written by Marko Jakob

Vadot

The band VADOT was founded in 2009. The debut album ‘In Gottes Namen’ was released in 2010. Numerous concerts, among others together with CASSANDRA COMPLEX and some performances at the Wave Gotik Treffen, have long since elevated the Berliners above the status of an insider tip. The start of the concert at lunchtime was delayed a bit. VADOT was the only band on this day in the Non Tox for which a drum set had to be built up, probably one of the reasons why they had to go on stage first. Due to the beautiful weather, many fans arrived at the Non Tox early as all concerts here took place under the open sky. VADOT offered a great mix of Rock, Electro and New Wave. The fans had a lot of fun at the concert, dancing and dreaming. A successful beginning of the WGT Sunday.

Setlist 01. Lied Der Nacht 02. Falscher Glanz 03. Kaputt 04. Ministry Of Truth 05. Die Schönste 06. Sonst Nichts 07. Hochmut 08. Nacht Im August 09. Motten 10. Räuber Und Prinzen 11. Kreuzfeuer 12. EC 13. Ein Schritt Vor …

Alphamay

ALPHAMAY, originating from Osnabrück in Germany, was founded in 2012. Their first album was released in 2014. The two musicians are also members of the band ROZENCRANTZ. The location became more and more crowded as ALPHAMAY began their concert. In addition to older pieces, the band also presented quite new songs from their album ‘The Mellow Collie’, which was released shortly before the Wave Gotik Treffen. Really nice Electro Pop, which animated the audience to dance. There was a moment of shock when singer Henning slipped one leg into the gap between the stage and the loudspeaker. Luckily, he recovered quickly. During the beautiful cover version of, ‘On The Other Side’ everyone was dancing and singing loudly together. A great performance that will be remembered.

Setlist 01. Intro 02. The God Games 03. Missing Me 04. Serenity 05. Decay Of A Dream 06. Black Parasite 07. On The Other Side 08. Flat Earth Flat Head 09. Low In Love 10. C=64 11. The Carousel 12. Don’t Go

Reichsfeind

The Dark Electronic project REICHSFEIND was founded in 2011. The debut album of the band is called ‘Living In Space’. The next band on the beautiful open air area in southwest Leipzig was REICHSFEIND from Frankfurt. They presented their beautiful Dance-Electro to a receptive audience who accepted the invitation to dance. Great, spherical Electro sound, including many songs with an earworm guarantee. There was room for a slightly quieter song in the set ‘Soulpaint’. The cool, casual style and stage presence of singer Timo was also impressive.

Setlist 01. Welcome To The World 02. Soulpaint 03. Mute 04. Mountains 05. Chasm Walk 06. Fill The Void 07. Stalker 08. Dervish 09. Detox

Caisaron

In 2007, CAISARON released the debut album ‘Own Way’. Among other things, they have performed live together with the band BLUTENGEL. The concert started with an intro in which singer Angela performed beautifully with transparent giant wings. The first song of the performance was ‘Return’ from the album ‘Reflection’ from 2015. Singers Frank and Angela sang in German as well as in English. Both of them harmonised perfectly on stage and of course presented their new single, ‘Never End’, which will be released shortly after the Wave Gotik Treffen. A varied show that was a lot of fun for both the band and the audience.

Setlist 01. Intro 02. Return 03. Two Souls 04. Jagdzeit 05. Never End 06. Don’t Run Away 07. Preis Der Wahrheit 08. Alone 09. Dream 10. Forgotten Souls 11. Knebel 12. Einsam 13. Deep Inside

Cellar Darling

The Swiss based band CELLAR DARLING has been around since 2016. Their debut album from 2017 is called ‘This Is The Sound’. The musicians of the band were former members of the band ELUVEITIE. The Felsenkeller was well filled at the beginning of the third day of the festival with harder music expected. The music of CELLAR DARLING could be described as Melodic Metal with Folk influences. For some songs, singer Anna played a hurdy-gurdy and a violinist was a guest of the show on some songs.

The songs were well received by the audience who loved Anna’s great voice. They also played their latest single, ‘Avalanche’. The band demonstrated their absolute joy of playing and unfortunately, the 50 minutes of their performance went by way too fast. When she asked the audience if they would like to hear one more song, everyone responded extremely positively. They said goodbye with the words: “It was a pleasure and honour to play here”.

Aeverium

AEVERIUM is an alternative metal band from Germany. It was founded in 2013 and had its first live performance a year later. Meanwhile, they have already conquered the very big stages and played among others at the M’era Luna Festival and Wacken Open Air. Now the Felsenkeller was almost full when this very popular band took over the stage. AEVERIUM played a great mix of songs from their previous two albums, ‘Break Out’ and ‘Time’. Of course, the ballad ‘Home’, in which singer Maurelle’s beautiful voice comes into its own, was not missing. All hands were in the air during this song, and it looked pretty damn good. During ‘Brave New World’, there was even a lot of simultaneous head-banging! After a series of faster songs, singer Marcel had to rest for a few seconds. He told us he was out of breath due to his size and this self- depreciation came across as very likable. The song ‘What Are You Waiting For’ was sung together with the audience as a choir. It was really a great atmosphere and it was clear the band did not want to leave the stage. The band thanked the fans very much and said that Leipzig is one of their absolute favourite cities.

Setlist 01. Do You Remember 02. Distrust 03. Hunted 04. The Otherside 05. Home 06. Brave New World 07. Veil Of Shadows 08. What Are You Waiting For 09. Break Out 10. Heavens Burning

Then Comes Silence

THEN COMES SILENCE is a band from Stockholm in Sweden and were founded in 2012. In 2016, they signed a contract with the well-known German label Nuclear Blast. This is the first time that Westbad has been used as Wave Gotik Treffen venue. Built as a bathing site some 90 years ago, it is now the venue for concerts and the shape of the hall gave all spectators a good view to the stage. The concert started with the song ‘Magnetic’ from the current album ‘Blood’. Their music is an interesting and varied mix of Gothic Rock and Post Punk. More and more fans poured into the location during the concert, which was now almost completely full. An absolutely great atmosphere with the stage shrouded in white light and a lot of fog. One of the highlights was the song ‘Strangers’, which also featured a video clip. At the end of the concert there was a lot of warm applause for the Swedes.

Setlist 01. Magnetic 02. Flashing Pangs Of Love 03. Warm Like Blood 04. Good Friday 05. My Bones 06. Death Rides 07. The Rest Will Follow 08. Spinning Faster 09. Animals 10. Can’t Hide 11. She Loves The Night 12. The Dead Cry For No One 13. Strange Kicks 14. Strangers 15. Mercury 16. She Lies In Wait 17. Sweet Curls

Zeraphine

German band ZERAPHINE has existed since the year 2000. Among other things, they supported the Finnish band HIM’s Love Metal tour in 2004 and have performed at major festivals such as Highfield Festival and M’era Luna Festival. Their last album ‘Whiteout’ was released eight years ago.

Performances by the Berlin based band have become a rarity. The last joint appearance was at the NCN Festival eight months ago, so no wonder that the Westbad was full. Two weeks before the start of the Wave Gotik Treffen, the band was informed of a location change from the Agra to the Westbad. The good thing for the fans was that the band’s playing time was considerably extended by the change. For the band that meant some extra work in the rehearsal room, because now they had to practice more songs. One of the songs put into the set at short notice was, for example, ‘River Of You’. ZERAPHINE changed as usual between songs with German and English lyrics.

It followed the well-known as a video hit ‘Still’. After that came ‘Kaltes Herz’ a song that has not been played live for a long time. During ‘Be My Rain’ almost everybody clapped along. ZERAPHINE also played songs that are not that easy live, such as ‘Out Of Sight’. But apart from a cracked guitar string, it worked out wonderfully and the fans loved it. Two songs were added: ‘I’ll Follow You’ and the sad ‘Whiteout’ at the end. Singer Sven said: “The sad song is at the end, so that the farewell itself is not so hard”. It was a stunning 90 minutes from ZERAPHINE. The next chance to see the band live will be at M’era Luna 2018.

Setlist 01. Lieber Allein 02. Die Macht In Dir 03. No More Doubts 04. Niemand Kann Es Sehen 05. Ohne Dich 06. River Of You 07. Die Welt Kann Warten 08. Still 09. Kaltes Herz 10. Halbes Ende 11. Be My Rain 12. No Tears 13. Fang Mich 14. United And Lost 15. Inside Your Arms 16. Out Of Sight 17. Louisa 18. Die Wirklichkeit 19. Sterne Sehen 20. I’ll Follow You 21. Whiteout