Running Wild’s farewell: Wacken day three goes out on the extreme end

Day three leans extreme, front to back — goregrind at half past noon, Norwegian black metal by early afternoon, and by the time we hit the night’s stage-hops, I’m choosing between Emperor‘s original lineup and Running Wild‘s very last show ever. No pressure. This Wacken edition feels like a run to catch all the bands we missed last year because of the bad weather — so this time I’m feeling unstoppable, and the sheer variety of genres on the bill today had us running on adrenaline before we’d even made it past the gates. Dust, heat, and an impossible schedule: exactly the kind of day this festival was built for.

Gutalax

Can you ask for anything better to cure your potential hangover under the sun at 12:30? Gutalax knows how. And if you know anything about them, you already know exactly what kind of morning this is going to be. Toilet humour, deliberately absurd song titles, and sample-heavy tracks: Gutalax occupy a very specific, gleefully tasteless niche in extreme metal, and the crowd for them tends to be less about intensity and more about pure, devoted fun. It was more packed than I expected. We danced, we laughed, and we enjoyed every single minute of it, but a lot of toilet paper was wasted.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Vreid

A band I wasn’t expecting to see on such a big stage at all was Vreid — and not because they don’t deserve it, quite the contrary. The Norwegian band formed in Sogndal in 2004, out of the ashes of Windir, Hváll, Sture and Steingrim carried the project forward under a new name, though the sound has evolved a good deal since. Two decades in, they play with the conviction of a band with nothing left to prove, and the black ‘n’ roll edge tends to translate well to an outdoor stage. The band is an emblem of the black metal scene, and of course they deserve their place on a stage this size. The day before, we also caught bass player Jarle Kvåle during one of the press talks, promoting a documentary he and Chris Pontius made about the Norwegian extreme metal scene, built around conversations with musicians across the country. Mid-set, things took an unexpected turn: Chris Pontius climbed onstage playing guitar and joining vocalist Agnete Kjølsrud of Djerv for the live premiere of their song “Loving the Dead”. True to form, Chris stripped down and fully transformed into Party Boy partway through the track — which, given his documentary work with the band’s own bassist, felt less random than it probably should have.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Grand Magus

I’ll just say it: this was one of the bands I’d been waiting to see. Grand Magus isn’t a band you get the chance to see that often, so I had to be there for this one. The clock hit 14:00, and I was standing in front of the Headbangers Stage, with plenty of others probably feeling the same way. The Swedish heavy metal band, formed in Stockholm in 1996, is fronted by Janne ‘JB’ Christoffersson — also of Wolf — whose voice is genuinely one of the more underrated instruments in European metal. Their mix of doom and traditional heavy metal was exactly what was needed to mellow the vibe down after the previous acts.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Black Label Society

Zakk Wylde’s name on a bill is basically a guarantee — you know it’s going to be a good day. Black Label Society took the Faster stage at 17:00, and as expected, the band delivered a tight set that included a few Black Sabbath classics, opening with a song that blended Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin songs. The power of this man is just something unbelievable — seeing him with Pantera on their final tour, and still today with BLS, it’s just pure chaos. Not sure what this guy has been having for breakfast for the last 20 years, but he is non-stop. His signature kilt and heavy boots kept him stuck to the ground as his long hair headbanged through every song. He doesn’t talk much onstage — that’s not his style — but his guitar speaks for him.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Pig Destroyer

Grindcore is one of those genres not that common on Wacken’s own soil, but Pig Destroyer brought it anyway. The band plays sets that feel less like a performance than a controlled detonation — over before you’ve fully processed what happened, but the impact lands regardless. The songs were brutally short, and the crowd seemed genuinely caught off guard by how fast and relentless it all was. Honestly, so was I. Shall we mention the brutal moshpit? The amount of dust it kicked up alone was enough to send people reaching for their bandanas.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Blood Fire Death

If you’re not familiar with this one, Blood Fire Death covers the legacy of Quorthon and the magnificence of Bathory. This wasn’t my first time seeing the tribute, and for some reason, Wacken’s soil felt like an unexpected place for it. And again, if you’re not familiar, the band is comprised of Erik Danielsson (Watain, vocals), Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved, guitar), Blasphemer (Vltimas, ex-Mayhem, guitar), Apollyon (Aura Noir, bass and vocals), Faust (ex-Emperor, drums), Rickard “Ribban” Bergman (Bathory‘s original bassist), Attila Csihar (Mayhem, vocals), and Grutle Kjellson (Enslaved, vocals). In the absence of Gaahl, Ihsahn (Emperor) stepped onstage to cover “A Fine Day to Die”, the first song on the bill. What can I say—I found myself spotting a few issues at the beginning and during the performance, starting with the guitars sounding a bit off and the sound overall not quite dialled in, not to mention the set’s delayed start. But overall, the tribute felt like an emotional rollercoaster — it gave me goosebumps, a fitting way to commemorate this fantastic legacy. I have to say, the Louder stage doesn’t do justice to this tribute, in my opinion, and given the legacy this band is carrying, I’d have expected them on a bigger stage.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Emperor

After Blood Fire Death, my energy was running low, and to be fair, it was hard to choose between one of my favourites and Running Wild‘s last show — but I made it happen. Emperor hit me like a machine gun. They played with the original lineup for a best-of set plus “As the Shadows Rise”, and yeah, when I say original, that includes Mortiis being there too. Ihsahn remains a magnetic performer, gifting us with an exclusive performance of “An Elegy of Icaros”. When the change of backdrop happened, both Faust and Mortiis stepped in to perform the classics, starting with “I Am the Black Wizards” and at that point I lost it like many of others. And as I was recovering from the headbanging, I ran to catch Running Wild.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Running Wild

And then, the one that needed its own paragraph before you even got there: Running Wild closed the night for us, for many others, and probably for themselves too — this was the final show of their career. After tonight, that’s it. If with Emperor I was headbanging, for this one I sat on the grass and took it all in. Between their pirate costumes and a long set, here’s what I managed to catch: “Sinister Eyes” (played live for the first time since 1996) and “Dead Man’s Road” (making its live debut). By the time the last note of “Conquistadores” faded, there wasn’t much left to do but sit with it — forty years, and it just ended, right there on a Wacken stage. Around me, people were singing and cheering, holding onto the good times and giving one last farewell to a truly great band. This was never going to be just another set. Running Wild has been doing this since 1976. After tonight, they’re not.

Photo: Peterson Marti.