Wacken Open Air 2024: Great adventures in the Holy Promised Land, Part 1

Ah, Wacken… How many years I must have dreamed of being able to walk through the Holy Wacken Land! It seemed like the day would never come when I would finally fulfill the dream of every metalhead of being able to enjoy what many of us really know as the mecca of the metalheads, although I never imagined that it would be a moment that would be delayed for so long. Now I can finally say that I have bitten the same dust as all those regulars and not so regulars of the metal festival par excellence. And what a wonderful adventure it has been too!

Where to start? The best thing to do would be to tell you about the experience of the trip to Wacken itself, more specifically from where the plane left us: Hamburg. We made the trip by bus from the airport with Metaltrip and the experience was very rewarding, we met people as soon as we landed in Hamburg and so the wait was much more pleasant until we arrived at the Holy Land once the festival had started. The facilities are up to date and the check in as press was very simple. We were a bit scared since we had seen that we had to travel several kilometers to collect our accreditations but luckily they gave them to us at the entrance of the festival and the next step was to find a good place to put up the tent.

We entered with The Darkness making an appearance on the Faster Stage and despite having seen them in very good shape years ago, I must say that the physical condition of its members is enviable and the energy that these crazy Brits led by Justin Hawkins give off is something that should be studied in music schools. What the hell do they feed Justin with? Wacken couldn’t have started better for me.

Going to Wacken is precisely one of those experiences where you can meet all kinds of bands, perhaps the most beautiful thing about traveling there is precisely this. From Suzi Quatro to Tina Guo, with Van Canto doing his thing or enjoying the first and hopefully not last appearance of Hitten at Wacken. A delicious live performance by the quintet from Murcia (Spain) that would contrast directly with the next guests on the Wasteland stage, the Scottish Hellripper, whom I had already seen at the beginning of the year and who did not disappoint at all.

Hitten, if you are reading this… I want you to know that I wish you all the best in the music world. Thank you for your sincere and energetic show, I enjoyed it immensely. Never stop playing Eyes Never Lie live, it is my favorite song and on stage it gives off a supernatural magic that perfectly defines your musical proposal with a unique essence.

Dio Disciples were perhaps one of the few bands that made me shed a tear or two when Wendy Dio appeared at the end of the show to thank all the attendees for being there at a time like that and for keeping the flame of the ever-present Ronnie James Dio alive, but not before giving us a master class in authentic hard/heavy, delighting us with timeless classics from Rainbow, Dio and Black Sabbath such as Man On The Silver Mountain, The Mob Rules or We Rock.

Note that Dio Disciples are not just a tribute band as many might think. Dio Disciples is made up of members who have shared the stage and studio with Dio at some point in their lives, such as guitarist Craig Goldy who participated in albums such as Dream Evil (1987, Warner Bros. Records), Magica (2000, Spitfire Records) or Master Of The Moon (2004, Sanctuary Records). Drummer Simon Wright, who has also worked with Geoff Tate and Operation: Mindcrime, was part of Dio during two different stages, recording Lock Up The Wolves (Warner Bros. Records) in 1990 and rejoining in 1998 recording all the albums from Magica to the last, Master Of The Moon. Keyboardist Scott Warren joined Dio in 1996 to record Angry Machines (Mayhem Records) and played on all of the band’s albums up to Master Of The Moon, having not played on Magica (2000), where Dio himself took on keyboards. On this occasion, vocals were taken in turns by Joey Belladonna (Anthrax, Belladonna) and Oni Logan (Lynch Mob, Racer X), both of them alternated their role as vocalist throughout the concert, coinciding on specific occasions. It was a real pleasure to enjoy their glorious live performance.

Wacken has a great musical and gastronomic offer, and that is another aspect that I would like to highlight about the festival itself for a very simple reason: you have to spend many hours inside the venue and it is as important to eat as to hydrate. What better way to do it than with a good dose of well-prepared food that catches your eye? That’s right, any food stand in Wacken invited you to try their dishes and the price didn’t seem exactly exorbitant to me either. One of the ones that surprised me the most was a noodle tent that was near the Headbangers and W.E.T. stages where the amount served on the plate was abundant and the price ranged between 11 and 13€, a more than competitive price for the bowl of noodles they served.

What can I say about the beer? As a good lover of alcoholic potions, something that practically goes hand in hand with being a metalhead, the offer of beer and fermented derivatives was something that called to me at all times. I really liked the Krombacher Pils and it was one of the reasons I turned to it on several occasions. I also often enjoyed Bembel, a vegan cider with a fruity flavour and a delicious aroma that can be consumed regularly despite its alcohol content (6.0%) and whose sweet aftertaste will be hard to forget once you return home.

Speaking of alcohol, what kind of drink do the members of Hellripper drink? What a masterclass in drunken black speed was given to us by the Scottish quartet led by the crazy James McBain. It must be said that the Zeke t-shirt worn by McBain himself already gives us some clues about what he’s into, and it’s very likely that we share many common hobbies such as hardcore punk. The same can be said of their bassist David Clark who surprised me with a t-shirt by the American occultists Devil Master who in 2022 released one of the best works of that year, Ecstasies Of Never Ending Night. Bravo, David! I can’t complain at all about the setlist, they left out practically all the long songs since they had a very tight slot and went straight to devour the audience by stringing together authentic gems like All Hail The Goat, Hell’s Rock ‘n’ Roll or Nekroslut, alluding to the aforementioned David Clark during the presentation of the latter song.

On the other hand, can anyone tell me what was so special about Rage‘s show at the Harder stage? It was a real and outstanding show, let’s not kid ourselves, but I remember that it had been announced as a special show celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary and the setlist seemed very predictable and not really special. I would have liked to see them bring back some songs from Reign Of Fear, Execution Guaranteed, Welcome To The Other Side or Carved In Stone, to name a few, but we heard classics like End Of All Days, Don’t Fear The Winter, Solitary Man or Refuge again, as well as my favourite Black In Mind instead of really rescuing songs like Down By Law, Drop Dead!, Forever Dead or Paint The Devil On The Wall. Special mention to German chef Axel Schmitt for coming out to play drums in Lucky‘s place at the end of the Rage show. It was a pleasure to see him on stage and to meet him on several occasions throughout the festival in the press and artists’ area.

There is still much more to talk about, but I will leave it here for now. I hope that our adventures and misadventures at Wacken’s promised land have awakened some feelings in you, whether joy or disgust. See you soon!

Wacken 2025: First bands announced

The next edition of the German festival will take place again in the city of Wacken on July 30 and August 2, 2025. The bands confirmed so far are the following: