With 80,000 festival visitors, and including personnel a total of roughly 86,000 attendees in 2011, the Wacken Open Air Festival attracts all kinds of metal music fans and hard rock from around the world. The festival, first held in 1990 as a small event for local bands, is now one of the biggest festivals worldwide. Including 1 track each of: AVANTASIA, ACCEPT, APOCALYPTICA & AVANTI! ORCHESTRA, SAXON, STEEL PANTHER, HAMMERFALL, DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, SLAYER, MOTÖRHEAD, KREATOR, HEAVEN SHALL BURN, CHILDREN OF BODOM, AMON AMARTH, EMPEROR

In their early years, Pixies’ jarring pop sound influenced bands such as Nirvana, Radiohead, The Strokes and Weezer and are subsequently credited with having a big influence on the alternative rock boom of the 1990s. The Pixies’ legacy and popularity grew in the years following their break-up (1993), leading to sold-out world tours following their reunion in 2004. In June 2013, the indie-rock legend released their first new material in almost ten years! The latest album ‘Indie City’ charted #6 in the UK album charts (#3 on US Top Alternative Albums and #1 on US Top Tastemaker Albums) and is after ‘Bossanova’ (UK #3, 1990) their biggest chart success in the UK.

Dropkick Murphys’ 2004 single “Tessie” became the band’s first hit and one of their biggest charting singles to date. The band’s final Hellcat release, 2005’s The Warrior’s Code, included the song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”; the song was featured in the 2006 Academy Award-winning movie “The Departed”, and went on to become a Platinum-selling single. 2007’s “The Meanest of Times” made its debut at No. 20 on the Billboard charts and featured the successful single, “The State of Massachusetts”, while 2011’s “Going Out in Style” was an even bigger success, making its debut at No. 6, giving the band their highest-charting album to date. Dropkick Murphys’ eighth studio album, Signed and Sealed in Blood was released in 2013 making its debut at No. 9 on the Billboard charts.

Interpol’s debut album ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’ (2002) was critically acclaimed, making it to tenth position on the NME’s list of top albums in 2002 as well as No. 1 on Pitchfork Media’s Top 50 Albums of 2002. Subsequent records ‘Antics’ (2004) and ‘Our Love to Admire’ (2007) have confirmed the band’s initial success and turned them into a commercial and critical success. Having first performed at Luna Lounge along with other notable bands like The Strokes, Longwave, The National and Stellastarr, they are one of the bands associated with the New York City indie music scene, and were one of several groups that emerged from the post-punk revival of the 2000s.

System Of A Down from the US, also known by the acronym SOAD, are undoubtedly one of the best live acts in Alternative Metal. The band achieved commercial success with the release of five studio albums, of which three debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and brought them several Gold- and Platinum-Albums. Moreover, SOAD were nominated for four Grammy Awards, and their song ‘B.Y.O.B.’ was awarded for the Best Hard Rock Performance.

Nine Inch Nails (abbreviated as NIN) – is the outstanding industrial rock project by Trent Reznor. Founded in 1988 in Ohio, Reznor produced several highly influential records in the 90s that achieved widespread popularity: many NIN songs became radio hits, two NIN recordings have won Grammy Awards and their entire catalog has reached record sales exceeding over 30 million albums worldwide, with 11 million sales certified in the United States alone. The in September 2013 released album ‘Hesitation Marks’ proved once more that Raznor is back at his old strength – reaching Top#5 Chart Positions all over Europe as well as entering the UK Charts at #2 and the US Charts on #3.