Blood, sweat, and tears in the Summer countryside of Germany… oh, Wacken Metal Festival – the only places you can catch nü-metal pioneers Korn, the true Viking metal clan Amon Amarth, Polish black metal edgelords Behemoth, power metal shredders Dragonforce, and modern progcore icons Spiritbox, all in one weekend.
But what I love most about the annual event is… the Battle! Wacken Metal Battle brings the elected heavy music act from nearly every region on the world in a wild, international battle of the bands, performing their up-and-coming tunes on the lands of the musicians who likely inspired them.
The Good
If we’re bringing metal from all areas of the world… we’re bound to get some gems. Five Penalties is from China and mixes the Lijiang religion into their Cattle Decapitation heaviness. At the qualifying concert, they invited Ms. He Jinhua to vocalize Naxi folk songs as a compelling contrast to deathgrind. This is some weird shit that I’ve never seen before, and I fucking love it. They won third place in the entire battle, kudos.
There were also some extreme djent rhythms on stage by Shvriken and Paramena, from the Philippines and Japan respectively. Neither of them ranked in the top 5… wack. Props to Colombia’s Info for the genuine industrial metal, like a leveled up Fear Factory. And lastly, got to give a round of applause to the groovy grit of Sunken State from South Africa and guitar wizardry by Doomsday Astronaut of Romania. Okay, okay, final shout-out to the Indonesian metalcore unit Killa The Phia and death metal experimentalists Griefgod from Lithuania.
The Bad
So, Aquilla was anointed to represent the Warsaw metal scene at Wacken. The Polish intergalactic retro-metal project’s band members are dressed in pleather, Dr. Disrespect bulges, and the trusted reliable classic, cowboy hat. I get it, it’s silly. “Ooh a band that looks and smells like an 80’s stereotype, but in 2024.” I’ll give them points for the goofy factor and Judas Priest Jr. musical talent, but the Steel Panther nostalgia shtick can now go away.
Maybe it’s a “you had to be there kind of thing,” because they were awarded silver in the overall rankings. Until I actually see them live and make an in-the-flesh decision, I’ll raise my glass to Captain Paradox, Kris Invader, Jaspar de Phaser, Hippie Banzai, and Pete Slammer.
The Ugly
I’ve really been enjoying the recent singles by Hungary-based Nest of Plagues; seriously, I feel like they could be destined to blow up in the modern metal scene. I had my bets on their groove-metalcore / melodeath style making its way to Wacken, but instead… we got Türböwitch.
It’s like four decades since this style has been relevant. If you’re really interested in hearing what Hungarian Motörhead worship sounds like, you can check out their video for “Fuck Off In Hell,” but really not my cup o’ tea.
I also wish the Greek-chosen metal act was the symphonic weirdos in Grotesco Karma, but Junkwolvz were picked instead, representing some werewolf-themed heavy metal. Sigh.