Every year, some 80,000 metal heads invade the sleepy little village of Wacken for the ultimate metal hajj, the biggest metal festival in the world, Wacken Open Air.
Check out some of the links below to get a taste of the mayhem.
Lyrical Themes: Fantasy, Rock (early), Relationships, Love
Happy 420 metal heads! I hope you all left out cookies and weed for Snoop Dog yesterday on 420 Eve. On this special day I’d like to play for you one of my favorite stoner songs. Technically Rainbow is not “Stoner Rock,” but the themes of this song are certainly pretty drugged out.
Rainbow is a combination of the heavy metal titans Dio and Ritchie Blackmore, although was mostly Ritchie Blackmore’s solo project.
I posted a live version of this song. Even though the sound quality is not the best you can certainly feel the power and the energy. You can sense the band feeding off the electric energy of the crowd.
Hellfest is a massive show that was held on the weekend of the Summer Solstice in Clisson France, which featured a legion of the most dark and brutal bands to scourge the Earth. See the set list yourself. Every time I read about one of these major concerts in Europe, I have to punch myself in the face for not being born in Europe. In America we’re lucky to get a show that has even three of these bands in the same venue. But enough of my complaining, in the video above you can see the entire set of Behemoth. As someone who has seen Behemoth twice before, I can tell you that the energy of their albums is only magnified a hundred fold by their stage presence.
Much to my pleasure, the songs on the set list come from two of their best albums: the new album “The Satanist,” and the album that is known for the iconic Behemoth sound “Demigod.”
I couldn’t find much information about this musician or the song itself. Only a You Tube video followed by a stream of bizarre comments. If any informed viewers have any more knowledge about the song though – or the musician – I would be very interested.
Man may be mortal, but a good song can last through the centuries. It’s good to hear these viking ballads are alive and well, being sung the same online as they were many a century ago on a cold winter night amid Norse folk keeping warm with good mead and company.
EDIT: According to a helpful commenter below, the first song here relates to the great Heathen Invasion of 1066 and the battle at Stanford Bridge.
The band is called Harold Foss and the following is their home page: http://www.legende.no/
Metal Gaia 