"Armageddon Over Wacken Live 2004" (Cleopatra)
By Brian Anderson
Thursday. Dec 01, 1:13 AM
The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The largest annual metal festival in Europe is known as Wacken Open Air, each year featuring some of the most prominent heavy acts on the planet. Wacken has continuously attracted over 30,000 fans and is known as one of the most prestigious and respected events of its kind. The 2004 festival marked the celebration of its 15th year and boasted some very prominent acts like metal gods Motorhead and Dio. The kings of thrash, Anthrax, along with some of the heaviest bands out there like Cannibal Corpse, Unleashed, Nevermore, and Mayhem were also on hand for the butchering. The Armageddon Over Wacken Live 2004 triple disc set documents just some of the great moments that make this festival one of the best in the world of metal.

Each of the three discs is broken down into subgenres. Disc one features black, death, and thrash metal acts like Children Of Bodom, Cannibal Corpse, Unleashed, Anthrax, and Death Angel. Highlights include Anthrax doing “Indians” and Unleashed doing “To Aasgard We Fly.” However, including “Only” as one of the Anthrax songs is a let down: same with Death Angel playing “Thicker Than Blood.” Both bands boast much better material.

Disc two features power and traditional metal acts such as Dio, Nevermore, and Motorhead. You can’t help but think of Rodney James Dio and “Holy Diver” together, which just happens to be one of his featured songs. On the same token, you can’t think of Motorhead without humming “Ace of Spades,” but unfortunately that staple is missing from this collection. This disc also has one of the worst covers I have ever heard. Blaze Bailey (if that name isn’t bad enough) completely slaughters and defaces his former band’s “Fear of the Dark.”

Disc three features the more underground and obscure acts such as Reckless Tide, Dr. Rock, and Sufferage among others. I know what you are thinking: I haven’t heard of any of these bands either! The German band Elakelaiset don’t do themselves any good with the second worst cover song on this comp. “Humppa” is German for “Jump.” Yes, a German polka version of the Van Halen classic. This will have you laughing and wishing you could see this in person at next year’s festivities.
www.cleorecs.com

Brian Anderson

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