VARIOUS ARTISTS – Armageddon Over Wacken: Live 2004

Before even listening to this CD, it’s easy to dismiss it by wondering what an earth do we need a live CD from a Metal festival, and why not a live DVD? Could be the spirit of spring, but this CD actually rocks and does indeed portray the excitement that good live shows have. Wacken, as you may know, is the annual Metal festival held in Germany where you get to hear a pretty broad selection of Metal veterans from around the world mixed in with German Metal bands.

This CD is a good chance to check out the live condition of these bands and revisit the basics of live talk from “Let’s make some noise,” to “It’s your turn now,” to “Let’s see some arms.” This is an excellent opportunity for starting bands to learn the live talk in an easy 3-part session as well. Of course, not to forget to mention the instant classics of Dio’s “Don’t bloody talk to strangers” and Lemmy’s “Guten Tag, we’ll soon fix that” lines.

The obvious highlight is the amazing, partly-brass-band-sounding version of Maiden’s “Fear of the Dark,” done by their brief tenured vocalist Blaze Bayley. This version has a guest female vocalist, and the humming part that the crowd vocalizes is guaranteed to make the hair on your arms stand up. This is a live classic and a must for any Maiden fanatic. It’s also a good reminder that Bayley is a much better singer than one might remember. Germans JBO also remind us how much fun the festivals can be with their sparkling version of Bloodhound Gang’s “Fire Water Burn” sung entirely in German.

Just like the actual festival, this is a cool and handier way to check out unfamiliar bands. Kotipelto and Mystic Prophecy sound like interesting Traditional Metal bands worth checking out. Any fans of Peer Gunt should definitely check out Gutbucket, who gets to play two songs here. There seems to be a trend in Germany of bands that have a combination of female and dark male voices sharing the microphone, and here you can check out that style with Vanguard, Orphanage, and Weinhold. To help the listener, the three CDs are divided so that one CD has all the Trash/Metal/Black bands, another has Power/Traditional stuff, and the last one is for the Underground bands.

To encourage the punters to buy this release, it comes in a low, under 20 EURO price tag that is definitely a bargain. The question is how often will one return to this CD? Whether or not this is this just a novelty release remains to be seen. It is well-produced and the live sounds are excellent. The performances are mostly energetic and inspiring, which is not surprising, as the booklet states that each band has chosen the tracks to be included here themselves. This CD could also work as a soundtrack to your parties, leaving out the need for a real DJ. Your call.