Metal Crusade

The Pilgrimage, The End

2007-08-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Well this will most probably be the last entry for the Metal Crusade 2007 journal. This may seem a poignant time, but really the final leg of the journey was the one that required the strongest of will. For it ended with the mighty Wacken Open Air festival. We traveled by train all day on the first of August, from where Switzerland boarders Italy, to a town within throwing distance of Denmark, a little place called Itzehoe, northern Germany. Already the signs of the great metal festival were appearing. Train cars soiled with squashed chips and beer tins passing under banners welcoming metallers from afar. And then the little yellow road sign popped out from round the bend. Wacken. This was it. We were in Wacken.

The Festival area in sight, we unloaded our bags and started to walk. The ground was already trodden into firm, but powdery dirt. Keep in mind this was a day before the majority of people arrived, and already we passed a pair of travelers who had quite clearly had enough of each other. Watching two young men fight while wearing full hiking backpacks was really something. Especially when they both hit the dirt and were unable to get up. (They did of course continue to punch and kick each while on the ground). Then the fireworks started going off. People from all over the campsite were shooting up colorful bangers all night from improvised launching stations, some detonating frighteningly close to rather flammable looking tents. This wasn’t even officially day 1, and the spirits were high. After standing in awe taking in the atmosphere of beer, smoke and fighting, we trudged on, to find a spot to camp. The ground was not as firm as we had hoped and it took us a while to find a dry patch of grass. The tent went up and we very quickly went to sleep. It had been a very long day, and we needed plenty of rest before we tackle the next few days.

Shouts of “GOOD MORNING WACKEN” caused many reluctant early risers, but the first day was, thankfully, a tame one for us. With Saxon being the attraction later in the day, we took the opportunity to look around the impressive metal market, as well as allot of the festival area. Wacken very simply is the place to be if you like metal, even remotely. Imagine Julian’s description of Graspop, and triple it. If you are a metal head there WILL be something for you. Some of our highlights included Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Dimmu Borgir, Therion, Norther, Communic, while bands such as In Flames and Lacuna Coil pulled the whole campsite into the festival zone. Back toward the tent we had become fairly proficient with our campsite cookery, preparing favorite meals involving fried bread and sausages. I cannot emphasis the constant noise from drunks, fireworks, police cars and of course the bands. It was a nice surprise to bump into some friends from our Graspop camping group, but we had no problems finding conversation amongst the hordes of friendly Wackeners. All in all the bands were great, the people were great, the food was …. better and the experience was simply incredible.

So really it has been quite a trip, not only for metal, but with cathedrals and plane crashes punctuating our short but insightful dash through Europe, it will be a hard one to forget. If you have been following our journey this far, I hope you have a basic idea about some of the things Julian and I have seen, smelt, heard and watched, although really there isn’t a way to put it in words or even pictures. We’ve had an amazing time, and we’re both already looking forward to next summer.

End in sight

2007-07-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

This is attempt number 2, as after putting the photos up all of the text I wrote for an hour was erased. Fantastic, only 2 hours of typing.

We took a train from Bonn to Nürnberg, and from there caught a train to Amberg, the closest town to the Earthshaker festival. We had a little walk around in Nürnberg inbetween the trains, as we had to pick up some gas for the festival. We had gone to a shopping center in Bonn for the food. Unfortunately we left behind our 4kg box of Haribo! Nürnberg is a pretty town, from the little amount we saw of it. They too have an impressive cathedral. Once at Amberg we had some hour to wait for the shuttle bus, so used the time to get some money out of the machines in town, yet again.

Once at the festival grounds we had words with one of the ushers, as they put us at a pretty crap spot on the camping ground. It was based around a hill and we were right away from it, next to the designated area for the road, and inevitably, the walkway for the drunks. We managed to move to another spot, which was at the foot of the hill and conviniently close (but still far enough that our tent did not become an alternative) to the bogs. We set up the tent, and noticed the festivals have had their toll on our super wallmart tent. The poles are slightly bent now, and there are a few rips. Still, it was clear it would hold for that festival and we are confident that it will be fine for our last one as well.

The festival area was very close to the camping area, but the concerts (only one stage at this festival) had been shifted into a hall, much to alot of people's dissapointment. The reasoning was predicted storm weather. The hall had a good sound, but the sad thing was that all of the seats, which, being a horse jumping hall, were all around the middle field, were off-bounds, and obviously during the day you could see very clearly inside. The first bands started at 11.00 am so didn't play to a huge crowd, as they normally don't. Being outside this is fine, it is not so noticable. But inside, it really seemed as if they were playing to a big, empty hall - well, they were. Still, the sound inside the hall was good, and the crowd was as enthusiastic as the bands.

It was a fairly chilled out festival for us, wandering around and checking out the bands we wanted to see. Everything was close so easily accessable. I rekindled a long lost love of Crepes with Nutella - something a stall was selling and a pleasure I have missed for a few years.

There were quite a few characters at Earthshaker - more so than the others. There was a dude that looked just like Haggard (is that is name?) from Harry Potter - really big, slow, fur pelts all over him and an all encompassing bushy beard and hair mop. There was a guy who was in a ninja turtle suite the whole 3 days, the only change being the addition of a thong. A guy had a bright pink lycra jumpsuit, and there was a guy who wore nothing else than boxer shorts and a bullet belt.

After the festival we got the bus back to Amberg, on to Nürnberg and then onto Basel, my hometown. We stayed with my uncle and had a nice few days going out with him and walking around town during the day. My uncle's apartment is very close to the airport, on the top floor, and on the first morning I heard a plane go over very, very close, shaking the building. What followed was a huge bang which shook the windows even more, and after looking out the window, saw that the plane had crashed into the building next to us, about twenty meters away. The whole building was on fire so we rushed down to help, but the place was already cornered off by the emergency response forces. It turned out that a guy wanted to fly to new york in his single man plane, but had problems from the start - to heavy, basically. Anyway, had our roof been slanted instead of flat, the guy would have flown into us. Quite spectacular. Luckily the pilot was the only casualty.

We are now in Tessin, a lake side area of Switzerland right on the border with Italy. We are staying with my grandparent's here, and are fed about 7 portions every meal. The food is gorgeus and the freshest stuff in the world, so our stomachs are stretching. Other than that we lie in the sun and sleep, or swim in the lake. Pretty neat. I only feel sorry for Robert because for the last week he has not understood a word anyone has said.

On the first we have an 8 hour train ride up to Hamburg, for the last festival. The trip is coming to an end, yet the biggest, and wildest festival awaits us.

Our tent at Earthshaker

Earthshaker campground

Earthshaker passout 1

Earthshaker passout 2

Kreator

Kreator 2

Testament

Friendly Earthshaker goer

Bullet Man - Earthshaker

Plane crash 1

Plane crash 2

Deutschland

2007-07-16T05:22:00.000-07:00

After returning from Greece we had a relaxing day or two at Robert´s, and even managed to blow up a few rockets and shoot some stuff. We headed to London on the morning of the 8th and by a miracle, made it into the Golden Circle at Wembley - a cordoned off area at the front of the stadium for the first few thousand that make it there. We were literally 5 meters from the stage. For a Metallica show, that´s pretty unheard of. We watched Mastodon and Machine Head, two of the opening bands, while enjoying the 4000 strong moshpits going crazy behind us. There was a fellow we dubbed the ´wrecking ball´ as he was rather huge and round, and everything he did seemed to be in slow motion, however carried about a ton of force. He bobbed around in the moshpit and we could actually see a path in the crowd as he ran through, flattening anything that got near. HIM, the final opening band, is a sort of pop rock thing, and so pretty much got booed off stage. Being English a hail of insults came from the crowd in many different forms, and the band raced through their set without a pause and them promptly stormed off. It was amusing to watch, because the band was convinced that the crowd simply was anxious to see Metallica, but actually, we simply did not want to see them!

The intro track hit and Metallica took the stage. I was breathing fine this time, Wembley being a smoke-free arena and free of dust. The crush, however, was intense. All 6000 or so in the Golden Circle pushed forward, and being in the front 5 rows we felt it, hard. A few scuffles here and there, but eventually we found our ground and proceeded to hammer our necks and tear our throats. Metallica was in top form again, and really feeding of the 60,000 or so strong crowd. I nearly lost my fingers and got sat on by about 500 people when I grabbed for a pick thrown out by the bassist, but managed to secure it. Another totally mind-blowing night for me.

After a very good night´s sleep (in a bed this time!), we headed to Gatwick and caught our flight to Cologne. Since then we have been staying with me Dad here, and have had a look around Bonn, Cologne, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. We looked at some museums around the area which was cool, and generally having a relaxed time. My brother was here for his last night when we arrived so he took us to Cologne and showed us the famous Kölner Dom, which was very very impressive, before we all went off to a wonderfully huge and tasty German meal - I had a Schnitzel and the boys had pork knuckle with sauerkraut.

We have also managed to make a visit to the Haribo factory, which is based here in Bonn. They have a factory outlet, a supermarket sized Gummi heaven. We bought a cardboard box of ´Bruchwaren´, which is factory rejected stuff sealed in a box to a weight of 4KG. They are very cheap and it´s a total surprise what you get, so we picked one up for the festival.

We drove up to Frankfurt and by chance there was a Nuclear Blast (best metal record label) affiliated store there, so we payed it a visit. Unfortunately for my bank account I went heavy and bought 15 DVD´s and about 30 CD´s, making the store man very happy. I think I have maxed my withdrawal limit on my debit card now.

We leave for Earthshaker festival on Wednesday, taking a train down to Nürnberg and figuring the rest out from there. We are looking forward to another festival, and are looking forward to a grass ground again! The weather here is now scorching hot again, but at least the nights will be cool.

Will try again with some pictures, they did not work in England.

Sabaton

Graspop Campground

Graspop Napper

Therion 1

Therion 2

Graspop Camper

Iron Maiden 1

Iron Maiden 2

Slayer

Amon Amarth

Cold Graspop Nights

Graspop Rubbish

These two business men wanted to go to work...

Bruxelles

Greek camping ground

More greek camping

Iced Earth

Dream Theater

Rockwave napper

Temple to Zeus

Acropolis

Kölner Dom

Stone Camping & Gods in Greece

2007-07-06T04:31:00.000-07:00

We never went on a day trip - it was either a boat trip with 900 other people or a 2 hour drive in a bus past some statues for 100 euros.

After our wonderful stay in the sleepy, terribly hot area of Athens we were in we searched for a taxi company on the Internet to take us to the festival. The festival had organised buses to take people there, but they were pretty much sold out, and were on the other side of Athens. We figured we'd fork out and get a taxi there and back. We had a day in Athens after the festival, and wanted to visit the Acropolis then, and so having a taxi would allow us to make our own times. We found a taxi company and Rob gave them a call. We arranged for the driver to pick us up the next morning. We headed to the supermarket and since we had a flashy new camping cooking set from Tesco's we bought some proper food, as we had the ability to boil water - pasta, sausages etc.

After a very early wake up, our Taxi driver arrived perfectly on time. We realised in the taxi, upon opening the gas burner we had bought in the supermarket, that the bottom screw on bit (essential for the gas cartridge not to fly off) was missing. It was a Sunday and so all the supermarkets were closed! It turned out our driver, Costas, is an expert on Greece and so took us to a nearby town to the venue, citing "In the fields, you will find the real Greeks!". We found a little shop and managed to buy another burner, averting yet another little catastrophe.

Upon arriving in the festival grounds, we were shown to the camping area. It was a totally different ball game than Graspop. For a start, there were about 20 tents in total. It would turn out that 99% of the audience would just drive in from Athens. Second, it was 37C, without a cloud in the sky - the only, and very occasional, saviour was a slight breeze. Finally and most significantly, was the fact that the ground was rock. Simple, hard, stone. If you know anything about pitching a tent you know you have to get pegs about 6 inches into the ground. On mud, a.k.a Belgium, this was fine. Eventually I found a very big rock and we spent a while hammering the damn things in. Once it was all set up though, our new tent was great - very, very spacious. We spent the next few hours chatting with people around the campsite, and then headed over to the festival grounds.

The first few bands were the standard time filler crap, and finally Iced Earth came on. Fantastic no frills, balls to the wall metal. Straight after was Dream Theater. As the third time seeing them, it was the best one of the three. Amazing show. We left the main crowd area for Heaven and Hell and watched from a far. No decent sleep was to be had - general metal sounds all night and sleeping on spiky rocks does not do well for the back.

The next day there was nothing happening so we sat around in the sweltering heat all day. Our food was alot better, cooking sausages and fresh pasta, so at least our bellies we full.

Third day, the 3rd of July, 2007. The best day of my life. After a day of terrible bands and 'downgrading' our ticket to get closer to the front (it's all Greek to me...), Metallica finally came on stage. 25,000 people, and the place exploded. A Medival war is the closest thing it resembled. The crowd was really fantastic though - when we were all singing you could not heard the band (that's saying something at a Metallica concert!). The band seemed really chuffed. I, despite having terrible asthma problems because of the dust being kicked up, was in a dream. I had waited for and imagined that night every day for 7 years, and finally I was swinging my head around to the greatest band on earth.

The next day, after an awesome history lesson from our taxi driver, we checked into a two star hotel we booked before the festival for our last night (decided to afford ourselves some 'luxury'). The place could have been a four star hotel! A very nice surprise.

We walked to Hadrian's Arch and checked out the Temple of Zeus there as well, before heading up the long walk to the Acropolis. At the top you get an amazing few of Athens and the whole lot is very, very impressive. HOWEVER. At the top of the Acropolis, a mister James Hetfield, singer and guitarist of Metallica, and a literal God to me, was looking around there. He was with his family and his kids, and was already being approached every now and then so I really dug into my restraint and left him alone, as I did not want to bother him. Very very cool just being so close to the man though.

We had a quiet evening in watching an awesome film we have both seen 5 times - Solider - because I was feeling pretty rough. An Italian flight back from and we come to now. Greece was an awesome place and I managed to see my favorite 3 bands there, as well as check out a very cool and new (to me) city. Both Robert and myself have agreed that we will return.

I have been doing this for too long now so will upload the pictures later!

Belgium, Italian Flying & Greek Sweat.

2007-06-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

So much for the weekly updates.

I'll start with our eurail trip to Belgium. Pretty much trouble free - payed 20 pounds from reading to London, and 25 pounds from London to Belgium and back, as well as all trains in Belgium. Interesting difference in value. Upon arriving in Brussels, we found some other backpacking, black-clad people who knew which trains to take to get to Dessel, the closest town to the festival. On the train there, we met a bunch of swedes who had a little group going, and ended up sharing a cab with them to the festival grounds - the train station at Dessel was full of about 10,000 metalheads, and an hourly bus didn't sound too appealing. In the taxi on the way there, the driver told us that the government dumps all the nuclear waste in that area, and the background of the festival was a big power plant. Metal.
We were a day early to the camp ground, but since we were foreigners we were allowed in. We queued for about 3 hours to get in - they opened everyone's bags and checked for glass bottles. The only thing was, they did not tell anyone this, so slowly the word made it down the queue. Most people had an average of 4 liqueur bottles with them, so the whole lot got drunk very quickly.
Upon entering the camping area, we walked forward and set up, our group setting up a little circle. We had a very good position - we were away from the makeshift roads, and close to the festival area entrance. We spent the rest of the night chatting to the group and (some) got an early night.

First day of the festival, woke up in the bright sunlight. Cooked some tinned ravioli, and then headed over to the festival ground. It was about a kilometer between the two, and so over the next three days we would walk an average of about 10KM a day! The festival ground was very empty still, as the tent area was filling up with locals. We browsed the stalls a little, and then the first bands started. Sabaton was the first band we watched, and an instant favorite. There were 4 stages, one main and 3 marquees. We had a programme and roamed around between the two, munching on over priced food or heading back inbetween sets to cook. Aerosmith was the main event that night, and we wanted to see Therion, which only started at 1 in the morning. It was fucking cold and Aerosmith were crap so I slept at the table while Rob watched the band. They did not play Walk This Way. We nearly fell asleep at Therion out of sheer exhaustion, but the band was brilliant and heavy.

Day Two. Rain was becoming a constant now, and our tent was leaking. The fly sheet had been ripped and was falling apart, and so we managed to find a tarpaulin lying around and draped it over ours. Still a few leaks, we found some bin bags and strapped them to the side of our tent. Pasta in tomato sauce gets old, fast. Watched many great bands, with the highlight of Iron Maiden in the evening. Played a short set, but was awesome to finally see them.

Day Three. Sore and tired, wet and cold. We smelled bad by now. The festival had a pretty good washing area of about 50 sinks, but with 1000 people to a sink you can imagine what they looked like after three days. They were unisex and in Europe, so we had hairy old men scrubbing their balls next to the women, and people 'washing' their faces in the plugged, murky, foamy sinks. Everything at the festival becomes "good enough" - "are we dry?" "dry enough". "Are we clean?" "Clean enough". Toilets were also provided, and for the most part worked very well. For a piss, at least for the guys, anywhere would do. Robert saw a lady walk into a cubicle and come running out about 3 seconds later throwing up all over herself. I'll leave that to explain the conditions of the cubicles. They had a very stupid rule of taking nothing in the way of drinks over to the festival ground, so at the gates into the festival area, there was a 3 m high mound of beer cans. Ozzy Osbourne was the main event for that night, and was a bit of a joke. Amon Amarth played before, and were definitely the best live show in the festival.

I wish I could capture the festival atmosphere. A grey sky, with 40,000 tents. Flags of various armies and countries flying in the strong wind and constant, constant noise. Viking warchants, national anthems, song choruses, random screams of "SLAYER!" and "MAIDEN!", explosions, smoke billowing over the top, and people everywhere.

It was an awesome time. We took the train back with our group and had a short walk through Brussels, which is a wonderful city. We found an Irish pub and spent the rest of the day there, and caught our train back. We had a two hour delay just outside of London because someone smeared themselves over 6 of our carriages, and so we were sitting there. In our carriage there was a very drunk lady who told us every 2 minutes where her son was, and 3 Oxford physicists who kept telling her to shut up. I have not laughed so hard for a long time.

We bought a tent from the Americans in our group, a 6 man from Walmart. We got it for 40 euros, and the equivalent costs about 250 pounds in England, so everyone was happy. We set it up in Rob's garden on our return from Belgium and love it. We hit the town to get some camping gear (proper pots, stools, and lamps), and spent the rest of the day shooting. We got up the next day for out last day before we flew, and upon checking out schedule realised our flight was in 3 hours. A bit of swearing and very quick packing, we were in heathrow, in a 2 hour queue for our Airitalia flight.

Italian flying is not something I enjoy. This guy was taking us on a joy ride - swooping everywhere, and instead of announcing that we were going to land, he did the steepest nose dive I have ever experienced through the clouds, did a hard 90 degree turn and hit the tarmac. We were delayed in our stop over in Milan due to various very Italian discussions going on in the security queue, but eventually boarded our flights to Athens. We arrived in a very nice airport, albeit deserted. After approaching a travel agent, we had a taxi on the way and a 'hotel' booked for 200 euros for 4 nights.
The taxi drive was very surreal - there was not a single car on the brand new road, so our driver never dropped under 120kpm, with all windows open. We arrived at our 'hotel' and were shown to our room. There are 2 bunks in there plus another bed and that's it. No light, plugs, fans, windows or anything. In the room the temperature is definitely not below 40C, so we went to bed and lay their roasting.

Finally we come to today. We are sitting in an Internet cafe now writing this, dreading the walk home. We woke up around 2 in the afternoon, were too hot to move for another hour, had a cold shower and walked around town trying to find a supermarket. We didn't, so had some ice cream and pastry (the only food available around here), and tried to look for an electronics shop that sold a portable fan for the room. No luck.

I can't put up any pictures yet, as they will not allow me. Once we get back to England we will upload lots.
Tomorrow we will look at some day trips around the surrounding Islands and Athens. They are fairly pricey but we figure we down here so we might as well.

We are having a great time, and have managed to laugh at everything that has gone wrong so far. We have met alot of cool people so far, and look forward to the festival here in Greece (METALLICA!!!!!!)

Will update as soon as possible.

Wings of Steel

2007-06-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

After 14 years at school, we have graduated. We are free souls, or at least until University begins. Until then, myself, Julian Culme-Seymour, and my partner in crime, Robert Couldrey, have planned ourselves an ambitious and exciting summer. This blog is for our friend, family, teachers and anyone else who is interested to check out our progress. We will add to it when we can, and upload some photos whenever possible.

The plan : avid Heavy Metal fans, living in Singapore is not the best compliment for that. We listen to many bands that hail from Europe and are unknown around these parts. We have tickets for a host of metal festivals around Europe, and are taking the train and camping whenever possible. The aim is to see as many bands as we can, and most of all, get to some of the awesome festivals that go on every year. No odd misplaced bands at rock festivals - pure viking, hairy, drunken metal festivals.

We fly from Singapore to London on the 20th of June, and our tour ends on the 4th of August. I will now attempt to write out an itinery.

LEG 1:
20th June: Fly to London (pick up camping gear at Robert's house in Reading)
21st June: Travel to Brussels (Eurostar)
22-24 June: GRASPOP METAL MEETING
25 June : Back to London

LEG 2:
28 June: Fly to Athens, Greece
28 June - 1 July: Chill in Greece
1-3 July: ROCKWAVE FESTIVAL
4 July: Chill in Athens
5 July: Fly back to London

LEG 3:
8 July: METALLICA LIVE, WEMBLEY STADIUM
9 July: Fly to Cologne
10-17 July: Stay with my Dad in Bonn
18-20 July: Travel, by train, to Nuremberg, Germany.
19-21 July: EARTHSHAKER FESTIVAL

LEG 4:
22 July: Travel, by train, to Basel, Switzerland
22-24 July: Visit family + look around Basel
24-25 July: Travel, by train, to Tessin, Switzerland
25-29 July: Stay with Grandparents in Tessin

FINAL LEG:
30-31 July: Travel, by train, to Hamburg, Germany.
1 Aug: Travel, by bus, to Wacken, Germany
2-4 Aug: WACKEN OPEN AIR, 2007

I am now going to try and make a list of all the bands we are seeing at these various wonderful festivals!
Here goes:
GRASPOP METAL MEETING: Belgium

EARTHSHAKER 2007:
Running Order

Motörhead (UK)
Kreator (DE)
Freedom Call (DE)
Dew Scented (DE)
Gamma Ray (DE)
Legion of the Damned (NL)
Mystic Prophecy (DE)
U.D.O. (DE)
Korpiklaani (FI)
Eluveitie (CH)
Within Temptation (NL)
Cradle of Filth (UK)
Testament (US)
Sepultura (BR)
J.B.O (DE)
Grave Digger (DE)
Graveworm (IT)
God Dethroned (NL)
Norther (FI)
Unleashed (SE)
Sabaton (SE)
Keep of Kalessin (NO)
Beatallica (US)
Hatesphere (DK)
Threshold (UK)
Melechesh (IL)
After Forever (NL)
Masterplan (DE)
Vader (PL)
Dezperadoz (DE)
Justice (DE)
Mors Principium Est (FI)
Deadlock (DE)
Runamok (DE)

ROCKWAVE FESTIVAL 2007

Heaven & Hell
Dream Theater
Anathema
Kinetic
Iced Earth
Metallica
Mastodon
My Dying Bride
Dirt Spawn Disease

WACKEN OPEN AIR 2007

1349
All That Remains
Amorphis
Animal Alpha
The Answer
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
Belphegor
Benedictum
The Black Dahlia Murder
Black Majesty
Blind Guardian
Blitzkrieg
Cannibal Corpse
ChthoniC
Communic
Destruction
Dimension Zero
Dimmu Borgir
Dir En Grey
Disillusion
Drone
Electric Eel Shock
Enslaved
Falconer
Fair To Midland
Fastway
Grave Digger
Haggard
Heaven Shall Burn
Hatesphere
Iced Earth
Immortal
In Flames
J.B.O.
Kampfar
Lacuna Coil
Letzte Instanz
Mambo Kurt
Maroon
Mennen
Moonsorrow
Moonspell
Municipal Waste
Napalm Death
Narziss
Neaera
Norther
Pharao
Possessed

There we go! As you can see, lots and lots of bands. For me, the biggest is Metallica. I am an obessed fan, and have been waiting years to see them. Iced Earth and Dream Theater are my other favorites so I really can't wait to see those guys as well. It's all good. I can't wait.

I'll try to add some maps later.