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I
have just returned from the first ever UK Sonisphere festival and I have to say
it was awesome. The atmosphere was so
relaxed with everyone just wanting to enjoy themselves. The organisers seem to have looked at every
complaint from other festivals and tried to rectify them. The campsite and arena were both perfectly
laid out, there were plenty of water points, with everything you needed, as
always there could have been more toilets but this is always going to happen.....
.. ..
It
was a little weird there being alternating stages, it often meant having to
leave a band early to get a good spot and catch all of the next. In theory each band should be better than the
preceding one, in which case you’d leave every band early apart from the
last! Also if the line-up is weak (at
least in one place) then you have fewer alternatives.....
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Anyway
to the bands:....
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Saturday....
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~Soil~ The second stage was very crowded
for an opening act, but quite clearly everyone was only there for one song,
they didn’t disappoint finishing obviously with Halo. (5/10)....
~Skindred~ Having seen them last year at
download I was really looking forward to catching them this year and they were
just as good, really got the crowd going and a bit of a decent pit. Really need to listen to more of them. (9/10)....
~Sylosis~ Straight after Skindred without
any break was Sylosis in the tent (third stage), they were awesome, they played
a really good set. (8/10)....
~Anthrax~ My first trip to the main stage
was for Anthrax and I was actually quite impressed, just wish I knew more of
their songs. (7/10)....
~Airborne~ We had been lucky with the
weather, very little rain, until Airborne, when it started to rain. The singer was quite clearly crazy, scaling
the heights of the stage; it looked so precarious that I had to turn away at
one point! Fortunately he was back on
solid ground before the heavens really opened.
(6/10)....
~Heaven and Hell~ The dark weather was
probably appropriate for Heaven and Hell, who put on a really good show, the
best set design of the weekend with music that did it justice. (8/10)....
~Oceansize~ Back in the tent you could
tell that Oceansize are all individually very talented, saying that I wasn’t
really feeling it, they were good but didn’t inspire me that much, I would have
preferred it if I had known their stuff. (6/10)....
~Linkin Park~ I had been thoroughly underwhelmed
by them in 2007 at Download, however they were better this time. I was annoyed that they “played” two songs
that I wanted them to, but with just Mike Shinoda singing his part a cappella,
which totally detracted from the songs.
(7/10)....
~Thunder~ It was a good addition that
after the headliners there was the option of catching two more bands in the
third stage. Thunder came out for their
last ever gig determined to enjoy it and as a result they played a really good
set. (7/10)....
~Wildhearts~ Having seen them last year I
was really looking forward to catching them again and they were really
good. However, the downside about having
bands on post headliners is a lack of energy, I was too tired to enjoy them
properly as it was gone 1am when they finished.
In my opinion (as suggested by Adele) bands like Combichrist would be
better suited to this sort of time slot.
(8/10).....
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Sunday....
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~BuckCherry~ They are one of my favourite
bands of the moment, even though it had only been 7 weeks or so since I last
saw them I was really looking forward to them as I know a lot more now than I
did then! There was a definite feel in
the crowd similar to that at Soil where everyone was waiting for one song…
however I wasn’t one of them as I knew almost every word. It didn’t put me off that no one around me was
enjoying it, I just really want to see them at their own show! (8/10)....
~..Paradise.. Lost~ This was totally the wrong time
to see them, however they were good and I shall be checking out some of their
stuff. (7/10)....
~Killing Joke~ Having not heard any of
their music before, and sitting quite far back I didn’t get into them. (5/10)....
~Saxon~ Saxon were another band that had
really impressed me last time I had seen them, although there was less
atmosphere in an open air stage in the middle of the day and as such I didn’t
enjoy it as much. (6/10)....
~Lamb of God~ Lamb of God were brutal as
ever, proper pitting for the first time of the weekend. However the vocals weren’t very clear. (7/10)....
The
bad thing about alternating stages was that I really wanted to catch Mastodon,
however I was exhausted and needed food in preparation for…....
~MACHINE
FUCKING HEAD~ It wasn’t the best kept secret that they were playing,
there had been rumours regarding whether they would play or not but most people
thought it was going to be them, especially with the merch stalls selling their
T-Shirts when other bands were really hard to come across. Their hour long set was just perfect. They had some sound problems but in the pit
it wasn’t that noticeable, and they even played a track of Supercharger! We had one final circle pit after the music
had finished, which Rob counted us in for.
He seemed a bit overcome with emotion with it all, but wasn’t too keen
on the anti Limp Bizkit chants! (10/10)....
~....Alice.... In Chains~ This was the main time when
the alternating bands resulted in one band suffering due to the next band. I really wanted to see AIC but it was no
contest. William DuVall’s voice was absolutely perfect, I’m looking forward to
getting their new album. (6/10)....
~Nine Inch Nails~ Unfortunately this was
the biggest disappointment of the weekend.
Not that they were bad, in fact they were incredibly good with what they
played, however the set was not what I was hoping for. If I had seen them before then I’m sure I
would have loved the set, but as this was going to my only ever chance of
seeing them I was gutted that the set passed without any of their crowd
pleasing tunes. ....Trent.... obviously played the music that he
wanted to, which lead to a slow paced emotional set. I have to say though that Hurt was
beautiful. (7/10)....
~Zebrahead~ I had a lot of energy that I
had expected to use for NIN, so I skanked ‘til I dropped. They were high energy, high fun, high
enjoyment, including my last circle pit of the weekend. (8/10)....
~Metallica~ I am surprised that they
haven’t played any of the last 3 downloads, from last night I have come to the
conclusion that they have perfected festival headlining. I enjoyed it much more than earlier this year,
standing towards the back, head banging, it was the perfect end. (9/10)....
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Top
5 bands:....
1.
MACHINE FUCKING HEAD....
2.
Metallica....
3.
Skindred....
4.
BuckCherry....
5.
Zebrahead....
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It
was definitely a good call going, even if it did cost far too much, but for
over all enjoyment it was a great weekend, but I reckon that the line-up would
need to be as good to go again. With
alternating stages it is very reliant on a really strong line-up.....