Bboo : Who is the crafty one that has stalled the microphone?

Sound problems are back, and back in force. Not a single note comes from the speakers of the mainstage. This time the show has to be interrupted and the singer is in a killing mood. Everyone is waiting, one by one photographers leave the photopit to reach the Tent where My Dying Bride will soon begin. So do i…

SpiriT : No really fan of the band, even in its heyday, i did not expected much from their venue. Maybe some old memories brought back to the surface, not much. So there’ll be no deception for me.

It does not start well for the American with the band looking thoroughly depressed and fancy air. One song, another, the sound is rather messy and we hear mostly drums and bass guitar. A nasty crackling is heard a first time, then a second a few seconds later which made Jackson Eddie launches grin look on both side of the stage.

The third times will be the good : this time we only hear the drummer : no more electricity on the stage! This time it’s the turn of Geof Tate to be on the verge of killing. The band will leave the scene almost immediately without waiting for any providential intervention, under the crowd’s whistles.

It was not such a bad idea since it will take more than 20 minutes to recover the sound. Anyway, by this time i was far from the mainstage …

Bboo : Here are we rewarded for our efforts. The band ensures the show under the tent, this time with a real light show (they played in the middle of the afternoon under a bright sun in France). As in Hellfest, their show is marked by the return of the violin. While the British deliver us a good performance, the rain start to fall harder and literally wash the site.

SpiriT:: “In case some of you haven’t notice, we have a violin player again, her name’s Katie” these few words of Aaron (as always little talkative) make a perfect summerize of the orientation of the show. The setlist is again based on former album.

The band starts with “Here in the throat”, “the songless bird” and “from darkest skies”, as melancholic as always. The public finally start to react on the first notes of “The cry of Mankind”. Followed “And I walk with them” and the very good “The snow in my hands “.

With the advantage of a longer set (15 minutes more), the band plays “Black Heart Romance” and then an old song I had not heard in a long time, due to an omnipresent “Forever People” : it’s the violent “Vast Choirs” where Aaron demonstrates once again that unlike others, he has not lost his booming voice. I found his voice even deeper than on “As the Flowers Rivers”. Great performance throughout the whole show.

Only disappointment, the lighting on the two first songs (the ones allowed for the photopit access) was very poor. We had to wait around half the show before we can actually have good lighting (similar to last year’s European tour).

In the end, a very good show, better than in France (thanks to the tent), but that will not best the excellent performance of Alchemist in the early afternoon.

Bboo : Time to get ultra-bright gear and the flash : this is a black metal band and as always they’re going to play with 3 pieces of candle, maybe 4 if we are lucky. Lost! This is the major illuminations. Colors burst everywhere: yellow, green, red and without the smallest haze. This is undoubtedly the best photographic conditions I’ve ever seen for a black metal band.

My only regret: frost is not here, probably on tour somewhere else with Satyricon. But it will not damper the quality of the show.

SpiriT : Sadly, in the meantime I was under the tent, enjoying MDB’s show. Just enough time to leave the tent and painfully force my way up to the Jagermeister and It was already the two last songs ?. The only thing I remember is that I thought, when fighting my way through the field: “a black metal band was having the brightest light show of the whole festival” ^^

Since there shall be almost no pause between the two last shows, I hurry myself to the mainstage. Bright idea: in addition to all the photographers encountered all along the day, a very large number of VIPs of all kind will park like sheep in the photopit. I know it’s why they are VIP, but I always wonder why the fuck all of these people are sharing the photopit, without any gear, in the same time we are trying to do some shooting. Well no matter… Anyway we’ll have two songs to shots which is more than sufficient.

Bboo : As head of the bill, Slayer end this day. Their setlist is very similar than in Hellfest, with every classics of the Americans.

SpiriT : After the half disappointment at Hellfest, I was wondering how the trash grandfathers could possibly perform here.
Answer is: better. The band is more steady and less mellow.

It starts with “Disciple” where the crowd scream loud “Gods hates us all” in each chorus. Follows “Cult” and already the first pause, with the come back of the zombies “it must be zombie night”. Hmmm, you already made that one Tom …

We can’t escape “Chemical Warfare” … sorry but I’m so bored with the songs of the EP, I would prefer they play one of the numerous old songs we never hear.
Then comes “Jihad” which gave a small boost to the pit, then the excellent “Ghost of wars”.
Note that if Hanneman has taken notable shortcuts on several solos his interpretation stays correct most of the time unlike his mate who made several pains, with a climax on “War ensemble” massacred.

The traditional « if you live by the sword, then you’ll die by the sword » introduce us a good old « Die By the sword” in which I always find great pleasure. What of “Antichrist” and other “Black Magic”?
“SpiriT in Black” will follow then “Captor of Sins” with its introduction slightly modified.
Although Tom Araya will ask us our help to sing Dead Skin Mash, I find his voice quite good thorough the evening.

“Hell awaits”, with its full version and its still captivating introduction, precede the classical and highly anticipated “South of Heaven”. What can we say of the hymn “Raining Blood” that lifts thousands arms at the rhythm of the legendaries drum beats of Mr Lombardo, ghostly behind his drum kit.
The setlist ends with the usual mix “Mandatory Suicide”, with many massacred solos, and “Angel of death” to close this Waldrock edition.

In the end, a few inaccuracies in the interpretation won’t be able to spoil me my pleasure and my neck feels broken after the 70 minutes of this showy.
A fairly good performance from Slayer and one of the best moments of the Waldrock as far as I am concerned.

And so this is the end. It’s already time to return to the hotel and soon in France. It’s quite strange a one day festival. On the other hand it has some good points: we’re less tired and not bored. Also it costs less.
To conclude I wish to thank the organization, who was very good in its whole, and the staff & volunteers very friendly and cheerful.

This Waldrock 2008 even if it was not free of small concerns tends to be a great success. It’s likely we’ll be back.