Asgrim

In the wake of Hellfest and the build-up to house-moving, I’ll take this moment to review all the bands and my general festival experience. Tom was saying how unorganised previous years were, but I kept an open mind. Thankfully, on 99% of fronts, the festival was excellently organised. Toilets were cleaned every day which was more than most festivals. The weather was spectacularly hot (and sometimes too hot for Hannah who gets sunstroke very easily!), and it was ace. Not enough shade I think, I think the benches should’ve had umbrellas for shade as well. Managed to pick up a few new T-Shirts (Venom, Dimmu Borgir, Hellfest), as did Han. Read on for my review of most of the bands I saw…

In Flames

Normally not my cup of tea really - but I’m always impressed by their spectacular shows with all the pyrotechnics and copious amounts of fire. We left Hannah on her own for a bit as the rest of us wanted to see Marduk (see below…), but returned shortly after. Didn’t really watch much of the set as I’ve seen them a couple of times before, but it seemed a bit heavier than normal.

Dimmu Borgir

I do like Dimmu Borgir, and the last couple of times they’ve really impressed me, especially after the really static set I saw on the Death Cult Armageddon tour in London. I don’t think they were as good as they were at Wacken 2007, but they were still bloody good, and I still love hearing Vortex’s voice live.

Carcass

Here’s a band I never thought I’d see live. Nevertheless, I’ve now seen Carcass, and can say they were absolutely awesome. Hearing all the classics over the big PA, although I really wanted them to play Child’s Play, but I was still happy. Nice to hear some really damn good English metal.

Testament

Testament never fail to impress me, they’re just great to singalong and air guitar to while thrashing about with your mates. Good to hear some of the new album played as well, such as More than Meets The Eye, as well as the old classics (Into the Pit, Over The Wall, Disciples of the Watch etc.). Good clean thrash-flavoured fun.

Paradise Lost

Not my cup of tea at all really, but I watched them as Hannah liked them. I wasn’t really paying attention, but I think they were good!

Katatonia & My Dying Bride

I’m really not into doomy gloomy metal of this variety, Hannah likes them, but they made me depressed and want to die… not great for a festival really!

Mayhem

Totally awesome to see Attila Csihar on vocals instead of that strange Maniac bloke. Attila really made it more spiritual and more what I imagine Mayhem to be like. His voice is absolutely terrific, and some of the ear-piercing shrieks were just astounding. His vocals just made the whole set very eerie, what with all the wailing and whatnot, and as last time, the rest of the band were excellent, especially Hellhammer!

Marduk

Well, I really like some Marduk stuff, but live - they were just dreadful. The singer was monotonous, didn’t vary at all. It was everything I didn’t want it to be. We watched about a song and got bored, and went back to In Flames to meet up with Hannah.

Eluveitie

This was the first band of the festival we saw, and they were fun indeed. Various classical folk instruments including a Lute, it was certainly something different. I shall have to check out their CD!

Gamma Ray

I’ve seen Gamma Ray (or Ram-A-Gay) multiple times before, so we just watched my favourite song by them - Heavy Metal Universe:

Kai Hansen: This is supposed to be a UNIWERSE!! Not a small willage in France!

Apocalyptica

Not my favourite band ever, but they’re still pretty impressive, with the whole cello thing going on. I think they should play less Metallica covers though (even if it is what helped make them more popular), but it doesn’t fail to get the crowd moving anyway. I do always love hearing their rendition of Hall of the Mountain King. Woo!

Iced Earth

Wow. I think Iced Earth had the best stage sound of the whole festival. I could hear everything. And I’m glad I could because Matt Barlow is an absolutely tremendous singer. This time, they kicked Wacken’s arse hands down. Absolutely fantastic, and possibly one of the best bands of the festival.

Porcupine Tree

I’ve not listened to Porcupine Tree before, but they were good. Again, another band I’ll have to check out on CD probably.

Candlemass

Ooops, I did accidentally fall asleep for Candlemass, but I heard the last couple of songs which were ace. I quite like the (new?) singer!

Satyricon

I’ve wanted to see Satyricon again since I last saw them at Wacken. They were nothing hugely special this time, but it’s quite cool hearing the songs live. Should’ve played more from Volcano though.

Slayer

This will be short: Sounded rubbish. Went to beer garden.

Opeth

Always good seeing Opeth. Great band, nice hearing the new tunes live after I’ve given Ghost Reveries a decent listen this time. Nice to see Per Wirberg getting into it a bit more this time (when I saw them for An Evening With Opeth, he was a bit standy-stilly…)

Morbid Angel

Nothing like a bit of late-night Morbid Angel fun. I’ve not seen them before as I slept through them during last Wacken they played. Good mix of tracks, and we were given a taster of the new album which sounded pretty good!

At the Gates

Wow, another band that blew me off my feet. At the Gates were terrific, and shame on Nestor, Sophia and Tom for not seeing them. Definately one of the highlights of the festival, and plenty of Slaughter of the Soul tracks, mixed with some older stuff.

Primordial

Well, what can I say? Fourth time seeing my favourite band, they’re bloody amazing. Excellent songs, and Alan is a terrific frontman. Never fails to impress me!

Municipal Waste

Sat in the shade watching these - I want to see them at a gig really, as they don’t lend themselves well to the whole festival environment. I did like the jest:

Guardrail: So… who likes Slayer?
Crowd: YEAH!
Guardrail: Well, they’ve been cancelled….. *long pause*… PSYKE!!

Conclusion

Overall, the festival was really enjoyable. The few small kinks such as having no cigarette stands at all will hopefully be ironed out. Toilets were much better than most festivals, camping area was great (if a little squished!) and the whole arena was great, and some really tasty food!! (Tartiflette anyone?) No showers meant me and Tom not getting nekkid at 3am whilst drunk, but the washroom was still good, despite the drains getting blocked with a festival full of metalheads’ hair. Still not keen on the whole drinks token thing (Bloodstock!), but I understand why they do it, and it was quite handing being able to pay on card. I think the main things I’d like to see next year are:

• More areas with shade (either from sun or rain)
• A shop that sells basic camping/festival essentialls (Tents, Pegs, Hats, Sunglasses etc.)
• Somewhere that sells cigarettes with PLENTY OF STOCK!
• More tartiflette, that stuff is yummy!