  
Sabaton
The Swedes whose main theme in the lyrics is historical wars opened the day for me on the main stage. They keep jumping around during their very energetic show and it's quite a good wake up music. In between songs they talk t the crowd, spicing the dialogues up with jokes about the sound engineer and a blow job. The show ended literary on fire on the rhythm of Primo Victoria.
Dark Funeral
To wake up completely, I went to the Marquee I tent to check out more Swedes, this time on the black metal side. They came on stage with their faces painted, almost on the edge of silliness and with big pentagrams on their clothes. I think most of their songs are dedicated to one form or another of Satan or anything anti Christian. Good blasting from the drummer.
Bullet for my Valentine
A quick stop by the main stage brought me in front of this band and their heavy/metalcore music. It was full of fans of quite young ages and with weird outfits and many spiked haircuts and who did a lot of crowdsurfing and some pits in front of the stage.
Cannibal Corpse
I changed the musical style to Death Metal when going back to Marquee I tent. I felt like listening to a more brutal version of Six Feet Under but without the dynamic of their show. Actually, Cannibal Corpse had one of the most static shows I've seen. What was really impressive and I have to check it out at other concerts was the fact that the bass guitar seemed to only have 3 strings.
Walls of Jericho
In the other smaller Marquee tent, I could only resist for few songs since it was very crowded and hot. Candace Kucsulain's voice was really powerful and she kept on using swear words when talking to the crowd. She invited the people to make the biggest circle pit and I can't imagine how crazy that was in front of the small stage. This concert had a problem with the speakers that gave up for half of a song.
Carcass
The British death metal band was a last minute replacement for Mastodon. They hardly tour these days since all members are busy with other projects, so the fans got really lucky to get the chance to see them live. They didn't bring up all their projections but the crowd seemed happy with the songs performed and the quality of the music.
Slash
With a recently launched self titled album, the ex Guns'n'roses guitarist came on stage with his classical tall black hat and awesome guitar handling. His touring band is fronted by Alter Bridge vocalist Myles Kennedy, who, conveniently enough sounds like Axl (and even better according to some) and together with other members they delivered a cheesy playlist with a lot of old Guns' songs. But they also felt fresh due the new musicians.
Paradise Lost
Once a big headliner for this festival, they only got a place in Marquee I this time and the tent was surprisingly empty. They didn't inspire me their best concert mood, but since I enjoyed their music for quite a while, I was happy to get to see them. The singer admitted that their hit 'As I die' is an old song that they stole.
Eluveitie
Before the concert, I went in the middle of the crowd while holding my camera and a nice guy there asked me 'Are you sure you wanna stay here with this camera?'. I was explained it would get wild and I moved. And right he was. The folk metal band from Switzerland made the Metal Dome tent seem even smaller than it was. They had a big whiteish screen behind the drums that made the lights seem weird altogether. I really loved the sounds of the flutes, hurdy gurdy and violins and the folk rhythm totally made me understand why the crowd would go mad in front of the stage.
Airbourne
I complained that the tents were too small for many of the bands I saw there. But for Airbourne, 10 tents wouldn't have been enough. The Americans know how to make a fantastic show for their hard rock tunes. Besides continuous movements, jumping, acting on stage, the singer did his classic stage climbing and played a small solo on top of the stage. For one of the songs, he said he wanted to see the biggest number of people on others' shoulders. So the crowd got taller on average. Plus, he kept asking 'how did you like this or that band' that had already performed at the festival. I think I'd put their concert on a list of 'never to miss'.
Soulfly
Second headliner of the festival had nothing of the glam of the other two headliners. Yet, they came up with their fast, heavy grooves all spiced with South American rhythms. Cavalera's voice sounded as good and harsh as I was used to and he played most of the times with his guitar having the Brazilian flag on it. I liked how he kept saying that he wants to see the hands in the sky (instead f the classical in the air). The drum solo after the first few songs was absolutely incredible and it ended up with every member of the band having a drum next to them and supporting the main beats of the drummer. For a son from the Roots album, Cavalera has invited his brother, Igor, to play the drums. And for 'Unleash', they invited Ritchie Cavalera to sing the growled parts.
The crowd was invited to make two walls of death on each side of the stage and the amount of crowdsurfers and participants at pits was insane. Good tunes to have in my head on my way back to the tent. |
