WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:05.240 Metalhead Podcast, Metalhead Podcast, Go! 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:27.960 You must listen. 00:00:28.759 --> 00:00:30.160 You must listen. 00:00:31.540 --> 00:00:32.540 You must listen. 00:00:36.219 --> 00:00:40.380 Now, here is the podcast, Metalheads Podcast Go. 00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:43.500 Hello, and welcome to the Metalheads Podcast. 00:00:43.780 --> 00:00:50.740 My name is George, and this is the Metalheads Podcast Valken coverage podcast episode. 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:55.720 It is still about two and a half weeks before Valken. 00:00:55.740 --> 00:01:25.700 But there's so many moving parts to this trip that I am prepping well in advance to make sure that I've got all my ducks in a row. There's tickets for the festival, tickets for a storage locker, tickets for shuttles, you know, all my various cougar bush and camera and battle vest and clothing and underwear and shoes and toothbrushes and 00:01:25.740 --> 00:01:55.700 Travel Shampoos and oh my gosh, you know, power converters for Europe and I got to go and, you know, convert a bunch of money and lots to do. Okay. So, uh, so pretty much the next couple of weeks are going to be solid planning and prep. Uh, and what I want to do is I want to do a bunch of recordings and make this sort of a travel log kind of thing. Uh, which is why 00:01:55.740 --> 00:02:24.040 I'm recording now and I haven't even left yet. I'm documenting the preparations leading up to when we leave. I'll probably record something again the day that we fly out of here. Gonna be flying to Iceland for a couple of days before heading to Germany. I don't know if I'll do any recordings in Iceland. It's certainly probably gonna be a really cool place to visit. However, I don't know if there's gonna be much in the way of metal relevance. 00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:55.260 I hoped to go see the the Demi Borgir rock formation or whatever it is. Uh, but apparently that is like a five to six hour drive out of Reykjavik and considering I'm only going to be there two days. I'm guessing that's probably not going to happen. Uh, so we just got our press credentials today. So I think I am going to bring my good camera as I call it, not my point and shoot, but the SLR. 00:02:56.880 --> 00:03:25.660 Vaken doesn't allow SLRs in there unless you have press credentials, which since I do, I might as well see if I can get in the photo pit and get some decent photos. Given the fact that my schedule is probably a very fluid thing during the festival, I haven't tried to schedule any interviews ahead of time because, you know, my luck, it would be, oh, I'm going to interview, I don't know, you know, Insomni. 00:03:25.760 --> 00:03:55.700 or somebody. And it's scheduled during Emperor's set. That just wouldn't work for me. But since I'll have access to the press area, hopefully I can do some impromptu interviews. Jay will not be able to make it, unfortunately. He had some things come up where he's not going to be able to make it. But there's some other people I'll be hanging out with. Chris from Inferra Brewer will be there. Sounds like Kenan from Wilderness 00:03:55.740 --> 00:04:02.140 King is probably going to be there too. So hopefully we can talk to him. Matt, AKA dad of Northern 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:07.480 darkness is going to be there as well. So hopefully someone will drink some beer with me. 00:04:08.660 --> 00:04:25.300 I've got to say, if you haven't been to Valken before, if these people have it together half as much as they seem to, this is going to be awesome. They have an app that lists all the bands and set times. Hey, that's pretty cool. They also have something where you can select all the bands you want to see. 00:04:26.140 --> 00:04:55.300 and it will spit out your own personal schedule with overlaps highlighted in red. How cool is that? All I gotta do is print it out, stuff it in my pocket, and I can look at this. So if I'm drinking beer all day long and, you know, not exactly with it, all I gotta do is follow the schedule and I'll be on time. They even built an underground beer pipeline, for God's sake. These people that put this festival together seem to really go the extra mile to make an awesome 00:04:56.980 --> 00:05:25.300 I keep looking at all the news updates that they post and they just have all these things that you don't see anywhere else which I guess is the biggest metal festival that makes sense if this place is half as cool as it seems like it's gonna be if this was like a year-round place I would probably want to live there I really hope it lives up to my expectations so there you have it that's where we are now I guess like I said I will probably 00:05:25.320 --> 00:05:55.300 I'll probably record something the morning, or rather the afternoon of my flight. I'm leaving in the evening for Iceland. So I'll probably record something again right before I leave, possibly from Iceland, definitely from when I arrive in probably in Hamburg. And then again, once I get to the festival, and then of course throughout the festival, and then probably some sort of 00:05:55.340 --> 00:06:25.280 Epic postmortem afterward as I, uh, work my way to Berlin to meet up with my wife. All right. Until next time, this is George. Hello, this is George again. It is now one week to the day before I leave for Iceland. And, uh, I just thought of a few more things that I wanted to talk about before heading out. Um, first of all, I'm, 00:06:25.320 --> 00:06:53.240 I'm kind of freaking out about all the things that I have to think about. I mean, you know, you don't travel to Europe all that much, at least I don't. And as I think I mentioned last time, there's all these different tickets I have to have printed out and camera gear and recording gear and everything else. And so I think pretty much between now and when, next Friday, when we leave, it's just going to be a stress mess. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:25.020 Anyway, so a couple of things that have happened since last time. I used the Vaken scheduler app thing to set up all the bands I want to see. There's roughly 120-ish bands that are going to be playing at Vaken. And according to the schedule that I made on their site, looks like I'm going to see about a third of those. So about 40 bands is about what I'm going to be able to squeeze in. 00:07:25.340 --> 00:07:53.420 And I'm guessing that I probably won't even see that many. You know, that's probably ambitious. Once the beer starts flowing and the social activities begin, I'll probably, you know, skip a few of those. But anyway, so I used this scheduler, set everything up, created a PDF, moved it into my Dropbox and downloaded it locally to my phone so I don't have to use data while I'm over there. 00:07:54.380 --> 00:08:24.340 And then Morbid Angel cancels. They apparently weren't able to get their visas squared away. It's funny, you know, we're here at MDF. We're used to bands canceling because they can't get into the U.S. because of visa issues. And here we are with an American band that can't get into Germany because of visa issues. I guess I guess things are tough all over. So anyway, because of this, they said that they have shuffled all of the scheduled 00:08:24.460 --> 00:08:54.340 times, which means my list is now useless. So I need to go through and do that again. And, you know, fun times. So another thing that just came up, I've been periodically checking the weather just to see what to expect. You know, how warm is it going to be? It's definitely cooler in Germany than it is in the deep 00:08:54.360 --> 00:09:24.200 We see Maryland area at this time of year. So that's good. I'm not a big fan of heat. But what I saw today was a little disheartening. Between now and the beginning of the festival, there is one single day where it is not supposed to rain in Wacken, Germany. So I'm guessing that unless things change, we're probably going to see some, 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:54.340 I know the people at Vaken were doing some construction this past year to try and minimize mud so I guess we're going to have a chance to see how well that works out for them but needless to say I am going to expect to be covered in mud one other thing that I wanted to mention last time and I forgot was you know people that know me 00:09:54.380 --> 00:10:23.220 know that I am absolutely terrified, petrified of flying. I do not do it unless there is a real need. I think there was a period of 15 years where I did not fly at all up until my sister's wedding in Norway when I was like, well, I can either get on an airplane or, you know, not know my sister anymore because I'm shunned for not going to her wedding. 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:52.600 So, uh, since then, which that was about nine years ago, I think, uh, I've probably flown a half dozen times. And like I said, it's not something that I try to do. And this is why I, uh, I haven't been to Valken or any of these other European festivals before is because I'm just not into flying. Um, 00:10:53.920 --> 00:11:22.380 If I didn't have a problem flying, I would probably do these things more often because it's certainly the place to see all the cool bands. So, it's, you know, the stress of flying is also starting to set in. I do have a sort of a ritual, a flying ritual that helps me get through this. It's called Xanax. And you partner that with whiskey. 00:11:23.460 --> 00:11:51.320 And between the two of those things, I'm pretty much knocked out enough that I can get on an airplane and not really know where I am and wake up when I get there. I like to joke, there was a TV show in the 80s that the old folks will remember called The A-Team. And one of the characters on there was played by Mr. T. I pity the fool. And he didn't like to fly. He was absolutely terrified of it. He's my hero. 00:11:51.980 --> 00:12:21.900 And every time the team needed to go somewhere where they had to fly, which is probably just about every episode, they had to sneak up and somehow knock out Mr. T so that they could transport him to whatever location this was. And I laugh and go, yeah, that's basically what you have to do to me, only it's self-inflicted. I take a Xanax in the morning, take a Xanax right before I get on the plane, and then if the flight will, 00:12:21.980 --> 00:12:51.940 give me a couple of those little whiskey you know the the mini whiskeys or whatever that'll generally you know calm me down enough where I can get through the flight but despite that I still have a flying ritual once I'm on the plane and that that involves my wife and Bathory you're not allowed to have any electronic devices on 00:12:51.980 --> 00:13:18.540 until you've ascended to your whatever level it is that they level out at and turn on the devices or turn off the devices, whichever it is. And so I read somewhere that a lot of the time when there's a problem with flights, it happens when the first two minutes of the flight. 00:13:19.180 --> 00:13:49.080 And so I have to sit on the aisle. I can't sit near the window. That's just too damn close to the outside world. So I have to sit on the aisle, which forces my poor wife to have to sit in the middle, assuming it's a three seater. If it's a two seater, not so much. So she has to sit to my side. And from the moment the plane starts rolling until. Okay, well, so the moment the plane starts rolling, I've got a death grip on her hand. 00:13:49.180 --> 00:14:18.500 on the console there. I've got my eyes squeezed shut tight. And from the moment that I feel we lift off, and you know that feeling, don't you? If you've flown before, you know that feeling. It's like, I'm on the ground. I'm not on the ground anymore. And that almost weightless feeling all of a sudden. And from the moment that you feel the wheels go up on the plane, I start counting. In my head. Eyes shut. 00:14:19.180 --> 00:14:49.140 Death Grip on my wife's hand. One, two, three. And I count up to 120. And by that point, we're usually starting to level out. I also don't really care for the... That's why the eyes are squeezed shut. I don't really care for the fact that we're tilted back as we ascend. So once that first two minutes is up, we tend to be leveling out. They turn off the whatever it is that lets me... 00:14:50.340 --> 00:15:19.120 Ich bin, ich meine Worte, ich brauche auf meine Hände, und ich mache auf meine Hände, und ich habe auf meine Hände, und ich habe das Gefühl, dass ich auf mein Leben habe, und ich habe das Problem, ich bin in Sleepyland. Und Sie sind wahrscheinlich, warum Bathory's Hammerheart? Das stammt vom, der trip zu Norge, eigentlich. Ich habe gesagt, ich bin, ich gehe zu den Valken. 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:49.140 VIKING LADS I must have some Viking music and what better than hammer heart you know from a Bathory it's it's a killer album and so I was like if I'm gonna be flying over flying over Norway I want to hear some Bathory I mean I think I had a couple of the other ones too and yes I know Bathory was Swedish not Norwegian but Vikings is Vikings is Vikings so there you go Twilight of the Gods and probably Blood Fired 00:15:51.560 --> 00:16:18.940 But it just sort of, after that trip, it just kind of got to be a habit, part of the, you know, insane person ritual of, okay, wife, check, death grip on hand, check, count to 120, check, battery and headphones, check. And, you know, at that point, assuming all goes well, like I said, I end up in sleepy land. And last time I flew, it was great. 00:16:19.180 --> 00:16:49.080 Literally, like as soon as I put on the headphones, I was out. And I, this was a shorter flight. Uh, but then I came to just as we were landing. I was like, ah, that was wonderful. It's like, it didn't even happen. So, uh, yeah, so I'm, I'm preparing for that. Uh, the anxiety of, of, of having to fly is, is already starting to build up. And unfortunately it's like, it's cool. We're going to Iceland. 00:16:49.520 --> 00:17:16.220 But it's one extra trip, you know. So instead of just having a flight over and a flight back, I've got four flights, you know, both directions stopping in Iceland. So yeah, that'll be fun. On top of the Bathory that I have preloaded on my phone, I'm also starting to create some playlists for some of the bands, like Creator. 00:17:19.180 --> 00:17:49.140 a Paradise Lost one just because it looks like they've been playing some interesting stuff from some of the older albums. So yeah, you know, that's just some of my prep work at creating playlists is busy work gives me something to do and takes my mind off of the stress of thinking of have I forgotten my batteries have I forgotten my memory cards have I forgotten my socks things like that. So 00:17:49.180 --> 00:18:18.260 So yeah, one more week to go. I'm sure I will probably check in next Friday, the day that we leave. So until then, see ya. Hello, just a quick update. Today is the day. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go. Or am I? I swear I'm missing some vital piece of equipment or clothing of massive importance. 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:46.060 But I guess I'll just have to deal with it if I don't have everything. I'm one giant ball of anxiety today. So yeah, I am in fact a crazy and neurotic traveler. We're flying out of Dulles Airport in Virginia tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to be out of it and sleeping relatively quickly. 00:18:49.180 --> 00:19:19.140 3: 30 p.m. If all goes well, I'll fall asleep and wake up as we're landing in Reykjavik around 6:30 a.m. their time. Naturally, it's raining like hell outside right now. Hopefully it clears up before tonight. I have enough trouble getting on an airplane. I think a storm raging outside would probably make me a little more nervous. But there you have it. This will probably be my last update 00:19:19.180 --> 00:19:46.440 from the US of A. Next stop? Iceland. See ya. Hello. This is George. A lot's happened since last we spoke. It's been busy. And a lot's happened, so I haven't really had time to talk since getting on the other side of the ocean. 00:19:49.180 --> 00:20:17.420 What? Nice spider in my tent. The last thing I said was, I'm guessing I probably mentioned that the flight on Saturday, excuse me, Friday, was cancelled because as the plane was landing at Dulles, it was struck by lightning. So they kept us there until after midnight before deciding to say, yeah, no. 00:20:18.740 --> 00:20:48.580 Flights canceled. So we had to reschedule for the next night, which pretty much ruled out getting to see any of Iceland. So we changed our flight to just change over in Reykjavik and head on to Frankfurt right away. And that worked out pretty well. However, on the flight from Reykjavik to Frankfurt, I developed some sort of ear condition. 00:20:49.720 --> 00:21:11.760 earache, ear infection, I don't know. But by the time I landed, I couldn't hardly hear out of my left ear. Which was a bit problematic. But eventually I popped it. But then I started getting an earache and a bunch of whiny shit happened. I'll spare you most of those details. 00:21:20.760 --> 00:21:44.920 So we were in Frankfurt. Felt like crap. Got to walk around and see the city some. It was a really nice place. But we, I felt like crap and we were exhausted and we fell asleep at like 5.30 in the afternoon and slept until like 8 o'clock the next morning. 00:21:48.700 --> 00:22:18.620 And after that we spent a little more time in Frankfurt. Spent the night there again. Before moving on to Hamburg. We had some issues there with trains. We got off at a wrong stop. Basically every time we've had to get on a plane, train, or an automobile we've gotten lost. Every single time. And so we spent a lot of time wandering around going, what the fuck? 00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:48.480 What the fuck? So we get to the hotel in Hamburg. We go out. Hamburg, also a very nice city. I wanted to see the Reaper Bond, but we didn't get a chance. We did go see the Hard Rock Cafe Hamburg, which was cool. It's like, hey, let's go to Germany to see America. But, you know, it was nice. And we walked around the city a little more before I started feeling really sick. 00:22:48.700 --> 00:23:18.180 And my other ear started hurting. And I was like, look, if I've got an ear infection and it's getting worse, you're not allowed to fly. You're not supposed to anyway. You can puncture your eardrum. And I'm like, this is like last night. You know, this morning I had to come to Valken. I'm like, what the fuck am I going to do? So we found a clinic, ironically, a St. George Clinic in Hamburg that would take me at 11 o'clock at night. 00:23:18.700 --> 00:23:20.280 and have a look at me and 00:23:20.900 --> 00:23:22.960 he gave me some pain pills and some 00:23:23.919 --> 00:23:26.340 some nasal spray and stuff but said he 00:23:26.420 --> 00:23:27.679 didn't think it was an infection and 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:30.720 that by the time I'm heading back I 00:23:30.780 --> 00:23:33.880 should be able to fly so yay I believe I 00:23:33.900 --> 00:23:39.780 can fly so this morning we got up to get 00:23:39.840 --> 00:23:42.560 ready to head out go our separate ways 00:23:42.740 --> 00:23:45.679 meet a vaken and 00:23:48.240 --> 00:24:13.660 We were going to have to take my suitcase and store it at the train station in a locker because it's just, you know, it doesn't make sense bringing it here to Valken because what am I going to do with it? You know, leave it in my tent where it'll get stolen? So, but we come to find that the lockers at the train station are short-term six hours only. Doesn't do me much good for four days. So we're like, what are we going to do? 00:24:14.740 --> 00:24:44.660 The Holiday Express in Hamburg saved my ass. They were like, we can hold it for you for free. Just come back and get it in four days. I was like, you rock. So we went to the train stations, got our tickets, said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I got on the wrong train. I had to switch trains at one point to get to the airport where I would meet up with my shuttle for coming to Wacken. That's probably the only thing I can think of that's gone. 00:24:44.720 --> 00:25:11.040 As planned. I got there early. I talked to the people. They were like, yes, this is the spot. Yes, that's your ticket. Yes, it loads up here. You're good to go. So I went to the airport, got some food, got a drink. Just kind of hung out for a little while until it was time to board. Got on the shuttle. And it was nice. It's the first time. Apparently there's no open container law in Germany because everybody on the bus was drinking. 00:25:14.740 --> 00:25:15.960 Seemed like a pretty good time. 00:25:17.620 --> 00:25:18.660 But I promptly nodded off. 00:25:18.990 --> 00:25:24.780 And so I was just sort of in and out for the hour and change that it took to get here. 00:25:25.660 --> 00:25:26.900 This is when the fun really started. 00:25:27.880 --> 00:25:29.180 So they drop us off at the entrance. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:31.300 And I walk up to the information. 00:25:31.410 --> 00:25:34.820 And I'm like, hey, I got a ticket, but I've also got a press pass. 00:25:35.760 --> 00:25:37.280 And she's like, oh. 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:39.600 Like, she knows the hell that awaits me. 00:25:40.940 --> 00:26:09.440 And she's like, well, you need to go in here to get your wristband for the festival. And you need to go over here to get your wristband for press. And she pulls out a map of the town. And it's like, basically, on the opposite side of the town of Wacken. Well, no Uber here. So, start my ass walking with a big ass camera bag and my backpack stuffed to the gills. 00:26:10.940 --> 00:26:40.040 My fat ass hoofed it from one side of town to the other. That took over an hour. And I get there, and I'm like, I had to go through all this residential. I'm like, I don't even know if where I'm going is right, because it doesn't look like Valken anymore. But I finally get there, and I'm like, hey, Valken stuff, and oh, hey, another big line. And it seems like the press stuff is mingled in with VIP tickets, which I guess you could purchase. 00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:45.220 And, uh, holy crap, there's a lot of bugs in here. I'm going in here. 00:26:47.220 --> 00:26:50.200 Ah! Um, yeah. 00:26:51.240 --> 00:27:07.220 So, I spend, well, I spend another hour, hour and a half, probably, uh, in a line that I have no idea if it's even my line. Doesn't say anything about press. 00:27:11.120 --> 00:27:39.040 And nobody there that works there speaks English that I'm able to flag down. So they're just like, meh, get in line. So I'm in line for like an hour and a half. I talked to some guy. We got somewhat friendly because he was explaining he thought that I was in the right place. I don't know where he was from. 00:27:39.080 --> 00:28:09.000 I spoke English pretty well, didn't quite pick the accent. And we talked some in line. And we were going to walk back to the entrance together. However, when I got up there, I was in the right place. However, they didn't have a press or a photo pass for me. So I had to wait another half hour before I could get that. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:38.920 And I had to actually hand over my phone with an email on it to some guy who literally looked like a slightly less handsome Chris Hemsworth. Slightly. Still pretty hot. So they could run around and show it to people. And I'm like, if I don't get my phone back, I'm fucked. And finally they're like, okay, here's your photo pass. Here's your phone back. Thank God. And I'm like, is there any like, what do I, where do I do now? 00:28:39.100 --> 00:28:41.220 I go in and they're like you have to go back to the entrance. 00:28:42.280 --> 00:28:43.360 And I'm like you're kidding me. 00:28:44.320 --> 00:28:49.540 So it's another hour and change walk back having to take a leak and just parched. 00:28:53.320 --> 00:28:55.660 And I finally get back to the main Valken Street. 00:28:56.500 --> 00:28:57.380 Find a porta potty. 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:01.600 And I can't fit in it because my backpack and my camera bag are so big. 00:29:02.120 --> 00:29:06.200 And there's this British guy behind me. 00:29:06.260 --> 00:29:12.380 big loud like typical like guy you see in the bars and a british bar in the movies 00:29:12.920 --> 00:29:17.680 very jovial kind of guy and he's laughing and he's like you're not gonna make it mate 00:29:18.260 --> 00:29:25.200 and i'm like yeah he's like leave the door open wait out mind watching he's like uh and so i backed 00:29:25.380 --> 00:29:29.099 out and i'm like you know go ahead i'll i gotta take all my stuff off and he's like i'll hold it for you 00:29:29.900 --> 00:29:58.520 And I was like, well, okay, I will hand you everything. My camera, my recorder, my passport, everything. So I can take a leak because I got to pee so bad. And I'm like, well, you're so loud. I can hear you the whole time I'm in there. And he starts making jokes like, oh, President of the United States here. President of America. I'm like, oh, man, I've got to hurry up. And I'm just like whizzing all over the place trying to hurry up and get done to get back out there and make sure he's not running off with my stuff. 00:29:59.120 --> 00:30:28.880 And he wasn't. He was just dicking around with one of his buddies. And he gave me my stuff. And I thanked him and continued walking. And I get inside. And I'm like, okay, I've got to find Camping Area F. Should be near the entrance. Yeah, not this entrance. So another 45-minute walk through mud and dirt and tents to find the tent place. Find the tent place. There's another 20-minute line. 00:30:30.800 --> 00:30:59.040 Only to be told they don't seem to have my tent reservation. At this point I wanted to shoot myself. We got it sorted out and they took me to my tent which is it's bigger than I expected. Although as I've mentioned it is full of like bugs and spiders hanging from the roof of the central area. There's like two ends that are sleeping areas and then an open area. 00:30:59.120 --> 00:31:29.080 in the middle that's it's got a door but uh it's like a grass floor whereas the sleeping areas have lining and uh yeah that middle area is full of bugs ew bugs as bob dylan would say um so yeah i immediately just came in here dropped everything and collapsed onto my mattress and uh i'm dying of heat inside here but it feels so good to be off my feet i don't care 00:31:29.120 --> 00:31:58.140 It sounds like Chris just arrived so I'm gonna have to explain to him how to find the tent. So that's it for now. Maybe I'll actually get to see some music. We'll see. Later. It is Thursday morning and I'm just talking quietly because there's a lot of people around. But wow. Did I mention this place is big? You know you look at the map. 00:31:59.120 --> 00:32:27.380 at home on your computer. And you go, and you see pictures, and you're like, wow, that's big. And you look at it, and you're like, oh, yeah, okay, so there's the stage over there, and there's the tent over there, and there's the bathrooms, that's right nearby, that's great. The scale is what gets you. Because it's a lot bigger than you think it is. And what looks like right next door on a map is actually a ten-minute walk. 00:32:29.620 --> 00:32:59.060 So I think last I spoke, Chris was just showing up. And that was a good thing. It was nice to have somebody here. And we went and wandered around. It took us forever. I mean, you know, I think I know I mentioned all the crap I went through yesterday. And there was still more to do. I still had to get my wristband for the infield. And we had to get our lockers so that we could stop carrying all our shoes. 00:32:59.120 --> 00:33:00.500 shut around because you can't leave it in there. 00:33:01.060 --> 00:33:02.000 Tandor else it gets stolen. 00:33:05.100 --> 00:33:06.700 And just the enormity of the place. 00:33:06.810 --> 00:33:11.760 And we're like, hey, Mr. Person that works here, where's the lockers? 00:33:11.850 --> 00:33:13.560 And he's like, oh, it's over that way. 00:33:14.780 --> 00:33:17.100 And you go over there and they're like, oh, you can't go in here. 00:33:17.100 --> 00:33:17.960 You don't have your wristband yet. 00:33:17.960 --> 00:33:20.340 You have to go back over that way where you just were. 00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:27.200 And so it just took forever to get. 00:33:29.140 --> 00:33:57.200 Settled with all the wristbands. I've got like three different wristbands now plus a laminate. And got to the lockers finally and was able to store most of my stuff in there. So that was a huge burden lifted. And then we proceeded to... Excuse me. I'm still dying. I proceeded to... 00:33:57.240 --> 00:34:27.040 Make the rounds of the place. Get some food. Get some beers. We saw Annihilator. And talked to some people. And gave out one of our handy dandy Middleheads podcast URL bracelets I had made. So that's one down. I'll keep a few more on me today. And just, wow. 00:34:27.220 --> 00:34:54.280 A lot of people, I mean so many people. It's like frickin' Disneyland of metal. There's people everywhere. And there's just so many things that aren't even metal. There's people pole sitting and beating each other with straw-filled sacks on a sawhorse to knock each other off. A lot of Beck's beer, unfortunately for Will. It's mostly Beck's beer. 00:34:57.240 --> 00:35:27.160 I'm okay with that. I can drink that in quantity. I am entirely encased in mud. The showers are like gym class communal, which I wasn't a fan of when I was a svelte young lad. I'm certainly not a fan of it now that I'm a fat old man. So prepare for four days of mud and stink. Well, three days left, I guess. 00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:56.060 The tent's not bad. Although I think I had too much caffeine when I got here last night. I couldn't sleep. I was up till about 4 o'clock. And I actually tried to go to bed at like 11. So just sort of stared at the ceiling all night. And listened to the partying and the bands and music and people screaming and lighting up fireworks. 00:35:57.240 --> 00:36:26.560 Went till well after three I'm sure. So the tent is basically like my little safety haven. Chris is over on the other side. It started raining around 5 a.m. and I'm just and which of course woke me up again. And I'm listening to it and it's getting harder and harder. 00:36:27.240 --> 00:36:56.840 and harder. And I'm like, oh, this is not going to be a little rain. And it rained for about four hours. Just stopped around 9 a.m. So I've only ventured out as far as the bathrooms and the lockers. But I think we can expect a heck of a lot more mud today. I've already got a blister on my heel. I'm pathetic. You can say it. I think we both agree. 00:36:58.020 --> 00:37:27.100 But I think if I survive this I will definitely be hardened. So, yeah. Hopefully there aren't actually any bands that I couldn't skip today. I'd like to see Ross the Boss. And I'd like to see Witchery. But none of the super important bands are today. So today may involve a little bit of recuperation and more exploring. We'll see. 00:37:30.040 --> 00:37:55.980 It's actually a little bit of work finding all the stages. There's one in a tent. Bull City Circus or something. It's kind of dumb because then people outside the tent have to look in through these giant doors and, you know, talk about obstructed view. But it does look cool, given that. There's a lot of fire. There's always things going. 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:27.200 Fire going into the air, which is especially cool at night. And the stages and the Lemmy statue and the giant Fist of Rock statues. It's all pretty wild. We've not yet met up with Matt. Hopefully do that this morning. Also, Sergey talked to him a couple times, but we just... 00:38:27.240 --> 00:38:57.200 Couldn't hook up. So hopefully we'll see him today. Yeah. So talk to you later. We're talking about food. I'm trying to think of what I'll say. I know one year they had Tex-Mex, but it was actually like buffalo chicken. And I know there's Chinese food, but no. It's not Chinese food. I'm a huge Chinese food aficionado, but I'm a little 00:38:57.220 --> 00:39:24.100 of festival Chinese food. Right. It might be worth a shot, especially if you can't go to the bathroom, but, you know, either way. And then I'm trying to think. It's called like a falafel tasha. This is inside Bockinger Village. It has like falafel, obviously. It's like a sandwich. By the way, this is Matt, a.k.a. Dad of Northern Darkness. What up? And also Chris, a.k.a. Neutrino. What up? 00:39:27.020 --> 00:39:54.880 I had two sausages, a brat, and I forget the name of the other thing. The fucking noggin. Well, that was a third thing. That was like a pork chop in a bun with sauteed onions. Very nice. And then on the way back, before going to bed, I had a pork leg, like a pork shank type thing. It was fucking amazing. I had a side of kraut and a bread roll. 00:39:58.060 --> 00:40:26.980 I bet that was a good to go to sleep too by the way how long did it take you to go to sleep um it like the first couple hours were tough because like it was still raging down there and like people just walking around and screaming and stuff I just started to nod off at some point and somebody lit off some fireworks right nearby and I was like Jesus yeah there's like a few weird surprises but um then I put your plugs in 00:40:27.020 --> 00:40:56.940 That helped. I should probably do that, although I've got the ear things going on. I'm really... It's like probably about 3 in the morning, my ears just started crackling. I was just like a nighttime sleeping thing, and I'm usually asleep for it, but it was just like crackle, crackle, pop, crackle, crop. I have to like hold my nose and blow to clear it. That's what the German doctor at the ER told me when I went on 11 o'clock on a Wednesday. 00:40:59.920 --> 00:41:26.560 And, oh, it just popped again. So, yeah, I don't know about earplugs. But, yeah, it was like 5 o'clock in the morning just when it started raining and I finally fell asleep. Yeah, that's... We got back at, yeah, I think it was like 2. And, I mean, it's amazing how loud it stays. I mean, we thought, what is there another stage going? I think it was just like a party, you know, just cranking the music. I, too, got up at 5 because I had to pee. Like, I barely made it. But it's just... When you pound all the beer before bed. This is your tent? 00:41:26.600 --> 00:41:56.580 Yeah. Don't go near that pole. Don't go near that pole. Oh, I should have known. I actually was the idiot that walked all the way down to the woods over there in the middle of the rain. Because I woke up this morning, I'm looking around like, why didn't I just pee right here? Yeah, well, hey, you can use this pole too if you want. Perfect. I appreciate it. Yeah, this is us. It was basically we're peeing into your entranceway. Oh, yeah, we connected to the tent company. Yeah, when I got here, they couldn't 00:41:56.600 --> 00:42:10.660 They found my name, but they couldn't find my tent. Sure. And eventually she figured out, oh, you're with Matt. And I was like, no, I'm George. I mean, she didn't say, she was like, you're Matt. And I was like, no, I'm George. And then she's like, no, you 00:42:26.600 --> 00:42:56.580 You know, disorganization, I guess. But... I mean, it's been... It's a bit of a shit show, you know? But it's like... I learned quickly that you have to just sort of go with the flow, you know? And, like, let Valken be Valken. And then, like, things are okay. Everybody's in a good mood. And, like, everybody just kind of bumbles around. But so, like, the first couple hours we were here, we were kind of hurting, you and I. Yeah, I mean, I think... 00:42:56.620 --> 00:43:26.580 I think I would have been better I mean I'm not exactly svelte I'm not you know I go to the gym a lot despite how things may appear fuck you will and so I'm not averse to walking but that was a hell of a lot of walking that I did not expect and so so we he has a step tracker and we it started over at midnight last night and we put on 2,500 steps just between then and getting to bed you know so and that was not I mean I was like two hours 00:43:26.600 --> 00:43:53.480 I didn't think we were moving that much. I had to have put on at least 15,000. I would even wager 20. I don't have mine anymore. I think I've only done 20 once in my life. But anyway, between that and then just the run around of trying to get everything organized, it was a rough day. 00:43:56.620 --> 00:44:26.580 problems or finding a clean place to shit. Or rather not even a clean place, just a spacious enough place. It was clean. The long white things you can walk into? Yeah. It was like a semi-trailer. That's what I equate it to, you know? There was this poor girl, and I call her the piss girl, who... Okay, so this shitter, it's like a row of stalls with a hallway in front of it, and it's like a semi-trailer kind of looking thing. And she stands in the middle of 00:44:26.620 --> 00:44:56.480 this hallway with a rag and a bucket. And every time somebody comes out, she walks in, wipes down the bowl, makes sure it's clean, and ushers you in. I'm like, what a shitty job. And she has a cute little girl. I was like, aw, I feel bad. She's working something off? Yeah, it's penance. I was working the food booth, but I dropped a batch of brats, and now they stuck me here. A lot cleaner than I expected. Yeah, I cannot fault the cleanliness. 00:44:56.620 --> 00:45:26.280 I just as a big guy need a little more room to maneuver. Sure. The sink is right up in my business and a little soap wouldn't hurt either. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We travel with wipes and hand sanitizer. Yeah. Yeah, my wife was kind enough to include some wet ones and as I call it, shower in a packet. Exactly. Walked into the shower stall yesterday and was like, a bunch of dudes showering together. Not doing that. Yeah, yeah. Like, hello. 00:45:29.540 --> 00:45:56.500 I'd probably put on my bathing trunks and do it, but no, I forgot my sandals, so that's not happening. I catch some kind of fungal something down there. Well, my wife and I planned for this eventuality as well, and I've got a few sets of clothes. I don't think I'm going to be changing much. This is actually my only pair of shorts, and it already has mud all over it. But I do have, I can like, not shower, but like Sunday morning throw on, 00:45:56.620 --> 00:46:26.140 New underwear, new shirt. I've got fresh deodorant every day, so hopefully I'll be at least presentable enough to get on a train to Berlin. We'll see. I don't want to be like, I'm the homeless man with his bags and it smells funny. Talks American. I'll be 70,000 by the end of this. I think we'll blend in. You know, I expected, as large as this was, I expected people in Hamburg to know about it. Oh, sure. And, like, all the hotels and anybody that I talked to there, like, 00:46:28.240 --> 00:46:34.200 I was like at customs when I came in the dude was like this completely like straight 00:46:34.440 --> 00:46:40.660 face typical German officer type thing you know and he was like so are you here for business or pleasure 00:46:40.800 --> 00:46:56.580 I'm like pleasure he's like where are you staying like uh Valk and he's like ah Valken I don't think I I don't remember going I mean I must have gone through customs but like I think I just presented my passport and went through but it's funny 00:46:56.600 --> 00:47:25.700 I'm used to them going, what are you here for, blah, blah, blah. I didn't do that. That was weird. Hmm. Well. Find some breakfast. Yeah. You guys want, you're going to go find some food or? I just got to clean up. Do I wipe down, brush these teeth, they feel awful, so. All right. Well, we should, like, drink beers and stuff. Yeah, totally. Hang out. As long as my, my, if I can keep my service working, if we can for sure stay in touch that way. Yeah. All right. 00:47:26.600 --> 00:47:56.560 I mean I give me like 10 minutes it should be ready yeah well I mean why don't why don't we go grab some food and just walk back and I need I'm desperately thirsty for some water or something so at the market you get a nice nice big old bottle for two bucks two euros so markets nice for like two you know you two euro beers the water they have some okay food I mean there's the refillable like water canteen thing that's what I've been drinking I hope that's okay 00:47:56.600 --> 00:48:26.560 I'll tell you look in a day and then I'll try it. Yeah. I drink a lot of water. George, you need some water. All you had is coke and beer. I know. Yeah, definitely ready for some water. You're gonna be your walking wife. Thank you, honey. Maybe tonight we can spoon. You gotta stop playing that fucking song. What is up with that? Is that like the alarm clock or something? That's the third time. You know, I was surprised that like somebody had like some 00:48:28.620 --> 00:48:52.960 I heard Kesha. I remember one year it was cranking Kesha when she was big in the middle of the night. I did not expect to hear that here. What was the song I heard? It was some 80s pop female singer and I was just like what? I guess Europe is kind of like that. They're like yeah well give us our death metal and our ABBA. Yeah exactly. 00:48:56.600 --> 00:49:25.240 They're just not as uptight as Americans. We're all like, we must categorize it, and it must be this or nothing. And everybody else is like, dude, chill out. Just listen to music. They're insecure about their metal-ness, their trueness. Exactly. We're European. We're metal by default. Whereas... Let's get cleaned up. Yeah, alright, we'll let you get cleaned up, and we'll come back in the choir. Sounds good. See ya. 00:49:28.180 --> 00:49:56.400 Some more talking at Vaken. Here with Matt and Chris and Eric. Say hello, Eric. Hello, everyone. That's Eric. You're from Minnesota too, right? Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. So, yeah, we were talking about how Vaken Village, like the actual village, is very quaint, and yet they have the Vaken flags. 00:49:56.600 --> 00:50:25.940 everywhere and Chris was just telling the story about some women old ladies on bicycles yeah some um 70 year old ladies went by on bicycles when we were stuck on the bus and they all flashed the horns at us it was adorable we got some real walking people here too we could interview if you want he's eating though that's true hello do you want to talk on a podcast no thanks yeah yeah i figured you're eating that looks pretty good 00:50:25.940 --> 00:50:53.440 I'm busy. Yeah, it looks pretty good. It looks like currywurst. Some rice. Yeah, I'll get some of that. All right, well, I don't know. Maybe we don't. I guess we're talked out already. Unless you got something. No, it was good though in the moment. Okay. All right, we'll be back. You ruined the moment, George. I did. Later. Hey, this is George again. And we came to see Sergei. Oh, yeah. 00:50:57.360 --> 00:51:24.800 Catatonic Society. I can't talk. Jay would have been here as well, but Jay is not here. So at least we've got Sergey. How are you doing today? I'm good. Sergey is sharing some beer with us. That was very nice of you. I like how you sent me your coordinates and I was able to just use my phone and wander over here, which is pretty amazing given how big it is here. It was fairly easy to find you. 00:51:25.960 --> 00:51:54.080 It wasn't my idea. There's some guy who is here. He sent me the same stuff. And I wasn't like... We didn't go there yet. Okay. So who have you seen so far? I know you saw Annihilator. No, not really. We saw Flotsam and Jetson. You saw Flotsam? Because if you want to see a band from Phoenix, Arizona, you need to go to Germany. 00:51:55.980 --> 00:51:57.080 in San Francisco for some reason. 00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:27.680 - That's my favorite. 00:52:28.740 --> 00:52:41.300 So it's like maybe they played I think one song from the last album and a couple songs from the first album and something from 1992. I don't remember that name. 00:52:41.680 --> 00:52:42.360 They play Hammerhead? 00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:43.140 Yeah. 00:52:43.900 --> 00:52:45.000 I'm so pissed I missed that. 00:52:46.340 --> 00:52:49.340 Alright, so today, who are you going to see today? 00:52:50.560 --> 00:52:50.960 Batushka. 00:52:51.120 --> 00:52:51.700 Batushka. 00:52:52.020 --> 00:52:52.700 Yeah, I want to see them. 00:53:04.940 --> 00:53:09.580 I don't even know. I only know one song. It's in the Ramin. 00:53:24.340 --> 00:53:52.400 I mean, I don't know any of these people. And I only know one song because it's... because you're in there, I mean, you know. Yeah. I'm actually surprised they play in Wacken. It's like a pop music festival. Yeah, well, like the Boomtown Rats played. And I'm like, it was Bob Geldof and like USA for Africa and not even Hard Rock. That was very strange. I didn't see them, but I know they were here. 00:53:52.960 --> 00:53:59.060 So let's go see status quo at least. They are more metal because it's a metal festival. 00:53:59.440 --> 00:54:02.960 What about Yuli John Roth? Are you gonna go see him? I don't know when he's playing. 00:54:03.480 --> 00:54:05.420 I don't even know what he's playing. 00:54:05.810 --> 00:54:07.800 You don't know Yuli? I know the name. 00:54:08.460 --> 00:54:11.540 He like was one of the original Scorpions guitar players I think. 00:54:11.960 --> 00:54:14.700 It was Michael Shanker. 00:54:15.800 --> 00:54:18.940 No, before, well, him too, but... 00:54:19.620 --> 00:54:21.440 Who's left in Scorpions? 00:54:21.920 --> 00:54:24.640 I mean like very early Scorpions like 00:54:27.780 --> 00:54:30.140 Michael Schenker left in like 1980 00:54:31.080 --> 00:54:34.320 yeah no this dude was like like early 70s Scorpions 00:54:36.300 --> 00:54:39.120 I was born in like middle 70s I was 71 00:54:39.820 --> 00:54:44.420 76 my wife is 76 I'm 76 my wife is 76 00:54:45.920 --> 00:54:47.120 oh something we have in common 00:54:48.740 --> 00:54:51.880 but uh yeah apparently uh 00:54:51.900 --> 00:55:21.380 I mean 76 years old. Yeah, we're all 76. I feel 76 today. But, yeah, Yuli, I think he's sort of like a Hendrix kind of disciple. He's very, you know, like Yngwie-ish, but like before Yngwie. But he didn't die of overdose. No, not yet. But he looks like a hippie. Fake Hendrix. Yeah. Yeah. He's probably not black. No, not even. He's German, I mean. Well, I guess you could be black and German, but. 00:55:22.520 --> 00:55:51.480 He's not. But he has long hair and a headband. He looks like a hippie. It's getting kind of cloudy. I wonder if it's going to rain again. Again? Yeah. I mean, it was like half an hour ago. It was completely sunny here. And the wind is picking up. I don't know if you can hear that on the mic. Do they have tornadoes in Europe? No. No. It's like Midwest. 00:55:51.900 --> 00:56:21.860 Yeah, I heard that somewhere. I was like, wait, no tornado? I want to move to Europe. You have like cyclones. They have taxes. Texas. A lot of taxes. But there's like cyclones like in the water areas of like... Like Japan and India and those areas. I think probably have them. It's not really Europe, you know? No, no, I know. I just... 00:56:25.460 --> 00:56:51.540 And earthquakes and hurricanes. Do they have the occasional exploding volcanoes? And Republicans and Democrats. What do they don't have? When we were at Annihilator last night, I bumped into a German guy. And I was like, oh, sorry. And he's like, no problem. He's like, where are you from? I was like, US. And he's like, 00:56:51.900 --> 00:57:21.480 What do you think of Trump? I was like, ah, come on. I try to not think of Trump. That's basically what I said. I was like, um. Why would someone think of Trump? I mean, even his wife actually doesn't think of him. Yeah. I hope. Yeah. I don't want to get too political. Um. Because that's not what the podcast is about. But. The point, the ultimate point of the conversation, 00:57:21.900 --> 00:57:51.860 that we had was that screw the politics everybody here is from somewhere completely different and we all get along and listen to metal and drink beer and have a good time and why can't the rest of the world do that you know it's so easy for metalheads and politics just messes everything up no it's like are you listening to a narrator you are my like worst enemy go listen to you know get ottenhausen that's true you got chris over 00:57:51.900 --> 00:57:59.020 who only listens to music recorded in a tin can. And he thinks we're all posers for liking the new Nocturnal Mortem. 00:58:00.119 --> 00:58:01.680 So, you're right, there is still... 00:58:01.680 --> 00:58:03.820 So, these are posers. These guys are posers. 00:58:04.040 --> 00:58:04.160 Yeah. 00:58:04.520 --> 00:58:06.360 I mean, they are. Kind of. 00:58:06.540 --> 00:58:07.060 But it's good. 00:58:07.200 --> 00:58:08.220 If you listen to black metal. 00:58:08.760 --> 00:58:10.360 It was Jay's number one, wasn't it? 00:58:10.560 --> 00:58:14.260 No, it was my number one and his number four, two. 00:58:14.640 --> 00:58:15.080 Oh, really? 00:58:15.959 --> 00:58:16.960 Not number one. 00:58:17.860 --> 00:58:19.340 There was some boring two metal. 00:58:19.820 --> 00:58:21.460 Oh, right, it was Slate. 00:58:24.299 --> 00:58:26.180 J, stop listening to Doom Metal. 00:58:28.070 --> 00:58:28.820 Ja J... 00:58:28.900 --> 00:58:29.280 It's boring. 00:58:30.020 --> 00:58:32.540 I like some doom metal, but I go through phases. 00:58:32.740 --> 00:58:33.760 I mean, I liked funeral doom. 00:58:34.250 --> 00:58:38.320 I got in a really big funeral doom with like Ahab and stuff like that. 00:58:38.630 --> 00:58:48.600 But now I'm like, or skepticism, but I go through phases, you know, and now I'm more of a black metal, I don't know. 00:58:48.640 --> 00:58:49.460 I mean, I like everything. 00:58:49.700 --> 00:58:50.880 It's just what's good at the time. 00:58:50.950 --> 00:58:51.120 You know? 00:58:52.580 --> 00:59:22.520 I think Batushka is the only... Ah, they have this... The, like, third-worst band I've seen live, Mayhem. Really? Yeah, it's not really pleasant when you listen to them. To, wait, to Batushka or Mayhem? Mayhem. Yeah, that Mayhem. Okay. All of them died already. Right. And it sounds like air compressor. Very, very loud air compressor. 00:59:27.920 --> 00:59:29.560 за 65 минуты. 00:59:31.810 --> 00:59:34.560 В последнее время я просто купил бир. 00:59:35.539 --> 00:59:37.960 Ну я люблю "Майхем", поэтому ты мой враг! 00:59:39.480 --> 00:59:39.620 Просто улыжение! 00:59:40.160 --> 00:59:41.040 Вы видели их в live? 00:59:41.430 --> 00:59:43.920 Я так, мы селедуем их в ДЭТФЕСТе два года назад. 00:59:44.910 --> 00:59:46.340 И звук не было хорошо. 00:59:47.720 --> 00:59:50.040 Вы видели компрессор? 00:59:50.580 --> 01:00:18.240 Yes, I have. I understand the similarity. That's the problem with a lot of the extreme metal. And that's why I'm not always a big fan of bands live. I like their recorded album. Because you can put on the headphones and you can hear all the details and things like that. But then when you see them live, and particularly with death metal, that's why a lot of death metal bands don't do it for me live. Because death metal live is just like, like we saw Niall. I like Niall. I think they're cool. 01:00:21.500 --> 01:00:49.840 It's broken air compressor. It just all kind of jumbles together into mush and it doesn't sound good live and that's unfortunate. Oh they play actually here. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't it's late though so I don't know if I'm gonna stay up for it since I've already seen them a few times and I literally just saw them in April I think. So. Cheers. 01:00:51.280 --> 01:00:52.940 Oh, sorry. 01:00:56.500 --> 01:00:58.860 Will, you'll be happy to know I'm not drinking Bex. 01:00:59.680 --> 01:01:00.740 I'm drinking Nordgold. 01:01:02.960 --> 01:01:04.900 Never heard of it, but it's doing the job. 01:01:05.360 --> 01:01:05.540 Tasty. 01:01:06.920 --> 01:01:13.660 Another funny thing is it's something like 2 p.m. 01:01:14.080 --> 01:01:15.300 and it looks like 7 p.m. 01:01:16.440 --> 01:01:17.100 Yes, it does. 01:01:17.900 --> 01:01:20.400 Is it me or did it get light really early? 01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:25.700 today. I was in, I didn't leave my tent, but at like four or five o'clock. 01:01:26.660 --> 01:01:46.360 Well, America is kind of like much more to the south to Europe. So because of this, they, in the summer, they have like very, like early mornings and it's like, it'll probably go dark at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. in the summer. 01:01:46.640 --> 01:02:10.860 But in the winter it's the complete opposite. You have like six, maybe five hours of light in the day and the rest is the night. The closer you are to the equator, it's more balanced. You always have like six to six, then like five to seven, then seven to five. 01:02:16.780 --> 01:02:46.560 right now, which is right next door to Scandinavia. And I know I was in Norway this time of year for my sister's wedding because she married a Norwegian. And my brother-in-law is Norwegian. That makes me cool by default. All the jokes that I wouldn't say because I'm pouring my beer. But anyway, when I was there in August, it was always light. I mean, we got like three hours. 01:02:46.640 --> 01:03:16.580 hours of light from like 2 to 5 in the morning and that was otherwise it was always light so I thought maybe it might be lighter later this far north but it was it seemed pretty typical for for for us when it got dark here last night I don't know I've I'm from California I've never seen this and all this like water in the sky yeah I'm feeling a few drops 01:03:21.400 --> 01:03:46.580 Я видел, что там было, что там был в 01:03:46.620 --> 01:04:16.480 San Francisco. Actually, there's a festival in Vegas. About like 19th, 20th. King Diamond's playing the only show, I think, this year, because he was playing last year. They have a very nice lineup. They have Carcass, King Diamond, who is a very rare specimen. Do you think he's ever going to put out a new album? They keep hearing that he's going to. 01:04:17.300 --> 01:04:45.860 I'm curious if he's still alive or it's like, you know, animated body. They didn't fix his heart. They replaced it with electronics. That's cool. That's why he's like, he runs quite fast up and down. So he's like maybe, I don't know, 45% or maybe 255% of Bruce Dickinson in the way of running up and down the stage. 01:04:46.600 --> 01:04:50.240 He looked good. Like, he was alive at least. 01:04:50.900 --> 01:05:01.800 I saw him a couple years ago, but I want new material. I mean, King Diamond, Merciful Fate, something. I think he's ripe for a really good comeback album. 01:05:03.980 --> 01:05:11.780 The Merciful... like, some guys from Merciful Kate recorded the album last year. 01:05:12.620 --> 01:05:42.540 Oh yeah, the Schoenner, Sherman Denner. Yeah, which didn't hit any top 150 metal albums. No King Diamond. I mean, they probably, I don't know, King Diamond can play and he probably can record, like, he can write melodies and riffs and stuff like this. So maybe, I'm not sure what was the reason Merciful Fate was, 01:05:43.300 --> 01:06:10.380 It had nice musicians. And when you put these nice musicians, again 37 years later, maybe they're just old. Or maybe they... What did you think of Black Sabbath's 13? I don't think of Black Sabbath's 13. I'm not even sure I listened to it. Really? Wow. I was really happy with it. 01:06:12.600 --> 01:06:42.580 I was like you know for a bunch of guys their age to come back and do an album like that that it sounded like Sabbath to me it really did it didn't sound like an Ozzy album with the other guys it sounded like a Sabbath album and I'm kind of hoping that King Diamond will come back and do something that just sounds you know like oh wow you know those last few King Diamond albums were okay but this is like this is like Melissa you know something awesome 01:06:44.940 --> 01:07:12.420 I'm not sure. Maybe this... One of the problems we all have is that we're all kind of 65 years old by now. And when you're like 18 and you can listen to Melissa or, you know, Kill More or something like this. And it's just like, wow! And it stays with you. Not even like rest in peace. 01:07:13.940 --> 01:07:42.200 I had this problem with the last Megadeth album. Because it's like, it's very well written, it's very well produced. And these guys just can't do no wrong in terms of playing. But I'm just maybe too old. Or maybe they're too old. Or maybe we're all too old. To actually enjoy it the same way we enjoy it like Rust in Peace. 01:07:42.700 --> 01:08:12.580 Yeah, like some 18-year-old kid, 15-year-old kid that comes along and says, "Oh, here's this new Megadeth album. Wow, and this is amazing!" And this is amazing. It's probably like on the same level of amazingness, maybe not as amazing as Rust in Peace, which is probably the best Thresh Metal album. I agree. Yeah, let's drink for this. But yeah, when you get old, nothing really excites you as much as you are like 16 or 18 or 01:08:12.780 --> 01:08:42.580 "Tornado of Souls". I mean, come on. Oh, you can go to YouTube and see me playing the cover version. Yeah, I love that song. I was thinking about doing a cover version myself, but I don't know if I can actually play it. Yeah, it's... Yeah, it's... It was a nice album. But the problem is... Someone is too old. And the quest is to find who is too old. Why don't you enjoy new... 01:08:44.859 --> 01:09:12.580 I think it's a natural process of aging that your perspective to things changes as you grow older and you know we know all these things that came out in the past and we sort of compare everything to that and it's not the same thing and so on one hand you're like it's not the same anymore they've changed kind of like the people that gave up with Metallica when the Black Album came out it's not the same anymore I don't like it anymore but people 01:09:12.620 --> 01:09:42.560 that find the black album right now for that's their very first metallic album they're like wow this is great they don't know that master of puppets is the real gem you know it's all about the perspective and we've been around so long and heard so many songs and so many albums that it's a lot harder to impress us i think funny story about black album from my kind of school days i've got this cassette and they have kill em all on one side and 01:09:42.720 --> 01:10:12.560 Metallica on the other side. And there was like 1993-1991. And I was listening to the both albums and I think someone kind of like mistyped this because this sounds like 1993 because it's so much cooler. Like 1991 because it's so much cooler. It's like more metal than this pop music from probably 1983. And then I found out the very same 01:10:12.600 --> 01:10:42.520 That was the first time you heard Metallica? Yeah, it was like in school. Probably in 1991. Or maybe 1992. I had a similar experience. Well, I mean, not similar, but it was Metallica. The first time I heard Metallica and Merciful Fate, somebody made me a cassette. And on one side was Ride the Lightning, and the other side was Melissa. And you still divide? 01:10:46.200 --> 01:11:12.560 I think I would probably go with that but I mean talk about two classic albums on one long cassette to somebody just give you like hey here's this dubbed cassette it's something I kind of miss about the 80s is the whole dubbing cassettes and and trading with everyone and learning about bands I mean now you can get anything on the internet but it was cool to be like hey man what do you got oh I got the new Halloween album 01:11:12.600 --> 01:11:42.140 and you know what do you got I've got Exodus and you know you just swap and dub the tapes and you know I mean downloading is bad and I'm sure that was technically bad too. No it's good it's good. Do this all the time. Download Catatonic Society now. Yeah we have everything for send us a message and we'll give you 24 slash 96 version. Yeah I got that. It's a great album it really is. Yeah. 01:11:42.600 --> 01:11:43.800 I know I played on it. 01:11:43.840 --> 01:11:45.500 Yes. So... 01:11:45.540 --> 01:11:46.100 So... 01:11:48.900 --> 01:11:51.580 Now I know you guys got a new drummer, but... 01:11:52.260 --> 01:11:54.880 And I know Jay's been talking about you guys working on stuff. 01:11:55.540 --> 01:11:58.980 But do you have any sort of idea when you might have a new album ready? 01:11:59.960 --> 01:12:00.440 No. 01:12:00.960 --> 01:12:01.480 No idea? 01:12:02.220 --> 01:12:05.860 We recorded about half of our album with our last drummer. 01:12:07.000 --> 01:12:09.180 And I've even mixed some of these. 01:12:09.840 --> 01:12:11.060 But then our drummer left. 01:12:11.600 --> 01:12:41.560 And we will probably not be using this. Gonna rerecord it? Yeah, because you know, this, I mean, I'm the only person in this band who can play to metronome. Jay can't play to a metronome? No, no, no, Jay, you can. We tried. Burn, Jay, burn! Well, he... Well, it takes, you know, it takes about like maybe 30 minutes of practice to actually get accustomed with metronome and... 01:12:41.600 --> 01:13:10.220 Yeah. Start playing with this. Ain't nobody got time for this. No, I, I, my rhythm is terrible. Uh, but it's funny because I was talking to Jay, you know, trying to get some inspiration and, and some, you know, help with that. And, and, uh, I mean, from my perspective, you know, he's, he's much better player than I am. Um, but it's the wrong person to ask about metronome. You should ask me. Okay, Jay. Spend a lot of time with the metronome. Yeah. For some reason, I don't know why. 01:13:11.100 --> 01:13:40.960 It was like 20 years ago. I didn't need it 20 years ago. I mean, who needs it? Yeah. I really needed a metronome. I mean, back when I first started playing, I couldn't play an ACDC song in time. I mean, it was just, it was terrible. I had no concept. And a friend of mine was like, well, he actually told me to get a drum machine and play along with the drum machine. There is, I think it's French, like, software. 01:13:41.100 --> 01:14:11.060 It's like program called guitar pro. I think some bands like Arch Enemy and I was in a band who were using it to actually compose the music and you can play to it and it's because it's a computer. It doesn't fail. It always plays exactly like 160 BPM. So 01:14:11.160 --> 01:14:15.220 - Вы можете использовать это, чтобы играть, какие-то, какие-то. 01:14:15.700 --> 01:14:23.020 Это я делаю. Я по-английски в одном из ТАБ-сайт. Я использую ТАб-911. 01:14:23.860 --> 01:14:25.320 И ты получаешь файл Гитар-Про. 01:14:26.840 --> 01:14:30.880 И это имеет таб, бас, гитар и вокал. 01:14:31.380 --> 01:14:36.920 И я открыл это в программу, и экспортю фишки. 01:14:37.580 --> 01:15:07.520 And then I pull in the drums and the bass and the vocal lines as a guide. And then I use Superior Drummer to put in better sounding drums using the drum MIDI. Yeah, it sounds really like... Yeah, but if you use Superior Drummer, it's like real drum samples. It's still not as good as a real drummer, but it beats the old Alesis SR-16. 01:15:07.580 --> 01:15:08.200 that I used to use. 01:15:09.740 --> 01:15:14.560 And then I go through and I record my guitar parts to that. 01:15:15.160 --> 01:15:19.120 And then if I'm smart, I go through and I record the bass part as well. 01:15:19.540 --> 01:15:21.100 And then I'll go through and butcher some vocals. 01:15:21.660 --> 01:15:22.980 And then I send it to Jay. 01:15:23.780 --> 01:15:25.420 And I'm like, hey Jay, listen to this. 01:15:25.500 --> 01:15:27.020 And Jay's like, great. 01:15:28.100 --> 01:15:29.520 This is really great. 01:15:29.980 --> 01:15:30.460 Good job. 01:15:31.320 --> 01:15:32.520 Where did you get this? 01:15:33.320 --> 01:15:33.780 What's that? 01:15:33.800 --> 01:16:02.720 You know you go to like, do you have public transportation in Virginia? Or Maryland? So you go to the station, like public transportation station, and there's a guy selling new CDs. Like, I know it's his CDs, but it's something you get from like that guy who just wants five bucks. Well, for me, it's just, it's getting back into it, because I stopped playing for about 12 years. 01:16:03.800 --> 01:16:05.500 This is the story of my life. 01:16:07.320 --> 01:16:14.400 And so, I mean, I've got tons and tons of old crappy stuff that I recorded myself. Songs that I wrote and recorded. 01:16:16.960 --> 01:16:27.220 And so, to get back into it, I've just been recording cover songs to just get back up to speed, to practice, to, you know, to, what do you call it, woodshed? 01:16:29.000 --> 01:16:32.780 And, I don't know, maybe eventually I'll try writing again, but... 01:16:35.420 --> 01:17:00.880 Что это? Это микрофон? Почему ты плачешь на меня? Я не знаю, я просто... Я не слышал. Я вообще не слышал. Я вообще есть на мой телефон, я могу играть вам что-то, когда мы закончили. 01:17:02.800 --> 01:17:31.520 High Fidelity. It actually sounds better that way. It's kind of like, it sounds like it's in a tin can. Chris would love it. He's a... He'd love it. Yeah, I just did a cover of Venom's In League with Satan and Celtic Frost's Procreation of the Wicked. So you were trying to replicate the sound of people who didn't know how to play music instruments. 01:17:32.800 --> 01:18:01.880 How To Sin? Yes, exactly. I was like, this is perfect for me. I'm like, the original version kind of sucked, and yet it's cool. So how bad can I do? You can do no wrong with Venom, I think. But I mean, I've been doing some weird things. I mean, I did a Cars cover. What's it? Just What I Needed. I did a Man of War cover. All over the place. Which one? Flight of the Bumblebee? 01:18:02.800 --> 01:18:31.540 No, I'm not that good. Why? Because I'm not that good. Practice. That's what I need to do. What are you doing in this festival? Go practice. Exactly. All right, well, it sounds like my friends here want to get headed back to the festival, so. Yeah. Stop stealing your beers. Stop stealing beers. You can steal some. There's not much left. You cannot steal what I don't have. Exactly. All right, well, maybe we'll see you at Petushka. 01:18:34.100 --> 01:18:35.700 There you go. Last one. 01:18:37.220 --> 01:18:37.980 Oh, we have some. 01:18:38.860 --> 01:18:40.820 Alright, man. Well, it was good seeing you. 01:18:41.860 --> 01:18:45.260 And, like I said, I mean, we'll have to hook up again. There's still a couple more days. 01:18:45.760 --> 01:18:46.580 You know where we live. 01:18:46.880 --> 01:18:47.160 Exactly. 01:18:47.620 --> 01:18:49.360 You know where to bring some... 01:18:50.260 --> 01:18:52.020 This, like, German beer, you know. 01:18:52.150 --> 01:18:53.580 Yeah. I'll see what I can find. 01:18:54.320 --> 01:18:55.500 Alright, man. Well, thanks for talking to us. 01:18:56.140 --> 01:18:56.620 You're welcome. 01:18:57.280 --> 01:18:58.060 Buy a CDS. 01:18:59.040 --> 01:19:00.420 Catatonic Society. Bandcamp. 01:19:00.460 --> 01:19:01.900 They all like... 01:19:02.660 --> 01:19:03.900 What do you buy CDs anymore? 01:19:04.620 --> 01:19:08.860 Yeah, someone has to buy them because they are all in my house and I have to do something with them. 01:19:10.380 --> 01:19:11.500 And no one buys them anymore. 01:19:11.720 --> 01:19:15.320 I mean some guy bought it. I'm not even sure why. 01:19:15.340 --> 01:19:18.460 I bought one. I think I did. Or maybe Jay sent it to me. 01:19:18.540 --> 01:19:20.840 No, I don't think these guys... 01:19:22.180 --> 01:19:23.920 Look at them. They don't... 01:19:24.920 --> 01:19:27.680 They don't buy CDs anymore. Look at their faces. 01:19:28.460 --> 01:19:57.600 I don't buy CDs anymore because I had like 3,000 CDs in my basement right now like on custom-built CD racks and it was like, okay, stop. So I was like, all right, I'll buy vinyl. And now I've got like, you know, 2,000 vinyl and my wife's like, stop. So I gotta stick with Bandcamp. I still have like a couple of boxes of CDs. I think when Jay goes out to like restaurants and stuff, 01:19:57.700 --> 01:20:27.660 When they bring the bill, he tips with a CD. I don't think he goes to restaurants. That's right. He only goes to burrito places. How many burritos does he really eat? He's a vegetarian. Right, but he eats veggie burritos. He's always eaten them on the podcast. What? Yeah. What? Yeah. He'll be sitting there, and you see the door open behind him, and Gene comes in, and she hands him a burrito, and he's like, nom, nom, nom, eating my burrito. Have you seen him put in 01:20:27.700 --> 01:20:55.160 some meat into it? No. Although... I don't even know why people would do this. I don't understand not eating meat. I mean, meat is yum. But this is a veggie burrito. I was wondering, you're doing the vitamins and stuff. I was like, I wonder if he's a vegetarian. I have some German sausage. Who's a vegetarian? Nobody. None here. Meat is good. Eat it. 01:20:57.700 --> 01:21:27.540 very metal thing. Exactly. You have to kill someone. Although there's the black metal vegan chef here somewhere or something. I mean, black metal guys probably don't admit. I mean. Some don't. Have you seen them? I mean. They're skinny and scrawny and. They probably don't eat anything. Yeah. They just live off of hate. And they just kill themselves in the end because they want to eat something. Yeah, exactly. New York steak. Maybe. 01:21:29.340 --> 01:21:30.000 - There you go. 01:21:30.670 --> 01:21:31.620 - 16 ounces. 01:21:33.430 --> 01:21:39.620 The stuff you can go, you can get if you go like maybe 2,000 miles from here. 01:21:42.520 --> 01:21:42.960 - Excellent. 01:21:43.470 --> 01:21:44.320 - Yeah, we're talking to you, Jay. 01:21:45.210 --> 01:21:45.860 Go get some meat. 01:21:46.000 --> 01:21:46.900 - Eat the meat, Jay. 01:21:48.140 --> 01:21:49.820 Alright, we are out of here. 01:21:53.320 --> 01:21:54.920 Alright, where are we? 01:21:55.460 --> 01:22:24.140 I think last we left off we were with Sergei. And since then a lot's happened. When we were with Sergei it looked like a storm was rolling in. And in fact it was. Mere minutes after we started walking back towards our tent area it started pissing down rain. We were almost back to the tent but didn't quite make it. Got a little wet. 01:22:24.940 --> 01:22:53.040 It was pouring down the hardest we've seen yet, I think. In fact, when we got to the tent, like there's the tent and then there's like the sort of like an awning thing that they set up in front of it so you can like sit under it with chairs and stuff. And they were taking it down because the storm was so strong. And we went inside and the tent and it was like leaking water into one of the chairs, which I posted a picture of. 01:22:56.480 --> 01:23:24.900 Like, nearly knocking the tent down. This is a tent you can stand up in, so it was pretty fierce. And Matt and Eric went and did their thing. They went and hid in their tent. And then when it started to clear up, we threw on the ponchos and headed down to the infield for the opening ceremonies or whatever. Which I'm so glad that Matt and Eric 01:23:24.940 --> 01:23:54.900 Eric insisted we go to this because it was so cool. There's like an opening band. Presumably like an all-star band made up of people. I didn't know who most of them were. I think one of the singers might have been the dude from Power Wolf. Not used to seeing him without makeup. Plus he was, thought he was kind of hefty. And this guy wasn't. So I don't know who he was, but he could sing. And they were doing like a bunch of cover songs. Guns N' Roses, White Snake. You know, we were all just singing along. Everybody was losing their 01:23:54.980 --> 01:24:24.640 It was raining again. And it was like, wow. Even though they're playing some of these cheesy 80s, you know, hair metal songs, they're... It was just an incredible feeling of community. And, you know, Chris was tearing up at it, which I'm surprised he beat me to it, because usually I'm the one that's all weepy. But he was just like, this is so amazing. 01:24:28.300 --> 01:24:54.900 And then, Doro came out. Had no idea she was going to be there. Apparently she's like a regular, because, you know, she's German. And they played a couple songs, including All We Are, which I was just like, I lost my mind. And I was bawling my eyes out in the rain, which was helpful, because it sort of concealed the fact. She's just still so amazing. She's the goddess of 01:24:54.940 --> 01:24:55.620 and always will be. 01:24:58.260 --> 01:25:01.580 And then right after that on the stage next to it was Ross the Boss. 01:25:02.360 --> 01:25:04.920 Which I was like, yeah, I want to see that. 01:25:05.180 --> 01:25:07.020 I never saw Ross when he was with Manowar. 01:25:11.260 --> 01:25:19.100 And I'd heard that his Ross the Boss band was not really as good as Manowar. 01:25:20.640 --> 01:25:22.520 But I was like, let's check him out. 01:25:23.120 --> 01:25:23.680 Holy hell. 01:25:24.720 --> 01:25:54.260 I was spent after that. I mean, they were playing all the good stuff from the old days, you know. Hailing Kill, Battle Hymns, Battle Hymns. Oh my God. They destroyed it. It was in a good way. It was amazing. I was singing along. And if anybody's ever been to a show with me, generally during the set, I just sort of stand there and watch because I've been to so many shows that, and I'm not 15 anymore. And so I just sort of sit there and take it in. 01:25:54.320 --> 01:26:24.280 But man, I was singing along, throwing horns, throwing up the sign of the hammer, just like making like, you know, the metal skull death claw fist thing. And it was really amazing. At that point, all the crap that had happened in the last couple days melted away. And I was so glad to be there. So then after that was Europe, which I'm not a huge fan of Europe. 01:26:24.320 --> 01:26:51.760 I'm a huge Europe fan. I mean, I know a couple of songs, and of course the Final Countdown, which I didn't get to see when they were at M3 because I had to leave early. So I finally got to see that. And Chris, Mr. I Love Black Metal, I Like Things That Sound Like They're Recorded in a Tin Can, was completely, it was like me during Manowar. He was losing his mind to Europe. So I call him a poser because, you know, he's got this closet, it's probably, it's not closeted, but you know. 01:26:53.320 --> 01:27:22.920 He likes this really commercial band. And they were good. So I'm probably going to have to go back and check out more of their catalog just for fun. It was during Europe. Well, I mean, it's been muddy as hell the whole time. But after that huge downpour, it was just so much worse. And there's so many more people here than yesterday. I thought yesterday was busy. I really did. And there's got to be three times as many people here today. So many people. 01:27:23.840 --> 01:27:53.240 I swear this place is bigger than Disneyland. It is huge. And I just can't explain it. You have to experience it to understand. It's simply amazing. But anyway, there's all these people. There's just so much mud. And Chris and I, our shoes, even though they were sturdy, which weren't cutting it, I kept getting mine stuck in the mud and it was like trying to suck the shoe off of my foot. 01:27:56.140 --> 01:27:57.100 So I 01:27:59.600 --> 01:28:02.800 went and dropped 30 euro on a pair of boots that are like 01:28:03.220 --> 01:28:05.840 I don't know boots of like three quarter length 01:28:05.960 --> 01:28:08.540 Not up to my knee but you know pretty close 01:28:09.520 --> 01:28:12.520 And I've been walking around like John Wayne ever since 01:28:12.700 --> 01:28:13.780 Because they're not cowboy boots 01:28:13.860 --> 01:28:16.960 But I just feel like a badass because now I can walk anywhere 01:28:17.660 --> 01:28:19.400 You know the mud is like inches deep 01:28:20.620 --> 01:28:22.659 And slopping everywhere now I can just walk through it 01:28:22.680 --> 01:28:52.640 I don't care where I am I'll have to pick my path in fact when we were leaving Europe you know I was choosing my path wisely so that I wouldn't get stuck in the mud and I believe he was German I have not had the best track record with recognizing German accents he grabbed me by the shoulder and he was like he said something I was like English and he was like stop looking at your feet you know just just go 01:28:52.660 --> 01:29:22.220 You know, giving me wisdom. And I was like, I know, man, but if I do, I'm going to get stuck. So I said, but I am on my way to get boots. And he laughed at that. And I did. Immediately went and got boots changed. Everything's been kosher since. We got some food. We watched Witchery, who sounded and looked amazing. Kind of pretty for a singer. It's kind of pretty for a black metal band. Even though he's got, like, you know, kind of makeup to make him look kind of dead. 01:29:22.680 --> 01:29:49.820 Not like corpse paint, but just sort of like rotted looking a little bit. But he's still, he's kind of pretty. Come on. But they sounded amazing. And shortly after that, Batushka is playing, probably right now. But I am waiting for Kenan so that I can give him Jay's ticket. He's supposed to be here anytime, so I had to head out to the bus drop-off so that I can give him his ticket. 01:29:54.400 --> 01:30:03.800 So that is today. Two more days. Will we survive? Check it back to find out. See ya. 01:30:22.680 --> 01:30:52.640 and I was trying to find my way back to the tent to charge up. And got lost in the dark. Almost fell down in a muddy ditch. I was pretty sad and pathetic. But eventually I made it back to the tent and I just collapsed. And so I missed out on a good chunk of the evening. Well, it didn't seem like it at the time because it was like 1130 when I got back. But you guys are still gone for another few hours. So... 01:30:53.300 --> 01:31:21.800 I think the band up after I left was Batushka, which I was very sad to miss. So how was that? Very nice. Were you there for witchery? I was there for witchery, yes. Witchery was cool. Batushka was awesome. Very ritualistic, very evil, very dark. They had a pretty big setup. They had like three or four choral singers, which was pretty epic. 01:31:22.680 --> 01:31:52.120 You couldn't hear them for half the set. But they fixed that eventually. But it was very good. I think they play 8-string guitars, which is interesting. It's a lot of strings. Especially for a black metal band. But they do weird, almost death medley, chugging and shit, so that makes sense. But yeah, just a very nice ritualistic vibe. I enjoyed it. Excellent. 01:31:52.680 --> 01:32:22.640 I liked them and I liked their music the the set for me got a little bit long but but again that sounded great I think it was more like the religious ceremony piece of it just got kind of old after a while like if like if ghost wasn't so commercial yes exactly exactly what we were thinking yeah they could have varied it up a little bit they should have brought out like something to sacrifice or something yeah yeah Eric anything that no I enjoyed it I did I 01:32:22.660 --> 01:32:52.440 I agree with Stu, it started to get a little old, but just the theatrics of it was awesome to watch. The fact that they got the curtain closed on them in the end because they were still going. So they apparently have to stick to a pretty, you know, strict timeline. They're supposed to go off at a certain time. They curtain them. But it was awesome. Excellent. So who did you guys see next? I know there was Mayhem and I know there was Napalm Death. Did you guys catch all of those? Yeah. After, was Bruhiria? Oh, right, Bruhiria. 01:32:53.240 --> 01:33:22.480 Yeah, they were good. Very entertaining. They too got the curtain closed on them because they were doing the Macarena, but saying, hey, marijuana. Hey, marijuana. Nice. Yeah, they sounded good. They sounded like Brujeria. It was difficult to understand. I mean, not that you can understand what he was saying, but the vocals weren't coming across all that great. But again, their stage presence is good. It was fun. Excellent. Anything else? Anyone with Brujeria? 01:33:23.200 --> 01:33:51.660 Not number yet. All right. So then who was up? Napalm Death? How was that? I feel like was wit? No, not Wintry. When was Mayhem? Was Mayhem before Nile? Yeah, Mayhem was before Nile. So yeah. So was Metuska Mayhem, right? No, Metuska and then Bruderia, and then back to the other stage, which I think was Mayhem, 01:33:52.180 --> 01:34:20.680 And then back for Napalm? No. Somebody was in between Petushka and Mayhem on the other stage. So you drive me nuts. Oh, you're right, because they were both on the left side, so there must have been somebody else. It must have been Napalm. I think. I don't know. I wandered off for a while with a couple of Danish dudes trying to find water, which didn't really work out. 01:34:22.920 --> 01:34:48.760 Volbeat went on about when I met up with Kenan and Jason and Uli. Fuck Volbeat! Huh? You heard me. No, I didn't. Fuck Volbeat. Oh, fuck Volbeat. You know, I like some Volbeat. And so I actually heard probably most of their set while I was wandering around in the dark. You can hear them really well out in the camping area. 01:34:52.180 --> 01:35:21.760 and did Evelyn with Volby. You know, Barney from Napalm. So I guess he wasn't playing at that point. Right. That's awesome. And that was what was fun to see. And Shane Embry basically did double duty. He played with Brujeria and then came back with Napalm. Yeah, it looks like we had the order very confused. It was Witchery, then Brujeria, Batushka, Napalm, Mayhem, and then Niall closed it down. Okay, so we're up to Napalm. How was Napalm? Awesome. 01:35:22.860 --> 01:35:51.520 Good. It was, yeah, it felt like for them, even with the short songs, the set felt very short to me, but. They're so good live. They really are. It was sort of short, now that I think about it. But yeah, Napalm is Napalm, you know? Barney strutting around like an English chicken. Yeah, it was good. You know, with his, like, peace, power, and happiness. The rants between fucking 30-second blasts. It was fun. I haven't seen him in a really long time. Yeah, it's been. 01:35:54.500 --> 01:36:22.140 I think for me it's been like since high school and that was the first time that I got into a really huge pit when I shouldn't have gone to a really huge pit and I remember being knocked in the head really fucking hard to the point where like I lost vision for like a split second I just heard like a bell go off in my head like bing and I didn't go into a pit for a while after that 01:36:22.820 --> 01:36:30.660 So then after that was Mayhem, and you told me this morning that it wasn't as good as at MDF. 01:36:31.120 --> 01:36:35.040 It was still good. It was, you know, it's Mayhem playing the Mysteries. 01:36:36.480 --> 01:36:37.600 So they were doing the whole album still? 01:36:37.840 --> 01:36:38.000 Mm-hmm. 01:36:38.340 --> 01:36:39.640 Okay, well then I really didn't miss anything. 01:36:39.740 --> 01:36:40.400 No, I didn't. 01:36:42.420 --> 01:36:46.520 Yeah, I think the sound was fine. Like, the sound in general everywhere here is good. 01:36:46.980 --> 01:36:50.780 Yeah, except the only problem I had was with Sanctuary, but I'll get to that later. 01:36:51.680 --> 01:36:51.840 Yeah. 01:36:51.960 --> 01:37:19.860 Yeah, well, the sound here, I don't know, at least at MDF, the sound was clearer, I think. You could hear a lot more of the nuances, and I think part of it was because I could see more when I was at MDF, you know? I was at a better location, so you could see more, like, crazy shit that Attila was doing at the altar and whatnot. But yeah, there was a, like, drunk Irish dude next to me the whole time, and we kept bro-ing out, so I had a good time. 01:37:21.380 --> 01:37:51.020 Any other comments? No, I'd agree. It sounded good, but it just wasn't as good as I just saw them back in March. So it was just kind of a repeat of that. Eric? I got nothing. All right, then. Did you guys watch Niall 2 then? Yeah. Yeah. Same. I haven't seen them in a long, long time. I just saw them back in April. The Amorphous. It was like a conglomeration tour. 01:37:51.380 --> 01:38:20.080 and "Swallow the Sun" were with "Overkill" and "Nile". And so it was "Overkill", "Nile", "Amorphous", "Swallow the Sun". Kind of like Naipaum, "Nile" is "Nile", you know? Doesn't change ever. But was the sound good here? Because like when I just saw them, it sounded horrible. Oh, the sound was good for sure. And the new guy sounds just like, what's his face? Dallas. He does a really good job. Yeah, seems like it. 01:38:24.580 --> 01:38:28.780 I'm not into Nile these days, but it was kind of cool to see American boys bring it. 01:38:29.260 --> 01:38:30.280 So you're in D-Nile? 01:38:30.520 --> 01:38:31.160 Oh yeah, big time. 01:38:31.380 --> 01:38:31.600 Okay. 01:38:33.460 --> 01:38:39.580 I think I told one of you guys, I was feeling proud to be an American. They really, they tore it up. 01:38:40.380 --> 01:38:41.340 Any more Nile comments? 01:38:42.420 --> 01:38:49.720 I mean, I always loved me some Carl. And yeah, I mean, I thought they came out and they hit it off right away. I can't remember what they played. 01:38:50.360 --> 01:39:20.340 That song I think was "Kemp Fear" which was one of the first Nile songs I fell in love with and yeah they sounded great. Awesome. Yeah there's shit all over this table. I should mention we're at a food spot in the Wackenur Village which personally I think if you're at Wackenur and you want some food this is where the best food is Wackenur Village so it's a travel tip for you for the festival and I'm sure you can hear there's music and people 01:39:20.420 --> 01:39:49.460 All around and Chris belching. It's like a medieval section of the fair fest. It's very Renfest in here. It's awesome. It's smoky. That meat is on fire. Unless the tent's on fire too. It's very smoky at the moment. So this morning, first thing, my top priority was getting to memoriam. 01:39:50.380 --> 01:40:20.080 And I was not let down by them. I thought they sounded amazing, particularly for death metal band. But as Chris mentioned to me, they do play slower than a lot of, you know, like Cannibal Corpse or, you know, Napalm or any of those type bands. So it is possibly easier to get a better sound. But I never got a chance to see Bolt Thrower. So this is my consolation prize, even though he was very clear that they are not Bolt Thrower. 01:40:20.980 --> 01:40:48.660 Did somebody yell that out or something? I don't know. You're not fucking bolt thrower! Fuck you! Yeah. I don't know. So I kept yelling, "Bolt thrower rules!" the whole time. Because I'm a dickhead. And you guys caught that too, right? Yes. Yep. Enjoyed it. I was very much looking forward to seeing him. I wasn't a massive bolt thrower fan, but what I heard I really enjoyed and it just felt like something I wanted to see and yeah, it was not let down. They're a machine. Yeah. 01:40:50.380 --> 01:41:20.120 Thoughts? Still no thoughts? Alright, if you have any thoughts, let me know. I will. Alright, I'm going to chime right in. And so, like, for the tail end of Memoriam, Chris and I were like, hey, look at that, there's room up on the railing off to the right side of the stage. So we went up there and, you know, got to see a few of the last few songs from that vantage point, which was nice. And so I was reluctant to give up that spot for a while, 01:41:20.200 --> 01:41:50.120 because up after them was Lacuna Coil. Not a real big Lacuna Coil fan, though I do think Christina is an amazing singer. Their look and the really commercial stuff that they were doing initially did not win me over, and Chris bailed almost immediately. He was like, fuck this shit, I'm out of here. Yeah, that was bumming me out, man. Those straight jackets and fucking face paint, not cool face. 01:41:50.200 --> 01:42:20.160 Yeah, they look like Slipknot. Yeah, they have like a Slipknot vibe and like metalcore type of shit going on. But towards the end, it kind of grew on me. I'm like, you know, her voice is so good that it still kind of carries it. And I think Eric might have something to say finally. Well, I was just... No, no, I know you like it. I do, yeah. So I agree, though. Christina's voice is really what makes the whole thing. And what impressed the hell out of me is that we were sitting there 01:42:20.200 --> 01:42:48.440 They start at 12:15 in the morning. The vast majority of people here are really working off some hangovers. They've been up until 3:00, 4:00 in the morning. And there were, what, 50,000 people who pulled out to see that? I mean, there were people packed all the way to the back for Lacuna Coil. It's just fun to see people get up at 12:00 in the morning and just get ready to go again. And it's funny because she did mention that. She thanked everybody for coming out during their hangover. And I'm like, what hangover? 01:42:50.200 --> 01:43:19.440 I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not. I know I'm knocking on wood here, but thus far we have not had any hangovers in this party. And there's the rumor that you don't get hangovers in drinking German beer. So I don't know. Maybe she hasn't heard that one, but I felt pretty good. I feel like we're going to test that theory tonight. I'm going to be careful. There's a lot of Jäger around now, so people are probably drinking that too. That's not beer. 01:43:21.380 --> 01:43:50.120 Right, but that's why people are hungover. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Time travel juice, as I like to call it. Yeah. Bad history. And so part of why I stuck around through Lacuna Coil, other than, you know, Christine is amazing, was that after Lacuna Coil was Sanctuary. And as World Dane, formerly of Nevermore, formerly of currently, 01:43:50.200 --> 01:44:20.140 of Sanctuary pointed out they played something from Refuge Denied, their first album, and he's like, really? You know that one? Then you must be old. And I was like, hell yeah, I bought that album. I saw the tour. I was there. You know? It just got me thinking. I mean, yeah, you know, it doesn't make me think to see Metallica 30 years ago and again now, but a band like Sanctuary, small band, always been a small band, and then I saw them in like 87, 88, it was probably 87, I think. 01:44:20.220 --> 01:44:50.160 I think. So like 30 years ago and I'm seeing them again today was just it felt like I was completing the process and unfortunately they had sound problems the vocals kept cutting out at one point like everything but the drums cut out it was that they had some trouble but it it started raining again during sanctuary around a little bit put on the ponchos stopped raining thought I was good took off the poncho 01:44:50.200 --> 01:45:19.060 It immediately started just torrential pouring down. And I don't think I've ever stood out in the rain like that. I mean, I think like at OzFest once a little bit. But this was just like Vaken in the mud, in the rain with Sanctuary. And they were playing Taste My Revenge, which is one of their greatest songs. And it was a special moment. It was epic. Did you cry? A little bit. You couldn't see my tears in the rain. 01:45:20.920 --> 01:45:50.160 I've teared up a few times already. It's a unique experience. It's hard to put into words really. When we first got out onto the infield, you know, like it was some like stupid like cover band playing but like didn't matter at all. It's just the vibe really got to me. I thought I was getting off the rail. I thought I was getting off the pole after Sanctuary but I realized that the band up next was Gravedigger which I've never been a huge 01:45:50.160 --> 01:46:20.140 I'm not really a fan of Chris's vocals, but German band, epic German band in Germany, you gotta check it out. And they pulled an even bigger crowd than Laguna Coil. It was huge. And the second to the last song, it's either The Clans Are Marching or Toons of War, one of those songs I'm not familiar enough to know, but I recognized it. When they played that, the plays went nuts. Everybody was 01:46:20.620 --> 01:46:49.940 Fists in the air, chanting, a big pit, well not a big pit, but a pit within a large group of people broke out and I teared up even though I'm not a big fan because it was the spirit of metal possessed me. I was like speaking tongues and shit. That's happened to me a few times with like bands that I don't really care about but like the spirit of metal brotherhood is like, it's pervasive here. Yeah, and when... It's not cheesy about it, it's true, man. It's true. 01:46:50.360 --> 01:47:19.860 And while I was waiting for Gravedigger to start, this large guy settles up to me with his wife. And he asked me if I could move down a little so he could get in next to his wife. I was like, sure. And so then he strikes up a conversation with me, asked me where I was from. I was like, I'm from America. And he's like, I'm Russian. I was like, oh, cool. He's like from St. Petersburg. And we talked for like 20 minutes, just music. He's been like, I think, 01:47:21.240 --> 01:47:49.160 They travel around to metal festivals everywhere. His name is Igor, so shout out to Igor. And then we enjoyed the set together and it was good times. And shook his hand and took a picture. You can find that on the website feed at some point. So yeah, it was good times. And then after that, we ended up here. We grabbed some food, some beers, and we're getting ready to move on with the rest. So we talked about the mud. 01:47:50.180 --> 01:48:20.080 Oh, I've talked about the mud. There's a lot of mud. I think there's more mud than anything else here. And beer. And piss. And shit. We just talked to another. He was German, right? Yeah, of course he was. There was a guy sharing the table here with us who was telling us about the urine problem in Wacken. How it pollutes the groundwater here. And the environmental groups are on them about it. There's such a high concentration of urine. You can't drink the water, I guess. 01:48:20.180 --> 01:48:50.140 You can't drink the water here. Unless you want urine, yeah. The groundwater here has too high of an alcohol content. Even think about the potable water that they have here is right next to the bathrooms. And you just see them that close, and I get how plumbing works, but still, I have this mental block in my brain like, I'm not drinking that. There's some guy in the back with a big boiler that's just going into the boil, he's boiling the water, and it goes out the other way. And that, Chris, is why 01:48:50.180 --> 01:49:20.140 I only drink bottled water. I get it, but I'm a thirsty boy, so I drink piss water. I've probably got more piss and shit on and in me than I have, well, probably ever. I should hope. I went in Germany. But, yeah. So, alright, well, there we are. We're going to continue on more adventures, and we'll check back later. Fuck it! Sounds good. Fuckin'. 01:49:23.660 --> 01:49:50.100 So, I've had enough beer today that I'm not entirely sure what we covered last, but I think it was right before we went into Grand Mages. So that's where I'm going to pick up. They, uh, they packed the tent. It's in a tent. Don't ask me why. It's a big tent. The big top kind. Very big. But, uh, they were amazing, you know. 01:49:50.180 --> 01:50:18.440 I was the only one that was initially interested in seeing them. And I dragged the guys along with me. And I believe both Matt and Eric were pretty impressed. So I was too. It was very good. I was very happy to see them finally. I was a little disappointed they didn't play my favorite song, 01:50:20.180 --> 01:50:27.100 and the power which is just the most amazing song ever but still their set was awesome 01:50:29.100 --> 01:50:38.360 uh so then after that we kind of wandered around out front of the tent for a little bit got more beers and talked and uh 01:50:40.800 --> 01:50:45.120 i think there was a band steak eight or steak number eight or something like that that 01:50:45.920 --> 01:51:15.900 that Matt wanted to see, so we hung around her. And they were kind of cool. I feel like I've heard their name somewhere, but I've never listened to them before. Matt thought they were kind of metalcore, but to me they sounded kind of post-rock, which is acceptable, much more acceptable than metalcore. And yeah, they were terrible. I mean, the singer was kind of dorky looking with like a 01:51:15.940 --> 01:51:45.860 Polka dot white shirt. It's kind of goofy, but the music was kind of cool. And then I believe after that, we went outside and hung around a little more. We went into a tent where Phil Rind, I'm going to guess that was pronunciation, from Sacred Reich was doing a spoken word thing about all the cool shit he's done. And not to diss him, 01:51:45.920 --> 01:52:15.540 Because the stuff he was talking about was interesting. But we just weren't in the place to do a spoken word thing. So we left. And we went back into the tent, I believe, if I'm getting the order correct. And Prong was playing. And I had initially written off seeing Prong because Paradise Lost was playing. But, you know, I saw them not that long ago. It's been a while since I've seen Prong. And, you know, 01:52:15.940 --> 01:52:45.260 Beer and Friends hold sway. So we went in for Prong and they sounded great. I've always had a strange relationship with Prong. I've always thought they were pretty good, but they never blew my mind. And that was the case here. I thought they were very good live. But, you know. 01:52:45.940 --> 01:53:15.900 I don't know it's just slightly not my thing I guess but I do like prong and then after that was Dillinger escape plan which Matt and Eric wanted to see and I was curious because I've never seen them and everybody makes a big deal and Matt's like dude it's the live show the live show is so intense so I watched the first two songs and I have 01:53:15.940 --> 01:53:45.900 I do agree the live presentation brings something to the music because I just I'm not a fan of the vocals it's just too consistently screechy without enough change in pitch maybe that it just kind of grinds on me but they their stage presence was undeniably better than you get from most bands I left after the second song only because it was 01:53:45.940 --> 01:54:09.440 It was time to go see Emperor. Chris and I decided that we would leave early, way early, to try and get up close to the stage. Chris went first because he left before Dillinger. And he said he was like four people from the stage, so I left. 01:54:15.940 --> 01:54:45.080 I found him pretty easily. And stood there for about an hour and a half in one spot in the mud to wait for emperor. And let me tell you, the South American and Spanish slash Portuguese population, they were fucking representing. That's right. The fucking Brazilians were there too. All around me. I can't hazard a guess. 01:54:45.940 --> 01:55:15.480 I saw some guys with Brazilian flags, so I know they're Brazilian. And people of obvious Spanish ancestry. And one guy looked very Portuguese to me. I know that's probably racist. But he just reminded me of Portuguese people that I know. So I dubbed him Portuguese. And anyway, the point being, 01:55:15.940 --> 01:55:45.860 They fucking know what's up. They know who's good. There's not been a lot of big extreme metal acts here. You know, some smaller ones. But this was a different crowd than most of the sets. And they were intense. But wait, what about Emperor? Emperor blew my mind. 01:55:45.940 --> 01:56:15.280 They blew Chris's mind. We were both in tears. It was unbelievable. They sounded so good. I am religious about my use of earplugs because my hearing is crap. And I always use earplugs. But I took out the plugs. No plugs allowed for Emperor. And it sounded so good. The production was amazing. 01:56:15.940 --> 01:56:45.780 were so bright and cutting the way Emperor should be. The vocals crystal clear, much better than you would actually hear on any of the albums. The setting alone made the whole thing awesome. I mean, thousands upon thousands of people were here to see Emperor, and they were all chanting and screaming and waving their arms. 01:56:48.099 --> 01:57:15.560 And the whole set, singing along to everything, all the words, it was amazing. You know, you just can't top these guys. I mean, there are bands that come along that define a sound for a generation. Black Sabbath, of course, invented and defined the original heavy metal. Metallica came along. 01:57:15.940 --> 01:57:45.640 And they wrote the book on thrash. Like them or not, you gotta give them credit for those first three albums. An Emperor is the epitome of an amazing black metal album. And I can't say enough good stuff about them. I've waited 20 plus years to see these guys. And they played all of Anthems to The Welcome At Dusk. And it was just amazing. 01:57:47.140 --> 01:58:12.240 If you ever have the opportunity, if they do a 25 year concert or an anniversary for one of the other albums, you need to see these guys if you've never seen them. Amazing. That's about where we are now. So, I'll catch up to you later. See ya. 01:58:15.940 --> 01:58:45.220 Hello and welcome to day one post Vaken. Yesterday was a rather busy day. There's a lot of bands to see and when at the end of the day we had to get ready to pack up and go. So there wasn't really much chance to talk so I'm going to cover this now and hope to congregate with the other guys when we get back home. 01:58:45.940 --> 01:58:48.600 to maybe do a postmortem with everyone. 01:58:52.760 --> 01:59:01.940 So, it became obvious by the end of Friday night that my legs were in pretty sad shape because of my boots. 01:59:05.440 --> 01:59:13.360 I didn't have tall socks, but the boots were tall and so it appears like it was rubbing against 01:59:13.380 --> 01:59:43.340 The sides of my legs causing a lot of blisters and sores. And there's one really nasty one down a little above the inside of my left ankle. And walking became difficult towards the end of Friday night. So Saturday I ditched the boots, went back to my mud 01:59:43.460 --> 01:59:46.820 covered shoes and 01:59:46.840 --> 01:59:47.000 uh 01:59:48.499 --> 01:59:49.780 definitely helped 01:59:50.680 --> 01:59:50.840 uh 01:59:51.420 --> 01:59:52.680 with getting around a bit 01:59:53.480 --> 01:59:53.660 uh 01:59:53.960 --> 01:59:55.100 but I was still in pretty 01:59:55.600 --> 01:59:57.300 pretty sad shape so uh 01:59:57.540 --> 02:00:00.500 I was leaning and sitting whenever I had the opportunity 02:00:02.100 --> 02:00:02.480 um 02:00:06.219 --> 02:00:07.060 and uh 02:00:09.440 --> 02:00:10.420 to be perfectly honest 02:00:10.740 --> 02:00:10.920 uh 02:00:12.699 --> 02:00:13.340 well 02:00:40.320 --> 02:00:42.980 But anyway, Saturday, 02:00:43.160 --> 02:01:08.740 In terms of bands, there were a lot of good bands on Saturday. We started off with Possessed, who sounded really good. I think I've mentioned before, bands from the 80s suffered a little bit from 80s production, which was kind of thin and tinny. There wasn't a lot of bass. 02:01:13.160 --> 02:01:43.120 So then when you see the band live, the sound's better. And, you know, it sure sounded like Possessed to me, but better than I'm used to from listening to the recordings, so that was really nice. There was a little bit of an overlap with this, so towards the end of the Possessed set, I had to head over to the Headbangers stage in the tent to check out 02:01:43.160 --> 02:02:13.120 Ahab. Because I was not going to miss Ahab. And they sounded amazing. But if you've listened to Ahab, you know they're a little slow. And more of a sit down, lay down, put on some headphones and chill out kind of thing. So it was... 02:02:13.160 --> 02:02:42.340 It was a little slow to watch them, but they sounded really good. So kudos to them. And we were going to go somewhere else, I thought. I think maybe we wandered out and got some food or something at that point. And came back. We were going to catch Oranoir, but we caught the tail end of Twilight Force, which they sounded really good. 02:02:43.160 --> 02:03:13.120 really cheesy as to be expected. But they sounded great and they had the tent packed. And then Oranoir came on and they sounded good too. I thought it was kind of funny. I thought the singer looked like a cross between Kronos of Venom and Andy Gibb of the Bee Gees. And Matt pointed out that there's maybe a little Ace Freely in there too. And I completely 02:03:13.160 --> 02:03:42.580 I agree with that. So despite the appearances, they sounded really good. And I think the next band I caught was Powerwolf. And I didn't get particularly close to them. In fact, I just stood sort of at the outer perimeter of the infield because it was packed. 02:03:45.620 --> 02:03:49.720 And, oh, that's what I was going to say, is the mud was a little better yesterday. 02:03:50.740 --> 02:03:59.500 Because, I don't know, maybe it's starting to dry out, or maybe it's just getting stomped down so much, but it wasn't quite as mucky. 02:04:00.040 --> 02:04:04.900 There was a lot of areas where the mud was just kind of dry and hard, and you could walk on it. 02:04:06.300 --> 02:04:09.080 And so I wasn't suffering from the lack of boots quite as much. 02:04:10.860 --> 02:04:40.320 But the entrance to the infield was still quite muddy. And so, given my footwear and my incapacitation, I felt best to not go in for Power Wolf. But they sounded amazing from, you know, I mean, they were on the big stage, so it was great wherever you were. Guy's voice is just incredible. Last two songs. I kept waiting for them to play the songs I wanted to hear. 02:04:40.860 --> 02:05:08.920 And I was like, God damn it, they're not playing the songs. And finally, the last two songs were Sanctified with Dynamite and We Drink Your Blood from the Blood of the Saints, I think is the name of the album. Killer album. I believe Eric was impressed with them. So that was cool. Let's see. 02:05:10.000 --> 02:05:37.720 I wanted to see Tanger Calvary, but did not manage to catch them. Caught the first few songs of the Alice Cooper set. And Alice, of course, sounded amazing. One of the last songs I heard was they played The World Needs Guts off of the Constrictor album, which one of my favorite Alice Cooper albums, one of my favorite Alice Cooper songs. 02:05:40.000 --> 02:06:09.280 You know, it's just a great song, you know, just suck it up and, you know, deal with it. The world needs guts. But at that point, it was time to head over and see Wolfheart. And that's funny because Wolfheart was playing on the Wackinger stage, which is this teeny little stage. Most of the folk bands were playing on here. 02:06:13.560 --> 02:06:39.640 And standing directly in front of the stage, you can still clearly hear Alice Cooper playing in the background. So I was like, all right, listen to that while we wait. And then Wolfheart came on, and they were good. And I think Matt was impressed with that and chalked them up as a band that he wanted to check out afterwards. 02:06:40.000 --> 02:07:06.560 So yeah, they were cool. Missed out on Primal Fear. At this point, the hordes were gathering for Amanomarth on the faster stage, which is one of the three larger stages. That's right. When we were leaving Powerwolf, 02:07:10.000 --> 02:07:15.380 playing. There were so many people. Every day 02:07:16.400 --> 02:07:18.600 you were like, oh my god, there's so many people. And every day 02:07:18.800 --> 02:07:19.580 there were even more. 02:07:24.800 --> 02:07:26.300 Vaken's broken up into sections. 02:07:26.620 --> 02:07:28.740 There's the infield, and there's the 02:07:28.780 --> 02:07:30.620 Vakenner village, and 02:07:31.300 --> 02:07:33.080 I can't remember the names of the other 02:07:33.880 --> 02:07:34.840 specific places, but 02:07:35.840 --> 02:07:37.580 there's stages over here and stages 02:07:37.720 --> 02:07:38.100 over here. 02:07:39.500 --> 02:08:07.680 And the infield was so full that you couldn't even get into Wackenier Village because the people were lined up so far back. I mean, we hadn't seen anything like this yet. And it was a chore to get to Wolfhard. Well, anyway, so now we're like trying to turn around and go back the other direction because we want to see a Monomarth. And there's just so many people. I mean, you know. 02:08:08.320 --> 02:08:34.620 And you're kind of torn on that because you're like, God damn it, all these fucking people in my way. But at the same time, you're like, but they're all metalheads. You know? And you just, it's like, wow. And so we just sort of stuck to the back perimeter for the Amonomarth. I actually, Chris found me some hay that I could sit down in for a bit and rest my legs. 02:08:36.720 --> 02:09:06.500 And it hasn't been that long since I've seen him on a Marth. So it was like, whatever. But then there's this song that they do with Doro. And obviously when I saw them before, you know, there was no Doro. But Doro was here. So surprise, surprise. I didn't even think about it. Out comes Doro to sing this song with them. And wow. You know. 02:09:08.400 --> 02:09:36.640 You can't ask for more than that. And man, Johan's voice sounds so big coming out of that, you know, from like half a mile away out of these huge speakers. He's just so deep and Viking and badass. It was pretty awesome. And the sun was starting to go down at that point, and it was getting really cold. 02:09:37.440 --> 02:10:06.320 You know, you think August, you don't expect it to be cold, but August in the evening in northern Germany is cold. And so I was freezing. So I remember seeing in Wachner Village, there was this like giant fire pit cage thing. So we went over there and warmed up for a little bit before heading into, 02:10:07.460 --> 02:10:35.820 into the tent again to check out Tankard. Because, well, none of us were particularly big Tankard fans. Tankard is a well-known classic German thrash band. Part of the big four of German thrash. You got to check it out. Well, you know, got to check them out in their home country, right? And they were good. You know, they sounded great. The crowd was into them. 02:10:36.700 --> 02:11:05.020 and beach balls flying around and stuff. But, you know, I didn't really know much of the material, but it thrashed pretty hard, so kudos. But the band after that was the final band of the evening for us, which is Creator. And so we didn't stick around for all of Tankard because we were like, you know, we saw what it was like for Monomarth. We better try and get there a little early. 02:11:06.480 --> 02:11:36.020 And yeah, for what that was worth, it was dark and it started raining right before the band went on. Just, you know, making it even more cold and miserable. So again, we stuck towards the back and, but boy, did they sound good. And, you know, those, those big ass stages lit up in the, in the darkness and the flaming bull head and the sound. The sound was incredible. 02:11:36.120 --> 02:11:39.740 I don't understand how these people have such amazing sound at Vaken. 02:11:40.680 --> 02:11:44.840 And in the U.S. our sound for practically everything sucks. 02:11:45.960 --> 02:11:51.420 So other than the sanctuary where the sound is cutting out, everything has sounded good here. 02:11:53.079 --> 02:11:56.500 So kudos to whoever runs the sound at Vaken. 02:11:56.610 --> 02:11:57.340 It is amazing. 02:12:00.400 --> 02:12:04.500 And so towards the end of the creator set, there was like a song or two left. 02:12:04.820 --> 02:12:32.260 We decided to beat the rush and start making our way back to our tents because we had to, you know, at this point it was like going on 1.30 and we still had to like get everything packed up and ready for the morning because we were getting up at like 5.30 so we only had like four hours before we had to get up and get going and get everything squared away and make it to our shuttle. 02:12:35.580 --> 02:13:03.520 We headed back and dealt with closing out lockers and things like that. Getting deposits back and got back to the tent and we chatted for a bit before turning in. And that was Valken. So anyway, yeah, this morning we got up and, you know, got everything together. 02:13:04.380 --> 02:13:33.520 Chris and I said our farewells to Matt and Eric, two of the greatest guys we could have ever had the pleasure and privilege of sharing the Valken experience with. You know, met for the first time in person and henceforth brothers of metal. You guys were awesome. Chris and I made our way to the shuttle. 02:13:34.740 --> 02:14:04.340 And went on our way. I had some... I'm back... I'm in Berlin now at the hotel. I had some difficulties getting here. My leg is a little more festery today. And I got back to the Hamburg airport. And... 02:14:04.380 --> 02:14:32.920 That was fine. Got on the train. I needed to go back to the Holiday Inn Express to pick up my luggage that they were holding for me. And the train would not go there. And I was like, okay, I can't get there this way. So I got off and I asked some questions and got partial answers and got back on the train and tried to go at it from another angle and I still couldn't get there. Turns out they closed down the station near the hotel. 02:14:33.340 --> 02:15:02.760 In like the four days that I was gone, they were like, it's shut down for construction or whatever. So there was no way to get there. So, so I'm standing a top sided Berlin or tour going, how the hell do I get to Lubecker Strasse? And trying to call my wife and her phone's not on. And I tried calling the hotel to see if they could. 02:15:03.900 --> 02:15:32.580 Like send a cab for me or something. That guy was an asshole. He didn't even. He's like, yeah, sure. I'll do that. More on that later. So I'm sitting there for like 15 minutes, no cab. And then I see this cab pull up and I'm like, oh, that must be my guy. And I'm like, hey, hey, waving. And he's like, oh, okay. And he gets out. And he's like, I was like, are you like picking me up? And he's like, 02:15:33.720 --> 02:15:37.520 I'm like alright well you know that's fine I mean can you take me to this and he's like yeah 02:15:38.600 --> 02:15:41.440 so I hop in and he has me hop in the front seat with him 02:15:42.640 --> 02:15:43.200 and uh 02:15:44.420 --> 02:15:46.460 and he's like you know so what are you doing here 02:15:47.560 --> 02:15:49.660 and I was like oh I went to this music festival 02:15:50.120 --> 02:15:51.520 uh up in uh 02:15:51.600 --> 02:15:52.980 and he was like Wacken 02:15:53.520 --> 02:15:55.200 and I was like yeah finally something 02:15:55.260 --> 02:15:57.300 this guy was like grey hair 02:15:57.720 --> 02:15:59.340 probably like early 60s 02:15:59.740 --> 02:16:00.660 maybe late 50s 02:16:02.900 --> 02:16:03.300 um 02:16:04.480 --> 02:16:33.240 And I wouldn't have pegged him for knowing metal. But he was like, yeah, I like Metallica. And, you know, yeah, Vakins, really cool. It was very muddy, yeah. And so I had this great conversation that, like, made the whole, like, trip debacle, like, worth it because he was such a nice guy. So kudos to him. And he got me to my hotel. I got my luggage. Found out, A, that I got in there. 02:16:33.320 --> 02:17:03.139 And the guy's like, oh, are you George? Yeah. He's like, sorry, I forgot to call you the cab. I'm like, yeah, fuck you, dick. Yeah, you just didn't want to do it. Not nearly as nice as the people that had been working there when I was staying there. This guy was a complete asshat. So I got another cab because this is where I determined that the train station was closed and it was not going to take me where I needed to go. So I took another cab to the Bonhoeff and the central. 02:17:03.320 --> 02:17:33.200 Station in Hamburg. And got a train ticket to Berlin. And other than pissing off an old German lady by telling her she was in my seat when she was in fact in her own seat and I was looking at the wrong one. And then proceeding to cough all over her for the duration of the trip to Berlin. It was an uneventful trip. Now I am here and I am looking forward to a shower and a bed. 02:17:35.180 --> 02:18:03.280 And I will report back later. At the very least, hopefully we can get Chris and Matt and Eric on and do some more recording. So, see ya. So, hello. I am here with the Valken Brotherhood. Please introduce yourselves. I'm Chris. I'm Matt. I'm Eric. And we have reconvened to discuss 02:18:04.159 --> 02:18:32.139 The Last Day of Aachen, which we didn't get to discuss, and just a general overall post-mortem of the festival. Thank you for coming back and joining us. Joining me, rather. Thanks for having us. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So, last I saw everyone, well, Chris, I saw at the Hamburg airport, and he was headed off to Prague. And you guys, we saw at the tents, and you were headed to Dublin. 02:18:33.320 --> 02:19:02.320 How was the rest of everybody's trip? I think we actually all spent the same amount of time-ish in Europe after Valken, because I think we all got home within a day of each other. So, Chris, how was the rest of your trip? It was good. It was family stuff for the most part, and seeing my grandma, who I don't get to see a lot, who just turned 96 or 94, I think. That's up there. 02:19:03.320 --> 02:19:04.760 So that was intense. 02:19:06.429 --> 02:19:08.840 And I met up with my parents and my sister there. 02:19:09.130 --> 02:19:09.500 Oh, cool. 02:19:10.260 --> 02:19:13.740 Yeah, so we just did a bunch of, you know, check stuff. 02:19:14.340 --> 02:19:19.080 Got to eat a lot of good food and see some countryside and some castles. 02:19:19.700 --> 02:19:25.360 Did you see that giant, ugly TV tower that looks like it's from Star Wars? 02:19:26.440 --> 02:19:26.820 The what now? 02:19:27.519 --> 02:19:29.219 Some sort of TV tower in Prague. 02:19:30.840 --> 02:20:00.380 It's this giant tower and it's like got misshapen things in the middle. It looks like something out of Star Wars personally. My wife was in Prague while we were evoking. And so she brought back all these pictures and prominent in many of them is this strange tower. Yeah. It's like a thing that has like a gondola you can take up to it, I think. So it's a tourist attraction because you can see like really nice views of the city. 02:20:00.480 --> 02:20:30.400 from up there, I guess. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah. But, uh, I don't know much about it. Yeah. It was cool. She went to some wineries and like the castle and things like that, but yeah, right on. It's very pretty, very pretty. Lots of, uh, cheap and good beer. That's what she said. In fact, uh, we just picked up, uh, some, uh, Pilsner or Kel last night in honor of her trip there. Eric, is that 02:20:30.440 --> 02:20:31.540 A Valken mug? 02:20:33.720 --> 02:20:34.180 Hey! 02:20:35.040 --> 02:21:02.860 It is. Nice. I'm going to see you get down in the Skype night tonight. Did you bring any Jaeger or Monster Vodka? I failed. I really did fail in that regard. Look at that. Yeah, it looks weird. Yeah, that says Valkinger. Yeah, I didn't notice that. I didn't know there were different ones, and I have two, and I was like, hey, they're different. 02:21:03.860 --> 02:21:33.700 So, like, one of them's got the brownish, tannish, and the other one's, like, more of a gray metallic-looking thing. So. Yeah. It holds a lot of beer. You still drinking Bex from it? No. So, uh, I didn't hear anything on the news about Dublin running out of beer. How was, uh, how was your guys' trip? It's fabulous. Yeah? Yeah. 02:21:33.840 --> 02:22:03.760 Yeah. I would say from the moment we got picked up from the airport, we were having a good time. Our cab driver just kind of gave us the rundown and going to the hotel. And we had told him we were in northern Germany for the festival. And I believe he equated it saying, you know, Germans will get things done faster, but the Irish, we have a much better sense of humor. And I do remember Eric asked him, like, is there any other beer we should drink besides Guinness? And he's just like, all you need is the fucking Guinness. And so, I mean, we stuck to that. 02:22:03.860 --> 02:22:33.740 pretty well. Yeah. Um, cool. Yeah. It was fabulous. Dublin is great. I would, I would recommend it to anybody. I still need to get there. It's really all they drink, right? I mean, like when I was there, it's basically in every pub and then they have like three other like stouts that you can get, but it's so pervasive. It really, it really did seem amazing where it was literally the kind of the people's beer. Yeah. Walk into a bar in America, 02:22:33.860 --> 02:23:02.860 an order of Budweiser, you're kind of the odd man out. Yeah. But over there... There's no choices for, like, really other beers. Definitely no American beers or anything like that. Right. I mean, there was... Yeah, go ahead, her. Oh, go ahead, buddy. I mean, we had to venture off the path a little bit. I know, Eric, I'll let you talk about the drink you proposed at numerous places. But, you know, I had an IPA, a few different IPAs. Honest. 02:23:03.860 --> 02:23:33.640 after six Guinnesses in a row, you've got to try something else. And, you know, the beer was good. But again, I just kind of found myself going right back to the Guinness, just kind of the win in Rome thing. Yeah. Did any of you see any people that looked like they might have been at Valken after you left Valken? I saw some in Berlin. And I saw at least one in Stockholm that was sporting a Valken shirt. 02:23:35.159 --> 02:24:03.820 I did too. All the way in the airport and on my plane and all the way to Prague. Yeah. That's cool. 100,000 people. Makes sense. They got to go somewhere. I bet we had 10 on our flight. Oh, yeah. To Dublin. Yeah. Wow. That's so cool. There's just so many different people from different countries there. It was crazy. Did you guys stay in Dublin? Did you go anywhere else? Well, we decided we didn't drink enough in 02:24:04.380 --> 02:24:33.760 So we decided to go to Amsterdam for the night as well. We did that the last night. And Eno's. Go ahead, buddy. I was just saying, we hit the highlights, I think, is the best way to say it. Yeah. We also found an American craft beer bar. And so I'd say three quarters. There is like 20 to 30 taps and the majority of them were American craft beer. And I don't even want to know how many bottles they had. They were probably. 02:24:34.819 --> 02:24:40.040 I would say hundreds. But our rule was we weren't going to drink any American beer there. So we had some good 02:24:40.739 --> 02:24:54.320 Netherlandcraft beer. We had the mixture of the bar itself had a brewery. It brewed its own beer. And they did a collaboration with Stone Berlin. So that was probably the closest we got to any American beer. But yeah, that was a great time. 02:24:54.740 --> 02:24:57.320 I drank a lot of German beer. 02:24:58.780 --> 02:24:59.540 Other than Beck's. 02:25:01.260 --> 02:25:01.860 Particularly in Berlin. 02:25:02.820 --> 02:25:32.780 We ended up spending a lot longer in Berlin than we had anticipated. And so I had the opportunity to hit a few different places. Yeah, the rest of my trip kind of sucked, actually. I'm ready to rock and roll. What's that? Are you up and walking again? Yeah. So to give an update on my leg, the last thing I recorded was when I got to go. 02:25:32.840 --> 02:26:02.780 to Berlin and I was like yeah it's kind of iffy and so the day that the well I got into Berlin in the afternoon did you know went out and did some stuff went to dinner went to bed and then walked all around Berlin the next day and by the end of that day my leg you know the little line you drew around it for like pink it was like practically up to my knee 02:26:02.820 --> 02:26:32.740 Like my whole leg was red and inflamed and it just looked really bad. So I ended up, uh, the hotel in Berlin. I was like, Hey, I think I need a doctor. And so they gave me like a general practitioner's number. And I went there like the next morning and I'm like, and I had to walk. I went downstairs, tried to get a taxi and the taxi guy's like, it's just down there. Just walk it. And I'm like, and it was like a 20 minute walk. Um, which is not, 02:26:32.820 --> 02:26:59.400 It's bad if you have two good legs. And I get there, and they have one of those really old-timey elevators where you, like, you know, pull the door back, and it, like, goes, and you go up. So I was like, I'm taking the stairs. So I get up to the fourth floor, and I get in to see the doctor, and he's like, hey, okay, we'll take, you know, look at it. He had some okay English. And I take off my bandage, and he's like, whoa! 02:27:02.800 --> 02:27:31.820 And he brings in the nurse and she's like, whoa. And they're like, we can't help you. You need to go to see a surgeon to have this cleaned out and remove some of this nasty skin and get it patched up. And so they referred me to a surgeon another 10 blocks away. So I went to see him. He didn't have hardly any English. He had Spanish pretty well, but I don't have Spanish either. 02:27:31.880 --> 02:27:59.820 So we tried using this Google Translate app on my phone to talk. And basically he was like, you need to go to the ER. He's like, I can't help you either. At this point, I'm going, okay, they're going to hack this thing off of me. I know it. It's nasty. It's infected. Because it's very red. It didn't seem infected to me, but it was definitely angry. 02:28:02.859 --> 02:28:31.820 So I get to the ER and I'm there for like five hours. I saw like four other doctors because they were all like taking pictures of me and like bringing in other people going, look at this shit. But they were like, don't worry about it. It's not infected. It's just we're not quite sure what the fuck is going on here. And they were like, because not only did I have that sore, 02:28:31.820 --> 02:29:01.580 on my leg, but pretty much everything from ankles to knee was now turning red and blistery. And the dermatologist, who was the last guy I saw, was like, I think you were allergic to the boots themselves. Because he's like, you're just blanketed from ankle to knee in horrible things. I was like, you think? All right, well, anyway, once they told me I got to keep my leg, they didn't. 02:29:01.600 --> 02:29:31.560 They want to give me antibiotics because it wasn't infected, but they gave me a bunch of antiseptic and stuff like that. Oh, but the best part was they're like, when are you flying home? And I was like, tomorrow? And they're like, you should not fly for like a week to let this heal. And I was like, yeah, I can't really do that. So they're like, they're like thinking, they're like, all right, well, this is what I'm going to do. 02:29:31.580 --> 02:30:01.560 what we're going to do. We're going to give you these needles and you're going to inject yourself in the stomach with antithrombosis drugs to keep you from coagulating while you're on the flight so that you won't get, you know, while it's trying to fix your leg, it's not making blood clots and killing you. Jesus. So before two of my three flights, I had to go into the airport bathroom, pull up my shirt and stab myself in an 02:30:01.600 --> 02:30:30.820 Injected myself with anything before. It was a little nerve wracking. But I did alright. And I made it home. And now the leg wound is down to like the size of a nickel. So. Sweet. So we're going again next year? I don't think I got the okay for that. How did your wife take all this? Not. 02:30:34.859 --> 02:31:01.400 We ended up missing Copenhagen because of this. Because I was stuck in Berlin. And a day in Stockholm. So we really only had like half a day in Stockholm. But got a great story out of it. The cool thing, Berlin is really beautiful. I did enjoy that. I suppose after a few days. 02:31:02.300 --> 02:31:31.540 Yeah, I mean, I walked everywhere in Berlin, which was kind of crazy because of all the places I had to go. And it's really nice. I liked it a lot. Some of the people were not as nice as I would have liked, but most of them were pretty awesome. So two thumbs up to Germany. Sweden was fucking expensive. Glad we didn't stay there longer, man. It was like $20 for like a, you know, like order of like, 02:31:31.600 --> 02:31:34.240 cheese fries or something you know just an appetizer it was crazy 02:31:35.760 --> 02:31:41.340 i had like uh swedish meatballs and a beer and my wife had like a soup and it was like 50 bucks 02:31:43.500 --> 02:31:46.200 yeah so sweden is expensive 02:31:48.520 --> 02:31:58.340 so uh anyway enough about my stupid ass leg um so i wanted to cover the last day of wachen uh i talked 02:31:58.360 --> 02:32:25.900 about it a little bit when I got to Berlin, but I didn't get anybody else's take on the day. So I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to give us all a little order, an order for going. So why don't we start with Chris, go into Matt, and then we'll go to Eric. Do we need to pull up a list of the bands? I think so. I don't even remember what the last name was. For me, it's all sort of a blur. Yeah. 02:32:28.100 --> 02:32:57.740 I remember Creator, vaguely. So, okay. So, first band that I went to see and I think I dragged you guys to was Possessed. Yes. And I thought that sounded pretty darn good. Pretty darn good. Sorry, that's, yeah. That's my... I speak in Midwestern for you. Yes, thank you. 02:33:01.680 --> 02:33:27.660 Didn't we watch them from the Jagger deer? Is that what you guys did? Yeah, I was down. I was over at the railing being pathetic. But then I also snuck off and got some crepes with Nutella. So that wasn't so bad. Yum. Yeah, I can't stop thinking about that stuff. And that was so good. The food was awesome. Yeah, I'm upset. I did not go for the crepe. I should have known. 02:33:28.100 --> 02:33:57.560 I was running out of time. Yeah. I was happy with my 12-inch wiener. Did you see my caption of your photo? I loved it. Eric loves the wieners. Wait, did you do a blog post? Yeah. You didn't see that? It was a whole long-ass blog post. No, no, no. Did you use any of my picks? I think one or two. 02:33:58.100 --> 02:34:27.600 It was up, like, I was updating it at the festival. So I haven't done anything with the big batch of photos you sent yet because I just haven't done anything since I got back. But yeah, I was thinking maybe I should put, like, a gallery or something up on, like, Facebook or the webpage or something for all these pictures. Eric, how many of those wieners did you have? How many wieners did you have at Valken? Not enough. 02:34:28.100 --> 02:34:55.280 That is the correct answer. I think I ate four or five of them at least. Wow. Didn't you relph one of them out? What's that? Didn't you relph after one of them? Or something bad happened. Right? Something happened and you were like, yeah, I can't have that anymore. Yeah, I remember you saying that. Really? Yeah. The next morning something bad happened or something. I don't know. 02:34:58.100 --> 02:35:28.020 I ordered the freaking tuna fish pizza. That was the last night. That was awesome. That was the last night. That was like ordering drunk food. Tuna fish pizza, which who the fuck puts tuna on pizza? Who the hell orders it? Old pork. As a food mistake goes, that was it. 02:35:29.520 --> 02:35:56.260 Of course, I still ate the whole thing. As far as wieners go, man, I couldn't get enough wiener. Those were delicious. Yeah. The food there was amazing. Yeah. I haven't really eaten meat since I got back. Well, I have, but... You might actually be able to... I agree. I've been eating a lot of tofu and trying to cure myself after that onslaught. It was pretty brutal. Yeah. 02:35:58.080 --> 02:36:27.680 Speaking of brutal... No, sorry. Especially those, like, pork knuckles I had. God. Was that the, like, the leg on the bone thing? Yeah, that was nasty looking. Oh, yeah. That's so delicious. I can understand how it probably tasted good, but, you know, by the, by, like, my last day in Berlin, my leg kind of looked like that thing. I told my wife that. I was like, it's kind of looked, we were at, uh, 02:36:28.340 --> 02:36:56.160 We were at a German beer house. The walls open up and there's just tables and fruleins and St. Pauli girl outfits and stuff. And people were ordering these big giant ham hock things. And I was like, that looks like my leg. I was like, there's no way I could eat something like that now. Because it has that crusty, nasty look. 02:36:56.220 --> 02:36:56.560 You know 02:36:58.319 --> 02:36:58.760 Honestly 02:36:58.970 --> 02:37:01.180 I hate to go back to the leg again 02:37:01.250 --> 02:37:04.080 But I think what it really just needed was to be able to be 02:37:04.490 --> 02:37:04.900 To breathe 02:37:06.260 --> 02:37:08.400 You know putting these bandages on it every day 02:37:08.430 --> 02:37:09.080 It couldn't heal 02:37:09.660 --> 02:37:11.960 As soon as I got home and just left it open 02:37:12.130 --> 02:37:14.240 It like crushed it over like that day 02:37:14.420 --> 02:37:15.120 And it started healing 02:37:15.740 --> 02:37:16.160 So 02:37:17.800 --> 02:37:18.240 Yeah 02:37:19.759 --> 02:37:21.840 And looking like you know pork leg 02:37:26.340 --> 02:37:51.040 Getting back to the bands, the next band that I think we saw was Ahab. And I was really keen on seeing them. What is with Keen and Darn? I don't know. But I really wanted to see these guys. And they did not disappoint. However, I believe it might have been Eric. 02:37:51.860 --> 02:38:20.380 or maybe it was Matt said that is very slow. And it's kind of hard to sit there and watch that. I'm used to listening to it with headphones on kicked back in a chair or in bed or something. And it was hard to stand there and watch them. That was me. That's been my take on, as you guys know, I'm kind of a, I don't know, a real virgin, right? A what? Yeah, a metal virgin, right? Okay, yeah. 02:38:21.340 --> 02:38:50.380 You know, as far as things go. And Doom, I have discovered over the past two Valkens and just a little more listening, for me, is just... It's too slow. Boring. I think you're trying to say boring. Screw you guys. Hey, you know, everybody's got their tastes. You know, I've got fast music for fast times and slow music for slow times. 02:38:51.160 --> 02:38:59.280 I think Matt had a band after that. It's not on my list. It was that like Steak something, Steak 8. 02:39:00.120 --> 02:39:00.980 Oh, Steak No. 8. 02:39:01.060 --> 02:39:02.740 Steak No. 8. We caught part of that. 02:39:03.860 --> 02:39:19.540 We kind of hung out outside to cool off and found out. Yeah, I mean, it was one of those deals where I listened to as many bands on the Valken bill as I could pre-show. And it all just, of course, just got mixed up in my head. 02:39:19.740 --> 02:39:49.260 And for some reason I was thinking they were something else. But I feel like they ended up being kind of like a post-metal. And I actually enjoyed them. Yeah, I was trying to remember the name so I could check out some of their music. So, yeah, I'll have to look that up. I remember them. They were good. Yeah, they were. I mean, the singer had like a polka dot shirt on and it was kind of Weezer looking. Their dress was interesting. 02:39:51.699 --> 02:40:19.220 Reminis and the Clawfinger. Yeah. When did you see them? Was that that day? Or was that the day before? Friday, wasn't it? Was it Friday? All right. Clawfinger? Yeah, that was during the total rain. Yeah. Early afternoon. Okay. I think we might have wandered off for like food or beer or something like that. Either that or it's a band that's not on my list. 02:40:19.740 --> 02:40:44.880 I know we came back to the tent, caught the very end of Twilight Force, who were totally nerding out with their fantasy metal. I was a little disappointed not to see a little bit more of that, but it's also pretty saccharine, so you can only take so much, maybe. But after that was Oranoir. 02:40:47.940 --> 02:40:52.260 Anybody want to comment on that, particularly Chris? You're probably the biggest fan. 02:40:54.620 --> 02:41:17.840 I haven't really been a huge R&O fan just because, I don't know, I never really quite understood what they were going for. Black and Thrash isn't really my thing. Usually I like dingy production and stuff, but for some reason it just didn't work for me for their records. But after seeing them live, I feel like it sort of all clicked for me, so I'm actually excited. 02:41:17.860 --> 02:41:47.520 I had to go back and re-listen to a lot of that stuff. Yeah. Because live they sounded sick. Just, you know, really ballsy. And their look was amazing. Yeah. That whole, that whole, like, go ahead. I was going to say that whole, uh, uh, okay, I totally blanked on it now. The, the Andy Gibb plus, uh, Kronos plus, uh, Ace Frehley look he had going on. Plus Glenn Benton. Yep. Yeah. I had certainly a Lemmy vibe. 02:41:47.840 --> 02:42:17.820 from him and like that's sort of what made sense to me like it's I feel like overall that band is sort of like an homage to like Venom slash Motorhead on steroids with black metal elements you know yeah yep and the front man Carl Michael you know he's a legend and what shocked me was that he was walking around he usually is using crutches and 02:42:18.319 --> 02:42:46.860 Like with virus and stuff, he always performs on sitting on a stool and stuff because he was in an accident a while ago. So it seems like he's on the mend, but it's been like, I don't know, almost like six or seven years since that happened. I thought it was even more than that. Maybe. I thought it was like 20 years ago. Really? That was a while ago. Yeah, I guess you're right because he didn't play on, he used to play drums for Dunham's Garden. His last one with them was, was it Internet? 02:42:50.119 --> 02:43:17.280 Yeah, so maybe it was longer ago. So yeah, but it seems like he's doing better. So it's awesome. That's good. Anytime you see somebody walking that wasn't walking. Advocating. Yeah, I think at the same time is when the Roots extravaganza was happening. So the whole time, I did want to catch a part of that, but I'm really glad I didn't because I suck it out. 02:43:17.360 --> 02:43:47.320 I love that whole set on the wire and then when I got to see what was happening with the Reet stuff I was glad I abstained what'd you guys think of that I didn't catch much I didn't recognize most of it I did catch that little bit of a was that desperate cry that they played for like 10 seconds yeah yeah I mean it seemed like I don't know maybe I should just keep quiet 02:43:47.340 --> 02:44:16.240 No, man. Hate, hate, hate. I was looking forward to it. That record was huge when I was in high school. It felt ultimately like a cash grab to me. It's just him and Igor up there for most of it. It seems like half of it was just them fucking around on drums. That's Roots for you. I saw the Roots tour. 02:44:17.340 --> 02:44:44.880 It was the one time I saw Sepultura. And it was all drums. Drums this, drums that. There was a lot of stuff on that record. I didn't even really recognize if they were playing anything straight up from the record with the percussion stuff or if they were just straight up fucking around or what. But yeah, I don't know. I wasn't impressed. I mean, for me, it was exactly what I thought it would be. 02:44:48.160 --> 02:45:15.900 It was probably the first Sepulteral my new was Roots and coming into them. It kind of weirded me out that they didn't play it front to back. They kind of mixed everything up. I think the favorite thing I had was, I think, Chris, I said something to you about them playing, I wish they would have played something like Orgasmatron, and you're like, yeah, I think they played a few seconds of it. And I was like, well, I'm glad I was paying attention. Even doing the desperate cry, I totally missed that, too. So, kicking myself. 02:45:16.080 --> 02:45:46.000 But yeah, I mean, I think it's just their way to try and have that piece of Sepultura. I mean, I'm pretty sure that the band itself was everybody that's either in Soulfly or Cavarella Conspiracy. So, I mean, it wasn't any other, you know, new members. So... I'm trying to find the... You know, they updated the website with Next Year already, and so, like, all the shit's gone, and you can't find out who was playing. So I'm trying to find it. 02:45:46.080 --> 02:46:15.080 Oh, you know what was cool, though? When they did actually play Roots, the song, they played it like black metal style. Did you notice that? It was totally bizarre because, you know, like the whole thing is like that groove. I didn't notice that. Yeah, the first at least half of it, they played it like as if it was like a Dark Throne type of thing, like the slow blast beat and stuff. It was super weird. Kind of cool. Yeah. I agree. There's like literally no record. 02:46:16.100 --> 02:46:17.520 of who played when. 02:46:17.640 --> 02:46:19.220 I think I'm on a mic. 02:46:19.400 --> 02:46:20.340 Is that or something? 02:46:21.460 --> 02:46:23.360 Yeah, even Wikipedia was late this year. 02:46:23.420 --> 02:46:25.600 Because normally they'll give you a good rundown on there. 02:46:25.900 --> 02:46:30.920 But it was more like a quick, didn't even list all the bands itself. 02:46:31.360 --> 02:46:34.760 Yeah, it was just sort of a summary. 02:46:35.880 --> 02:46:36.780 I'm like, come on. 02:46:37.840 --> 02:46:38.220 Ah, well. 02:46:38.860 --> 02:46:40.420 I'm just going to have to work with my list. 02:46:41.040 --> 02:46:41.640 Is it on an app? 02:46:42.000 --> 02:46:42.760 You still have the app? 02:46:43.060 --> 02:46:43.840 The app is empty. 02:46:44.460 --> 02:47:14.420 I just looked at the app and it's not there anymore. Yeah. Nothing. Shoot. The running order's gone. Sands of time have swallowed fucking 2017. There should be a statute of limitations. Yeah. All right. Well, my personal schedule has Power Wolf up next. And I know I at least was there for all of their set. Though I was pathetically limitless. 02:47:14.500 --> 02:47:44.380 around just outside the infield. Going from trying to get a spot on the railing to sitting in the P-MUD. Chris came over and found me at some point and he looks at me just like shaking his head going, you're sitting in the P-MUD. And I'm like, I don't care. It's unavoidable, really. It is. It is. Yeah, Power Wolf, I wasn't familiar with them at all. 02:47:44.840 --> 02:48:14.060 I was just digging a hot dog or something. Yeah, no, I dug them. And I spent the whole set waiting for them to play one of two songs. And I'm like, come on, man, are they going to play them or not? They're not going to play them. That sucks. And then the last two songs are the two songs I was waiting for. So that was awesome. They sounded great. Awesome power metal. And I tried selling Eric on them. I don't know what ultimately you thought of them. No, I did. I liked Power Wolf. 02:48:14.120 --> 02:48:44.080 So we had seen them two years ago. In 2015, we saw Power Wolf. And two years ago was my first time hearing Power Wolf, and I was absolutely just blown away by the show. They're just, I don't know, when they're up there playing, it's just, it's like bigger than the festival, bigger than the stage, just awesome. That dude's voice is so huge. Yeah, it just tracks. It hits you. And this year, I thought the same thing. 02:48:44.460 --> 02:49:14.100 I wasn't quite as impressed this year as I was two years ago when I saw it. But that was still, I don't know, one of my maybe top five. I still really enjoyed it. Shortly after Powerwolf left the stage, Alice Cooper started up on the adjacent stage. Right. And we were starting to go, I was like, hey, I want to go see Wolfheart. So let's try and make our way into 02:49:14.140 --> 02:49:41.960 Wachner Village. And holy shit were there a lot of people. I think Eric was leading the way there. I mean, it was people just stacked up like sardines all the way into Wachner Village. There was just so many people there. It felt like all 1,000 people were standing there watching Alice Cooper and we were trying to move against the flow and get out of it. Yeah, and everybody's just looking at you like, where are you going? Right, right. 02:49:44.120 --> 02:50:14.080 I expected it to be Alice Cooper that everybody in the city cleared out for, you know, came in to watch. I would have thought that for some other bands, but, you know, good on them for it. Yeah. I think from that point on, it was pretty much like that the rest of the evening for the most part. Yeah. And we went to see Wolfhard at the, it was the Wackiner stage, which was very teeny. And I wasn't sure what to expect. I've, I've, 02:50:14.140 --> 02:50:42.340 They've got all their albums, and they're good and all, but you never know. But I thought they sounded pretty good. And they brought out that weird dude. I can't remember the void of the cult or cult of the void or some... This guy all decked out in corpse paint and antlers and full true cult black metal to the hilt. 02:50:44.140 --> 02:50:45.740 who sang on a song with them. 02:50:46.330 --> 02:50:49.600 And then afterward, we saw him off to the side with his headdress off texting. 02:50:51.360 --> 02:50:53.820 It's kind of demystifying. 02:50:57.119 --> 02:51:00.140 He's kind of like looking at people like, stop looking at me. 02:51:00.440 --> 02:51:01.460 I'm not using a phone. 02:51:05.880 --> 02:51:08.100 I think I enjoyed Wolfheart. 02:51:08.220 --> 02:51:13.760 Wolfheart was kind of like my discovery band at Bakken this year in the sense that I didn't even know who they were. 02:51:15.459 --> 02:51:42.840 And I honestly really dug getting to see them on that smaller stage. I mean, I like to see at least one band on every stage. And for them to be that band on that small, more intimate stage, while the entire rest of the campground was watching Alice Cooper was, I don't know, I thought that was a good experience. Yeah. I'm glad that, you know, I felt guilty sometimes, like dragging you guys around going, hey, I want to go see this band. And then, you know, it's like Ahab. And you're like, ah, you know. 02:51:46.340 --> 02:51:47.340 And I'm like, oh. 02:51:49.779 --> 02:51:54.120 But, so I was glad that one of the bands panned out at least. 02:51:54.840 --> 02:52:11.020 So the guy from Wolfheart, the main guy, was in another band before that called Before the Dawn, which was like a melodic death metal band, which Wolfheart sort of is, but it's kind of blackish too. 02:52:13.420 --> 02:52:42.180 So I knew him from that band who had, let's see, how many albums did they have? One, two, three, four, five, six, like seven albums. So he's been around a while. So I was going to say, you know, if you like the Wolfheart and you haven't heard Before the Dawn, you might like to check that out too. Will do. Who was next? One of the other bands on smaller stages. What was the name of that? 02:52:42.200 --> 02:53:10.200 All Girls ACDC cover band that we saw on the small stage behind them. Hell's Bells? Hell's Bells. That's right. Turns out that really wasn't a cover band at all. No. No? No. No. They didn't play and they wore very big clothes and it was still incredibly entertaining. Oh, wasn't that the stripper thing? That's exactly what it was. Yeah, it was. Yeah, I didn't get to see that. 02:53:12.180 --> 02:53:40.900 I think I'm sorry I couldn't help but bring it up because the Wachner stage is right across from I believe that's the Wasteland stage. Wasteland. Yep. So we saw them. I just couldn't help but think that we got to see something on the Wasteland stage as well. That's what I expected. It's entertaining. Yeah, exactly. They didn't play any ACDC. No. Wasn't the Wasteland stage the one that kept shooting fire? 02:53:42.200 --> 02:54:12.120 That one? Yes. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Which feels good at two o'clock in the morning. Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely cool that last evening. So I think after Wolfheart, we wandered over back into the infield-ish area because Aman and Marth was getting ready to play. Yep. Chris found me a nice little spot of hay to fall down in and be pathetic for a while. But the sound was great. And it was really cool that Doro came out and sang that. 02:54:12.200 --> 02:54:42.100 song with them. The duet song they have from the last album. Any Amanomar thoughts? Chris shakes his head. He's like, boo. That's right, he was pretty down on them at the time. Talking about Saturday, right? That's when Emperor was? No, that was Friday. The Emperor was Friday. Why aren't we talking about Friday? 02:54:43.460 --> 02:55:09.260 I don't know. I guess we didn't talk about it. I talked about it. We can do that. Because I'm going to do a highlight. So you can just talk about whatever. But there was two more bands that I recall from Saturday that we saw. One of them was Tankard back at the tent. And that was when Eric and I went out to use the bathroom and we saw the dude fall in the piss mud. 02:55:12.200 --> 02:55:42.040 That was so awful. You know, pretty much everybody pees everywhere at Wagen. Literally, like just about everywhere somebody has peed. And pretty much any sort of fence or like barrier has been peed on. And this guy was like peeing on this fence and it was all muddy and nasty. But then there are other people over there peeing on it, too. And we come walking out and we see the guy go whoop whoop. And he just goes down like sideways with his hands in the air. Boom! Right into the piss mud. 02:55:44.500 --> 02:56:10.220 At least it was his own piss. What was that? Yeah. Giant trough was secured to that thing and it fell down right in the mud underneath it. And then the best thing was when he stood up he had to put his hand on the trough to push himself up out of it. And that thing was full of crap. He was like waving his hands like trying to get it off. 02:56:12.180 --> 02:56:41.180 I wonder if he ran straight for the communal showers at that point. Yeah, I think that was the most awful thing. Yeah, I don't think there was anything worse than that. It's like a heat and sanitizer bath. Yeah. Right after. Yeah. That's pretty gross. Yeah. Well, you know. Especially on the last day, even the shitters that had the attendance, those poor girls. The piss girls. Yeah. 02:56:42.180 --> 02:57:10.440 This girl was like towards the end of the set, they just gave up. I just saw them like sitting outside. Dejected. Like, I am never going to stop smelling of this. Yeah. You know, I should point out that the majority of the clothing that I brought was deemed unfit for further existence by my wife when I got to Berlin. You know, obviously, I threw out my boots, obviously. 02:57:12.180 --> 02:57:41.100 The shoes that I wore, I threw out when I got to Berlin. Because I got my suitcase and got a pair of regular shoes. My shorts that I wear every day, gone. My hat, my beautiful Metal Heads podcast custom hat, gone. She wanted to throw out the Emperor shirt too. And I was like, oh, and the Bathory. I was like, no. I had to draw the line somewhere. But it was bad, you know. It's pretty stinky. 02:57:41.100 --> 02:58:09.540 The vest. No, but we were talking about trying to clean it, and there's just no way to do it. I was like, just spray it with some Febrezen. Stick it outside for a while. Dry cleaner? No, one of my past jackets from the way back, we tried dry cleaning it, and it came back funky. It took all the color out of it and messed up the patches. Nope, you just got to deal with it. 02:58:11.120 --> 02:58:36.220 The Vest is now anointed in the blood of the Holy Land. It is a holy relic. So the last band of the last night was Creator. And Chris and Eric tried to get closer. Did you get very much closer? Oh, we did. Yeah? It was raining out. Yeah. 02:58:44.419 --> 02:59:10.240 And then we made it all the way up front for the last three or four songs. Yeah, it was surprising. I thought that whole area would be completely jammed, but it was fairly open. I don't know if people started leaving early or what, but it was pretty easy to get up front. I think this is going to show up on here, but I do have a picture. I'll have to send it in. 02:59:11.120 --> 02:59:40.960 I'll see if anybody can see this. So, uh, this is a picture of, of when Chris and I are coming back and we've had plenty to drink. Yeah. This is you squatting next to a fence over here. Matt. Yeah. You leaning up against the fence in the back, like back there. Nice. And, and what's funny is I had, uh, press access. So I had VIP access and the whole, 02:59:41.100 --> 03:00:11.080 I never knew where to go and nobody I asked could tell me where I was supposed to go and that right there the very last band I am leaning on the railing going into the VIP press area that we finally found I'm like oh thanks thanks for telling me now oh my god that whole time you could have gone in there like showered I have no idea what's in there I mean I expect it was like dancing girls and like free beer and things like that because you know yeah yeah I'm sure emperor was up there the whole time just 03:00:11.560 --> 03:00:41.080 Right, right. You know, offering guitar lessons and... Instead, you were stuck in the piss mud with us. Yeah. I did not abandon you, even for the last band. For the record, I was just working on intimidating squat poses, like a hip-hop artist or something like that, trying to look cool. Well, I was feeling a little vindicated by the fact that you obviously seemed tired and cold and wet, too. And I'm like, I'm not the only... 03:00:42.720 --> 03:01:11.000 But at the same time, that's too bad because that means somebody else is suffering as well. But, you know, misery loves company, so I appreciated it. Cheers. That alcohol cures all is, I think, what we were doing at that point. At least I was. Yeah, Chris was pretty toasty at that point, too. He was, like, toasty most of that day, actually. Yeah, honestly, like, the second half of that day, I was really starting to run out of steam. 03:01:11.100 --> 03:01:37.620 And things were starting to sort of irritate me. And I just made a conscious choice. I'm like, okay, I'm either going to have a shitty time and just bear it, or I'm going to remember this to be awesome. So I just started drinking a lot more. And it worked. Liquid happiness. All in. Yeah, I probably should have done that. 03:01:41.100 --> 03:02:11.080 I liked talking about the whole like you know German beer and not giving you a hangover thing yet I was playing it safe because of having to get up early and I'm like why would I do that I already knew that the beer wasn't going to hurt me it was my friend so I should have just gone with it it's true yeah I didn't really feel all that shitty even like on the third day yeah how'd you feel when we left well that's what I mean like I'm you know the morning of the third day that's when I felt the worst for sure because I was hanging out with Eric when I just 03:02:12.760 --> 03:02:41.040 So it wasn't just beer. No, because we found the Monster Energy Bar and bad things happened in there. I mean, I would agree the night we found it, I think during Manson, we hung out there for most of that set. And yeah, I definitely felt a little different that morning than any other mornings. Which isn't a bad thing. That'll do it. And you know, I have a new Facebook friend based on that guy that we met. 03:02:41.120 --> 03:03:10.520 whose birthday it was. Yeah, Thomas. Yeah, Thomas is a great guy. Very nice. He Facebook messaged me to make sure we got home okay. That's nice. Where is he from? I thought he was very kind. Was he German? He's what? Yep. Nice. Everybody was super friendly. That was like the coolest part, I thought. Everybody was in a great mood. 03:03:12.080 --> 03:03:39.640 It was like a microcosm of this utopian world. It was like everybody from all around the world coming together, being friendly. I mean, I didn't see any fights or arguing. People got loud and obnoxious. Played obnoxious shit until 3 a.m. in the morning. Cantina band. Cantina band. 03:03:39.980 --> 03:04:08.880 I posted that up on the... I found the actual German version of that where they're talking and I put that up on the Facebook and on the... Yeah, that was how I knew it was it. I was like, that's definitely the one. And some other assholes in a different tent did the same thing the next night with something else, like some awful, weird Western song. You guys remember that? 03:04:09.980 --> 03:04:38.400 Is that a German thing? I thought it was like some Spanish music or something. Weird people. Yeah. It was though. It's such a cool environment. I remember Stu and I went to Iron Maiden, what was that buddy, what a month ago? June, yeah, late June. And I remember just the feel there and he was even brought up and he said, you know, this is, 03:04:39.980 --> 03:04:42.680 if the world was run by metalheads, we'd just drink beer. 03:04:43.500 --> 03:04:44.340 And be happy. 03:04:45.460 --> 03:04:45.560 Right. 03:04:46.140 --> 03:04:47.420 Listen to music and be happy. 03:04:47.940 --> 03:04:48.040 Yeah. 03:04:48.220 --> 03:04:51.840 And that is what 100,000 people at Valken is like. 03:04:53.580 --> 03:04:54.380 Good people. 03:04:54.940 --> 03:04:55.060 Yeah. 03:04:58.119 --> 03:05:03.520 I thought I would have to do much more American damage control based on what's been going on in our country. 03:05:03.620 --> 03:05:07.860 And I think, Eric, it was that first night at the market where that guy was getting a little bit huffy. 03:05:08.960 --> 03:05:38.260 I mean that situation went away almost immediately and then that same in the in the monster booth after we met the other German guy I met another German guy his name was Lemmy but it ended with an I instead of a line he's very much the same but the reality was you just kind of talk through things drunkenly of course but everything seems to be fine when that conversation is done you know there's no ill feelings or hard feelings or ill wills so yeah it was very very much harmonious amongst the hundred thousand of us 03:05:39.240 --> 03:05:50.480 Yeah, I had a couple of conversations that got serious, but it wasn't a hostile thing at all. They were just interested in talking about it. 03:05:51.140 --> 03:06:02.180 Yeah, I talked with a German guy in the tent about that. I bumped into him and he asked where I was from. I was tentatively like, U.S.? 03:06:02.200 --> 03:06:31.740 And he was pretty heated in wanting to discuss this stuff, but not in a like, you're a bad person sort of way, just sort of a wanting to get my take on things and see what I thought about it and what the average American thought about the current political situation and how that jived with the way the rest of the world that was thinking about it. And, you know, and we were, by the end of it, we were pals. And maybe he's even listening to this. I gave him one of our wristbands. 03:06:31.800 --> 03:06:35.280 so that you can check it out so if you are what's up 03:06:38.279 --> 03:06:44.900 i talked to like a 60 or 7 or 65 year old lady about stuff for quite a while the demographic 03:06:45.160 --> 03:06:50.260 there is like pretty impressive man there's some like old timers there for sure yeah that's when 03:06:50.340 --> 03:06:55.900 you're ordering a beer and you ordered a beer with her for like yeah yeah he came back and said 03:06:55.950 --> 03:07:01.780 you were hitting on a 65 year old woman oh that's right i forgot about that she was great 03:07:05.779 --> 03:07:08.160 I thought you were going to try getting a number or something. 03:07:10.420 --> 03:07:12.360 This is the most action I got all weekend. 03:07:14.600 --> 03:07:16.860 All you had to do was ask, buddy. All you had to do was ask. 03:07:17.880 --> 03:07:24.640 She was saying that she went because her granddaughter or something got a ticket and she couldn't go. 03:07:24.780 --> 03:07:26.040 So she just said, OK, fuck it. 03:07:26.500 --> 03:07:31.240 She got on a train and rode all across Germany to go see what it was all about. 03:07:32.279 --> 03:08:01.240 I saw a gray-haired old lady with a vest and it was all like decked out with black metal stuff it was like immortal and stuff like that and I was like you're awesome it's a different culture over there yeah number of kids we saw marching around in that mud that on those kids the mud was up to their knees yep yep there's a lot of welfare 10 o'clock with metal I mean pretty hardcore 03:08:01.280 --> 03:08:30.840 Would you guys bring your kids there? That's a big negative, Ghost Rider. Yeah. I would try and they would not want to go. I bet Will would take his kids. His kids are pretty metal, but I don't know how well that would go. So how did this year stack up for you guys compared to the other years? I would say that every year feels better. And I enjoyed the first year. The first year for me, well, 03:08:31.280 --> 03:09:00.860 I shouldn't say that. The first year I went was difficult because it was just such a, you know, I flew over, didn't sleep really well in the plane. And then we missed the city to get the shuttle to get to Valken. So I spent another night wide awake in a train station. And again, like, it was the first time I'd left the country. And so culture shock was setting in and lack of sleep. And the first night we got there, the first day we got there, we got there in the morning. And that night was Iron Maiden. And that was, it was very much like how Alice Cooper was. 03:09:00.960 --> 03:09:30.460 So it was pretty much just chaos. And I just remember hearing somebody had been hurt and this ambulance was coming through. And it's like the way the ambulance sounds in a James Bond movie, not like at home. And so my brain was just like, holy shit, this place is so weird. What have you done? Yeah, my wife and I, whenever we would hear the sirens in the city, we were like, Matt Damon's around. You know, he's what the hell is the born identity? It's like Matt Damon's going to come running around that corner with the police chasing him. 03:09:31.680 --> 03:10:00.880 You always hear those in the movies, but you never hear them for real. And then when you do, it's weird. Yeah. But then, you know, the second year came around, and it really helps to have a good idea of where everything is. And it's really, the third year was, you know, Eric joined us, and I felt like with you there, we met so many more people, which was fun. And, you know, I mean, the music's never a question. There's always something there to listen to. There's always something there to enjoy. 03:10:01.439 --> 03:10:30.900 You know, whether you don't like the band all that much, you've got seven other stages you can walk to and check out. I think it's just good to try and experience every aspect of it that you want to and that you can. This year was much the same like last year. The thing that we talked about ahead of time is that I didn't do that first year is if you can, stay up as late as you can. I very much enjoyed metal disco. Screaming our brains out to songs I don't even want to say what they were. 03:10:35.279 --> 03:11:00.860 But, you know, taking it as much as we could. That last night, I was definitely running out of steam. And it was cold and it was wet. And it was good to kind of get back and, you know, start to formulate our next day. But I would say every year has been great. But I feel like I just enjoy going back each time and hope to continue to do so. So before are you going back here? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I wanted to touch on. 03:11:00.960 --> 03:11:30.920 I'm sorry, before you go into that, I don't mean to cut you off. I wanted to go into the whole judgment-free zone thing that you touched on, Matt. I found it very interesting that all these non-Americans are casual about what they like. There's no pretension about, oh, well, you have to be metal and you can only be metal. They listen to anything. And I really tried to take that to heart. I mean, I listen to a lot of stuff that is not metal, and I get a lot of 03:11:30.960 --> 03:11:33.140 on the podcast already. Yes. 03:11:34.859 --> 03:11:35.660 That's what I've heard. 03:11:36.110 --> 03:11:36.220 Yeah. 03:11:37.740 --> 03:11:38.360 Lady Gaga. 03:11:38.920 --> 03:11:39.100 Yeah. 03:11:40.240 --> 03:11:43.080 But, you know, I'm sure there were a lot of Lady Gaga fans there. 03:11:43.320 --> 03:11:44.180 I guarantee it. 03:11:44.790 --> 03:11:44.900 Absolutely. 03:11:45.140 --> 03:11:51.800 And so, if I'm, one of the things that I brought back with me in my heart from Valken 03:11:52.480 --> 03:11:56.100 was the vow to like what I like and not be ashamed of it. 03:11:57.160 --> 03:11:57.460 You know? 03:11:58.660 --> 03:11:59.060 Absolutely. 03:11:59.840 --> 03:12:29.720 I'm too old to give a shit about this high school crap about who's true and who's not and who's a poser or whatever. Screw that. Listen to Limp Bizkit today. I've got a confession to make. I have a couple CDs myself. They have dust on them. I'm sorry to have interrupted Jarek. Please continue. You were talking about coming back, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah. Coming back to Valken. Yeah, definitely. I loved it. What was fun this time, 03:12:29.840 --> 03:12:32.820 is that I expected mud. 03:12:33.700 --> 03:12:33.820 Yeah. 03:12:34.100 --> 03:12:34.220 Yeah. 03:12:35.000 --> 03:12:35.960 Showed up and there was. 03:12:36.060 --> 03:12:36.460 That helps. 03:12:37.700 --> 03:12:38.380 Holy balls. 03:12:38.640 --> 03:12:39.360 There's mud here. 03:12:40.100 --> 03:12:46.120 I think if, if I were to go back, I would be more prepared now having been through it. 03:12:46.240 --> 03:12:51.640 And, you know, there were definitely some miserable moments though on the whole, I cannot complain. 03:12:52.400 --> 03:12:55.560 You know, it was, it was so fun all, all told. 03:12:56.520 --> 03:13:26.480 But I think it would be I would definitely come better prepared having been through it. Yeah. Well, and you know Stu's done it four times now. And he was talking about as we were there but also as we were leaving. He's got a list just like what am I going to do different next time. And just that preparedness that goes into it. The whole thing is such an eye opener. I mean it's not something we get to see here very often in the U.S. No. 03:13:26.520 --> 03:13:42.560 I'm often guilty of over-preparing. And I was very much, when this podcast comes out, at the very beginning, you'll hear about me over-preparing. And I still wasn't prepared at all for what I was about to experience. 03:13:44.580 --> 03:13:51.100 It's awesome. It's awesome in every aspect. Both the positive, right? 03:13:52.859 --> 03:14:22.260 That mud, that grueling trek through the mud from, you know, you want to go from one of the main stages to the wet stage trucking through mud that's ankle deep, it's going to sap some shit out of you. Oh, yeah, it's an adventure. Really, I think my butt's looking a little better after all that, like, you know, glute work of working in the mud, you know. But, yeah. I do, I mean, I was going to say, when we got off that bus in 2015 and saw that, you know, 03:14:22.280 --> 03:14:27.380 that mud and that mud was like as shitty as it was that that we all walked 03:14:27.520 --> 03:14:31.500 through this past year that's what it was when you got off the bus i mean you got off the 03:14:31.600 --> 03:14:35.720 rocks and you went right into it i lost one of my flip-flops in the mud i dropped my bag 03:14:36.170 --> 03:14:41.480 i mean it took us a half hour just to get to grass and then fortunately eric was able to you know 03:14:41.990 --> 03:14:44.860 within the next half hour was able to find a camping spot but it was really like 03:14:45.520 --> 03:14:49.580 what in the hell have we done like how are we going to get through this yeah and it turned out to be 03:14:49.600 --> 03:15:16.900 awesome. It was grueling. We had some drinks and we found some boots and we just trudged on. And I would say we all did that same thing this year. There was so much rain this year. I've never seen that. I mean, granted, I haven't been to every one, but I just felt like that was the most rain I've experienced there. And that definitely puts a wrench into what's going on. And I felt like we kind of bashed through that pretty heavy and got through it well as a team. 03:15:19.080 --> 03:15:47.800 But it also adds to the enjoyment of it. Yeah, totally. That's what I wanted to emphasize is that all the shitty stuff in the end is sort of a part of the coolness of the experience. When that first storm hit, everything was getting blown away and torrential rains. It's so metal. Everybody just starts screaming in the distance, fuck you! Everybody's into the shit show. Suffer! 03:15:49.100 --> 03:16:18.980 Mud wrestling. Anybody runs. Everybody's out there still. Everybody's got a rain poncho on and they're just, they're digging it. It's metal. They're into it. Yeah. The mud makes it more metal for sure. Yeah, right. But that's why Valken couldn't happen in America. Well, like literally, like you couldn't pick up Valken and move it here to America because all that mud would never, would never make the cut. 03:16:19.080 --> 03:16:26.460 in litigious America. Somebody would be suing, you know, there's, it just, it just wouldn't work. 03:16:26.900 --> 03:16:28.700 Nobody would just put up with it, you know. 03:16:28.920 --> 03:16:33.380 I think the urine content of drinking water is also disrespectful in America. 03:16:33.820 --> 03:16:35.240 Sorry, you were cutting out there. Say that again. 03:16:35.780 --> 03:16:40.340 Sorry, buddy. I think the urine content of the drinking water is probably destroyed. 03:16:42.240 --> 03:16:42.340 Yeah. 03:16:43.500 --> 03:16:46.340 Hey, man, I didn't get sick. All I did was drink that pee water. 03:16:48.580 --> 03:17:18.500 The whole time. I'm pretty sure that came out of a keg from somewhere else. Yeah. I drink a lot of it. Yeah, I wonder how much pee and even fecal matter got in places that I didn't want it. I was expecting it. Right. This helped a lot. Hand sanitizer, yeah. For sure. Sanitizing machines I can refine. And the wet wipes, those too. 03:17:18.580 --> 03:17:20.580 are a must. 03:17:21.740 --> 03:17:22.040 For sure. 03:17:23.160 --> 03:17:23.280 Yeah. 03:17:24.340 --> 03:17:29.380 My third part about the whole thing is, so I didn't shower for five days, right? 03:17:29.920 --> 03:17:30.040 Mm-hmm. 03:17:30.120 --> 03:17:38.080 Like, we were, and I didn't shower again until Sunday, and it was Sunday when we landed 03:17:38.420 --> 03:17:40.980 in Dublin at five o'clock in the evening. 03:17:41.720 --> 03:17:43.500 So I went for five days without showering. 03:17:44.440 --> 03:18:13.620 Took a bus into Itzaho, a train into Hamburg, Hamburg an airplane to Dublin. The best part is Stu and I get out of this taxi with this guy and he says, he's on his way, he's like, you know what I'm asking lots, how did you happen to pick this hotel? One of the top houses. We speak city house well, you ain't exactly roughing it. We get out, jumps out and has a top hat on to get our bags. Whoa. And you're like, 03:18:15.600 --> 03:18:42.760 We look like shit. Actually, that body spray you were spraying around, something looked pretty good. Oh, man. I didn't use enough, obviously, when I walked in. The best part is we walked in. The dude's like, you want us to take your bag? I'm like, fuck no. Don't touch us. Don't touch any of our stuff. It's toxic. The room's not. Stu and I have to go sit in the bar now. 03:18:44.420 --> 03:19:14.380 We're eating these nuts. They're just keeping out bags of nuts, which went along well with the wieners we just had in Germany. Nuts and wieners, yeah. Nuts and wieners, yeah. We finally get a shower. That was one of my more epic stories from it. The poor bastards that had to sit in an airplane and then rolling into this hotel with the dude with the top. 03:19:15.520 --> 03:19:21.360 I'm trying to explain that we've been at a metal festival and that's why my legs are muddy from me to me. 03:19:21.620 --> 03:19:43.880 Yeah, my train ride from Hamburg to Berlin, not only was I stank, but the lady that sold me the train ticket said, you're on the aisle. So I was like, all right, this is my seat number and I'm on the aisle. And I go and I'm going down the aisle and I get to the two seats where I'm supposed to be. 03:19:43.900 --> 03:20:13.380 and there's an old lady sitting on the aisle. And I look up and I was like 81 and 82. And I was like, I was, well, that was, that was me. And I, I'm like, um, I think you might be in my seat. I think this one's mine. And maybe you're, and she's like, eh, you know, didn't have any idea what I was saying. And she was like surrounded by family and they're all like, well, you know, everybody's all in an uproar now. And I'm like, uh, and like the younger like grandson or something's like, no, your seat is on the window. And I was like, oh, is it? 03:20:13.920 --> 03:20:43.060 I was like, that stupid lady messed me up. And I'm like, now I have infuriated this old German woman that I have to sit next to for like two hours. And I stink. And I coughed the whole way there. You know, like a plague victim. And she was just like, you know, sniffing and like looking at me. And I'm like, I'm sorry, lady. I was wrong. I stink. I'm sorry. Serves her right. Yeah. And then when I got to Berlin. Oh, sorry. 03:20:43.540 --> 03:21:13.040 This was before Berlin. Before I got on that train, trying to get from the Hamburg airport to my hotel to pick up my luggage and then go to get my train ticket. In the previous four days, they had shut down the train station near this hotel for repairs and stuff. And so I kept getting on these train lines, trying to get there, and everything keeps dumping me off and going, no, you can't go anymore. And so I got all frustrated, and I called a cab. 03:21:14.100 --> 03:21:43.020 I called my hotel that I was trying to get to and asked them if they would call me a cab. And the douche that I talked to completely screwed me. But I'm sitting there waiting because he said he was going to call me a cab. And I see a cab at the corner. So I go over and I grab him. And he's like, well, no, they didn't call me, but I can take you. And he threw all my stuff in the back and had me sit up front with him. And he's like, so, you know, where have you been? And I was like, I was at this metal festival. And he was like, 03:21:44.319 --> 03:22:10.880 And he was like 60, you know, gray-haired and 60. And he was like, oh, yeah, fucking, yeah, like Metallica. And we had this really great, like, 20-minute ride to the hotel talking about metal and stuff. So that was awesome. That's awesome. So, I mean, we kind of touched on highlights already, but, well, no, we didn't. We wanted to talk about Emperor. So, Chris, highlights. 03:22:12.680 --> 03:22:40.880 Emperor. And how was Emperor? I mean, I don't know. I don't really even know what to say about it. It was... Beyond description? Sort of, yeah. I still have it running through my head, like the music, and I can't get rid of it. I've been listening to all sorts of shit since then, but that record is just on repeat in my head, just because that experience is so... We wept. 03:22:42.140 --> 03:23:11.320 So extreme. Oh, yeah. I wept for sure. It's documented. It's in the live stream. Yeah. I should go and see if I can find me. Yeah, I saw that. You were like, oh! That was so good. Fuck it! Fuck it! All right. Chris, any more highlights? Emperor was probably the peak for you. I mean, that was the reason I went, you know. 03:23:13.759 --> 03:23:39.880 It's probably my number one record of all time. So I don't know what else to say about it. It was awesome. I know there was another band that you were particularly fond of that you really got emotional about. You were really into them. It was like the first day. Oh, L.O.I.L. The Tushka? Europe. Oh, Europe, of course. 03:23:42.140 --> 03:24:10.200 I can't believe I had to say it. Yeah, that's fucked up. I have you know, I grew up on Europe, you know, and they came up with a really good record a couple years ago. War of Kings or something like that? I just picked it up. I was listening to it. It's good. Yeah, it's very good. It's not like, you know, cheesy cock rock. It's legit. It's legit cock rock. Exactly. 03:24:12.120 --> 03:24:41.520 Yeah, I sort of lost my shit for them. I grew up on this. I grew up in Europe, you know, where they were a lot bigger, so I know a lot more of their songs than most Americans just know, like Final Countdown, you know? Yeah. But I just wanted to say that, like, I expected to be bored for quite a lot of Wacken because, like I said, I mainly, there were bands, like, peripheral bands I wanted to see, but Emperor was really the main reason, and I, you know, 03:24:42.381 --> 03:25:09.300 The whole time I was there, I kept telling myself, if I were to give advice to people who are on the fence or something, just because they don't love the bands that are playing, it almost doesn't matter. It's just about the vibe and the experience, the feeling of metal brotherhood. It's just indescribable. You can watch a band that you're completely mad about and it's still going to be awesome. 03:25:12.080 --> 03:25:41.520 I was singing along to Here I Go Again by Whitesnake. That's not something I normally do, but I was moved. For sure. When we first got into the infield, it's the mind-fucking experience. And those dudes with the kegs on their back, refilling their beer. Oh, yeah, the Portable Becks guys. Those guys were so cool. They were just always there. They're like, it looks like your beer's empty. I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. 03:25:41.600 --> 03:26:11.580 Hey, refill me. Thanks. Take my money. Glad I didn't have to go anywhere to do that. Yeah. There are these moments of just like metal heaven, you know, it's like, oh shit. And I just got to go to metal heaven. Yeah. And I should point out that this is not like them, like a vendor you would have in America where they like, and they hand you another can of beer. No, they actually had like a keg on their back. Uh, and they'd like, you know, pull, pull, pull you a beer. Yeah. They're constantly looking at who doesn't have like a 03:26:12.340 --> 03:26:12.780 Yeah. 03:26:12.850 --> 03:26:13.960 And they're chasing people down. 03:26:14.840 --> 03:26:15.520 That's crazy. 03:26:17.080 --> 03:26:17.400 All right. 03:26:17.570 --> 03:26:18.860 So Matt highlights. 03:26:19.680 --> 03:26:19.900 Matt, 03:26:20.050 --> 03:26:20.400 a.k.a. 03:26:20.630 --> 03:26:20.760 Stu, 03:26:21.500 --> 03:26:22.220 what are your highlights? 03:26:24.739 --> 03:26:25.460 For sure. 03:26:25.900 --> 03:26:26.240 It was, 03:26:26.310 --> 03:26:26.540 it was, 03:26:27.520 --> 03:26:27.980 going out. 03:26:29.660 --> 03:26:29.960 I definitely, 03:26:30.200 --> 03:26:31.380 I really enjoyed Emperor. 03:26:31.780 --> 03:26:35.000 I'm kicking myself for not being as familiar with that album as I should be. 03:26:35.500 --> 03:26:37.200 I think I would have enjoyed it much more, 03:26:37.320 --> 03:26:39.140 but it still was an amazing set. 03:26:39.640 --> 03:27:08.800 I'm still almost like a little bit surreal to see it and hear it in the flesh. Really enjoyed. I definitely that first or I think it was Friday night like Nile at A-Palm. They put on solid sets. Even Curlbar the first night sounded really good. One that keeps popping in my head is I don't know I'm really glad we sat through Clawfinger. There was a lot of nostalgia in it for me and I mean their music is okay. 03:27:09.060 --> 03:27:15.240 and they kind of act like dickheads but they know they're dickheads and you know i just 03:27:15.290 --> 03:27:39.040 remember they kind of played up the whole thing of like well we're going to leave the stage and but then if you just keep chanting our name we'll come back and play more songs you know just again being dickheads but it sounded good and they made the best of the rain and i felt like when they were done there actually there was like a little bit of genuineness to them um and again like i said just listening to the song titles i couldn't stop laughing because some of them are just so stupid but anyways it was good 03:27:39.880 --> 03:28:07.120 It was good to see Manson. I enjoyed it. I thought his set was pretty tame. And it was filled with a lot of gaps. I mean, I know we were in the monster booth and we weren't as focused had we been out in front of the stage. But I felt like there was just a lot of moments. He'd be playing and then it'd be completely black. And then five minutes would go by and then he'd start playing again. Glad I saw him, though. Megadeth sounded really good. I thought their set was a little bit slow to begin with, but by the end it was very solid. 03:28:08.620 --> 03:28:22.140 I'm glad I got to see Dillinger. Their set had definitely the energy that I assumed they would. But again, I wasn't compelled to sit through the whole set, especially being that Emperor was going to be on in a short amount of time. 03:28:22.400 --> 03:28:38.600 I did catch a couple of Dillinger songs on your recommendation about the energy, because I've never been a fan of the music. And I will give them credit. The energy they displayed in those first few songs before I had to go to Emperor was... 03:28:38.600 --> 03:29:08.580 It was impressive. Yeah, absolutely. And one of the other ones, definitely Wolfheart. Really enjoyed that set. Really enjoyed just, you know, after a full day of being back of what felt like a mile, it was nice to just kind of be up front and hear some good tunes. Yeah. All right. Eric? My top three were definitely Emperor. I've been listening to Emperor almost exclusively since 03:29:08.620 --> 03:29:37.000 I got home. Nice. Emperor, and then, man, I'd say Nile. Uh-huh. And actually, I really enjoyed Breweria, which is really funny. Yeah. But I did. They were good. Yeah, I really enjoyed. They were on the head. I thought they were awesome. The other was Megadeth. I'd never seen Megadeth. I'd been listening to Megadeth when I was, what, how old? Maybe. 03:29:38.620 --> 03:30:07.520 10? I mean, what? Anyways, listen to Megadeth. There's never song. So to get to see Megadeth at Valken, and as Sue said, I... Is there like an airplane going overhead? That might be my... I didn't hear one, but... I heard something. It like totally drowned you out. Those were my top four. My top three, though, definitely. And honestly, 03:30:09.521 --> 03:30:37.660 Brewery of Basically Discovery. There were bands I listened to a lot. Stu had sent me his Valken 2017 playlist, so I'd been listening to that for the couple months leading up to Valken, so I'd heard some. Then to go sit and listen, it was awesome. Awesome. Cool. Yeah, for me, I would definitely say Emperor was the top dog. 03:30:39.340 --> 03:31:07.460 I was surprised. Actually, that was the first full band that played was Ross the Boss. I lost my shit with that one. That blew my mind. I was like, Chris with Europe, I was just in the zone with the metal spirit possessing me. I was like, wow! So that was definitely a nice surprise. The Witchery was really good. 03:31:11.239 --> 03:31:38.520 I was really glad to see. Since I never got to see Bolt Thrower, it was as close as I'm ever going to get. Let's see. What else? The Possessed was cool. The Ahab, for me, despite it being very slow, it was something that I'm probably not going to get to see anywhere else. The Power Wolf. You haven't seen him before? No. Oh, really? They're American, Ben. 03:31:39.000 --> 03:32:04.040 No, they're German. Or Austrian or something like that. Yeah, I think they're German. Power Wolf was a big one for me, and they did not disappoint. The Wolf Heart was great. And Creator, I'd never seen Creator before, which is just kind of strange. And despite being far away, they sounded pretty damn amazing. They did. Those were my highlights. 03:32:10.361 --> 03:32:35.980 Was there anything else that was particularly tragic about the whole thing? Anything? I can't really think of anything other than my own personal dramas. But anything Vaken related? For me, it's like we said before, even the quote unquote shitty stuff about it, in the end ends up being a part of the coolness of it. 03:32:39.440 --> 03:33:07.440 The worst thing that happened was probably the fact that you got hurt. But just like the drudgery and the piss and all that stuff, it's disgusting, but it's also sort of metal. Yeah, maybe better bathroom showering facilities would be a bonus. The showering, for sure. Yeah, it'd be nice to have some private showering. The water, too. I thought the water was too sparse. I don't know. Yeah. 03:33:08.620 --> 03:33:38.580 I'm a thirsty boy. I concur. So I put something on here about our favorite foods, but we've been talking about food the whole time. But is there just like any one thing that you obviously Chris likes the way. Sorry, not Chris. Eric likes the wieners. And Chris like just about everything there. I think I don't think there's anything he didn't try. But was Chris, what was your favorite piece of food there? Oh, probably the like roasted pork knuckle. But I 03:33:38.600 --> 03:34:08.580 I also had a I'm trying to actually eat a lot less meat these days and I had some vegan options which were actually really fucking good I had a vegan hero which is super good I didn't expect that to be that good and there's something else that we had oh the falafel pocket or whatever that we had I think Matt usually gets that so yeah both most extreme meats and 03:34:08.600 --> 03:34:37.060 And the vegan options were excellent. Matt? I definitely second Chris on the, you know, trying to eat less meat. So I was definitely curious as to what else there was. I'd had the falafel, I think it's called the falafel Tasha or pocket previously. Definitely was still my highlight of this year. I only had one. I wish I would have had more. I did go out and I explored the vegetarian burger, the veggie burger. 03:34:37.120 --> 03:35:07.040 and it looked like a hunk of spam and it tasted even worse. I would have followed your route with the almost look more like Indian food. I felt like what you had described to me. And I think I saw that booth at one point. I wish I would have spent more time looking at that. And I still did not get ice cream and I am still bitter about that. I am. Yeah. Eric, anything other than the wieners that really piqued your interest? Yeah, man. Jägermeister and Monster. 03:35:09.380 --> 03:35:37.100 What about the blood, the blute? The blute was pretty good too. That is a good AM, you know, juicy beverage. Get you up, rocking and rolling. And the mead was really good. I got, I think the second or third day, I just got tired of the Becks and I switched to mead for like most of the day. That was really good. I've never been a big mead fan, but that was good. It's a nice change of pace. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't, I guess I can't 03:35:37.140 --> 03:36:06.980 I can't really say I had one favorite thing. I went out on a limb and had the vacken knocking. The little like pork chop on a bun with grilled onions and that was good. It was definitely outside my wheelhouse food wise. The currywurst was really good. The Chinese food. Normally at a festival if you get Chinese food you're really taking your life in your own hands. 03:36:07.140 --> 03:36:36.540 because I've done it before and had some rough toilet rides afterwards. But this was really good. I got like a chicken lo mein thing. It comes in the little, you know, stereotypical Chinese box. And I was eating that during, I think it was probably Power Wolf, actually. And it was really good. Like, the noodles were good. The vegetables were all like kind of crisp and tasty. 03:36:36.600 --> 03:37:05.980 and the chicken was white meat and not fatty nastiness. And I didn't suffer any consequences. So it was a pretty good deal. I think the fish pizza, though, took the cake. Right. Fish pizza. Oh, well, Chris and I had a really good burger. That was the first night or whatever. Yeah, when we were walking back. Like from near the market. Well, it was good in that it was better than expected. 03:37:06.600 --> 03:37:34.860 It was awesome drunk food. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, oh, it was really good. I mean, he got, you know, the chili burger expecting to have chili on it. And it was just like jalapenos. Jalapeno slices. Yeah. And just everything tasted slightly off, which made it fun, you know. But like the ketchup tasted like tomato paste. Yeah, it was a little weird. But it was still good. You know. Yeah. And the bun was too sweet. It's cute. It's adorable. 03:37:38.159 --> 03:38:06.560 I must say the next time I'm there I am I'm gonna have to look for tuna fish pizza and have one of these it was I will join you yeah all right there we go yeah I have to say I was really glad that you know most times when you go to a festival or even just a concert the food is just disgusting and worthless and I expected to just not eat very much and I didn't eat that much 03:38:06.580 --> 03:38:36.000 But when I ate, I ate well. And that was appreciated. Sure. The other thing that's nice is you aren't price gouged. Yeah. It was quite good. You're going to spend four to what, six euro maybe on food. And usually here, I feel like if we go to any type of concert or festival or a sporting event, you're going to spend twice that. 03:38:36.060 --> 03:38:37.580 $12 for chicken fingers. 03:38:38.779 --> 03:38:39.180 Yeah. 03:38:40.440 --> 03:38:41.240 Good food. 03:38:41.820 --> 03:38:44.040 They aren't trying to kill you to make a dollar. 03:38:44.800 --> 03:38:45.480 Yeah, that's true. 03:38:45.600 --> 03:38:46.640 For a throw, as it were. 03:38:46.980 --> 03:38:47.140 Yeah. 03:38:47.240 --> 03:38:51.440 There's like a slight deception in the whole thing because it's euros, you know? 03:38:51.640 --> 03:38:53.620 I think I fell for that for the first day. 03:38:53.880 --> 03:38:56.580 Like, holy shit, only $5 for this much food? 03:38:57.220 --> 03:38:58.040 It's actually more. 03:38:58.760 --> 03:39:02.160 But yeah, I expected it to be way overpriced, and that's not. 03:39:02.580 --> 03:39:31.120 I did check the damage today on the old credit card. Yeah, it was definitely more than you thought it was. I was spending like 100 euro per day, I think, on food and beer, which is pretty brutal. Bakken? Yeah, I believe that. 10 euro a beer, and I'm sure I haven't. 03:39:32.280 --> 03:40:01.500 Exactly. Yeah. Just a few. Yeah. Just a couple. Yeah. Whatever. So, uh, I'm getting near the end of my script here. Uh, but one of my, one of my closing comments is, uh, are you guys going in 2019? You think that's going to happen? It's the plan. It's the plan. It's the plan. I'll do that. I feel good about it. I'll have to get back. Yeah. Same here. 03:40:02.779 --> 03:40:32.240 I'm really glad I did it but for me it would have to be another like I think there would have to be another like huge very meaningful band for me to be persuaded I think I definitely want to do more fast but if I do another one it would probably be smaller and more like black metal focused you know yeah I'm going to this cool black metal black folky metal thing in a couple of weeks that there's going to be some cool bands there's one band called them Fairbrewo yeah they suck they suck 03:40:32.260 --> 03:41:01.900 Yeah, I'm going to go see them. Panopticon's going to be there. But really, the emperor of the festival for me is in Farah Barrow, because they have this sweet, sexy bass player. Oh, yeah. I just picked some stuff up on Bandcamp. I saw that. I was like, yes! Appreciate that. Thank you. Yum, yum. You know, we ran into, speaking of seeing people after the festival, in the Hamburg airport, I ran into a couple of, 03:41:04.601 --> 03:41:31.780 who were talking about they had a metal festival coming up the very next weekend. Brutal Assault? Yeah. Yes, yeah. And they were talking about how the billings at Valken have been getting, in their opinion, worse. And the billing at Brutal Assault were getting better. And, well, they didn't necessarily say that they weren't going back to Valken next year, which it seemed to me that they'd been going to Valken for years. 03:41:32.780 --> 03:42:00.260 They were comparing how it's just changing. Those bands that are coming to Wacken are perhaps not coming anymore, and the bands that they want to see are coming to Brutus Sal and other places. I think they probably traveled for a number of festivals, and there are a number of smaller festivals. Yeah. They announced already for next year one of my all-time favorite bands, Running Wild, and I'm just like, no! 03:42:02.100 --> 03:42:32.020 this year, but I think they played last year. It seems to be that the bands that come frequently come every other year. I missed out on that. I expect to see them then. I'd have to wait until 2020 if I wanted to catch Running Wild. There's tons of fests, man. Specifically in Norway, Blast Fest. I don't know if they're doing that anymore. 03:42:32.080 --> 03:42:36.020 but it's got just like tons of just like the core black metal bands are left to go to that 03:42:38.199 --> 03:42:42.900 but i mean i'm i think it's still sort of like a road burn or a grass pop 03:42:43.240 --> 03:42:47.180 i still think that walking is sort of like uh 03:42:50.379 --> 03:42:56.380 every every metalhead's sort of uh holy pilgrimage you know it's a must i feel like 03:42:56.860 --> 03:43:01.500 just because it's so huge and like the spectacle of it is just so overwhelming you know 03:43:01.520 --> 03:43:27.320 Yeah. Prepare to be overwhelmed. But if you two guys will be there, maybe I'll show up one of these years too. Yeah. It's definitely a compelling reason to hang out with you guys again, for sure. For sure. Likewise. Likewise. Yeah. Absolutely. A lot of fun. Yeah. And I'm bringing in some long ass socks to go with my boots. 03:43:33.761 --> 03:43:58.520 I'm finding out where the hotspots are and I'm taking care of them. Absolutely. Yeah. Same here. Going to make room in my suitcase for those birds. Excellent. Any final thoughts before we go? Fuck it! Fuck it! Scheiser! 03:44:01.520 --> 03:44:30.880 I just had a picture of you between two vans. Two vans, and that one van starts shaking. I stopped peeing. Oh, my gosh. It was, it certainly was fun. Yeah, it was a blast. It was a pleasure to hang with all y'all and do it, you know. It made it, you know, all the worthwhile. Yes, for sure. Likewise. All right, well, I guess we're going to bring this to an end. 03:44:31.520 --> 03:45:01.480 Thanks for coming on and talking about all this. And, you know, we'll have to figure out a way to do this one way or another. Podcast or otherwise. You know, Europe or otherwise. You know, there's things we can do. Migration. Migration. Migration fest. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So we'll do this again for sure. The reunion show. Yes. I printed out. I ordered a print of that picture of us with the 03:45:02.319 --> 03:45:16.240 And it just arrived. I'm going to hang it up here in the studio. Or in the bar. Maybe. The bar seems a little more appropriate. So. All right. Thank you very much. And we'll talk to you next time. 03:45:34.600 --> 03:45:46.160 The eyes have heard of the world that drags me to fade away