The Wacken Metal Battles of the Band are an annual series of events in which local metal bands across South Africa compete against each other to qualify for finals.
After the finals, the overall winning band gets sent to Germany to play at the Wacken Open Air festival. This is a massive festival held in Germany with bands from all across the world playing along side world class bands the likes of Iron Maiden, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Megadeth and Metallica to name but a few.
The local battles are sponsored by Jagermeister, who send the winning Band to Germany covering all the costs involved with getting the band to play at Wacken. Primarily organized by Louis Dupisani and Sashquita Northey of Emalyth Promotions and a team of local judges made up of respectable members of the local metal scene in their respective cities; who determine which bands go through to finals for the ultimate prize.The local battles happen in three cities Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
This year the battles kicked off in Durban and saw two bands, namely Desolation and Vulvodynia qualify for the finals in Johannesburg. Over the 28-30 April 2016 the Cape town heat blew many fans away as the competition was very stiff.
28 April: R.O.A.R
R.O.A.R kicked off the battles with bands such as Nebula Disrupt, WithDawn, Red Tape Riot and Bulletscript battling it out full throttle. Bullscript emerged victorious with a killer performance that had the crowd going ballistic and qualified them for the Finals in Johannesburg at the end of May.
29 April: The Rabbit Hole
The Rabbit hole exploded from the incredible performances from Alpha Sequence, Devislpeak who intensified their act with a bit of pyrotechnics and stage props making it a truly captivating performance, A price on a Kings Head, Zombies ate my Girlfriend and The Fallen Prophets. Zombies came out on top and will be joining Bulletscript in Joburg to battle it out for the number one spot on the Road to Germany.
30April: Aandklas
Aandklas in Stellenbosch and that had a stellar line up with bands such as Thread of Omen, Beeldenstorm, Fuera, Junkyard Lipstick and Subject to Slaughter setting Stellenbosch on fire with mad riffs and insane blast beats. Fuera (pictured above) then went for gold and wrapped up the Cape Town battles this year putting them in the run for the finals in Joburg 28 may 2016.
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