Okay, by this point you all know Apocalyptica–Metal with cello’s instead of guitars. But, how about metal with no guitars, no cello, no bass, no keyboards, no violin, no mandolin, shall I go on?
Enter Van Canto, German A Cappella metal. They’ve been described as “Five singers, one drummer. No guitars, no bass, no keyboards but nevertheless an unbelievable melodic metal experience.” They’re playing a bunch of Eurpoean festivals this summer including Wacken Open Air. Van Canto are signed to Germany’s Gun Records and the word is they’ve recently finished recording their new album. Guitars? We don’t need no stinking guitars!
You metalheads out there all know that Wacken is basically the pinacle of metal festivals, held each year in Wacken, Germany. If you don’t know, don’t talk to me.
This year a 70,000 sold out crowd (that’s the official number, the actual number was closer to 100,000) came to camp out and bang their heads to Maiden, Carcass, Gorgoroth, At The Gates, Lordi, As I Lay Dying, Watain, Primordial, Obituary, Nifelheim, Nashville Pussy, The Haunted, War Bringer, and many, many more. The music went from 11 AM ’til after 3 AM and the German drinking songs never stopped.
After three days of metal, Becks, mud, and friends from around the world, I’m back to sleep and give you all a taste of the highlights. Carcass Carcass
Gorgoroth Gorgoroth Watain
It only rained once this year. But thanks to the official Wacken ponchos, people were prepared!
That’s right! For all of us who got jipped out of seeing them play at the MoMA - I won’t even get started - we’ll get a chance to see an hour of it tonight on Current TV.
Here’s the information:
Besides the terrible parking in Hoboken, NJ .. August 1st rocked my socks. I had some debit card problems at the bar, but I got a free beer and shot out of it so I’m not really going to complain. I made it in the stage area just in time, nuzzled my way directly to the front of the crowd and got ready to swing my hips and lose my voice. I felt so lucky to be so close, so up in their face that it’s probably annoying, but I loved every single second of it. No, they didn’t play “Circus”, but they did end with my personal fav off of their current CD Plunder, Beg and Curse - “Swamp”. And I got a pretty sick video of “Mattresses Underwater”.. love that song too. After, I wanted to buy a shirt but of course, the shirts were too big for little ol’ me, so I decided to spark up a conversation with Sean - one of the bands three guitarists. What a lovely, sweet guy; I pretty much told him how much I love their music, that I want to someday put on a show just for them in Jersey and he told me that he was very happy that I liked his (their) music… so I bought my first vinyl. Now all I need is an actual record player…
Here are some pics to help me remember how beautiful that night was - and I forgot to mention - we rolled up with 11 of our friends. That’s right - we Colour Revolt fans don’t come empty handed
[To get a taste of what they sound like live, check out their myspace for their two videos from Fuel TV]
