If you haven’t heard the name Wacken Open Air before then you might have not heard metal music much either. Having started with only 6 German local bands and 800 attendees in the 1990s today Wacken Open Air is considered the biggest annual heavy-metal festival with over 80,000 attendees from around the world. Many have called it “The Mecca of Heavy Metal Culture” or “The Cathedral of Heavy Metal” or even “The Summit of Heavy Metal” where the biggest names in the world of metal come to perform. I hope the mass significance of this festival has become clear by now.
Now comes our bit. A heavy metal band of our very own Bangladesh wrecked the stage at Wacken Open Air 2019. Trainwreck! Remember the name for they have created history and might as well be starting a revolutionary era for the country’s metal music scenario and music industry in general. Sharing the stage with the biggest names out there would be a life long dream for the metal musicians everywhere and Trainwreck has achieved it on behalf of everyone us having played alongside Slayer, Kiss, Bullet for my Valentine, Testament, Parkway Drive, Cradle of Filth this year.
But their journey was not an easy one.
Having been in the underground music scene Trainwreck made quite a name for themselves over the years. But things really started to boom when the band won the first Wacken Metal Battle: Bangladesh chapter, in December 2018. In the following year the band participated in Bangalore Open Air 2019, a regional competition to perform at Wacken. This was a huge deal itself. Because 77 bands sent their demos to the Bangalore Open Air committee from which 5 bands were selected. Other the participating bands were from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Trainwreck took the title and the news was out – ‘Trainwreck to take the stage at Wacken Open Air in Germany’.
The band had to crowdfund their way to both the Bangalore Open Air and Wacken Open Air. Understandably it’s tough to get sponsors for these kinds of events since many fail to understand the gravity of the whole phenomenon. But since they made it, it’s safe to say many are here to acknowledge and support accordingly, wholeheartedly.
A.K.Rahul, a guitarist of the band went up on stage with the country’s flag tied to his guitar and for those of us following the live stream on August 1st we couldn’t have been more proud. When the band’s name was announced the national anthem was playing and I guess we all felt it, the feeling of being represented. Their performance was top notch, tight, crisp and as for how well they were received, the crowd reaction said it all. Wacken was banging it’s head to the original numbers of a Bangladeshi band!
Congratulations Trainwreck! You have made us proud. We can only ask you to keep doing what you’re doing and never stop!
Photo collected from the facebook page Trainwreck
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