From style point of view, it continued somehow different after Die From Sorrow. Phenomy was the winner of the Lebanon contest and there were already some struggles they had been through until finally the curtain in front of the Headbanger Stage rose. First their flight was significantly delayed so that they arrived late on the Wacken Open Air and then directly before their show there were issues with the guitar.
Thursday started just like Wednesday at the tent with the Metal Battle bands. With Die From Sorrow the Chinese winner entered the stage and within the short amount of time that the guys was offered they could fully convince with their melodic death metal. But after yesterday when there were quite a lot of people there, today it was like all the years before. The track of people in front of the stage to that time was quite manageable.
At the close of the day it went outside to the single visit of the Wackinger Stage during this year’s Wacken. The German-Danish band Heilung was on the agenda but unfortunately a technical defect prevented beginning on time. After frantic bustle on stage the show finally began at 23:30 with 30 minutes delay.
During Nazareth it was already very moody, but the four guys of Backyard Babies let the air burn inside the tent (of course only in a transferred sense). The Swedish had classic punk / hard rock brought with them and let directly know everyone inside the unfortunately slightly emptied tent what their mission was on that evening: To get really everybody inside this tent moving!
Fish could already look back onto a long musical history but the now following Nazareth were already founded in the year 1968. The only founding member that was still part of it was Bassist Pete Agnew. All the other band members were exchanged across the years and the other allies were therefore Carl Sentance being responsible for the singing, Jimmy Murrison on guitar and Lee Agnew, the son of the bassist, on drums.
After the quite loud sounds of An Theos there were a little bit later more quiet and contemplative sounds of the Scottish multi talent Fish to be heard. The slight higher age of the artist (at least already 60) and additionally the fact that he is on stage already since the 80ies seemed to be the reason for having also the audience a little bit more on the older side in average.
In the afternoon this year’s Wacken Open Air 2018 traditionally started with the Metal Battle Bands at the tent. This year the Romanian competitor An Theos with a mixture between folk and pagan metal should for the opener into the first day and the stage was directly really filled.
Slowly but surely this year’s FortaRock is coming to its end but not before the big headliner Nightwish had played. This band got meanwhile multinational and is currently on their Decades festival tour on which they play a best-of just like on the belonging album with remastered songs of their numerous albums. Front woman Floor Jansen had a home match and due to that of course a special bonus of sympathy.
After Alestorm emptied my physical batteries quite a lot I first had to recharge them. So, let’s head for the chip stand (the best ones I have ever had). To the relaxed sounds of Opeth I got a drink (as they only have a very minimalistic stage show it is enough to only listen to them) and then it was time for the finish. That started with the Swedes of Meshuggah.
It was already very crowded in front of the Main Stage because the first highlight of the day should take place. But when one takes a look at the stage there is unavoidable the question: Am I really at a metal festival or at a children’s birthday party? In the middle of the stage there was a huge inflatable rubber duck, the banner was showing ducks with banana bodies and everything was kept in candy like colors.