SONISPHERE FESTIVAL
KNEBWORTH 31/07/10
Just here as a day tripper I quickly realised just how vast this festival was. The two entrances were at different junctions of the motorway and I got a nice guided tour of the back stage area on a shuttle bus getting from one to the other. Arriving on site properly just in time to catch Terrorizer cover stars and Fenriz approved band Enforcer, pint in hand I was wondering just what all the fuss was going to be knowing that they were not likely to be my thing. There was no denying the force behind their show the instant they hit the stage and the first song ‘Midnight Vice’ was one I recognised straight away despite having no doubt only heard it once in passing somewhere or the other. There was loads of energy here and plenty of posing and guitar histrionics and this was a great wake up band for those staggering out their tents after a heavy night. Olof "Enforcer" Wikstrand’s vocals really hurt when they hit the high notes and had me backing away from the speaker. Older songs such as ‘On The Loose’ and the new album anthem ‘Diamonds’ were really working the crowd, hands were up in the air clapping along and on stage there was a bout of synchronised riffing. By the time they blazed into ‘Take Me To Hell’ I might not have been sold but could not deny the Swedes their 30 minute retro n’ roll show.
More from the old school Earache show next but this time I had no problems with it as it was Evile. The tent had doubled audience wise for this and the band announced it was their biggest UK show - bit different than The Parish eh lads? Who needs Metallica when we have this, and the crowd were eating it up from the off as soon as ‘Infected Nation’ pile-drived in courtesy of Ben Carter’s solid pummelling. This was the second time I have caught them now without Mike Alexander and it does take some getting used to although there is no denying Joel Graham has fitted in. The slower ‘Metamorphosis,’ a song about change was a poignant tribute to his memory and gets the respect it deserves. After that the obvious thing to do is fire up the intensity and that is done without mercy with ‘Enter The Grave.’ My one niggling thought here was that the French gave Evile the main stage at Hellfest and I think it would have been the proper thing to do to let them have it here too. Maybe next year!
Speaking of which it was time for my first encounter with the outside arena at one of the two bigger stages to witness Soulfly marking down their tribal territories. With hindsight I stood at the wrong side with a bit of an upward slope and bad view. Luckily I sussed this out for the next band here although most of Max C was watched on the screens, side of stage. This was one of a few sets of the crowd pleasing variety witnessed today. Chants of ‘Blood Fire’ brought the throng and Marc Rizzo was doing a great job keeping us entertained on lead guitar, Max’s efforts in this respect seemed pretty incidental as they have been last couple of times I have seen the band. The grizzled stomp took us ‘Back To The Primitive’ and there was much singing along but the band having got us to this level knew exactly how to play us firing out ‘Chaos AD’ and the inevitable ‘Roots.’ There was little in the way of surprises and quite honestly there didn’t need to be, the band had 30 minutes and gave everyone watching exactly what they wanted, job done.
I found a better view and from my vantage much better sound at the other large Apollo stage, which despite being way in the distance I had time to refresh and de-liquidify the previous beers before being confronted with Anthrax and for the first time in years with singer Joey Belladonna. With the soap opera that has been going on singer wise I have been saying they should give it up for ages. However this set proved that they still have their worth as a band rehashing their glory days. Belladonna stole the show and as they caught us in their mosh he was animated and looked like he was loving being here. His hair was as much part of the past as the music and this was another crowd pleasing foray which had many an old timer reminiscing and tapping away with parts far creakier than they were when these songs were originally played. There was something infectious beyond mere rheumatism going on here and even Scott Ian was unable to spend long talking to us, letting the music play. ‘Antisocial,’ ‘Indians’ complete with no-budget-spared headdress being sported and ‘I Am The Law’ - what more is there to say, excellent!
I was peeved with some of the clashes here of the more metal friendly acts - I had been bemoaning that a band like Placebo were going to be playing before head liners Rammstein when Gary Numan who was on the day before would have been so much more apt. Biggest annoyance here was Fear Factory and Katatonia on at the same time though. Having seen the Swedes twice this year and having also missed FF twice it was obvious who I was going to catch and I am glad I did. This was not quite such a greatest hits package and the group ticked all the boxes in their allotted time basically. The heavyweight mob started up the machine with ‘Shock’ juggernauting out the speakers and, thanks to Gene Hoglan, gave us a solid battering that practically knocked us off our feet. I thought Burton was having a few problems with the more melodic parts and anything more subtle struggled in the mix a bit but things improved as we went on. ‘Edgecrusher’ had people bouncing along to its booming beat and new songs such as ‘Powershifter’ from the excellent Mechanize, were greeted warmly. With time against them as seemed the case with everyone I had seen with just 30-40 minutes set times, the band gave the old fans what they wanted with ‘Martyr’ and ‘Replica.’ Just think what they could have done though if Mr Numan had played today? Missed opportunity aside this was very much a case of going back to the future!
I had sort of promised not to go and put the boot in on the non metal bands of which there were many here and there was nobody I really wanted to see for the next few hours. Rather than go and sit and get pissed at the backstage bar I took a wander around the smaller stages and by pure chance stumbled across Audrey Horne, who I forgot were scheduled. I had never really got this lot on album and although having seen them once before was not blown away. On this small stage though they kicked ass! Singer Torkjell "Toschie" Rød was on and off the stage like a yo-yo and full of exuberance as he worked the crowd during songs like the (Jeff) ‘Bridges And Anchors’ (I see what you did there). Ice Dale was ever cool and it was good catching members of Enslaved and Sahg away from their day jobs. Also this was a hundred times more preferable than going and watching Papa bleeding Roach! The singer armed himself with a loud hailer just in case we had not heard and everyone around seemed caught up in the beat and were dancing away. The only downer was this seemed over just as it got going, still plenty of time left to avoid comedians and Good Charlotte.
Wake up call after a lazy couple of hours and with Sick Of It All that’s exactly what you get. The NYHC crew pretty much destroy any stage they play and a tent in sunny old England does not stand a chance. Even then it’s not enough and Lou Koller demands they tear it up some more as they have come all the way from home and had no sleep. I was surprised at this and just assumed it was convenient stop off point mid tour but this was not the case. Luckily the crowd has no problem obliging to cause maximum damage to new number ‘Death Or Jail’ It had said on the back of my ticket that crowd surfing was strictly forbidden but that rule went straight out the window here. It was another case of fitting in as many songs as possible, we got ‘Discipline,’ ‘Built To Last’ all of which saw guitarist Pete bunny hopping frantically through. I caught a hat which had flown out the pit and as it was not my colour lobbed it back in. ‘Step Down’ and scratch The Surface’ followed and people finally limped out to collapse in the much needed fresh air.
Sometimes you are confronted by something so ghastly at a festival that you have no choice but to literally flee. I have to admit not having felt the urge to do so for quite some time but that was all about to change. I found myself towards the front to witness Mötley Crüe for the first time ever, realising somebody reading this might be interested. For me no amount of pyros could have could have kept me there, I even lasted three songs of Kiss at Hellfest but quickly found myself legging it during whatever the second god awful cock rock number they played was. I think it is fair to say this was not for me but as I ran to get in some sort of position for Rammstein it seemed there was no escaping that dreaded ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ song from following me.
This was the first ever Rammstein UK festival appearance and we had been promised an explosive one. Although scheduled for two hours they played an hour and a half and 16 songs I believe. The difference from arena shows being less a couple of numbers including the ‘Engel’ 2nd encore. I was glad of the screen again although I could make out the stage from my side vantage point but it was good to get a close up of Till Lindermann and his freaky glowing teeth after the German flag covering the stage had fallen. With red feathered plumes round his head and a butchers smock all eyes were on the singer (and everyone’s bloody cameras and phones pointlessly up in the air) as the band smacked their way into ‘Rammlied.’ The stage was glowing red and looked spectacular, perhaps a vision of hell, very Dante inspired for sure. ‘Waidmanns Heil’ saw the singer clutching a Blunderbuss and flames jetting off the stage. Even if you were not at the front you could feel the heat from every massive blast of fire that came off the stage, actually it looked like it was on fire.
There was plenty of ‘Feuer Frei’ and as usual some of it was at the expense of keyboard player Flake who took an early bath with napalm fired down on him from the singer raised on a big pillar. Just to top it all off there was an explosion as fireworks flew over from behind the stage. Back on his treadmill he seemed quite unfazed although later as a gimp got set on fire and seemed to run off in the wrong direction I was not so certain things had gone exactly to plan before he was put out. ‘Du Hast’ sounded glorious and was one of the set highlights as far as I was concerned. Some parts of this were by now obviously expected by the audience, many of whom had no doubt also caught the band live at arenas. One of these was ‘Pussy’ with the foamy spunk laden water cannon coating those down the front. One unexpected thing that certainly didn’t seem staged was a British invasion as Flake took his dinghy ride during ‘Haifisch’ he found his craft boarded by a member of the audience who unfurled the Union Jack and rowed along with him! Finishing off with ‘Ich Will’ we stood waiting for more but it was not to be. Despite this it was still a great and memorable show and one that had capped the day off nicely, well it would have done apart from playing find the car in the dark car park but that’s another story.
Pete Woods
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