Starting the last day of a festival is not an easy job. Your crowd are most likely,tired hungover and just generally tired out. So who better to throw down the gauntlet than the Bordeaux bunch Gojira. After a slightly late start due to a faulty screen were treated to Gojira on top form, frontman Joe Duplantier commanding the crowd with a surprisingly good english accent! Launching into “Explosia” followed by a brutal rendition of “The Axe” pausing only to spot a Death t shirt in the crown and dedicate “The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe” to all the death metal fans in the audience. After playing their classicc “Flying Whales” we’re treated to an air tight “L’Enfant Sauvage” to finish with the crowd stomping “Vacuity” a very good start to the day indeed. Whilst Protest the Hero begin on the Saturn stage, with their tongue in cheek metal surely raising some eyebrows, with the bitingly sarcastic “Sex Tapes” and material off their latest output “Volition” a very strong “Clarity” their set is over far too soon.
Bouncing back on the main stage we see metal’s resident genius band The Devin Townsend Project arrive on the stage to ask that people don’t pit out but instead be as happy as can be, surely taking a leaf out of Devin’s book as his smile is ear to ear playing material from the riff heavy “Deconstruction” as he announces the skies have darkened and the first notes of “Juular” are played to the final song where he asks that people not mosh once again but instead have a huge group hug for the ever uplifting “Grace“. As the main stage is set for the return of Australian rock ‘n’ rollers Airbourne fellow australians Karnivool pull an underwhelming amount of people, surprisingly as their set is absolutely brilliant, with choice cuts of “We Are” off of last year’s Asymmetry and finishing with a pitch perfect “New Day” they will have surely won over a fair amount of new fans.
After the aussie boys packed up we were moving back to the main stage where none other than Airbourne were truly living up to their name, with an excellent “Too Much,Too Young, Too Fast” with frontman Joel O’ Keefe in a spritely mood yelling how Iron Maiden were “fackin great” the night before. Whilst of course having a reputation to uphold, Spiderman was up to his old tricks again climbing the stage rigging during a whiskey fueled “Girls in Black” and moving into “Cheap Wine and Cheaper Women“. Whilst at the same time as Airbourne were rockin’ the afternoon away, Reel Big Fish were over on the Saturn stage get all the punters in the ska mood, with their happy go lucky style of music absolutely perfect for a festival vibe, although not metal as such, they fit the bill perfectly. Although unfortunately the mass of people began their movements to the Apollo stage for one of the hottest anticipated acts today. Opening with the brooding “Oblivion“ Mastodon burst onto the stage, with a cherry picked set list with material from Leviathan to “The Motherload” and the incredible “Chimes at Midnight” from their new opus Once More Round the Sun. The set was masterful with each song as clear as it would be through the studio, announcing that they will be back in the winter its clear that everyone wants more.
Mastodon may have been making the earth rumble but the irish punk gods, The Dropkick Murphy’s were having all sorts of fun on the opposite stage with songs like “Black Velvet Band” and “Going Out In Style” its impossible to watch the boys and not have smile and a good ol fashioned dance, a perfect fit for the warm up of Reel Big Fish. After the jovial antics things were a little bit darker over on the main stage for another performance from the unstoppable Alice In Chains, beginning with the anthemic “Them Bones” swaying through the set with grunge classics and even “Check My Brain” off their Black Gives Way To Blue album, they triumphantly saunter off the stage. Just as we hear the dramatic intro for Dream Theater’s headline performance over on the Saturn stage, the progressive metal gods strut confidently on stage as the last notes of “False Awakening Suite” fade out and launch into the devastating “The Enemy Inside“. A band like Dream Theater have a rather hard task of only picking a select few songs, with their extensive back catalogue of songs that most are over 10 minutes long, when you have an hour and ten minutes slot, what do you play? With a medley of material from “Awake” and the epic “On the Backs of Angels” as well as some of the newer songs of their self titled album but the winner goes to their “Overture” leading into a uproarious “Pull Me Under” a true testament that whatever the age or the line up these metal gods are on absolutely top form. Unstoppable.
After recovering from Dream Theater’s showcase of musicianship were heading over for the final act of the festival. The biggest metal band in the world, one of the perks of being the biggest metal band in the world is that you can make people wait longer than normal for you to come on, after what seemed like an age Metallica burst onto the stage with iconic “Yeeeahhhs” being thrown left right and centre we’re told that this is the setlist that YOU the fans have asked for, not wasting any time they jump straight into “Battery” and immediately all is forgiven, moving into a “Master of Puppets” that has the whole of Knebworth singing along. Changing the mood with the solemn “Sanitarium” whilst debuting a new track “The Lords of Summer” some good material, that is quintessentially Metallica but seems as though it has moved with the times. After we’ve been treated to classics like “Ride The Lightning” the anthemic “Creeping Death” things get stepped up a bit with their rendition of “One” with a laser show that would rival Ibiza and some clever graphics, we’re now in And Justice For All… territory. With “Blackened” blasted out followed of course by the radio classic “Enter Sandman” we then have a small respite and we finally find out after a day of voting that today’s song that has been chosen by the fans, out of a possible “The Four Horsemen” , “Wherever I May Roam” and “And Justice For All…” we’re all treated to the winner “And Justice For All…” an incendiary performance closed of course, with the mantra that is “Seek and Destroy“. All of the acts that graced the stages today have been very different, showcasing different elements, with different strengths and weaknesses but all of them left the festival goers absolutely gob smacked in their own different way, although not the mammoth size of Download, Sonisphere is a festival that knows what its doing, knows where its going and could very much be the go to metal festival in the future.
