Better late than never I’d say. Although we’re past the open air festival season, there are some reviews from that time to come. This will be my first, and what a magnificent day this was. I haven’t been to this festival before, but I think I’ll be there every year now. I won't go into details about my privileges as a press related figure, but I can tell you; it was DAMN good!

Trivium is that band, and they played like hell. They didn’t get the crowd response they were asking for, but nonetheless they played tight and very convincing. Personally I feel like Heafy’s singing is a bit overrated, he can get away with it on record but live it tends to be bit of a problem. I like the heavier vocals from Corey better. Nevertheless I was quite impressed this time and I wonder what the future will bring for these lads.

There was a band from my region playing after this, namely Born From Pain. Last time I saw them was with Soulfly and I was very pleased with that one. This time I was partially still waking up, so I had difficulties with paying attention. The show wasn’t nearly as great as last time, but they surely proved that hardcore deserves a spot on a festival like this as well.

We left the tent stage early in order to get a descent spot with one of my favourite live bands already; Devildriver. Seldom have I seen a band getting crowds moving like they do, what they did at Graspop is something I will remember forever. Of course this is a way smaller festival, but they managed to get the biggest pit of the day, like usual. They played about the same set at every festival, combining tracks from both albums. Yes they got a circlepit going, even with the insane temperature we were facing, but its intensity lasted not that long. Again a great show by a fantastic band.

Now for some reason I wanted to know what Stream of Passion would be, so I checked it out and I was treated to the latest Arjen Lucassen creation. Unfortunately the sound was a bit poor and the music appeared to be gothic again so I couldn't bare more than one track.

Up next was Stone Sour, whom were then about to release their new album. I saw a pretty satisfying show of these guys at Graspop as well, but I liked this one better. They had to try harder to keep the crowd going and they had a very nice sound. Corey appears to be quite a funny guy with this band with all sorts of idiotic jokes during and between tracks. I still say he’s sounding better than ever, the reason why will be revealed in the interview with bassist Shawn. A mixture of old and new tracks came by and I was more than satisfied with this performance.

I did not see Kamelot for longer than three seconds, and even those three seconds have been pushed back so far away in my brain I cannot recall it. I do not like power metal. Yuk!

 

A show that disappointed me terribly at Graspop was that of Alice In Chains, mainly due to the vocalist doing a job that was in my opinion not what I wanted it to sound like. This day I had to revise my opinion though. Although I still say his vocals go too high occasionally, he knows how to sing it. And I still considered it a pleasure to be able to witness the rest of the band under their original name. A lot of legendary grunge songs came by in a heroin-esque guitar sound and great moments were relived by a big part of the crowd I suspect.

At this point I had to do my interview so I luckily missed everything of After Forever. And otherwise I wouldn't have checked them out anyway. Ha!

Y&T already proved to me at Graspop that they are one of those old bands that still manage to please me. I didn’t see to much of them here, because me dear colleague Buzzin Hornet invited me to go check at the autograph session for Stone Sour. But I could look over the fence there and concluded that it again was a very nice show. Old-skool rockers still standing strong! Maybe I’ll pick up a best-of album of these guys sometime.

 

Death metal should be at every festival, and this time it was represented by my personal heroes of Nile. I spoke with the bassist the day before at a Textures show, so it was kind of funny watching him go at it on stage this time. Although the sound wasn’t optimal, I could clearly see a monstrous performance was given to a rowdy crowd. They also played a mixture of tracks from different albums, luckily emphasizing the Annihilation of the Wicked album, which is far more faster than the previous material. Again we were treated to the title track, which lasts for about eight minutes, of high speed rattling, thrashing, gutting and mutilating death metal. The biggest problem was the bass drums not coming through all too well, but he did play a whole lot tighter than at Graspop.

The band that must have played almost every festival in the world, Soulfly, was up next on the mainstage. It was a very enjoyable show, even after seeing them about two or three times earlier playing the same set, the highlight being Corey Taylor coming onstage to do the complete ‘Jumpdafuckup’ track, now I can die a happy man. Some people who’s names I’ll wont mention kept me from seeing this at Graspop, which pissed me off like hell. Fortunately everything was saved here. I heard material come by from a whole lot of bands, like Sepultura, Nailbomb, Slayer, Deftones and to end their set they played a little part of an old Metallica track that I can’t recall right now. My headliner for today!

Next was Helloween, for whom I forced myself to watch their goodbye show-of gay parade, and the crowd loved it. Can’t really go into it any further.

And all that was left for us then, a band that practically everyone has seen, and whom surely have played even more festivals than the aforementioned Soulfly, the legendary rock ‘n rollers of Motörhead. Well, I’d say been there, done that. We quickly poured in our last beers because our ride wanted to go home, which was quite fine with me considering we had a three hour drive ahead of us.