01.08.2013 Annihilator

Wacken Open Air XXIV

Wacken (Germany)

(Pentax K-5 with Sigma AF 70-200mm 2.8 EX DC APO HSM II)

Finally it was the time to head for the large stages. As Rammstein was having such a gigantic setting which could not be installed that quick all shows before would take place on the Black Metal Stage whereas Rammstein was playing on the True Metal Stage exclusively.
Be that as it may the opener of the day was formed once more by Skyline which I was avoiding like every year. Therefore after 10 years of abstinence with Annihilator a trash old hand was returning to Wacken.
Lead guitarist Jeff Waters had put around his Flying V to enthuse the audience with his incredible solis. This was working awful already during the opener "Smear Campaign" of their latest album "Feast" which should be released directly after the Wacken. Besides that also a second song of that CD has made it into the set which is "No Way Out. Otherwise the band brought older songs with them where you in all fairness have to say that it is not easy to select songs for only one hour of time after having released 13 albums in 27 years of band history. Only "Clown Parade" could make it from the period between 1996 and 2010 into the set. Besides Waters Dave Padden on microphone and the second guitar was forming the not less brilliant counterpart. Technically he does not have to hide behind Waters and so he was interpreting also the older songs really awsome. No matter if it was a classic like "King Of The Kill" or "W.T.Y.D.", the Canadians were really celebrated excessively and the first crowdsurfer were conquering the Wacken air space. Unfortunately even the greatest concert is once over and so "Allison Hell" was forming the fulminant closure.
Awesome band, cool riffs, great atmosphere. The festival could not have opened on the main area any better and so the mood was already quite high to stay there for the other not so small names of the remaining evening.