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!!!
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