Earlier this year, the organizers of Wacken Open Air announced the re-launch of the Wacken Roadshows after an extended absence of six years. Split across two parts spanning 34 dates with two sets of bands, the tour was aimed at promoting upcoming bands across Europe. Last year’s impressive performance at WOA bought Indian thrashers Kryptos a spot on the tour alongside Emergency Gate, Tenside and Italian black metal legends Graveworm, and when the tour rolled into Wiesbaden (Hessen, Germany) on October 1, the party had already started.
Local openers The Article kicked off proceedings early in the evening with their brand of melodic death metal. The short but heavy set which consisted exclusively of music from their upcoming full-length served as the perfect warm-up for the crowds as they slowly filtered in before Kryptos took to the stage. Playing material almost exclusively from the latest release The Coils of Apollyon, Kryptos battled broken strings and sore throats to deliver a strong performance and coax a significant response from the sober crowd. Beginning with the mid-tempo Visions of Dis and progressively moving faster into Spellcraft and Serpent Mage, the band thrashed through their set and soon made way for Munich-based act Tenside.
The decade-old band playing a mix of modern groove and metalcore managed to get little response from the crowd, and despite the flowing beer at Schlacthof Wiesbaden, they didn’t do much to entertain those who had turned up for a metal concert on a weekday. Emergency Gate (also from Munich) were much better received, although it was obvious at by this point that everyone wanted Graveworm.
The Italian headliners brought all the bands and crowds into the now-packed bar as they proceeded to blow the roof off Schlacthof. The black metal cover of R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion was well-received, as was Hateful Design and Nocturnal Hymns. And, when the last chords from Eric Righi’s guitar faded into the night, empty beer bottles rolled on the ground and the tour-buses rumbled away, the Wacken Roadshow, Wiesbaden leg was done, with nothing but riffs, stickers and t-shirts as memories. Wiesbaden will be waiting for Kryptos and Graveworm to come back.
