home. I later learned that Depressive Age started as a pure thrash band and later shifted towards an alternative rock direction. I already picked up some of their earlier thrash albums since I liked them so much. Relax time was coming to and end and It was time to leave the beer garden and start seeing some of the bigger shows of the day.
AMARANTHE
One band I always knew by name but never actually listened to was Amaranthe from Sweden. I decided to run over to the main stage and check out a couple songs to see if I like them. They mix many metal styles that all worked well together. I heard melodic death metal, folk, traditional metal and symphonic / power metal. I liked the contrast between the male / female vocals in the band that ranged from death metal grows to beautiful clean singing. The song writing was interesting shifting in multiple directions. I wished I caught their entire set. I wasn’t in the mood to battle the crowds so early in the day so I stayed way back and watched the show on the big screens on either side of the stage. Another band I need to investigate more.
FROZEN SOUL
Now it was time for some Texas death metal with Frozen Soul taking the stage. I’m already a fan of the band and got to see them on stage a few times over the past two years. The band thanked the audience for coming, noting how excited they were to play Wacken for the first time and how this was a dream come true for them. Frozen Soul are a modern death metal band paying homage to the old school death metal sound but also adding their own style as well. Lots of slow heavy grinding riffs, monster breakdowns, brutal agonizing vocals and furious drumming.
Vocalist Chad Green is emerging as a strong death metal frontman who can work the crowd with the best of his peers. He communicates constantly with the audience demanding circle pits and audience participation. He’s also known to deliver relevant messaging on suicide, addiction and mental health after he lost two of his best friends – Riley from Powertrip and Trevor Strnad from Black Dahlia Murder. The band also have a reputation of encouraging audience push ups (yes – the exercise) in the mosh pit but didn’t make that request at Wacken, probably due to the mud. Another excellent show.
MEGADETH
I was really looking forward to Megadeth at Wacken as I knew Marty Friedman would also be on the festival grounds at the same time given his solo band show scheduled early the next morning. Wacken is notorious for surprise guest performances and I knew Marty would join Megadeth on stage and I’m happy to report it actually happened. Marty was on and off the stage throughout the Megadeth show to play many of his brilliant solos. It was incredible! The crowd erupted into applause and cheers after every Marty solo. Most importantly, Marty immediately came out fist pumping existing guitarist Kiko Loureiro showing respect and acknowledging that Kiko is the lead guitar player in Megadeth. Marty is all class.
The highlight of the set for me was ‘Holy Wars’, ‘Hanger 18’ and ‘Tornado Of Souls’ all from my favorite Megadeth album Rust In Piece. Marty played on ‘Tornado’ and ‘Holy Wars’ in addition to ‘Trust’ and ‘Symphony of Destruction’. It was great to also hear some older Megadeth tracks including ‘Peace Sells’, ‘Wake Up Dead’, ‘Mechanix’ and ‘In My Darkest Hour’. I was a little surprised Megadeth only played one song from their excellent new Album The Sick, The Dying And The Dead – ‘We’ll Be Back’. We got four to five additional other songs broadly spread across the later Megadeth albums. Am I the only person who hates ‘A Tout Le Monde’? The crowd wen’t crazy for this song but I never liked it.
Megadeth played on the main stage with a good sized crowd but I suspect there would have been more people in attendance if they were scheduled in the evening. The lighting show was not as impressive as it should have been if it was dark out. Although the mud conditions greatly improved today, the mud was still a major issue in front of the main stages limiting the ability to move around / get closer to the stage. The attached three videos provide a good summary of the Megadeth show (and Marty in the first two clips).
IRON MAIDEN
Iron Maiden was the overall 2023 Wacken headlining act and easily the “biggest” band on the holy ground this year. Maiden attracted the biggest crowd of the festival and you couldn’t move once the show started. First, people were completely jammed together and second, the mud conditions were simply unbearable. After standing in one place for five to ten minutes, everyone sunk deeply into the mud. I must have helped at least 30 people around me that fell over when they suddenly tried to move and their feet were stuck in the mud. This Wacken performance was the final stop on the current ‘Future Past’ leg of the tour with the exact same set list.
I was extra excited for this Maiden gig as they were focusing on my favorite Maiden album Somewhere In Time. And this tour would mark the first ever live performance of the epic song ‘Alexander The Great’. In addition to this song, Maiden also played ‘Caught Somewhere In Time’, ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’, ‘Heaven Can Wait’ and ‘Wasted Years’ all from my favorite Maiden album. I find Iron Maiden is all too comfortable playing many of the same songs year-after-year so this was a special event with so many rarely played Somewhere In Time songs. These tracks were the best part of the show for me and I was very pleased
I’ve been fortune enough to see Iron Maiden many times through the decades and I’m so impressed how this band continues to perform at such a high level live on stage. Bruce covers the entire stage running back and forth never appearing to run out of breath and his vocals remain spot on. Nicko is still a drumming machine at over seventy years of age. Steve continues to dominate with his stage presence and his prominent bass guitar tone placed up front in the live mix. And the guitar trio of Janick, Adrian and Dave are sharp as ever and very energetic on stage with a smile on their faces the whole night. These guys clearly still enjoy playing with each other.
The Iron Maiden setlist was filled with highs and lows in my opinion. In addition to the focus on the Somewhere In Time record, maiden played five songs from the new album Senjutsu which I’m not to fond of. I find many of the songs to be bloated with overly long intros and outros. Maiden played ‘Days Of Future Past’, ‘Death Of The Celts’, ‘Hell On Earth’, ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘The Writing On the Wall’ from the latest album. Maiden started the encore with the slow and long ‘Hell On Earth’ which killed the momentum of the encore in my opinion. If you’re a fan the new album, this tour is perfect for you.
Luckily the setlist expanded beyond these two albums with fifty thousand plus people singing together on ‘Fear Of The Dark’, ‘Can I Play With Madness’ and ‘Iron Maiden’. Other highlight songs included ‘The Trooper’ and ‘The Prisoner’. I overheard many people discussing the setlist post-show and some were disappointed they didn’t hear ‘Number Of The Beast’, ‘2 Minutes To Midnight’, ‘Aces High’ or ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’. There’s no way Maiden can make everyone happy and from my perspective, I got to hear many rarely played Somewhere In Time songs so I was happy overall. That said, I could have done without two or three of the Senjutsu songs to make room for some older less-played deeper album tracks.
The Wacken drones made another appearance after Maiden‘s set. This was a cool new addition to the festival in 2023. The below video captures the drones in action (and Bruce saying goodbye to the crowd).
DAY 4 (SATURDAY)
WEATHER UPDATE
The sky’s opened up first thing Saturday morning and it poured for almost 45 minutes reversing all the benefits gained Friday from the sun and organizer efforts to improve ground conditions. We were stuck in the breakfast tent during the downpour getting some coffee. It was pretty disappointing knowing the mud would be back in full force but that’s OK, there were some amazing bands to see on this final day.
WACKEN VILLAGE
We decided to make a quick trip into the famous Wacken village on Saturday morning for breakfast. The main part of the village is about a ten to fifteen minute walk from the festival camping areas near the bus stop area. Most residents in the village convert their properties into food, beer, and merchandise stands taking advantage of the massive Wacken crowds each year. Local residents are incredibly friendly and often sit in front of their houses watching all the chaos while waving to all the festival attendees. The village was quiet on this morning as it rained heavily just 20 minutes earlier. We ate breakfast in someones front yard for about eight Euros which included bread, eggs and Bacon. Prices a generally much cheaper in the village and you can access pharmacies, banks, grocery stores and even church services. It’s definitely worth your time to visit the village at least once and you can walk the entire Main Street and back in about an hour (if you don’t to stop to eat or drink).
MARTY FRIEDMAN BAND
The first show we watched early Saturday afternoon was the Marty Friedman Band and it was a highly anticipated show for me as I’ve never seen Marty live on a solo basis. Marty and the band played a good selection of songs spanning his seventeen solo albums and were on stage for about forty five minutes. Marty is one of my favorite guitarists and he didn’t disappoint, he was incredible and his solo band was also very talented. This was a top Wacken 2023 memory for me.
Marty’s instrumental guitar driven music is incredibly memorable as he tends to put the song writing first and its never about how fast he can play or his flawless techniques, it’s all about the emotion and feeling of each song. Marty feels every note he plays and his facial expressions contort with every note. He allowed his other guitarist plenty of time to solo and put his bass player and drummer in the spotlight on multiple occasions. Marty noted his permanent drummer had to step away last minute for personal reasons but a drummer friend stepped in last minute and played the set flawlessly. Also very cool to hear Marty interact with his Japanese band speaking in Japanese (Marty has lived in Japan for decades and is a major entertainment star there). An awesome show, I loved it.
JAG PANZER
After the Marty Friedman Band, Jag Panzer was up next so I didn’t have to go very far. Grabbed a quick beer and some Chinese noodles for lunch while waiting for the show to begin. Every Wacken year, there’s one or two bands that I tend to like but for some reason they just don’t attract large crowds at Wacken. Unfortunately, this happened to Jag Panzer this year. No other major bands were playing during this time slot but maybe people were getting tired as the festival was drawing to a close. On this theme, one year I watched Warrior Soul play to no more than twenty five people at Wacken (and the band didn’t hide their disappointment/anger). Not to compare the Jag Panzer crowd to that extreme example, but I imagine the band had hoped for more people. On a positive note, the Jag Panzer crowd increased as the set progressed.
Jag Panzer is an American power metal band on the scene since the early 80’s and I’m a long time fan. The band played for forty five minutes with about eight or nine songs in the set list. The best part of the show for me was Jag Panzer going all the way back to their debut album Ample Destruction playing the track ‘Generally Hostile’. Much of the setlist emphasized their latest album – The Hallowed released earlier this year with four new songs included in the setlist. I also enjoyed ‘Chain Of Command’ and ‘Iron Eagle’ from The Age Of Mastery record. This was my first live Jag Panzer show and I was very impressed. The band was tight, confident on stage and delivered a killer show despite a smaller crowd. The entire Jag Panzer set was live streamed across the world so the band was clearly motivated to be at their best and they were.
BIOHAZARD
Next it was time for some New York hardcore courtesy of the recently reunited Biohazard. Biohazard are a crossover punk / hardcore metal band and I always enjoyed them live given their high energy level on stage. I guess the guys are more popular in Europe as the drew a very large sized crowd. I’m used to seeing them in smaller American venues so this was nice to see. This was an old school Biohazard show with the entire set stemming from the first three albums – Urban Discipline, State Of The World Address and the self-titled album, Biohazard.
Age hasn’t slowed Biohazard down at all, they were just as active and intense on stage as they were at the start of the nineties. The constantly encouraged the audience to get moving. Oddly enough, much of the crowd stood very still during the show which is in extreme contrast to the smaller New York shows I’ve attended with insane mosh pit activity. I’m sure Biohazard broke the Wacken record for most curse words used in a single show. Overall, an enjoyable set.
KATAKLYSM
Kataklysm was my favorite performance at Wacken 2023. They played on the third largest stage (Louder stage) to a massive crowd. I was in death metal heaven, they killed it! I’ve always said Kataklysm‘s music is best heard live and even better with thousands of fellow metal heads. Kataklysm always run a “security stress test” at their shows requesting fans to body surf in significant numbers giving security a workout catching all the bodies flooding over the front gate barriers. I’m not exaggerating to say there were hundreds of bodies surfing above the crowd at a rapid pace towards the front of the stage. It was an incredible site.
The setlist included a good mix of songs spanning all albums. I loved the older tracks like ‘”‘As I Slither'”‘, ‘Serenity In Fire’, ‘The Ambassador Of Pain’, and my favorite Kataklysm song ‘Shadows & Dust’ (video clip below). Heavy, fast, brutal and filled with all the infamous catchy death metal hooks that Kataklysm is known for. I was in full head banging mode the entire set. My friend who is mainly an Iron Maiden and power metal fan told me this was his favorite performance at the festival as well. He said he never saw a band work the crowd into such a frenzy like Kataklysm did.
The newer songs were equally good including ‘”‘The Black Sheep'”‘, ‘”‘Thy Serpents Tongue’, ‘Narcissist’, ‘Outsider’ and ‘Bringer Of Vengeance’ from the new Goliath record. This show was worth the cost of admission alone.
EVERGREY
It was time for some progressive metal with Evergrey taking the stage just before the Voivod show. The setlist focused almost entirely on more recent albums with at least three songs from the newest A Heartless Portrait album. The band successfully reproduced their album material which isn’t always an easy task for a prog-metal band. Evergrey are relatively calm on stage but connected well with the audience. Tom Englund’s vocals have held up impressively well. I was surprised to hear nothing from the bands first four albums but it was still an enjoyable show.
My feet were starting to get sore after four days of standing in crowds so I watched the last few songs with a beer sitting at the beer garden. I still had to make it through the Voivod set. I’m a big prog metal fan and it felt like this sub-genre was not well represented at this years festival.
VOIVOD
Voivod were the final band of Wacken 2023 for me and I couldn’t think of a better way to end the festival. The setlist was heavily skewed towards the reworked tracks on Morgoth Tales and the previous Synchro Anarchy album. I was slightly disappointed the setlist excluded the brilliant Nothingface album but that’s a minor complaint. Voivod attracted an “OK” sized crowd almost entirely in the forty to fifty age range, clearly long-term fans like myself. Festival attendees had already started leaving the festival grounds by the time Voivod took the stage which clearly impacted the show attendance level. As I walked back to my tent after the Voivod show, I was amazed how many people had already left or were packing up about to leave.
I believe Chewy and Rocky reinvigorated Voivod, especially on stage. Both were incredibly active, head-banging throughout the entire performance. Despite Away’s very simple drum kit on stage, his drumming is complex, interesting and continues to be refined with age. Snake confidently swaggered around the stage delivering his vocal lines and thanking the crowd for being there in the mud. Reception was equally strong for all tracks in the setlist, the crowd were clearly die-hard fans.
The highlight of the set for me was ‘Killing Technology’, ‘Macrosolutions To Megaproblems’, ‘Thrashing Rage’, and ‘Obsolete Beings’. Voivod ended the show as they always tend do with ‘Voivod’ encouraging audience singing participation. I also enjoyed the tracks from Synchro Anarchy including ‘Sleeves Off’, ‘Holographic Thinking’ and the title track.
The only negative was two drunk idiots who thought it was funny jumping up and down in a huge mud puddle covering everyone around them in mud. After ten years of Wacken festivals, I’ve never seen a single act of violence or fighting but it almost happened at this moment. These clowns completely covered a very large man’s girlfriend in mud (face and all) and security had to step in immediately before revenge was taken.
FINAL WACKEN DRONE SHOW
I headed back to my tent after the Voivod set and was shocked that almost half of my camping area left already. Cars were lined up everywhere trying to leave. With the muddy conditions, I guess many wanted to leave early and get ahead of the morning rush. This happens every year but it was more pronounced this year. It was time for me to pack up my bags and shower so I could catch my bus back to Hamburg on Sunday morning when I woke up. I left my boots and muddy clothes in the Wacken dumpsters as I left.
One thing I couldn’t figure out all day is why the initial bands for Wacken 2024 had not been announced yet. This was very unusual as it always happens with an announcement late afternoon on the last day of the festival. The final drone show started Saturday night forming the festivals logo’s but ended in the formation of a giant QR code. I saw a similar drone QR code during a Philadelphia Eagles Superbowl event I attended so I knew I needed to take a picture of it with my phone. It brought me to the Wacken website and a list of 2024 initial bands. What a cool way to make the announcement. I was most excited to see Blind Guardian, Amon Amarth and Flotsam & Jetsam as early announcements.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Although Wacken 2023 will be remembered for the terrible weather and mud, Wacken organizers ultimately put on an outstanding festival experience and saved the day. I had an awesome time despite the weather. Some of my 2023 memories will rank with the best of my previous Wacken memories. By the second day, everything was being run to perfection and organizers constantly tried to improve conditions for attendees. I can’t really ask for more than that. Wacken continues to be my favorite heavy metal event of the year and I highly recommend metal fans try it at least once.
In fairness, I’m sure I would feel differently if I was one of the thirty-five thousand people with tickets who were denied entry due to the weather conditions (especially since I travel to the festival from Canada). This is the first time this has ever happened in the thirty plus year Wacken history so let’s hope these events don’t recur for a long time (or ever again).
I would say the extra festival day from three to four is appreciated from my perspective but I heard many say they actually preferred the three day festival. If I’m honest, I definitely had my fill of live music, tent living, portable bathrooms, fast food, beer and bad weather by the end of the fourth day. I guess there can be too much of a good thing. I did spend part of the last night at the tent relaxing as did many others. I also feel the stature of the bands dropped off on the evening of Day 4 with no major headliners (Voivod being the exception). But I guess is just a matter of personal taste.
Wacken 2024 sold out in a few hours and luckily I got one of the last of the eighty five thousand tickets (barely). The tickets went on sale Sunday night while I was at the Wacken after party in Hamburg at the Night Light Metal Pub and I was in the online purchasing queue for three and a half hours. I will be back in 2024 for my 11th Wacken rain or shine… hopefully more shine in 2024.
As I write this final summary in early October 2023, I can’t wait to return to the holy ground again and I’m already experiencing Wacken withdraw symptoms.
RANDOM PICS / CLIPS OF THE WACKEN FESTIVAL GROUNDS
