I6Z6A6N NOTE: This was posted on January 3, 2013, but the date reflected on the top is for organizational purposes.
The morning after the last full day of Barge to Hell. Just like my previous Metal Festival experiences, this is the day when you leave behind a magical place that can't be replicated. When you look around and see people who understand and get what you're all about, and realize your going back to "civilization", it's a terrible feeling but a necessary evil as moments like these don't happen often for Metal fans (unless you're in Europe, lucky bastards \m/). With this negative feeling comes a positive memory that will remain in the mind for a very long time.
Looking back, the trip was unique but familiar, as it was my first Metal Cruise (and my first cruise ever). To say I had anticipations of what to expect would be an understatement, as my mind was flooded with expectations that were beyond all my Metal experiences, and that's a lot of Metal.
After everything was said and done, it was a \m/ HEAVY \m/ experience that left 4 days missing from my life. It also allowed me a chance to look deep inside myself in a way I never had a chance to do so, and changed me in a way that as of this writing, I still can't figure out.
Onward, to the final chapter of the Barge.
December 7, a day that will live in infamy. While the history books indicates this was the day of the Pearl Harbor Attack, another historical moment was in the making. A historic moment made of Steel. This was the day the Barge to Hell was officially over, ending another successful chapter in the History of Metal.
Upon waking up, the boat was already docked in the starting point of this journey, the Port of Miami, with all the Metalheads either still asleep or waking up and taking advantage of the breakfast the vessel offered before heading off to the next part of their journey (and for some, it was a long one).
The last full day of the Barge to Hell. The "it's going to end" feeling has begun to rear it's ugly head. One thing about my Metal experiences is that it has prepared me for this day, and to take the saying that has been said time and again but very applicable to this situation, "all good things must come to an end".
For those of you who have not gone to Metal Festivals, this is a feeling you will one day feel as the last full day is what you make out of it and will leave the mark on the festival you attended. Some people go full throttle to get the last shits and giggles out of their system, where as for others it is the opportunity to wind down and soak in the festival in a calm state, to prepare to get back to "civilization".
The invasion of the Bahamas. At least, that's what it looked like when you consider a horde of black-shirt clad, raging Metal Maniacs pouring out of the ship and into Nassau. This was the port of call to give ourselves a break from the confines of the boat and explore a unique island most of us have never visited before.
As someone who has lived in Miami his entire life, the Bahamas are always mentioned in some way, shape or form. From the locals who travel there, to the Bahamians who live in my city, I have always known, but never experienced the Bahamas, until this trip. What lay ahead was an adventure that was foreign, but familiar, as well as some Metal discoveries I never expected to find.
The second day of Barge to Hell, and while last nights Pool Deck debacle did put a sour taste for the voyage, it didn't ruin the experience entirely as things like this is almost expected in a Metalheads journey. Think about it, how many times have you gone to a concert, from the local bar shows to the shows in night clubs to the medium sized venues to the mega stadiums and even festivals, and there has been some kind of delay and/or issue to get the bands playing? Today was the first full day of the Barge to Hell, meaning, an entire day of Metal madness from morning until the wee hours of the nights, this was one party that was only starting to warm up.
Speaking of morning, I managed to get some breakfast in the Windjammers Café, and was joined by surprisingly many other Metalheads (we're not known for being morning people, that's why we excel in working night shifts, where we belong). Probably the different time zones where they come from grants them the ability to be awake so early in the morning? A Metallic Scientific Hypothesis.
I
know Metal Trek was neglected worse than a Glam Metal band during the
late 90's, but I finally got an update of "Hellacious" proportions.
Metal Trek presents Barge to Hell, Day 1.
My
day started waking up with an unusual feeling of anticipation as I
double checked all my belongings I prepared the night before to make
certain I had everything I needed to embark on the first edition of
Barge to Hell. I packed the usual items needed for a cruise (Passport,
confirmation paper, sun tan lotion, boardshorts, regular shorts and
jeans, my Chuck Taylor All Stars & sandals, shirts (my tie dye Metal
shirts finest hour), skull dress shirt, and some new sunglasses and a
special hat I built for this cruise (more on these later)).
This
was my first time on a Metal cruise as the previous editions of 70,000
Tons of Metal (same organizers for both cruises) I wasn't able to make
it, and to this day I kick myself in the ass for "missing the boat" (pun
intended). This was also my redemption for missing the first 70,000
Tons of Metal.
I found my way to the Metromover (a free method of
public transportation near downtown Miami) after parking my car and got
off the station nearest to the Port of Miami. I walked my way to the
bridge and saw the vessel that was going to be called home for the next 5
days, the Majesty of the Seas.
It seems somebody has started a petition to deny Six Feet Blunder entry into the Barge to Hell.
The back story behind this was a "fight" (nobody knows the REAL facts, but let's stick with the quotation since it involved 2 of Metals most annoying members and bands) that happened between Chris Barnes (of Six Feet Blunder) and Travis Ryan (of Cattle Infatuation) recently. The original story can be found here and a follow up here(courtesy of Blabbermouth).
I for one have already signed it, and while this won't do anything to get Six Feet Blunder off the Barge to Hell, it still pretty fun to support such an endeavor. Click here for the petition.
Folks, Metal Trek ( http://metaltrek.blogspot.com ) is now running at full capacity. The errors on the Euro Metal Fest 2011 have been fixed and are ready for your viewing pleasure.
As indicated before, I am taking some time off from Metal Trek and Channel 13 ( http://channel13metal.blogspot.com ), so if there are no updates, now you know.
I have major plans for both blogs as I have some projects that I want to unleash to the world, annd these will be my avenues to do it. Check it out and thanks for your patience and understanding.
Metal Trek was recently updated with The Maiden Voyage Section. This is the most crucial part of the blog as this will provide all the information on how to travel to a Metal Festival right down to the dollar. This was a long process as I had to do some MAJOR revisions from the Wacken Trek edition, and that's why it couldn't join the launch of Metal Trek. Check it out \m/ The Euro Metal Fest Tour 2011 has been revamped with proper links so it is no longer linking to the old Wacken Trek website. One thing I need to mention is that the Vienna portion had to be taken down due to a mistake I did and as a result, I need to fix it before bringing it back up again. The Last Day, Schwag and Thank You post have been split into 4 components as it was too big for all the pictures to be seen (the pics were not loading properly). This also make for an easier read so you can pace yourself and go by "chapters" instead of one big read. Once I have fixed the issue with the Vienna post, I am taking a small break from blogging as I need some personal "ME" time. Once I am done with my break, I will re-focus my attention on Metal Trek and Channel 13. I also have plans on on re-posting my 2011 Maiden Weekend and the 2012 Iced Earth Florida Tour, but instead of just posting the pics, I will re-haul them for a proper blog post (in other words, a lot of senseless commentary on the trips from yours truly =D ). Finally, the countdown to the Barge To Hell continues and as indicated sometime ago, I managed to get in to the cruise thanks to Vaughan Pollard as he and his buddies had one more space left and offered it to me. I don't have to say how fortunate I was for this opportunity and how grateful I am to him for making this happen. For obvious reasons, my trip will be extensively covered and it will be Metal Trek's first original post. That's it for now, but I want to say thank you to all who have passed by Metal Trek and Channel 13 and enjoyed my style of Metal Entertainment and Information. Laters.
I6Z6A6N NOTE: This post was originally on Wacken Trek, and set up as a PhotoBucket dump of pictures with no commentary. This is me being a lazy bastard (at least I'll admit it =D ). After much thought I have made the decision to make a proper Metal Trek Post out of it. Take note this post was up originally on February 4, 2013, while the trek itself was from March 2 - 4, 2012, and that's why it is placed before the Euro Metal Festival Tour with a post date listing of September 30, 2012 (to keep things organized chronologically).
Also, Instead of the usual "dedicate one page to each day", I decided to condense everything into one page as the weekend trip was very "hit and run" and the limited amount of pictures won't allow for one of my usual epic "Saga of the Icelanders" type of posts.
The weekend trip was what would you call a "concentrated" dose of Iced Earth as their tours tend to be limited. When they tour Florida, they usually go no further south than Orlando and after that they head off to their next northerly destination. This tour allowed the more hardcore Florida Iced Earth fans a chance to see their favorite band twice since they had 2 Florida shows (one in Orlando and the other in Ft. Lauderdale). Aside from myself being one of the aforementioned hardcore Iced Earth Fans, I had the distinguished pleasure of having 2 travel companions who shared my fandom level appreciation of Iced Earth throughout this trip in Alex Flores of Sinistre Division and Shirley Moonspell, paparazzi of the dark kind.
Day 1, March 2, 2012
The first concert of the this tour was the Ft. Lauderdale show at Revolution. The tour itself also had Symphony X where the 2 bands would alternate the headlining spots each day, and on this day Symphony X was last to play.
While waiting in line to claim our VIP tickets, a sweet promo poster was staring right at us. If they would have given these out, it would have been the cherry on top of this trip.
Welcome to Metal Trek, the next evolutionary step that was Wacken Trek. Instead of focusing on traveling to Wacken, this blog will focus on all aspects related to Metal Travel.
Wacken Trek had a good run and did what it needed to do (provide information on how to travel to Wacken and the many tall tales of my travels), but as my Metal Travel experiences continue to expand (and my previous travels should have told me this before starting Wacken Trek), it was time to broaden the scope of Wacken Trek and the only way to do this was by creating a new blog, which allows for easier and faster setups of new (and even old) posts. The next few months will have the blog undergo additional major renovations and major updates as it has a long way to go before it is considered complete. If you find links taking you back to the old Wacken Trek site, don't worry, I am aware of it and will fix them as time progress. I will also have videos and news relating to Metal Travel that will be a feature for this blog. As for the old Wacken Trek site, I haven't decided yet whether it will stay up or be deleted.
For the time being, and to give something for the launch, I have posted the Wacken Open Air 2009 and the European Metal Festival Tour 2011 blogs as well as some videos that will provide Metal Travel related entertainment. That's it for now but if you have any suggestions, let me know and I will take them into serious consideration. Many \m/ HEAVY \m/ thanks!6!6!6!
I6Z6A6N NOTE: This was another series of posts originally from my Wacken Trek website that is now part of Metal Trek. There have been some minor changes from the original post to address some grammatical errors. First, a foreword as to why I put both the first and second days together. I didn't have enough pictures to work with from the first day since the moment I arrived it was hit and run, and that's why there aren't many pics from day 1, but I will say the first day was best way to start off my tour.
When I left Miami International Airport, it was August 1 at approximately 3:15PM and the flight was approximately 9 hours. By the time I got to Düsseldorf Flughafen (Airport), it was August 2, approximately 6:40AM, and this is due not only to the length of the flight, but the 6 hour time difference as well. As quickly as I landed I ran off to the Airport Hauptbahnhof (Train Station) to begin my inland journey to Emden, where my best friend Stefan lives. I only stayed 1 night, and to say it was short is a definite understatement since it is a very nice town that most people dream off. It allowed me an opportunity to see his wife Astrid and their new miracle Ida Sophia, a very adorable baby that can rob one persons heart easily. We had a BBQ at their home which allowed me to get to know more of his friends and family. While we went to the supermarket to pick up some provisions for the feast, I manged to get the REAL Havana Club (as in the one that is straight from Cuba). I also picked up some Haribo candy at the local supermarket. As you can imagine, I took advantage of the selection from this great candy that only Germany can provide.
On the following day, I said my farewell to Astrid and Ida Sophia, thus ending one of the best parts of my trip, as myself, Stefan, his brother Günter and his son, Silent Y (My nickname to him since he was very quiet throughout the entire Wacken portion of the trip, and his first name begins with a "Y". Unfortunately, I forgot it, sorry Silent Y) began the march to Wacken Open Air. As you can imagine, this was a road trip of epic proportions as we found ourselves sharing the road with other Wacken legions. It was the Bay of Pigs of convoys.
When we arrived to Wacken Open Air, it was like seeing the gates of heaven (or hell) again for me since this is my second time at this great festival, and it never gets old that feeling of arriving to the holy land of \m/ETAL!6!6!6!
I made my way to the Metal Market, the Walmart of Metal, where as usual it was packed with Legions shopping for the necessities their lives command (Shirts, CD's, Vinyls (Yes, we still listen to vinyls), Patches, Spiked/Studded Bracelets, Helmets, Drinking Horns, Blowing Horns, etc.).
There was also the usual activities for Metal fans to enjoy ourselves with, like the very appropriate mechanical bull-ride (Wacken Cow Skull anybody?6?6?6?) and the Metal Kick for the soccer hooligans. An interesting side note about the bull-ride, if you rode it either topless or nude, you get on for free. Of course, that idea didn't work for the Metal Kick, but that didn't stop some of the festival attendees from walking around nude either (and no, I don't have pics of that since the suspects were male. If it was the ladies doing it, than it'd be a different story, since women look better nude than men).
The infamous Jager ride made it's triumphant return to the Holy Land of Wacken, and as always, only a select few were the chosen ones to take to the air and drink a fine beverage worthy of the Gods and Goddesses in Valhalla. The only way to get on this ride is to enter a contest and win a seat. One day, I will beat up a prize holder of one of the coveted seats, disguise myself as that person, and get on that ride.
Another activity that Metalheads were able to participate in was Pole-sitting. This is about as simple as it gets, but there's one catch, you have to stay in your seat for 6 hours (with 10 minutes break between the 2 hours seat time). Prizes were from Marshall, Vintage Amps, MM Media, Woodbrass.com as well as a place in front of the first row of the main stages. For the contestants benefit, the seats were about 8 feet high and positioned to view the main stages so they didn't miss out on some parts of the festival. Considering my current occupation sees me sitting a good chunk of time, I should have participated as well, but there was a lot to do, so go figure. Next time.
Going back to one of my favorite candies, here they are in full force with a grab bag stand, meaning, grab one bag and fill it up with which ever flavor they had available and pay it by the weight.
The next pictures will show you the pathway that led to and from our campsite. The best part about where we camped is we were near a Wacken Breakfast Stand (They served coffee, pastries, and doughnuts, plus some other pastries and lite food items), a pizza and gyro stall.
The Big Wacken Oktoberfest style mugs, truly one of the most worthy containers of Wholly nectar in the world. I will say that I slammed a couple of these since for the price, it definitely allowed for some intercontinental (as in hopping from one campsite to the next) distance beverage consumption.
The Jager ride made for a good background if it happened to be in the line of fire (for a camera shot that is).
One thing about the festival goers is our creativity to make something out of nothing. Take these fine folks who decided to make the horns and "WOA" letters out of empty cans of beer.
Watching Helloween for the first time in my life was very awesome, as they are legends in the world of Heavy Metal, and their performance was very tight.
The audience had a very unique way of agreeing with my statement.
The backstage entrance was decorated the only way it can be decorated. By having the Wacken Cow Skull eat you ALIVE!6!6!6!
One of the bands I wanted to see was Blind Guardian, as this was my 2nd time seeing them. My first time seeing Blind Guardian was my very first Metal Festival, ProgPower USA 3 (Atlanta, GA) for their first ever U.S. show (that's a lot of "firsts"). Also, a nice first as well is my first video for the blog, featuring the crowd surfers during their performance. On a comical side-note, Hansi's new haircut makes him look like Mille Petrozza of Kreator.
The ever underrated but popular theme of people being passed out in random parts of the festival is a testament to Wackens reputation. In case your wondering, this lady was passed out on the side of one of the main stages.
The Jager ride, from the True Metal Stage point of view and participating with it's own light show.
Here I am with Stefan and one of the festival attendees (forgot his name, sorry dude).
Now this little guy definitely gave me a bit of a scare. One of the nights, I noticed some random thing in the air that managed to get my attention. I couldn't determine if it was a plane, a helicopter, a hot air balloon (yes, those do fly over the festival sometimes), and it was just impossible for me to determine what it was, and than I came to the conclusion of it being a U.F.O. (not the band). The next day, I noticed the helicamera and finally put 2 and 2 together that it was the helicamera I saw that night.
The organizers (and most likely the sponsors as well) think of ways to make it as convenient as possible for people to get booze.
Wacken at night is even better than day, since most Metalheads tend to be more active at night, but it can also get dark, and getting lost can be a problem. That's where lighting is a very important part of Metalheads life. Here, you see the backstage access entrance in it's illuminated glory...
... and the obligatory close up of the Cow Skull on fire \m/ .
I'll be the first to admit I am not the biggest Ozzy fan, but this one night, it goes to show why Ozzy has the reputation he has, and he did put on the best show for the evening.
Than there's the tag team of the Pole-sitting contest. The only thing you win is a good view of the band, and some sore shoulders.
A side note about Wacken, the festival allows zoo animals into it's domain.
The backstage entrance also had it's own light show to go with the festival.
Humor is a definite requirement to go to this festival. In case your wondering, I walked out of there with a customized $7,000 Jackson Kelly with Matte Black finish, Titanium Skull Iron Cross Inlays on the fretboard, and carved Skull Iron Cross inlays on the body (In my dreams when I walked to the guitar rack).
One of the last things I saw before leaving the festival area was, you guessed it, the Jager ride at night.
In case your wondering how the Stages look after they wrap up for the night, here it is in the glory of it's version of the "CLOSED SIGN".
