Just like last year, the organisers promised us a very interesting opening night. They called it “A Night To Remember”, so we already had a very possitive feeling about it, before we even went there. From Itzehoe to Wacken is only a short drive. The only difference with last year is, that we missed the police control post this time. Which is good, because it meant a lot of wasted time last year. Just before the backstage entry, there’s a little traffic jam, but I filled that delay by reading the morning paper. Also, there’s a short queue at the ticket booth, but collecting our backstage passes has never been that easy! This was mainly due to the fact that the organisers made some good arrangements upfront. The only small disadvantage was, when we were told, that there were about three hundred and fifty photographers on the festival site, so we had to take pictures in turns. But we had our stuff and now it was time to bang our heads to the music that was played at the first night of the festival.
Unfortunately, we had to skip the first band, called KNIGHT ERRANT. They are from Turkey and they play folk metal. Because we had to collect our passes, we only heard the band very briefly. They have a female violin player, by the way, and they sound a bit like SKYCLAD. I don’t know for sure if their singer Emre is the chief editor of the Turkish metal magazine Metal Heart, but I do know that this band received some very good critics. FINNTROLL is a very promising band from Finland that mixes death metal with folk metal. Their sound is happy and aggressive at the same time. They got good response from the audience and I think that their new album “Jaktens Tid” will mean an international breakthrough for this band.
If there was a category called sex metal, or something like that, then THE IMPOTENT SEA SNAKES would be the inventors of this style. They replaced CREMATORY, who had to postpone their farewell-gig to the Saturday, because their car broke down somewhere on their way to the festival. Their show is a mix of an SM sex show and rock ‘n roll music. I don’t know if someone of you still remembers THE TUBES from the late seventies? Well, you have to think in that direction, when you want to describe their show. The band members wear dresses and during the set they play some sketches, which are full of sex, SM, striptease acts and other kinky stuff. Oh, and the music is great, too! The crowd went wild, when they played “Rock And Roll All Nite”, the well-known KISS classic.
I don’t think, that WASP could ask for a better support act than this one. WASP knows how to create a great atmosphere. And although Chris Holmes is not in the band anymore (he left WASP after they’d recorded their new album “Unholy Terror”),we could still enjoy some kind of ‘Best of’ show this evening. The new guitarplayer, next to ‘the man in black’, is called Darrel Roberts. He previously played in the METALLICA tribute band, called ALCOHOLICA. It was all there:“Love Machine”, “Wild Child”, “I Wanna Be Somebody” (during which Blackie drank blood from two skulls!! - megacult!!!), “Animal, F*ck Like A Beast” (where Blackie shoots fire out of his pants!!) and the encore “Blind In Texas” (which was renamed to “Wild In Wacken” for this special ocassion). WASP really marked the end of day one in their own special way. Standing on a Chopper model handle-bar mike standard, Blackie took control of the stage and of the hungry audience. The end of day one of Wacken 2001 was a fact, but from tomorrow on, we would be in for the real stuff. Can you imagine, that this was just the warming up night?
After LACUNA COIL, we could celebrate the come back of German thrash legends, HOLY MOSES. Sabina Classen took us by surprise and she kicked some serious ass. They played some songs of their new mini CD “Master Of Disaster”, but of course they also played some old stuff like “Lost In The Maze”, “Devil’s Dancer”, “Current Of Death” and “Finished With The Dogs”. I think that the biggest surprise however was a guest appearance of Germans most legendary metal lady DORO. Together with Sabina, she showed that women have earned their place in the heavy metal world, too. Together they performed the song “Too Drunk To Fuck” of THE DEAD KENNEDYS. A great show, a great comeback, who could ask for more? 
EXCITER was definitely one of the highlights for me. They always are, because EXCITER stands for true metal. They presented us a great mix of old and new stuff. And so they went through such great anthems, like “Stand Up And Fight”, “Dark Command”, “Rule With An Iron Fist”, “Burn At The Stake”, “Pounding Metal”, “Marshall Law”, “Rising Of The Dead”, “Long Live The Loud” and “Violence And Force”. The great set of this Canadian metal machine made me forget, that KAMELOT played at the other stage. But people, that had been there, told me that they played a very cool set. Sorry for missing that! PRIMAL FEAR, the new legends of heavy metal in Germany, were on next. Their PRIEST like heavy metal is getting more and more successful each year. “Batallions Of Fate” is a great song to prove that your lungs can still come up with some air. A perfect moment in the middle of the day to shout your balls off (figurely speaking then…). They also pleased us with metal songs like “Nuclear Fire” and “Chainbreaker”. After this, the announcement came that WIZARD cancelled their show, because a family member of one of the band members died. Which is a crying shame of course. WIZARD is a band that I like a lot and hopefully they will be added to the bill again next year, to make up for this. TRAIL OF TEARS played at the WET stage, but I must admit that it really didn’t sound that professionally. I’m only talking about the beginning of the gig, because I rushed back to see PAUL DI ANNO, after a few songs. The band seemed to have some trouble with the keyboards and their new singer Cathrine Paulsen lacks the experience, that their previous singer Helena Iren Michaelson did have in the early days.
PAUL DI ANNO doesn’t need any further introduction, I think. The former IRON MAIDEN singer came here to have some fun and sing some old MAIDEN classics. And I think that he did a great job. To me, he still is the ultimate singer of IRON MAIDEN! Although the man is getting a bit older now, we could enjoy todays versions of “Killers”, “Wratchild”, “Sanctuary” (which was introduced as ‘a real punk song’), “Murders In The Rue Morgue”, “Prowler”, “Remember Tomorrow”, “Phantom Of The Opera”, “Running Free” and “The Beast Arises” from the “Murder One” album of PAUL DI ANNO’S KILLERS. The man has got a crush on BRITNEY SPEARS, I think. He shouted “BRITNEY SPEARS is mine......I’m gonna kill her!!” He also asked the crowd, how many people came from Brazil today. Not too many people responded to that, so he continued with “Well, I guess it’s only me then!”. 
Then we got one of the highlights of the first day of the festival: OVERKILL. They had sorted out a perfect ‘Best of’ set for us, consisting of songs like “Deny The Cross”, “Hello From The Gutter”, “Protector Of Chaos”, “Bleed Me”, “Elimination” and of course “F*ck You”. In between they couldn’t resist to play segments of the BLACK SABBATH classics “Children Of The Grave” and “War Pigs”. Bobby’s voice was in good shape today and I think that people must agree that this was one of the finest performances of the festival today. THERION from Sweden attacked the other stage after that. They were completed by a choir, which they also used during their last tour. Their music is very bombastic and the arrangements are mixed with a touch of classical music. The intro music of “Oh Fortuna”, from the “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff, came from a tape. It would have been nice, when they would have played this song themselves. Nonetheless, the mix of bombastic opera metal and heavy riffs seemed to please the crowd really well. They ended with the IRON MAIDEN classic “Revelations”. Next, we saw HELLOWEEN take the stage. Only for a very short moment though, because we got in touch with the members of CULPRIT, one of the headliners of the second day. HELLOWEEN surprised us with another ‘Best of’ set. And you can imagine, that they’ve got a lot of songs to choose from. This time they choose to play more oldies than before. After all, this festival simply asks for a bit of nostalgy. Think about songs like “I Want Out”, “Eagle Fly Free”, Dr. Stein”, “Future World” and “How Many Tears” and you know what to expect from this German metal pumpkin band. 
And the hitmachine kept going, when SAXON climbed the stage. Their set didn’t surprise us one bit. Although they played the title track of the new album “Killing Ground”, which was one of the very few surprises, they had planned for us today. Who doesn’t know songs like “Heavy Metal Thunder”, “20,000 Feet”, “Metalhead”, “Princess Of The Night”, “Power And The Glory”, “Cut Out The Disease”, “Motorcycle Man”, “Conquistador” with a long drumsolo of Fritz Randow, and encores “Wheels Of Steel”, “Strong Arm Of The Law” and “Denim And Leather”???!? The only two other songs that made me grin, because they almost never played them recently, were “Crusader” and “The Eagle Has Landed”. During this last song we saw the mighty ‘Eagle’ come down, fully covered in bright white lights.
While at the same time ANNIHILATOR kicked some serious ass on the other stage. It’s crazy, but true. On the first day of the festival OVERKILL surprised us with a killer performance. Today it was the other well known speed metal band ANNIHILATOR, who brought us a killer show. Songs like “Set The World On Fire”, “Welcome To Your Death”, “Refresh The Demon”, “Chains Of Fire”, “Never, Neverland” and “Phantasmagoria” got an extra dimension through the funny faces of Jeff Waters, who was in a perfect shape today. Killer riffs, great solos and a great set, made this show to one of the best of this last day. After this we got back to the year 2001 again and got something to eat, while GRAVE DIGGER and TANKARD were playing their set. TANKARD was still singing about a “Chemical Invasion” and buckets full of beer, while GRAVE DIGGER recorded their show for an upcoming live CD.” I was just in time to see Sabina Classen climb on stage again to sing “Empty Tankard” together with TANKARD frontman Gerre. 
First we got a great set of JAG PANZER, the living legends from America. A real cult band, with Harry “The Tyrant” Conklin as their frontman/singer. We were treated on old and new stuff like “Generally Hostile”, “Reign Of The Tyrants”, “Chain Of Command”, “Prophecy”, “Take To The Sky”, “King At A Price”, “Black” and “Frozen In Fear”. A great performance by a great metal band. On the WET stage, we got see the reunion of the Norwegian metal band ARTCH. They opened with “Shoot To Kill”, and continued with great songs like “Loaded”, “Metal Life”, “Burn Down The Bridges”, “Another Return To Church Hill” and “Jezebel”. A lot of Norwegian metalheads stood in front of the small stage. And although I wasn’t able to watch their whole gig, I know for sure that they had a great party of their own. A great return of these ‘Vikings Of Metal’. 
Finally it was time for one of the bands, that a lot of people definitely didn’t want to miss. Scott Earl on bass, Bud Burrill on drums, Jeff L’Heureux on vocals and John DeVol on lead guitars, in other words the legendary CULPRIT! Their classic album “Guilty As Charged” was almost played completely. Scott constantly swinged his bass guitar around his neck, while jumping up and down the stage. Bud has got arms of steel. He pounds the drums so loud, that I feel sorry for the cymbals and the bass drums. Jeff L’Heureux is a complete madman on stage. He’s constantly moving around, throwing his fist in the air. His voice however stays clear and very powerful. And John DeVol, well I think you can see him as a real guitar hero. Not like YNGWIE MALMSTEEN or JOE SATRIANI or all those other speed monsters. But he plays some excellent, fast solos, that go beyond all human comprehension. I already hoped that they would sound like this. They had never imagined that they would be so popular over here. It was their first appearance in Europe, but I would almost beg them to come back soon. PLEASE!!! Then we can hear more songs, other than they played tonight. They opened with “Guilty As Charged” of course. But they also didn’t forget to play unbelievable versions of songs like “Ice In The Back”, “Steel To Blood”, “Same To You”, “Tears Of Repentence” (a song that they almost never play live), “Players” and the supercrazy “Ambush”. What a great show!!! After this amazing performance, they simply could have ended the festival for us, but guess what?!? They had even more for us. Through this great selection of old cult metal bands, we simply forgot to check out IN FLAMES and we missed a big part of NIGHTWISH. But since these bands play a lot on festival and in concert halls all over the world, we thought it was wise to see the bands that don’t play over here too much. NIGHTWISH played a good set, for what I saw of it. They included the GARY MOORE cover “Over The Hills And Far Away” in their set, which is their new (hit)single. But we also heard songs, like “Wishmaster”, “Kinslayer” and “Sleepy Song”, that they played for the first time in Germany. Slowly we were heading towards the end of the festival. But first we had to see HAMMERFALL. These Swedish metal heads showed us what real metal is all about. They got a great response and in the end we got to see Oscar do his fire spitting act again during the set closer “Hammerfall”.
DEATH SS is another cult band, that we simply had to check out. Even if we had to miss the beginning of MOTÖRHEAD. The band is very well known for their great show, and also this time they gave us all they had. They used a lot of flash bombs and from the opener “Let The Suffer Begin”, I watched them.....mouth open wide. They had a cross with neon lights, with a woman hanging on it. This woman would appear again during the show to do some sexy dancing on stage and to play around with the singer of the band. The songs were heavy and on the background they were showing pieces of black and white horror movies on a video screen. At the end of the set they destroyed their instruments completely. Even the keyboards and the drums. Steve Sylvester ruled for forty-five minutes here, which was far too short in my opinion. While Steve and his band mates were cleaning the stage, Lemmy and MOTÖRHEAD were playing a long set. They included songs like “We Are MOTÖRHEAD”, “Shoot You In The Back”, “Damage Case”, “No Class”, “God Save The Queen”, “I’m So Bad”, “Iron Fist”, “Ace Of Spades”, “Civil War”, “Sacrifice”, “Ace Of Spades”, “R.A.M.O.N.E.S.”, which was dedicated to the late Joey Ramone (RAMONES vocalist), “Overkill” and “Bomber”. During this last song we got the ‘Bomber’ airplane flying down from the sky, full of bright shining lights. It created the same atmosphere as ‘The Eagle’ did during the SAXON set. Of course they also didn’t forget to play “Going To Brazil”. During “Born To Raise Hell”, they called in the help of Nina of SKEW SISKIN, for a duet with Lemmy. I guess that Whitfield Crane of UGLY KID JOE, or ICE T weren’t available tonight. The only disappointment here was that MOTÖRHEAD didn’t allow the photographers to take any pictures, due to safety reasons. Whatever these safety reasons may be… Because of MOTÖRHEAD, I completely missed DIE APOCALYPTISCHEN REITER. But I heard them scream inbetween the songs that “Heavy Metal would never die”, which is a true statement of course. At the end of the festival day, we could enjoy two more bands at the same time again. On the main stage I saw SODOM partly, who also played some kind of ‘best of’ set, consisting of songs like “Bombenhagel”, “Ausgebombt” and “Agent Orange”. During this last song they set the whole stage into the orange smoke, which was very impressive to see.