There seemed to be less people at the WGT in Leipzig (for more on the city itself, read my previous post) this year than the previous years. It may have had something to do with the fact that the line-up this year wasn`t exactly spectacular, but who cares if there are only 2 bands you want to see playing on different stages at the same time instead of 5?

On friday, I saw all the metal bands playing at the Parkbuehne, a beautiful open-air venue in Clara-Zetkin-Park. The first band, Neon Dream, was kinda funny. Their music sucked, but the singer had this macho rock`n`roll pose going on, quite amusing. Next up were Ashes You Leave, a Croatian doom-metal band that evolved very nicely from just-another-My-Dying-Bride-clone to a style of their own. Their show was excellent, but which idiot decided they should play so early, and only for half an hour? After that, the level of quality went down steeply. Elis were still bearable, if somewhat cliche, but the next 2 bands, After Forever and Epica, suffered from a typical gothic metal (I like both genres, but mixing them usually fails miserably) illness: nothing wrong with the music as such, but why must the singers torture my ears so? I`ve nothing against female singers in metal bands if they can actually sing, but this clearly was not the case. After those, Haggard seemed quite good, though normally I do not like them. Maybe it was a really good show (and they did have a real orchestra), or maybe everything that wasn`t out of key would`ve pleased me at that time. Next up were My Dying Bride, if not my favourite band in any genre, at least my favourite metal band. They were in great form that evening, at some moments I was headbanging as if my life depended on it, at others not sure wether I should be smiling from ear to ear (it`s hard to explain why such sad music can make me so happy) or bursting into tears. Unfortunately, they could not play their entire set list because even though they were the last band on that stage that day, the organisation only granted them one hour, and not a minute more. Booh! Afterwards I went to Agra (big icky concrete building, horrible sound) for Suicide Commando - nothing extraordinary, but it was nice to see how many people were there; I always heard these Belgian electro bands are more popular abroad, but one has to see it to believe it.

On saturday I first went to the Schauspielhaus (yes an actual theatre with comfy seats) and saw the first half of Salonorchester Weimar`s show: musical music from the 20s or so, quite different from anything else, and performed with lots of humour. Then I went to Haus Leipzig, my favourite venue at the WGT. Big disappointment: Hekate were not playing! A shame, but then Thomas from Ordo Equilibrio told me they have changed their style comletely from folk to electronic, so maybe it would`ve been quite a shock if they had played. Mondglanz and Dwelling were both rather forgettable. The Italian bands, Spiritual Front and Argine, were both excellent. Personally I especially loved the latter, since violin and drums are my favourite instruments, and those were the ones that stood out most in their show.

On sunday, it was Cold Meat-day at Werk II. I just saw the last second of Skin Area (got distraced by some lovely pasta on my way in), one of the two bands I hadn`t seen before. Atrium Carceri, Deutsch Nepal, Coph Nia and In Slaughter Natives were all good but nothing surprising. Sepiroth stood out because it was more than just good, Sanctum because during some songs I didn`t think it was very good at all, and during others that it was great. IRM, the other band I hadn`t seen before, really made my day. It was loud, it was extreme (was that real blood?), it was noise as it should be, and it expressed the same raw energy a good death metal show does.

On monday, I went to Haus Leipzig again. Knifeladder, Scivias and Naevus were all good, but the best bands of the day if not the entire festival were the last two. Forseti were the second band that made me want to burst into tears at times. It was sooo beautiful! I had seen them inside the Voelkerschlachtdenkmal 2 years ago and they were one of the best bands then too, but still I was surprised. Their CD Jenzig is what I play when I want everybody to just leave me alone, so I wasn`t sure if it would "work" in a room full of (enthusiastic) people, but it did. And finally Coil are still the coolest band in the universe.