The last day in Wacken for this festival, and the sun seemed to agree with us that it was time to rise and shine!

SUNDAY

GENERAL INFO – THURSDAY – FRIDAY – SATURDAY – SUNDAY – AFTERMOVIE / NEWS

DREADCREW OF ODDWOOD

We are starting the day with a real acoustic Californian pirate band! The Dreadcrew Of Oddwood has an orginal story on how the band was formed. The Dread Crew of Oddwood formed as an eight-piece in 2008 after Wolfbeard O’Brady organized a meeting at San Diego Comic Con for fans of the SEGA Genesis game “Ecco the Dolphin“. Only eight people showed up to the meeting, and the group formed the band’s original lineup. A year later, The Dread Crew of Oddwood released their debut album  and play a combination of folk, metal and traditional Celtic music.

Beware this band because your vocal cords have to be warmed up before you check them out!

THE O’REILLEYS AND THE PADDYHATS

We had to wait to see some metal today because it was time for the German Irish Punk band The O’Reilleys And The Paddyhats. With the succes of Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphy’s the genre is very popular on all the festivals nowadays, and this band clearly did not reinvent it or build further on the genre. Do not get us wrong, it was a pleasant concert but the stereotypes were everywhere (and a bit on the nose) and you could clearly hear the heavy German accents in the vocals.

We rather got a band that fitted more in the billing of the festival but we definitely understand the booking of this band on the “familyday” of the festival.

CEMICAN

When going to the lineup of WWN we stumbled upon what we believed to be something truly interesting: Aztec Folk Metal! This project has the idea of integrating pre-hispanic instruments and Mexican culture into the Metal genre. The band came all the way from Guadalajara to Wacken to perform their brutal hard trash metal set while invoking the mysticism of the old world.

There certainly was a visual spectacle on stage with the traditional clothing (and Aztek priest of some kind) but the sound was horrendous, all the instruments sounded way harsher then what we believed to be intended. The pre-hispanic instruments gave some relief of an otherwise muddy and distorted Metal sound.

We do recommend checking out this band live, but beware, this is not something you will get used to.

FEUERSCHWANZ

The first time we noticed this band was about five years ago at the Wacken Open Air festival where we could not resist to check out a band that they name “cock of fire” (English for Feuerschwanz). And they have grown big in Germany. The Ice Palace was packed and we got enjoy very comedic and albeit interesting Folk Metal show. With clever song building you catch yourself singing along with the tunes very often. A big achievement because all the songs are in German.

It is always a pleasure to see musicians on stage that are amusing themselves and try to bring the vibe to the crowd. Make sure to check out their Live DVD’s or if you are passing by on a German festival, chances are great to see them play.

Another round mead for me please! Oder Met, natürlich.

HULDRE

Being an active live band for almost 10 years now, Huldre really brought a new vibe to Folk Metal. The beautiful songs are captivating but also have a kind of harshness to them. Not ideal to see them playing the Theater Of Grace, but a great performance nonetheless.

We have nothing but good words for the band, captivating, clean and lovely instrument like the flute, hurdy gurdy and violins added to some excellent Metal!

FAUN

As one of the headliners of the festival Faun has gathered a good amount of people for the last concert in the Ice Palace, the German Pagan Folk band could not be farther away from metal then what metalheads are used to on a festival. With a solid performance they gave a clean professional depiction of what their music is: a connection to mother earth with a sound that makes you close the eyes and dream away.

Personally we found that the setlist was a bit too long and some people left because it was the last they and wanted to get home before yet another long week at work. It did not lessen the grace of the music on stage.

After the encore, we drank our last hot mead on Wacken Winter Night and said goodbye to this amazing and cozy festival.

Pictures & videos by Wacken Winter Nights.