Doors opened at 2pm, show started at 5. There's no way in hell a place in Sweden would be this crowded at opening time already. In Germany it's different. A big birthday bash shall apparently be lived through from start to finish.
Ok, there were things to do more than to stand and wait too, many nice bars and restaurants (even if very simple such) to get stuffed and loaded and of course the Metal Market to spend your money on. But what was most fascinating was the variety of people showing up. The biggest part of the mass looked like a normal crowd of course but there were these over-class couple showing up in fancy coats with a nice DORO shirt not matching the Armani pants at all. Typical lesbian feminist couples with those attributes and of course their DORO shirts, Emo-rockers, Black Metallers, Punks and every other type you can think of. All of them neatly dressed up in their DORO shirts.

The amount of time the openers got felt really cheap, 20 minutes is not nearly enough to still my need for HOLY MOSES. That's just a scratch on the surface, a little teaser perhaps and now I'm really anxious to see them on their own show. I still stick with my opinion that this year's biggest mistake was to choose MERCENARY over HOLY MOSES at 'Wacken Open Air'. This show absolutely confirmed my mistake. The intro to the whole thing poured out of the speakers at the same instance the lights went out, at exactly 5pm.
The volume was massive and it all sent shivers down spine, in a very pleasurable way. Unfortunately, the same feeling wasn't kept up when the concert started, the sound was very thick and rough. HOLY MOSES sounded more like some modern Aggro_hardcore band when it comes to the structure of the sound. The band on the other hand was great. They were absolutely super-tight, intense and very groovy. That Through Shattered Minds-song sure is catchy and again it was a pain to be stuck in the photo pit, the security normally doesn't look easy on headbanging in that specific place. Sure, DORO has the title Queen Of Metal but I think Sabina Classen deserves a similar title too but queen feels wrong to say. Empress or Duchess of Thrash feels better. It was so cool to see her own the stage, yes the focus was on Sabina but apart from the rest of the bands her fellow musicians made every effort to keep up with her, claim their part of the show and make sure to boost the crowd to max. Absolutely awesome!

Second up was LEAVES' EYES. I'm not a huge fan of this type of music and LEAVES' EYES didn't convince me other way this time either. But I have to give them something; the combination of beautiful and delicate Liv Kristine with her pretty evening gowns on one side and not at all styled giant Alexander Krull on the other makes such an odd couple it works.

The other thing with LEAVES' EYES is that they feel real even if most of the show circles around Liv Kristine and that's what bugs me about these bands. That it's almost everything around the pretty girl in the front and not about the overall band feeling. But with LEAVES' EYES the passion and devotion was shared among all on stage. The best parts of the show was still when Liv Kristine and Alexander shared the vocal duties because everything got a little heavier and more action filled when Alexander took part in the songs. This meeting with LEAVES' EYES quite passable but that could be that it was only 20 minutes long too, I didn't have time to get bored.

One of the biggest disappointments of the summer was that ARCH ENEMY canceled their appearance at 'Rock Weekend' and was replaced by SONIC SYNDICATE who doesn't hold ARCH ENEMY's standards at all. Slightly delayed they hit the stage sometime in the early evening, with full force. There's no coincidence that this band is one of the biggest in the genre because good quality Metal will bring success eventually.

Perhaps adding Angela Gossow to the lineup helped a lot when it comes to publicity but they wouldn't have reached this level with only that. Latest release Rise Of The Tyrant is just another receipt of the capacity of ARCH ENEMY. Angela has always been one of the best when it comes to fronting a band but I haven't been as convinced over her vocal capabilities. She proved me wrong this evening, perhaps a temporary but if this is what she sounds like these days she's one of the best in the genre even there.

The Amott brothers (Christopher and Michael, both on guitar) though were a little invisible this evening, some had to do with the lack of lights on stage of course but all of HOLY MOSES managed to stay visible their entire show. Even if ARCH ENEMY isn't the typical Female Metal Band the rest leaves very much of the show for Angela to carry. Even if she's good, it's not enough. The best concerts are when the whole band is a part of the show and I can't say that was the case with ARCH ENEMY. Musical perfection it was for sure but the visuals was 90% Angela and 10% the rest.

There's no doubts why she's called the Queen Of Metal, not after this. I thought the battle would be between Sabina and Angela but Doro proved she's worthy of the title. The tiny blond woman has been doing this for 25 years by now and she's still going strong. She's stronger than ever really because in prior to her latest album Warrior Soul the shows felt a little flat and frankly quite boring.

Ok, an evening all in her honor will of course make her look spectacular but it was more than that. There are not many artists that can pull of a three hour concert and make it feel like the whole thing is over too fast. Well, DORO had help from a lot of friends but it was still her music, her career that was in focus. First guest was Bobby Blitz Ellsworth from OVERKILL, a quite odd duet I thought but it worked. Bobby always has great energy on stage and since he was only up for one song now he didn't need to save anything.

Since this was a night for celebration, the EP song with that same title got some extra attention and turned the whole thing into a compact version of 'Metal Female Voicefest'. It was an impressive bunch of ladies on stage including Floor Jansen (AFTER FOREVER), Ailyn (SIRENIA) and parts of GIRLSCHOOL to mention a few besides the ones that got their own time to show off before DORO hit the stage. Tarja Turunen didn't make as good a match though, her voice together with Doro's was a really bad mixture and frankly it sounded terrible. And why Tarja got more time on stage, and even to do one of her own songs (The Seer) I don't understand. The best combination of all, to my big surprise was Doro and Chris Boltendahl, Where East Meets West was an easy song to get away with and it worked perfectly.

Axel Rudi Pell was also featured on that song but he didn't get much space in the show at all. The first part of the concert was closed with two true legends. Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker from SCORPIONS, they got to do their own songs too but compared to Tarja they're a huge part of German Rock History. Big City Nights and Rock You Like A Hurricane got a really great response and it was great to see these bastards enjoy their time on stage.
The second part was a night of WARLOCK, the reunion of the 1986 lineup. The response from the crowd was the same for this too, there's no doubt DORO has a genuine circle of followers in Germany, and a lot of them has been around for a long time. It was really powerful when the whole arena shouted along in chorus line for Burning The Witches.
The most bizarre combination of voices came with the last guest for the night. Warrel Dane from NEVERMORE drew darkness over else quite happy True As Steel. With this joyful song his voice sounded very foreboding, sort of a doomsday prophet. Doro wrapped up the whole evening herself with another bunch of hits covering all her solo career. When it finally was time for All We Are the stage got extremely crowded when all guests plus a few more teemed out from behind the curtains. Apart from all already mentioned Onkel Tom Angelripper flashed by the cameras looking everything but sober.

I probably will be lynched if I name someone else than Doro the winner of this event. The fact that she managed to keep the spirit alive and my interest up for three whole hours absolutely makes her worthy of the title too. So yes, this was Doro's evening and no one could take that away from her but still I ended up buying HOLY MOSES Merchandise so I guess they deserve a part of the title too.