(Dinges)

 

First the stage was reserved for thrash/death metal band from Friesland Mortuary I.O.D. and it looked like they where very proud to be on one of the biggest festivals of Holland.

They played if their lives depended on it and it was a pretty good show and the sound was also nice, there was practically no wind (yet) so it sounded pretty good. Due to the cancellation of Testament they where alowed to play 15 minutes longer than originally planned and they used this time very well.

 

Transport League was the first band to perform in the tent. Well what’s to tell about this band? The sound was great because it was in the tent. The band was a bit easy on stage and the whole performance didn’t caught my interest to buy one of the albums but the show was ok I guess. But the best part: Let There Be Rock!!!! And they kept their own style, which was a big plus for this gig.

 

The six long haired artists of Finntroll entered the stage and the only thing what was missing were the bear skins and beer mugs I had expected, but the keyboard player made up with his bad almost breaking his keyboard. This was a pretty good performance and they knew how to entertain the crowd.

 

Nevermore was awesome, what an energy on that stage!!(in the beginning) After a few songs the frontman was hanging on his microphone stand and it was like all the energy was flooded out of this long blond haired leather lover. BUMMER, because it started out so well.

 

Moonspell wanted to play at this years Waldrock and was booked indeed, as one of the last bands. Well this show was one of my favourites, the sound was outstanding and the voice of Fernando Ribeiro was of this world from hard and loud to low and calm in one second. The light was like always, very dark and the colour red was clearly present.

 

Then it was for Fear Factory to show their skills to the Dutch crowd, it was a great show and Byron did very well if you ask me. The set contained a lot of old stuff and some shit of the new album Archetype, all of the songs were great and very energetic, the vocals were very clear in the front of the stage but a few yards from the stage the wind began to play with it and messed up the whole performance if you ask me.

 

I don’t really know Exodus but after the show I knew for sure that this isn’t my kind of music, although the sound and performance was good (I have to give 'em that).

 

The show of Cannibal Corpse really blew my head off, what a show, light and performance, those guys have to have a sore neck after a show like that. And I even can imagine why those guys performance is band in some countries, beastly satanic shit if you ask me but I loved it.

 

Then if was time for Epica. The stage was set for this band from the westlands of Holland and it was like a fairytale! A great set from this band but the voice of Sharon was crap (she had a cold she told us), but they got the crowd along their side and the show was a success, but it was disappointing that it was at brought daylight so the effects they had weren’t that great.
After Hatebreed had cancelled last year they were at the list for this year and they made up for last years cancellation. It started as one hell of a show and the crowd was going wild!! After a few songs the Circle Pitt Of Death had started in front of the stage and the whole band got a hell of a boost of energy of that. In the end they played a cover of Slayer and that made the crowd insane!

Twisted Sister was back in Holland after 16 years and Dee did a good job, 70’s rockers and youngsters loved the show, but who doesn’t. This band is pure fun to look at but I would never put an album in my cd-player, more the less the show was pretty good and TWISTED!

 

Monster Magnet was at his best, good performance by frontman Dave Wyndorf. The crowd loved the show of these rockers. And the best songs ever (of course) Powertrip and Space Lord. But for me it was a bit of a flashback because I had been there a week earlier in De Effenaar, but that didn’t spoil my fun at all.

 

(Napalm Lex)

As the Friesche dusk fell over the town of Burgum, I found myself extremely exhausted and felt like a rhino skullfucked me with it’s tusk through the back of my neck. All that goodie good stuff such as Cannibal Corpse, Monster Magnet and Hatebreed did the trick and let me utterly braindead. What better than smoke that joint that you promised yourself to never touch again? Or three? While I found myself a seat at one of those great [tribunes] at the back of the field, next to the tent stage, to wait for Cradle Of Filth, which would hopefully turn out to be not too disappointing. In the meanwhile a dark roaring emerged from behind, coming from the murky depths of Ticht. (which is local Friesch dialect for “Tent”, so much for poetry!) It soon proved to be the English band My Dying Bride.

I’ve actually been to quite some festivals before Waldrock where M.D.B. played, but I never bothered to check em out. This for the simple reason that I expected the band to be, as a friend of mine once refered to, “one of those night-gown bands”, or gothick (yes, THICK) pooish bands. But as coincidence had it, I was forced to listen to them this time. And guess what? I was actually blown away by the sounds the band reproduced! And when I say blown a way, I mean BLOWN AWAY! We’re talking mayor premature ejaculation on the scale of musical enjoyment. What an extremely enjoyable collection of depressed, self-loathing pile of crap this combination of Doom and gothic (yikes) turned out to be! The grimy Frieschen dusk, and my state of mind (or should I say lack-of-state-of-mind, since I found myself as high as a wiegel ketelapper), made this whole thing quite an enjoyable experience. Went out and bought a cd afterwards. Never listened to it though. 

So, well, after all that passive excitement, it was time for the grand finale. Or should I say “petite finale”, as the bizarre choice of a headliner act turned out to be Cradle Of Filth. HAHAHAHA!

Ahem. Stupid band, stupid music, stupid decision to let them close the festival down. Even a Chino Moreno “hide your willy show” would have been more fitting than this overrated “live band”. Okay, here’s the deal. Stage lights dim, “dark and evilllll” intro tape plays, intro tape ends, hilarious dwarf (Dani Filth, hahaha!) enters te stage, he starts screaming over what appears to be a crappy casio keyboard tape-recording, but it was probably their superb material played hilariously bad. As this ridiculous showcase unfolds for, say another 5 minutes about 50% of the audience either leaves the festival ground, or tries to set it on fire. Somewhere in the midst of this nonsence a bunch of idiots on stelts cobble the stage, I suppose this is satanic or evil, I never really understood any of that teenage crap anyway.

Speaking of which, could there be a single handed fool walking this planet who actually believes Dani Lint is a badass? Come on now, he might think he is the reincarnation of caspar’s evil ghost twin, but let’s face it, he’s just a sad impersonator of a slightly fat pygmy that has gotten his ass tar’n’feathered.  

After about ten minutes about 60-70% of the festival crowd had buggered off, and as my last joint reached it’s roach so did I. Still, the people were pouring away from this mediocre display of redicule. Did I mention that mister Filth tried to get the crowd to “make some noise”? hahaha! Yeah they were making noise allright, shouting “flicker op vuule clit-kluuner” or stuff like that. By the time I reached my tent the skies ruptured and rain soaked the last, probably fifteen year old, atendents of the C.O.F. gig. I am a convinced atheist, but I like to think of this as a funny display of karma. The evil dwarf from hell silenced and robbed off his audience by an act of the skies.