03.08.2018 Kellermensch

Wacken Open Air XXIX

Wacken (Germany)

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

My personal first highlight of the day. Somehow by accident I came across the Danish guys from Kellermensch during Wacken 2012. And now, 6 years later I meet them again at the very same place. And yet, they did not lose any of their charisma.
From style point of view they cannot be categorized very easy but I would tend to allocate them most likely to progressive rock whereas the band itself is generally a total work of art. They played songs of their two albums “Kellermensch” and “Goliath” they released up to now. All the time something was happening on stage. May it be singer and guitarist Sebastian Wolff fighting again and again with his microphone, the microphone tripod and his guitar (the roadie had to run extra shifts) or bassist Claudio Suez hovering over the stage like a professional dancer together with his instrument. Christian Sindermann could mainly be found at his piano at the background but was storming again and again to the front to chip in his wild shouts and growls. The uncommon ensemble was completed by drummer Anders Trans, John Laursen changing continuously between guitar and contrabass, as well as Jan Laursen working impressively on the strings of his guitar. Additionally for this show they had additional backstops with them formed by a violinist and another keyboarder so that it was quite tight on stage in the end.
It was not only me, who liked the gig. Also the audience stepped fully into the weird performance and celebrated in the end with good reason a awkward but incredibly fascinating musical mixture of hard doom-like riffs and growls paired on the other hand with pop seeming synthie sounds. All that is quite comparable to Heilung not something for anyone, but you should take a listen to it if possible.