Wacken Open Air Festival

News - 6th February - THREE MORE BANDS FOR 2012 – MEGAHERZ, MANIMALS & WE BUTTER THE BREAD WITH BUTTER
Beside two German bands we also got one real delicacy from America for the Wacken Open Air 2012. By the way, all three bands will be at the Wacken Open Air for the first time this year.

Megaherz – It’s hard to imagine the Neue Deutsche Härte Scene without Megaherz. The Band from Munich just released its new album Götterdämmerung which is a new confirmation of their status in the scene.

Manimals – Founded in 1982 this band was one of the 80´s cult metal acts from Ohio. This year they celebrate their reunion as well as their 30th Anniversary. You can describe their music as Monster Metal or Horrorcore.

We Butter The Bread With Butter  – The five musicians from Brandenburg in Germany are celebrating their special style since 2007 when the band was found. At the beginning they used to interpret German children’s songs with elements from death metal, metalcore and electro. But now they are also writing their own songs.

News - 24th January - AURA NOIR TO PLAY WACKEN OPEN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2012!
2012 will be the first time for Norwegian band Aura Noir to play Wacken Open Air. The Black/Thrash metal band already released 4 albums, since they were founded in 1993. In 2005, band member Carl-Michael was hurt so bad, that he was paralyzed from the ankles down. Anyway he released the album Hades Rise in 2008 with the band and by now he also is going to perform on stage again.

News - 26th December - XMAS ADDITIONS TO THE WACKEN LINE UP - TESTAMENT, LENINGRAD COWBOYS, SAXON, SANCTUARY & SCHANDMAUL
Testament - Chuck Billy and Testament return to Wacken to unleash the Bay Area Thrash machine once again on the Holy Ground!

Leningrad Cowboys - Born from the Comedy Movie "Leningrad Cowboys Go America" in the end of the 80´s they became superstars in their homeland Finland. And also in the rest of the world they managed to build up a huge fan community. Not only for fans of titanic Elvis-curls a must see!

Saxon - British Steele at it´s Best from Biff Byford & Saxon. After their last Wacken appearance in 2009 it´s time again to rock the holy ground! For all fans of hardrock & power metal a must see!

Sanctuary - One of the reunions of the year! After the band from Seattle split in 1991 Warrel Dane (Nevermore) and the rest of the band reunited after more than 20 years to record new songs and rock the stages all over the world!

Schandmaul - A must see for all medieval freaks returns to Wacken! Within the last 10 years the band managed it to become one of the most famous bands of this genre!

News - 22nd December - BEHIND DOOR NUMBER 22 - CRIMES OF PASSION!
Next year for the first time in Wacken - CRIMES OF PASSION, with their mix of melodic metal and hardrock they conquered a lot of hearts during the last years. Their newest output "To Die For" which was released in 2011 earned best critics and we are looking forward to see these guys live at Wacken

News - 21st December - DOUBLE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR WACKEN'S DOOR NUMBER 21!
Day 21 of Wacken Open Air's advent calendar and here is the next double announcement - Kamelot & Sylosis

KAMELOT - will play at Wacken 2012! In their 20 years long history the US melodic power metal band recorded 11 Albums (including Live records), 1 DVD and several music videos. Today they are one of the most famous bands in the scene. We a re looking forward to see this guys back at Wacken again in 2012!
SYLOSIS - After the critical content of Sylosis debut “Conclusion of an Age“, their 2nd record will be more personal. Thrash Metal mixed up with Melodic Death Metal will blast your ears in the next year! Everyone who wants to see and hear the British and their music live get his chance at Wacken Open Air 2012.

News - 20th December - MANTICORA & DELAIN JOIN WACKEN OPEN AIR BEHIND DOOR NO20
Joining the sold out Wacken Open Air festival 2012 today on the 20th December are Manticora & Delain

Manticora - The five guys of Manticora support our Line-up with Progressive Power-Metal from Denmark. Founded in 1997 the band has already released 7 albums.
Delain - Symponic Metal at it´s best comes from Delain. After their debut "Lucidity" hit the market like a bomb the band from the Netherlands became an established force in the scene.

News - 19th December - DARKEST HOUR EMERGE FROM BEHIND DOOR NO 19!
It will be the first time at Wacken Open Air for Darkest Hour. This year they were touring as support-act for Machine Head and presented their new album “The Human Romance”.

News - 18th December - TWO MORE BANDS FOR WACEKN OPEN AIR 2012!
Unearth - Also the guys from Massachussetts will be part of next years line up to present us their mix of melodic death and thrash metal. Besides classic songs they will for sure blow us away us with the songs from their newest output "Darkness in The Light".

More than 15 years Wolfgang „Wölli“ Rohde had played as drummer for „Die Toten Hosen“. This year he releases as “Wölli & Die Band des Jahres” his first solo album titled “Das ist noch nicht alles”. And all this at the age of 61. Although the fact that there´s no show by “Die Toten Hosen”the performances of Wölli & Die Band des Jahres will be a must-see for every true fan.

News - 17th December - BEHIND DOOR NO 17 WE HAVE FROM SWEDEN GRAVEYARD!
The Swedish Hard Rockers of Graveyard wait behind today’s advent calendar window. After the great success of their latest album “Hisingen Blues” Graveyard decided to re-release their debut album titled “Graveyard”.

News - 16th December - WE OPEN THE 16TH DOOR AND REVEAL AMARANTHE & EISENHERZ!
AMARANTHE this swedish/danish band will play next year for the first time at Wacken. They combine elements from melodic death metal & power metal which culminate in an atmospheric mix of dark melodies with deep growls and silent melodic parts accompanied by the voice of female singer Elize.

EISENHERZ presents their own version of German medieval rock music. Songs like “Flieg mit mir” and “Die Seele brennt”combine soft sounds and the deep voice of singer Karl Zürl.

News - 15th December - SACRED REICH AND INSOMNIUM TO DESTROY DOOR NO15!
Today Wacken organisers are announcing 2 bands SACRED REICH AND INSOMNIUM!

SACRED REICH – The US - Thrashers of „Sacred Reich” are well known to everyone who feels familiar to the thrash metal genre because till today they are still one of the most influential bands of this genre. In 2012 they will finally return to Wacken to let the metal heads rotate to the limit!

INSOMNIUM - Something nice for all Melodic Death-Metal fans out there behind today’s window: Insomnium. With their 5th album “One for Sorrow”, the finish quartet presented another great record which combines Scandinavian Death Metal and elements of Finish Traditional.

NEWS - 14th December - DECEMBER 14TH BRINGS 00MPH! TO THE WACKEN OPEN AIR BILL!
Years after the both great shows in 1996 and 2005 Oomph! seek Wacken out again for the next awesome show in 2012. We´ve heard rumors that there will be a new record in 2012. So we are waiting to see if it will come true.

NEWS - 13th December - LURKING BEHIND DOOR NUMBER 13 - GEHENNA
Many fans can´t get enough of it - Norwegian death/black metal. Corpse paint, morbid melodies and hard sound – things you will get all from Gehenna.  Besides bands like Emperor or Darkthrone these guys are also known as co-founders of the genre.

NEWS - 12th December - MONDAY OPENS DOOR NUMBER 12 AND REVEALS ESCHENBACH!
The band mates of ESCHENBACH have met Stephan Weidner on an after-show party in Berlin once ago.  They left him a demo record and just a few times later the ex- Böhse Onkel bass player produced their first record and worked on songs with them.

A great run for a young band whose members are Nils Berger (reigning world champion for drum playing and ex- Eat the Dog drummer) and Philip Eschenbach (Noisex producer and Explorer guitarist) among others. Next year the band will give their debut at Wacken!

NEWS - 10th December - BEHIND DOOR NO10 THE BANDS ARE DECAPITATED & SAOR PATROL
These guys work together as a team - DECAPITATED is already rocking since their early childhood and make it to the Wacken Open Air 2012. Death Metal attack!

Friends of medieval-markets may know the weighty Scottish and their always well worth seeing performances. This time SAOR PATROL join the Wacken Open Air with ribald charm and shrill Highland Bagpipes to make sure that everybody has a good time.

NEWS - 9th December - TODAY'S ADVENT BAND BEHIND DOOR NO10 IS D.A.D.
The Danish rock legends of D-A-D are the next act of the 23rd Wacken Open Air!  The guys just released their new record “DIC.NII.LAN.DAFT.ERD.ARK“ and got a great clip for the single “I want what she´s got“. We´re glad D-A-D rocks our stage once more.

NEWS - 8th December - DODHEIMSGARD AND VOGELFREY BEHIND THE 8TH DOOR
Today 2 bands are announced for W:O:A 2012 - The Norwegian Black Metal Band DODHEIMSGARD completed their music with Industrial influences. So we can say that we got a very interesting Progressive Metal for you at Wacken.

There will be a lot of awesome acts play on our medieval-stage of the “Wackinger Village” in 2012. One of them is the German medieval-band VOGELFREY, which come along with a great bunch full of impressive songs.

NEWS - 7th December - A LOOK BEHIND DOOR NUMBER 7 AND WE HAVE…..
A little surprise to all Thrash Metal fans today. Organisers present WARBRINGER a great band of the new Thrash Metal generation as part of the Wacken Open Air 2012!

NEWS - 6th December - DOOR 6 - ST NICHOLAS DAY ADDITIONS TO WACKEN LINE UP!
Today is St. Nicholas day so organizers have two confirmations for you:

KYLESA - A real "Metal-Exotic" for today’s confirmation: Kylsea. Take three comparable singers, two drummer and mix the influences of Doom Metal, Stoner Rock and Punk with classic Heavy Metal and what do you get? Sludge Metal! You´re excited how this will sound?! So are we!

NASUM - After the tragic death of singer Mieszko Talarczyk during the tsunami in Asia, Dezember 2004, Nasum announced their annulment. And there will be no reunion. But in 2012 Nasum would have celebrated its 20th anniversary. Therefore, and after long deliberation and scrutiny, Nasum have decided to do a handful of shows and festival gigs around the world – to celebrate their anniversary, say a final goodbye to fans and Mieszko. One of this few shows will be at the Wacken Open Air. This will be one of the last chances ever to see this gods of grind live - so take it!

NEWS - 5th December - BEHIND DOOR NUMBER 5 RED FANG!
Currently Red Fang is touring as Mastodon´s support-act in the USA and bring their debut “Murder the Mointains” to the big bulk minds. Their music sounds like a cool mixture of Stoner Rock, Punk and Doom Metal. Sounds good?! You can be excited about Red Fangs show at Wacken 2012

NEWS - 4th December - BEHIND DOOR NUMBER 4 DIRTY ROTTEN IMBECILES!
Hardcore / Crossover sympathizer and fans of bands like Suicidal Tendencies today's addition to the line up are Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I). We are looking forward to see this guys live at Wacken!

NEWS - 3rd December - BEHIND DOOR NUMBER 3 WACKEN REVEAL 2 NEW BANDS FOR 2012!
WARRIOR SOUL - In 2012 we´ll bring you Hard Rock music in form of the US-American guys of Warrior Soul to Wacken. After the reunion in 2007 they brought us the latest record “Destroy the War Machine” in 2009. During their current tour Warrior Soul said on myspace: “we will be rocking the shit out of a venue near you”. We´re excited to see this at Wacken.

ELECTRIC WIZARD - Electric Wizard from England will bring us a mixture of Doom Metal and Stoner Rock to the Wacken Open Air 2012.

NEWS - 2nd December - BEHIND DOOR NUMBER 2 WE HAVE - BLACK DAHLIA MURDER
Back at Wacken, the "Lady Killers" of Black Dahlia Murder will present you a great bulk of Melodic Death Metal from their 5 records at the Wacken Open Air 2012.

NEWS - 1st December - DAY ONE OF THE ANNUAL WACKEN ADVENT CALENDAR
Today brings news that once again Wacken Open Air is now sold out, all 75,000 tickets have gone and with 8 months to go until the doors open organisers are announcing one band every day on the run up to Xmas….

And the first band is melodic Death Metallers GHOST BRIGADE! The Scandinavian are definitely kings of the genre. Following-up Insomnium Ghost Brigade also calls the great Finland their home. For the Wacken Open Air they´ll leave their country and enter northern Germany.

NEWS - 23rd November - SUICIDE SILENCE MAKE THEIR FIRST WACKEN APPEARANCE IN 2012!
Suicide Silence – these guys are currently one of the greatest Deathcore bands. The 5 guys from California, fronted by singer Mitch Lucker were formed in 2002 and produced some demos in the years after. The success started with their debut “The Cleansing” in 2007, after the band signed to Century Media.

Suicide Silence released their third record “The Black Crown” in summer 2011 with great success. During the last few months they were on tour as support for high-leveled bands like Machine Head and Cannibal Corpse and also headlining the Impericon “Never Say Die!” tour.

NEWS - 17th November - VOLBEAT RETURN TO WACKEN FOR THEIR ONLY EUROPEAN SHOW IN 2012!
The band we are talking about in the following is part of the small range of artists who managed it to add a new sub-genre to the metal scene! Of course, we are speaking about no one less then VOLBEAT!

They belong to the absolute top newcomer acts – Danish Dynamite! Their last album „Beyond Hell / Above Heaven“, which was released back in 2010, was honored as fourth record in a row with a “golden record” and catapulted the band from Copenhagen a further step in direction ROCK-OLYMPUS! You´ll never get enough from this danish combo! The title of their upcoming live album (to be released on the 18th November 2011) is also definitely characteristic for their live appearances, which will take you through metals heaven and hell together! While there were no European live appearances expected in 2012, we have spared no efforts to get the band back to Wacken where they will play an exclusive unique show. This will be a their only European Live Show in 2012 – for sure a true “Night to Remember”!

NEWS - 2nd October - 3 LEGENDS JOIN THE LINE UP!
After a 20 year career the New York Hardcore institution SICK OF IT ALL join the 2012 line up!  After destroying the Holy Grounds of Wacken in 2005 and 2009, Thrash Metal icons MACHINE HEAD are back at the world´s biggest Heavy Metal festival with an exclusive german festival appearance 2012.

And finally a must see for all metal fans, from Switzerland are one of the cult thrash metal bands from the 80's CORONER! It has been 16 years since the band split up but this year Ron Broder, Tom Vetterli and Marky Edelmann reunited to play some selected shows in Europe.

NEWS - 22nd September - WACKEN BAND A DAY ANNOUNCEMENT
W.O.A organisers have already announced 4 new bands - Winterfylleth, Moonspell, In Extremo and Dark Funeral, and will also be announcing one new amazing band on each day until Sunday. And be sure that we will be something for every taste. So be prepared!!!!

NEWS - 10th September - 2012 DATES AND FIRST BANDS ANNOUNCED
With the dust barely settling on a great 2011 festival, Wacken organisers have announced that in 2012 W.O.A will take place from the 2nd – 4th August and the following acts have already been confirmed:  Amon Amarth, Axel Rudi Pell, Cradle of Filth, Endstille, Forbidden, GammaRay, HammerFall, Henry Rollins, Ministry, Scorpions, Six Feet Under, U.D.O.


 

LINE UP

Amon Amarth
Axel Rudi Pell
Coroner
Cradle of Filth
Dark Funeral
Dimmu Borgir
Endstille
Forbidden
GammaRay
HammerFall
Henry Rollins
In Extremo
Machine Head
Ministry
Moonspell
Napalm Death
Paradise Lost
Saturnian
Scorpions
Sick Of It All
Six Feet Under
Suicide Silence
U.D.O.
Volbeat
Watain
Winterfylleth
Ghost Brigade
Black Dahlia Murder
Electric Wizard
Warrior Soul
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
Red Fang
Nasum
Kylesa
Warbringer
Dodheimsgard
Vogelfrey
D.A.D
Decapitated
SAOR Patrol
Eschenbach
Gehenna
Oomph
Sacred Reich
Insomnium
Amaranthe
Eisenherz
Graveyard
Unearth
Wölli & die Band des Jahres
Darkest Hour
Manticora
Delain
Kamelot
Sylosis
Crimes of Passion
Testament
Leningrad Cowboys
Saxon
Sanctuary
Schandmaul
Aura Noir
Dead By April
The Boss Hoss
Chthonic
Overkill
We Butter The Bread With Butter
Manimals
Megaherz

HISTORY

Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) is one of the leading summer open air heavy metal music festivals. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. With 70,000 festival visitors, and including personnel a total of over 72,000 attendees in 2007,[2] it attracts all kinds of metal music fans, such as fans of black metal, death metal, power metal, thrash metal, gothic metal and folk metal, from around the world.

The festival was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and has included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia. W:O:A is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area. The 70 or more bands perform across four separate stages over the course of the event.

The 2009 edition set a sales record; it sold out on December 30th 2008. All 70,000 tickets were sold over 200 days before the opening of the festival.

Wacken Open Air Line UP - 2011
Accuser, Airbourne, Apocalyptica, As I Lay Dying, Avanyasia, Blaas of Glory, Blind Guardian, Blowsight, Children of Bodom, Cradle of Filth, Excrementory Grindfuckers, Hayseed Dixie, Hail of Bullets, Heaven Shall Burn, Hellsaw, Iced Earth, In Solitude, JUDAS PRIEST, Khold, Knorkator, Kreator, Mayhem, Morbid Angel, Morgoth, MOTORHEAD, OZZY OSBOURNE, Primal Fear, Rhapsody of Fire, Russkaja, Saltatio Mortis, Sepultura, Sirenia, Skalmold, Ski King, Sodom, Stier, Subway to Sally, Suicidal Tendencies, Tauthr, The Haunted, The Prophecy 23, The Smackballz, Tokyo Blade, Trivium, Tsjuder, Visions of Atlantis, Volcano, Vreid, Warrant, Battle Beast, Triosphere, Stormzone, Shraphead, Alberlour´s, Horch, Victims of Madness, Venomin James, Onslaught, Torture Squad, Eläkeläiset, Suidakra, Hämatom, Shining, Crash Diet, Bullet, Negator, Helloween, Katalysm, Pussy Sissters, Van Canto, Maiden United, Severenth, Enisferum, Slime, Onkel Tom, Kyuss Lives!, Skindred, Rabenschrey, Deadlock, Kvelertak, Skeletonwitch, Reliquiae, Moonsorrow, Dir En Grey, Lacrimas Profundere, Danko Jones, Edelweiss, Betontod, Frei,Wild