Fucked Fingers

Check out what Stu did whilst out dirtbiking with G a couple of weeks ago.

Fucking tasty!

.....and now:

Doomriders - 'Darkness Come Alive' (Deathwish Inc.)

Crawling from the darkest corners of Boston, Massachusetts , Doomriders once again rise from the grave to bring us the band’s second full length album ’Darkness Come Alive’ and by God does it!

‘Fade From Black’ and ‘Heavy Lies The Crown’ open a window into the blackest of souls setting the bar for the 17 track rager before exploding into the visceral ‘Bear Witness’. In typical Doomriders style, ‘Darkness Come Alive’ toys with many a genre and style. The semi-title track ‘Come Alive’ almost dabbles in the realm of acid educed doom where as ‘Bloodsuckers’ and ‘Knife Wound’ are hardcore punk cross-bread with a classic British heavy metal. The truly epic ‘Jealous God’ has a spine shattering riff that would make even the Melvins tremble. Shit you not, sir.

Even on first listen, the music is tighter, more complex and focused with the tracks like ‘Mercy’ boasting an impressive guitar duel between axe-men Nate Newton and Chris Pupecki. Not to mention Newton’s gruff vocal talents slashed all over riff heavy ‘Lions’ as well as the thrashing ‘Rotter’. Be it the JR’s constant smashing of the skins to the pummelling baselines from Jebb Riley, ‘Darkness...’ is un-relenting on all levels. All of these evil jams are peppered with little musical interludes and evil drones that keep the record flowing from track to track and add to the already sinister guise of the record.

You only have to listen to ‘Darkness Come Alive’ to notice how much Doomriders have grown as a band. The almost tongue-in-cheek homage paid to their influences and idols on first release, ‘Black Thunder’, is absent whereas their sophomore effort takes a nose dive into a world of the macabre and the grim as the band now walk their own path.

Doomriders have made a heavy metal record sound the way it should. Not the over produced nonsense you hear time and again these days. Their second full length shows a hunger to produce the best metal record possible. This record gets your fucking blood pumping. It’s rough around the edges. It’s low-fi, independent and fucking harsh. It ignites the same passion in the listener as the band has to play and record these ferocious jams. But above all this record is stone cold true, jack! Doomriders = Heavy fucking metal. Fact.

These four dudes from Boston have evolved into what can only be described as a massive, hulking beast of a band since their debut effort. The ‘difficult second album’ curse has been completely obliterated as ‘Darkness...’ shines through as one of this year’s stand out heavy metal releases.

Go fast! Play loud! Worship the second coming of the mighty Doomriders. On your knees!

Megadeth - 'Endgame' (Roadrunner)

There has been much doubt surrounding Megadeth and more so with its founder, Dave Mustaine, in recent years. With the release of their twelfth studio album a lot of people, fans and journos alike, wondered if Mustaine and co still had it. Then a fortunate few who had heard advanced copies of this new album started to spread the word that it was a “return to form”. Something that you always take with a pinch of salt whenever you hear that but it was only when I managed to snatch a copy of ‘Endgame’ for myself that I realized that, for once, it was true. Megadeth were back!

With only the one ballad-y track for self indulgent purposes, the majority of ‘Endgame’ is classic Megadeth from furious start to brutal finish. Opening up with ‘Dialectic Chaos’, a blistering instrumental intro, then ‘This Day We Fight!’ we is goose bump material. Classic thrash fucking metal! Thanks Christ for that. Only two tracks in and the strawberry blonde, curled lip-ed one has fully reassured me this record is not a dud!

Dave Mustaine, at whatever stage in his life, has always had a major gripe with one thing or another and it’s this, like all classic Megadeth albums, that really drives the record home. The Lyrics sound like they are being spat at you through gritted teeth and ooze passion. All the albums themes are what you’d come to expect from a Megadeth album. Control, oppression, rebellion, suffering. Check, check, check and check!

Megadeth wouldn’t be able to function with just Dave Mustaine and a tip of the cap has to go to the rest of the band. Shawn Drover’s drumming is breathtaking and only added to James Lomenzo’s bass work as heard on ’44 Mins’. ‘Endgame’ and ‘Bodies’ are both outstanding thrash jams and Mustaine’s fret skills are just as furious as they were twenty years ago as demonstrated on the savage single ‘Headcrusher’ and ‘1,320’. This is the classic Megadeth sound with stand out axework from both Mustaine and the incredible Chris Broderick.

Despite it’s comparisons to past glories, it’s no ‘Rust In Peace’ or ‘Peace Sells...’ but it beats seven shades of shit out of ‘Death Magnetic’ along with most heavy metal releases this year. ‘End Game’ is Mustaine at the best he has been for years. This is vintage Megadeth that is ready to slay the music world once again. Welcome back Dave. We’ve missed you.

Municipal Waste - 'Massive Aggressive' (Earache)

Last year I went to see Municipal Waste play live at the underworld in Camden. To quote myself I said “Maybe a “detox” is in order before the Waste come at us again with something fresh, something new and something that will make us go utterly ape shit for these guys all over again.” What the Virginian thrash powerhouse have done is produce a record that is more focused, more furious, more aggressive and I, for one, have gone utterly ape shit for it!

It seems as though a lot of the main stream metal media have turned their backs on this whole ‘Thrash revival’ thing that’s going on. ‘Municipal Waste’ have had their critics and their doubters over the past year or so but with the explosive nature of their sound, magnified on ‘Massive Aggressive’, it appears that all of this ‘hating’ is just pissing in the wind.

‘Masked By Delirium’ sets the break neck pace for the album and will silence all nay say-ers. ‘Upside Down Church’ and ‘Wolves Of Chernobyl’ to name a few are stand out, trash masterpieces which are only added to by Tony Foresta’s visceral, unrelenting vocals. Sit down at your desk, shut you pie hole and prepare to get schooled by the Waste with thrash metal 101.

‘Massive Aggressive’ is consistently impressive. The amazingly titled ‘Horney For Blood’ and ‘The Wrath Of The Severed Head’ really shine through with not only blistering axe work from Ryan Waste but an all round superb rhythm section manned by Land Phil and Dave Witte. The Watse have clearly found their musical groove and are tighter than ever.

Simply put; I love this record. It makes you want to bang your head, pound beer after beer and mosh like you’ve never moshed before. The Waste have dropped a dirty, throbbing, heinous, slab of thrash right in our laps and it’s nothing short of fucking brilliant. Buy this record, listen to this record and watch as it melts your face off. Municipal Waste are back and as always, they’re gonna fuck you up!

When Blind Dead Tom Met Old Grey James

You know it’s a little weird when you meet one of your old heroes who you’ve kind of fallen out of favour with (ref: Some Kind Of Monster). You immediately drop all grievances you may have had with said person and you’re that 14 year old kid again jumping around your bedroom to ‘Fight Fire With Fire’. This is exactly what happened when I met James Hetfield.

I started listening to Metallica when I was 14. My first exposure to the band was ‘Ride The Lightening’. This still remains my favourite Metallica album to date but due to a rise in my school of knives, weed smoking, baggy jeans and the Wu-Tang I lost track of Metallica in a haze of urban marketing. It was only when I managed to steal a copy of ‘Re-Load’ from my mate Dino (Dino if you are reading this, even though it’s shit, you are NEVER getting that CD back....). It was shit. Too shit for Metallica. I could have sworn that Metallica were better than this so I went back and referenced ‘Master Of Puppets’, ‘Kill ‘Em All’ and even some of the second ‘Garage Inc’ disc and all of a sudden they were back. Those fucking hairs standing up on the back of my neck!

I remember being so into Metallica that after school was spent standing at the bus stop on the north circular with my friend Kye trying to do impressions of James Hetfield. Chuffing down on cheap ciggie after cheap ciggie trying to get the harsh, raspy sound of Hetfield’s voice on the earlier records and almost throwing up in the process. Good times.

I managed to keep my cool with Hetfield. Completely the opposite of when I met Slayer’s Kerry King when I almost pissed myself with excitement and couldn’t stop saying “Dude, you rule!” and “fuck Kerrang! Magazine!” in regard to their ‘3K’ review of Slayers live performance. I bumped into him in the now defunct Virgin Megastore in the magazine section reading reviews of his show at the Reading festival. I still stand by my comments by the way. Fuck Kerrang! Magazine but I digress....

I’d finished work early to work on a script and to work on my drinking with my friend Hardeep. We’d been drinking for a while whilst writing and recording before Hardeep mention that he wanted to The Great Frog jewellers on Ganton Street to buy himself a ring. I was reluctant at first. I was too pre-occupied with my beer but I’m glad Hardeep twisted my arm to go. After all we did have a date with metal destiny.

It was only when we got there and I saw my flatmate G (who works out of there) with Metallica book by photographer Ross Halfin and my ‘Death Magnetic’ CD under his arm. It was then that he told me that James fuckin’ Hetfield was downstairs in the basement with Reino designing some custom, platinum tour jewellery for the band.

The man was cool to talk to. I think there was an element of automated response. If you play in the biggest metal band in the history I’m sure you have to train yourself in dealing with fans but after Hardeep cracked him with a few questions and he was eventually really cool to talk to. He had fantastic memory of all the gigs I’d been to down to the set list and everything. After a handshake and a picture he was off to Knebworth to play at the horrifically named Sonispshere festival.

Whatever your views on Metallica or to anybody who has ever been a fan of any Metallica album, I dare you not to be 100% stoked after meeting anybody in the metal world as epic and significant as James Hetfield.

Wanna look like James Hetfield’s fingers? Buy some silver here http://www.thegreatfroglondon.com/

Nine Inch Nails & Jane's Addiction - Live @ The o2, London 15/07/09

'Wave Goodbye'. It's printed on the t-shirts, it's on the tour posters and all over the internet but it's only when I arrived at the o2 to witness all of this commotion that it starts to actually sink in. That’s right; Trent Reznor is calling it a day after an amazing twenty year career under the Nine Inch Nails guise. Hard to believe really after such a successful run of amazing albums backed up by years of amazing tours and memorable live shows. But first, the co-headliners…..

Opening with 'Three Days' Jane’s Addiction seemed to be on a fast track to glory but quickly divert off into a world of just going through the motions. The visible tension between Perry Farrel and Dave Navaro on stage was off putting and took the magic away from their performance despite playing the classics ‘Stop!’ and ‘Ocean Size’. As for the encore performance, the band begrudgingly eek out ‘Jane Says’.

Whether it was intentional, letting Reznor and co. reap the glory of their last UK headline show or not, the Jane's Addiction performance was mediocre at best. It's a shame because they are capable of so much more and I believe they owed the fans a lot more considering the ticket price alone was pushing the £40 mark. If I wanted to see middle of the road toss I'd pick up a copy of NME magazine. (Oooooh snap!) Either way Jane’s Addiction have seemed to have lost their love for their music and each other.

Nine Inch Nails, performance wise, couldn’t be further removed from their co-headliners. Trent Reznor backed by Robin Finck, Justin Meldal-Johnson and Iian Rubin start to play with the house lights still on, opening with ‘Now I’m Nothing’ before being plunged into ‘Terrible Lie' backed by strobe lighting and a gnarly digital backdrop. Epileptics need not apply.

NIN don’t look like a band of the brink of disbanding. Reznor, the ring leader, conducts the band into a swirling mass, writhing around on a stage which looks more like the bowels of some mechanical hellhound than a band playing the most popular stage in Europe. Nine Inch Nails plow through an amazing set, blistering through Downward Spiral favorites ‘Heresy’, ‘Reptile’ and ‘March Of The Pigs’ and even throw in a version of David Bowie’s ‘I’m Afraid Of Americans’. A full on, industrial, assault on the senses.

As if this gig wasn’t special enough Reznor thanked us all for the support over the past twenty years before bringing on none other than Gary Newman for sterling renditions of ‘Metal’ and ‘Cars’. NIN come full circle, going back to where it all began with ‘Down In It’ and ‘Head Like A Hole’ taken from the first full length ‘Pretty Hate Machine’. Guitars, amps, synthesizers and keyboards are trashed and are thrown around the stage as Nine Inch Nails go out with a bang.

“Everyone I know goes away in the end”. Poignant lyrics from Reznor as he and the band play encore ‘Hurt’ to close the show. An emotional farewell to a beloved band but there was still resistance from fans who couldn’t understand why Reznor was calling it a day. Wouldn't you rather see Nine Inch Nails go out on top like they did tonight rather than Reznor dragging is liver spotted corpse across the stage 20 years down the line? I rest my case. Nine Inch Nails gave a performance for the ages tonight. A fitting farewell to an absolutely astonishing band. Thanks for the memories, Trent.

This and many other live reviews are available on http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/

From The Archives: Ted Nugent - Live @ indigo2 14/07/08

I went to this gig last year with the idea that it was going to be a bit of a novelty seeing 'Uncle Ted' live. The classic licks of 'Cat Scratch Fever'! The Bow and Arrows routine! The indian head dress! Oh the Americana! It was bound to be fun! Oh, how wrong I was......

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Ted Nugent is a gobshite. This is a well documented fact. His neo-conservative, or as he claims “patriotic”, views on all things from immigration to the democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama are outlandish and close minded. It’s also hard to ignore his stand on guns and his affiliation with America’s beloved National Rifle Association.

However…..he does rock. ‘Uncle Ted’ really does know how to get the job done. For most of our generation Ted Nugent seems to have been a little lost on us. Which due to his politics is surely a good thing, right? Until I went to see him perform live, I disagreed and here’s why…

Having shared the stage with classic rock legends like AC/DC, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and Aerosmith ‘The Nuge’ has quite a rock pedigree. Although he’s not too familiar on UK soil the indgo2 is still sold out and filled with enough saggy elbow skin and 30 year old denim to put a Status Quo audience to shame.

The Nuge plays such classics as ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ and ‘Wango tango’ much to the delight of the seriously old bastard crowd but with tunes that good, delivered with such excellence, you tend not to give a fuck about the combined age of the audience being well over 40 billion.

Unfortunately old Uncle Ted stops playing the classics and makes the mistake of talking politics. Mainly wailing on about knife crime in London and the only solution would to be to “shoot the fuckers before they stab ya!” He even dished out the ‘N’ word on occasion. Nugent then went on to talk to us “limey bastards” about how America saved our asses in the D-Day landings and that we should thank Uncle Ted for Americas help during the Second World War. I’m quite surprised people still stuck around after that rant.

None the less he finished off with a sterling rendition of ‘Stranglehold’ and the classic ‘Great White Buffalo’ which despite all the shit he talked were still enjoyable. He culminates his set by firing a flaming arrow from his stars and stripes crossbow into his guitar from across the stage with added pyro effect. I hate to say it but it was awesome.

Ted Nugent puts on an amazing show but unfortunately he is still a trigger happy, borderline racist and a gobshite of epic proportions. When he opens that mouth of his it’s easy to forget what a rock genius he is. Still……the word ‘cunt’ springs to mind.

Goes Cube - 'Another Day Has Passed' (The End Records)

The thing that struck me first about Goes Cube’s debut is how many influences and sounds hit you all at the same time. I was completely blindsided from the get go. ‘Bluest Sky’, the opening track, is backed by thunderous feedback that evolves into a super heavy beast backed by a rapid fire snare drum and desperately raspy vocals. You then get the rug pulled out from under your feet as you’re slammed into a melodic, radio friendly number ‘Grinding The Knife Blade’. The twists and turns don’t end there kids, so buckle up!

At times opting for numbers rather that actual song names, Goes Cube have turned out some monotonous tunes with ‘57’ and ‘30’ in comparison to blood pumping songs like ‘The Only Daughter’ and ‘I Hold Grudges’. Its jams like these that really reel the record back in and provides much needed focus in areas where it’s in danger of fading into mediocrity.

There are some absolutely filthy bass grooves on this album too, which are great fun to decipher along with the huge, hulking, riffs courtesy of Kenny Appell and David Obuchowski respectively. ‘Clenching Jaws’ is a great example of how Goes Cube can “turn it on” and produce a track that would incite a circle pit anywhere it was played.

From track to track ‘Another Day Has Passed’ misleads you and double bluffs you. One minuet the Brooklyn trio are twanging out jams that resemble that of Fugazi and the next, conquering epic riffs that would make a diehard Isis fan moist. However, nothing quite fits together. The New Yorkers seem to be forcing the pieces of the puzzle into place at times rather than letting their sound evolve naturally. On the other side of the coin, their forced sound is very compelling and hard to ignore.

Is this record confusing and at points, intentionally so? Without a doubt. Is it directionless? Possibly, but one thing that remains apparent throughout this debut recording is that, above all, it’s intriguing. If they hone their very skilled sound into something more defined, we could see some very special things from Goes Cube in the future.

Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band - Live @ Hyde Park 28th June 2009

For a 3 day long festival that calls itself ‘Hard Rock Calling’ the promoters seem to have got completely the wrong end of the stick. I can’t even remotely see what’s ‘hard rock’ about either, Starsailor or The Dave Mathews Band. Safe to see I avoided all the support acts like the fucking plague and opted for “cunt-free” day.

All of this nonsense was forgotten when The Boss wondered out on stage backed by the infamous E-Street Band. Opening with an inspired version of The Clash’s ‘London Calling’, Bruce and the gang arte off to a flying start before diving head first into ‘Badlands’ and then ‘She’s The One’.

The E-Street Band back a juggernaut set from Springsteen who tears through ‘Out In The Street’ and ‘Bobby Jean’ to name a few. Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem joins the party on stage to wail through the spirited ‘No Surrender’ but for some inexplicable reason; ‘Thunder Road’ and ‘The River’ remain noticeably absent from tonight’s set list.

After the people rallying anthem ‘The Rising’, Bruce then delivers a goose-bump inducing rendition of ‘Jungleland’. Yet more proof (if you needed it) as to why they call him ‘The Boss’. Unfortunately he goes from glory to annoyance in one fail swoop following up with ‘American Land’. Some jiggery-pockery shite that is more at home in a Pogues B-sides collection. None the less, we are sent home happy with the classics, ‘Glory Days’ and ‘Dancing In The Dark’.

I’ve been lucky enough to see The Boss before but this time I felt way out of my depth. Tonight, at times, I did feel like I was the unwanted guest of an older generation, and that in the eyes of hardened Springsteen fans that I didn’t “get it”. That may be true but it just goes to show that regardless of age, the music of Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street band have enough quality and enough depth to transcend generations. Tonight proved that.

Hellfest 2009 - Live - Clisson, France 21st June 09

Sunday:

Having partied with these guys all weekend it was now time to see if all the booze had taken it’s toll.
Orange Goblin storm the Terrorizer tent looking no worse for wear, launching straight into their blistering stoner metal groove. It’s hard to take your eyes off of front man Ben ‘Built like a brick shit house’ Ward who has the rabid crowd in the palm of his hand throughout the set. ‘Aquatic Fanatic’ and ‘Scorpionica’ both see an outing. Crowd pleaser ‘Some You Win, Some You Lose’ had the entire tent bellowing the chorus and raising their plastic beakers of warm beer to the sky.

With a massive drunken grin on my face after a great Orange Goblin set it was time to head over to the Rock Hard tent to catch midland, grind legends Napalm Death. Bodies were flying and demented metal heads were leaping from the support beams in the tent into the whirling mass of bodies below. Lee Dorian makes a special appearance on stage to grunt his way through a track from ‘Scum’. Napalm Death finishes their set with the Dead Kennedy’s classic ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’. Unfortunately Napalm Death left me a little cold. There was too much talking about the ills of society and not enough singing about it. However, seeing Lee Dorian sing with them again was a nice touch.

Back to the main stage and Atlanta prog-metal-maestros Mastodon dive head first through a mixture of both ‘astonishing’ new and ‘classic’ old material. Watching Mastodon achieve the neigh-on-impossible riffs while hammered in the sun is a great way to spend the afternoon. The amount of excited people sporting ‘ST’ merchandise was something to be seen because when Suicidal Tendencies finally bounced on stage to ‘You Can’t Bring Me Down’ Hellfest exploded! Cyco Mike and co shred through the classics jams ‘Possessed To Skate’, ‘War Inside My Head’ before inviting everybody watching to rush the stage. One of the best stage invasions I have ever seen and if you were a part of it, my hat’s off to you.

A change in tone for the evening followed as we made our way back to the Terrorizer tent for a lethal dose of doom. Electric Wizard have been one bands that I have respected for years. Their occult influences and pure evil, doom mantras hypnotize all fanatics lucky enough to witness them. The Wizard churn out ‘Witchcult Today’, ‘Return Trip’ and a jaw dropping rendition of ‘We Hate You’. Personally, I think they were even better than they were at the Rise Above records show last year.

Then, at long last, a voice over the Main Stage PA tells all “False metal needs to vacate the area as Manowar will be on in less than two minutes” much to the delight of myself and the growing crowds of Vikings. It was a tough choice to watch these guys ahead of Brutal Truth but the chance to see Manowar doesn’t come everyday.

Strutting about the stage in front of “The biggest amps in the world” Manowar seem to think they are playing a show in Valhalla! They could be easily confused. The amount of Viking helmets, goblets and Scandinavian war flags that were scattered about the ‘Manowarriors’ was insane. The leather clad heroes thunder though ‘Warriors Of The World Unite’ and ‘Kings Of Metal’ before Joey Di’maio presents the festival organizers with a ‘Balls Of Steel’ award (and rightly so!).

You should have seen the massive grin that I had knowing that throughout all Joey Dimaio’s posturing about Manowar being louder than all, you could still hear Brutal Truth all way over in the Terrorizer tent. Manowar culminate their set with ‘The Crown And The Ring’ followed by setting the sky on fire with a mass of pyrotechnics. A nice visual display to all and a great send off to an amazing festival.

The journey back home the morning after was horrific but everybody was still buzzed at witnessing the best heavy metal festival Europe has to offer, Fact. Until next year, Hellfest…..IMORTAL!!!

Hellfest 2009 - Live - Clisson, France 20th June 09

Saturday:

In a haze of yesterday’s booze, I managed to dig myself out of my sleeping bag and drag myself out to the arena. I’m glad I did as I managed to catch half a set from Earache favorites Gama Bomb. The lads must have been stoked because they pulled a huge crowd who were all going absolutely mental for the Dublin thrashers. In the blistering hot sunshine and after some nice French people dosed us up with co-codamol and Ricard we migrated along with everybody else to Outlaw Order. Another side project made up from member of Soilent Green and Eyehategod. It’s all the thrash fury of the former mixed with all the nihilistic venom of the latter culminating in a vicious wall of sound. Outlaw Order, again, lead by Mike IX, tear through visceral tracks ‘Double Barrel Solves Everything’ and ‘Mercy Shot’.

After a few hours spent at the bar with Outlaw Order after their set, it was then time for everybody and their bloody mother to huddle around Main Stage 2 to witness Clutch. Man, how fucking good are Clutch live? On CD they are awesome but the energy they have on a festival stage is immense. Jim Fallon’s voice was absolute quality. The dude has got a steel pair of lungs on him. Thanks to the kind people at Jack Daniels who plied us full of cocktails before hand, which only heightened the experience of seeing ‘The Mob goes Wild’ live. Wino from Saint Vitus also came on, guitar in hand, to help lay down some serious riffs to close the set. Clutch well and truly owned the Saturday at Hellfest.

The Misfits were always going to be fun. I know it’s not the same and never will be as good as they were with Danzig but it’s not going to happen….ever, so we just made do with what there was….and what we got was damn good. Not even being given time to breath by Jerry Only’s “ONE-TWO!!” before each song, The Misfits blitz their way from classic to classic. ‘Teenagers From Mars’, ‘Hatebreeders’, ‘We Are 138’ to name a few. Dez Candina and Rob, on guitar and drums respectively, also have history in Black Flag so it’s a nice surprise to see them pull that one out of the bag. ‘Rise Above’ being played makes everybody who has a plus go fucking metal and we all did. As a little bonus, Dave Chandler from Saint Vitus took care of backing vocals much to his delight.

Sacred Reich were fucking awesome to finally see live. After fueling up all kinds of booze on the biggest party day of the whole festival, (now fat) Phil Rind and co were really enjoyable to see and completely ruled the RockHard stage. ‘Independent’ had me running around, spilling beer and falling on my face but it was far too much fun not to thrash about like a fucking lunatic! Before dragging some people from Terrorizer magazine back to my tent and telling them the worst joke ever then trying to translate it for the French in attendance.

Hellfest 2009 - Live - Clisson, France 19th June 09

At the beginning of this year I couldn’t wait for the festival line ups to start rolling in. When they did I was beyond disappointed. Limp cunting Bizkit at (the ever depressing) Download? Linkin fucking Park at....what the fuck is a Sonisphere anyway? And the ‘Rock & Alternative’ day at Reading being monopolized by moody student favourites, Radiohead and Lost-give it a fucking rest-Prophets. Not even with the addition of Faith No More to the line up enough to entice me.
So, after being bitch slapped by every UK festival promoter I had to look further afield....just across the channel actually. Hellfest was the only festival that I have seen this year with a credible line up. Absolute fucking quality head to fucking toe. So myself and a few good men packed sleeping bags, beer and whiskey and began out journey.

Friday:

It was only fitting to kick off the whole weekend by having some mid morning whiskey and taking the final walk to see a band I have idolized for years but never seen. Eyehategod. A band that seldom travels as far as Europe, venture to France for this year’s Hellfest. Mike IX Williams and company deliver some of the most down tuned, abrasive, heroin riddled jams I have ever heard. Carving out classics like ‘Jackass and the Will of God’ is just amazing to witness live. They are even joined by Phil Anselmo for a jam session. Eyehategod do not disappoint and go far beyond my expectations. This band really set the bar for the weekend.


It was then a sprint to the Terrorizer tent the much loved Soilent Green churn out some southern grind glory and again another sprint to the bar. We had just enough time to fuel up on Jager and march to the RockHard tent to see a band on the recommendation from my new friend Sergio. Taake are the epitome Norwegian black metal. Everybody was going ape-shit for these guys. Even in the harsh light of day they still manage shred through music blacker than their own corpse paint. Then fan favorites, Torche ruled the Terrorizer tent with a sound so damn loud it could have filled an arena. They were gob smackingly good.

Due to Bobby Libeling forgetting his false teeth, fighting an airline attendant and getting busted with a bag of crack in his sock, Pentagram failed to play. No matter. The back to back combo of seeing Voivod and W.A.S.P was absolutely killer and provided enough drunken fun for the next band….

Then with the sun setting, excitement in the air NOLA’s finest Down march on to the main stage one to a heroes reception. I have seen Down many a time before but never had I seen the band so damn energetic. It’s almost as if they were as excited to be there as we were. Phil Anselmo was commanding the stage like he did in his Pantera days. Down chug out huge riff laden anthems ‘Lifer’ ‘NOD’ and completely blow Hellfest away with the mighty set closer ‘Bury Me In Smoke’. Another triumphant Down performance. Unfortunately Anthrax were buried tonight. They turned in a solid performance, dished out the classics and even threw in a cover of Refused’s ‘New Noise’ but following an earth shattering performance by Down combined with the build up to Black Sabbath they seemed a bit lost even though new vocalist Dan Nelson was impressive.

Up next, in the now black of night, arise the mighty Black Sabbath (I’m not calling the Heaven & Hell….NO!)! Everybody was transfixed by Tony Iommi’s solos. Geezer Butler pounding home the rhythm section and the absolute gentleman that is Ronni James Dio’s voice defining amazing songs like ‘Time Machine’, ‘Die Young’ and ‘Mob Rules’. The sheer occasion of seeing these men on stage doing what they do best is an absolute privilege.


The anticipation for long awaited return of doom gods Saint Vitus was unparalleled. From the moment Dave Chandler staggered out on to stage with Wino in toe until the moment they left was simply astonishing. This is doom at its finest peppered with Chandler's acid induced solos and Wino's haunting howls and guttural wails. . ‘Saint Vitus’, ‘Living Backwards’ and ‘Mystic Lady’ are fuzzed out in trademark unpredictable Vitus way to a background of psychedelic imagery that hypnotizes the doom fanatics in attendance. Tonight Vitus close their set with the cornerstone of doom anthems, finishing on the amazing 'Born Too Late'. It truly is the stuff of legends.

Motley Crue are not even worth writing about. Their gelatinous, flaccid, feeble performance styled on past glories and nostalgia is a slap in the face to people who had paid hard earned cash to come to this festival. Somebody do the right thing, take them behind the wood shed and put them down. However, this foul display couldn’t tarnish what an awesome first day this had been. A day that belonged to the mighty Saint Vitus.