Our first festival attended as The Metalist took us to Western France, where the 9th rendition of the further acclaimed Hellfest Open Air was about to take place. Every year Hellfest Seems to have an all-star lineup, attracting 50’000 viewers from all over Europe and bringing a massive metal festival experience to all. We had to come and see what all the fuss was about, and watch some of our favourite bands amonst thousands of other metalheads. Reviews of each band we saw follow:
Crossfaith
We opened our Hellfest musical activities with Crossfaith, bringing the first clinical strike of the morning to rattle French brains into gear. Having seen Crossfaith before across many smaller stages, it was hard to imagine the Japanese electro-metal quintet being able to take their highly energetic stage show to a large stage – let alone command a sizable crowd. Crossfaith succeeded. Albeit a short set, Crossfaith laced their set with their hard-hitting numbers, opening with ‘We Are the Future’ and ‘Monolith’ and finishing with ‘Leviathan’. The sound was excellent and the crowd loved every minute – a perfect festival opener.
Impaled Nazarene
Impaled Nazarene were the next to peak our interest, and a perfect opportunity to remove ourselves from the blazing afternoon Clisson sun. The band was set to play ‘The Temple’ stage, one of two smaller stages sheltered inside a large tent. The crowd was surprisingly thin, bringing up the feeling that most people that decided to watch the band were only curious given their somewhat controversial history. As soon as the music kicked off with ‘1999: Karmageddon Warriors’ unfortunately there was not a whole lot to win over potential new fans. Since Impaled Nazarene became a quartet, the sound seemed lacking without the raw assault of a dual guitar attack. The guitars and snare drum were inaudible, essential parts to the discography of Impaled Nazarene, and their music just did not seem to come to life. Frontman Mika Luttinen eventually got to interacting with the crowd and getting them moving, with the band playing classics such as ‘Motorpenis’, ‘Armageddon Death Squad’ and finishing with ‘Total War, Winter War’. Whilst it was good to finally see them live, it was not the Impaled Nazarene experience we hoped for.
Rob Zombie
Heading back to the main stage it was time for Rob Zombie, a veteran showman and typically a man always worth checking out, love or hate. Being so close to the time that the previous band finished, it was a mad dash across the festival grounds where we made it just in time for Mr. Zombie to open his Hellfest account with the classic ‘Dragula’. Whilst the setlist progressed into ‘Superbeast’ and ‘Living Dead Girl’, we couldn’t help but noticed Mr. Zombie’s vocals seemed to be quite blotchy with missed lines and off key choruses. However as the energy picked up throughout the show, by the time the show got to the White Zombie classic ‘More Human Than Human’ the entire band was operating at optimum efficiency. Drummer Ginger Fish ripped an excellent drum solo, Rob Zombie had the crowd working, and John 5, with a history of playing generally simple metal music, performed like a guitar god with a jaw-dropping solo segment and absolute technical perfection. What started rocky turned out to be the excellent same Rob Zombie show we’ve come to know and love.
Turisas
Back to the smaller tent stage, Turisas were next. This time the tent was packed, having toured France earlier this year they surely won over a legion of fans, being evident from the moment that the trumpets blared to the sound of ‘To Holmgard and Beyond’. The crowd went wild, and set the tempo for the show to come. Being a band with such a fast and folking discography Turisas would generally be a perfect addition for any festival, however the band opted to fill their short set with songs from the particularly weaker effort of Turisas2013. Their setlist was inconsistent with songs that leaned more towards the progressive side of the band, somewhat dampening the party spirit. Though the crowd responded well, displaying their full energy to the classic ‘Battle Metal’, and then turning the Temple stage into the world’s largest metal disco when the band rung out with ‘Rasputin’. The sound was good and there can be no complaints at all about the stage presence, there just felt like there was something musically lacking.
Iron Maiden
Here it is. The big one. As one could imagine, there was a tremendous shuffle to get to the main stage to view the metal veterans. As has become so typical with Iron Maiden, fans have evidently flocked from around the world to see the big Maiden England festival show, with the cameras panning around the 50’000 strong crowd donning flags of their home countries spanning all the way from France to Australia. Given the magnitude of Iron Maiden it has become quite easy to predict their setlist, but the thunderous presence of Bruce Dickenson and the veteran proficiency of the band always make the show worth watching.
The band kicked off with ‘Moonchild’ which almost instantaneously progressed into the plethora of Maiden’s anthemic tunes of ‘Can I Play With Madness’, ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’, and ‘The Prisoner’. Dickenson moved around the stage flawlessly captivating the crowd and surprisingly speaking excellent French throughout the set. Maiden’s stage show is always eye-candy, with colourful backdrops of Eddie and the corresponding song switching between each song – such as the large British flag and brigade uniform for ‘The Trooper’. Favourite stage moments include the large Eddie figures emerging from the stage with glowing eyes, and a 30 foot Eddie waddling across the stage for ‘Iron Maiden’. Laced with pyrotechnics shooting off at the key moments of each song, such as the giant chorus of ‘Run to the Hills’ and the guitar-laden into to ‘Fear of the Dark’, and Bruce casually informing the crowd the French were thrashing the Swiss at football – the show was excellent.
While Iron Maiden are showing the world they still have it after 30+ years on the job, moments showed that the band just might be starting to slow down. Bruce’s vocals weren’t always on par, and noticeably it seems the band have had to tune down their guitars down half a step or so given potentially struggles to reach the high notes. All in all though, small petty things were noticeable, but given the magnitude of the show didn’t really matter – an excellent performance.
Death: DTA
Just how could we miss an opportunity to see Death?! Even if it is without legendary frontman Chuck Schuldiner…We headed over to the Altar stage back in the tent just as Death: DTA were blasting into ‘Flattening of Emotions’. It was hard to believe that there they were, the ‘Human’-era line up of Sean Reinart, Steve DiGiorgio and Paul Masvidal were performing as Death, completed with the vocal/guitar services of Max Phelps from Cynic. One of the best sounds and mixes of the festival they continued to play their best from the first four Death albums, paying homage to the fallen hero Chuck Schuldiner in between. Though it was great to hear them play personal favourites such as ‘Crystal Mountain’ and ‘Symbolic’, Phelp’s vocals while excellent just did not seem to do the discography any justice given the distinguishable style between the recordings and live performance. One cannot complain though about the valiant effort Death: DTA have put into reviving the Death experience, and deserve nothing but applause for bringing to the stage an important part of metal history that the younger generations have missed.
Slayer
As Death: DTA overlapped with Slayer, we missed most of this show however managed to catch the last two songs. I have seen Slayer a few times now and don’t really expect anything different to the very first time I saw them. Given the performance of the last two songs it turned out to be too true. Tom Araya wailing at the final performance of ‘Angel of Death’ and Kerry King madly bopping his head to a point where we seriously think it’s going to fall off. We all accept Slayer into the canonical history of metal and respect them as legends, but besides a line-up change Slayer do not bring anything new to the table performance wise, perhaps a case of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it?’. The strong point of the show was the ‘Hannemann: Still Reigning’ banner in the background that really did show the emotional side of the band to the fact he is no longer with us – and showed their respect with the metal that they do best since 1981.
Sabaton
Sabaton are a band that have really surprised me throughout their years of existence. I saw their first UK show back in 2006 where they played a 15 minute support set in front of a crowd of 50 with their World War II, Europe-esque anthems. What I thought would forever be a novelty club band, tonight they were playing in front of a wild 30’000 strong crowd. This was not an accident or stroke of fortune though, their Hellfest performance underlined why they are rising to the top of the power metal scene. Blasting into ‘Ghost Division’, the band was absolutely full of energy and the crowd immediately responded putting their full energy towards the band. All the band members donned in camouflage and frontman Joakim Broden wrapped in a metal Kevlar vest, he immediately stated that the band were actually a Sabaton cover band known as the ‘Village People’. The humour and profuse thanks between songs such as ‘Resist & Bite’ and ‘Art of War’ made way for a fantastic and highly enjoyable show, interacting with the crowd and just letting everybody know how happy they were to be there. The final song of ‘Primo Victoria’ epitomised their brilliant set where the viewable festival area turned into a giant jumping bean stack. Dare I say Sabaton were my favourite of the festival!
Septicflesh
It was late and most festival goers were about ready to collapse with a combination of the relentless sun and the absolutely packed schedule of the day, but we had to just put in that last effort for Septicflesh. One of Greece’s finer exports, they did not fail to impress with an atmospheric death metal set that really took advantage of its enclosed tent surroundings – resonating through every corner of the area. Septicflesh took the opportunity to present some new songs as well as playing previous efforts such as ‘Persepolis’ and ‘Communion’. A perfect end to an excellent day of metal.
Skid Row
The first band we came to see on the second day of Hellfest festivities. Having a veteran status we were surprised to see Skid Row on early in the afternoon with such a short slot for a set. Nevertheless Skid Row came on the sound of the Ramones ‘Let’s Go’, and as soon as they emerged on to the stage they looked very happy to be in front of the relatively smaller crowd. Skid Row churned through some classic tracks such as ‘Piece of Me’ and ’18 and Life’ with perfection as you expect an experienced band would, but never really added anything spectacular to the show. The crowd seemed a little unresponsive, probably a clash between the idea of the early show and the younger crowd who weren’t particularly aware of Skid Row’s back catalogue, but came to pay homage to a band listed in the metal canon. The band did their job, but that was about it.
We Came As Romans
We never would have checked out this band had their latest single ‘Hope’ been the last song we happened to hear before we left for the festival. Albeit being labelled as just another metalcore band, we were pleasantly surprised by the performance the band had to offer for the smaller yet passionate Hellfest crowd. The energy was apparent from the very beginning with the band kicking off with the title track of their latest album ‘Tracing Back Roots’. Whilst the setlist was relatively unknown to me the band seemed to create a performance that accommodated the fact that not a whole lot of people would be familiar with them, playing what appeared to be their stronger songs and getting the crowd involved in all of them. They finished off with the one song I had heard ‘Hope’, wrapping up what was surprisingly a very enjoyable show.
Extreme
This was a band we were greatly looking forward to seeing. It is probably just us being oblivious, but it seems that Extreme have not been on European shores for a very long time. This would be the first time we would see them live with the largest crowd of the day, and the band lived up to every preconceived experience we could have conjured. Most of the time we were thinking, ‘is Nuno Bettencourt really that good?’, the answer is yes, yes he is. The setlist seemed to be chosen to demonstrate Nuno’s abilities and make him the centrepiece of the show, but it is evident that has been the case throughout Extreme’s career. Starting out with ‘Decadence Dance’, the band flew into each track with technical perfection closing into classics such as ‘Play With Me’ and ‘More Than Words’. Nuno’s solo segment, his demonstration of his fantastic abilities on the 12-string guitar and ‘The Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee’ proved to be the highlights of the show, finally heading into the finale of ‘Get the Funk Out’. You do feel for the band as while they also have mastered their instruments, the Extreme performance was definitely the Nuno show, but with a man this talented it’s hard not to be.
Protest the Hero
Another band that has recently impressed us with their latest release ‘Volition’ that has won critical acclaim throughout the metal world, we had to check the band out to see if they could bring what they packed on the album to the stage. The sun was blazing on the small outdoor ‘Warzone’ stage, yet the area was packed with people desperately wanting to see this band. Given the commitment and support people were throwing at this band, we were expecting a high energy show to match their music which after they kicked off with ‘Clarity’, proved not to be the case. The band was frozen on stage, not as if they looked they were frightened, only as if they had came to play their instruments and leave. For a band with this kind of music one would expect more from the stage presence, even if the music is technical and requires the utmost focus. Having said that the band played really well and the sound was excellent, just enough to let the crowd work themselves up as the band progressed into ‘Underbite’ and the apt French titled song ‘C’est la Vie’. Redeeming factors of the stage show included comedy routine’s of frontman Rody Walker that did bring value, but did not justify that this was about bringing a live music experience to the stage.
Eluveitie
It seems like the French really like Folk Metal. Again the Temple stage and tent was packed to a point where one could barely move, but one could also understand why so many people had come to see this band. Eluveitie never seem to have a bad show, and they are just so impressive to watch playing their traditional folk instruments in such a virtuostic manner. Already the energy was absolutely raging. The band fired into ‘Helvetios’ with the crowd movement being a cross between moshing and folk-dancing, and this continued throughout their hour long set proving to be one of the most well responded bands at the entire festival. The setlist choice was very good spanning across their discography with the classic ‘Inis Mona’ and folky, diverse tracks such as ‘Quoth the Raven’ and ‘A Rose for Epona’. Each song was as energetic and well received as the next with the sound being spot on (a feat difficult to achieve with those kind of instruments), and we even got treated to a new song ‘King’. It’s hard not to enjoy Eluveitie, but they certainly brought their A game for their Hellfest performance.
Nile
Sidestepping over to the Altar stage, Nile were getting ready to continue what Eluveitie had started and demolish the tent housing the two stages. Of course as soon as the band emerged on stage and rung into ‘Sacrifice Unto Sebek’, they were not there to take any prisoners. It was loud, yet every note was as crystal clear as the next from the cuspate leads of Karl Saunders to the machine-gun drums of George Kollias. Nile are a band that seriously lets the music do the talking, with minimal crowd interaction from any of the members their stage presence soared in an unexplainable fashion. Reminiscent of the Egyptian pharaoh’s statically eyeing their people with a cult of personality, or in this case a cult of musicianship. One could simply enjoy every note despite a flowing set of pure music and few words, and by the time ‘Black Seeds of Vengence’ rang out of the speakers you could not help but feel completely statisfied.
Gorgoroth
Black Metal is always an interesting thing to watch live. You either absolutely love it or you absolutely hate, depending on what artistic perspective you choose to take into the performance. Gorgoroth are a band that have achieved cult status, given their long history of controversy and arguably a key figure in the Black Metal scene. This provides the grounds for one to be interested in seeing them live even if it is without legendary frontman Gaahl. We’ve seen a fair few Black Metal shows before, including the brilliant Gorgoroth show at Wacken 2008 and they always are an absolute hit or a total miss. We didn’t quite know what to expect from this Gorgoroth band here at Hellfest, given that they have been relatively quiet from the time Infernus won his legal battle against Gaahl for the Gorgoroth name. The unknown surprisingly acted as a perfect precursor to the Gorgoroth show, with their stage presence truly being embraced as soon as they hit the stage. The band was well received, with the lightning and stage movement providing excellent additions to what was a truly atmospheric performance although the vocals were plagued with sound problems. It was one of those shows that was indeed a hit.
Carcass
With Carcass being on directly after Gorgoroth, another sidestep to the Temple stage took place right to an already packed crowd. Now the 4th band playing in almost immediate succession, and the long hot day taking its toll on festival goers nobody really knew how much more they had to give for Carcass – but knew that we had to pay homage to the death metal legends. When they kicked off with ‘Buried Dreams’, the crowd mustered up the energy to respond the fantastic sound and enthusiasm coming through the speakers, while many at the back decided to focus their attention on the graphic stock footage of surgery being displayed on screens to the right and left of the stage. Carcass burned through pieces of their discography with ease proving that they are total veterans of the genre, and finishing off with ‘Heartwork’ created another perfect closing of a Hellfest day.
Powerwolf
The 3rd and final day of the festival begins, and with all the music, walking, drinking and heat the fatigue is finally starting to set in. Powerwolf was the first band we decided to see staring early in afternoon, a band with more accessible power metal to help us ease into another massive day of metal. Of course we forgot how anthemic Powerwolf’s music is though, and immediately found ourselves pumping our fists and singing along as soon as the band opened with ‘Sanctified by Dynamite’. Dressed in priestly gear and laden with corpse paint, Powerwolf were a really fun band to watch with their religious werewolf themes providing a light-hearted fun approach to metal being transferred across to a live experience. Their stage show was energetic and the crowd was captivated, couldn’t really ask much more to start the day!
Angra
Angra are a band we have sadly never had the opportunity to see for one reason or another, but seeing them on a large stage at Hellfest in front of 30’000 fans would hopefully make up for the missed shows. With Edu Falaschi and Andre Matos long departed, Fabio Lione of Rhapsody of Fire took the helm, and while personnel changes can be cause for concern, Mr. Lione immediately proved his worth when Angra kicked into ‘Angels Cry’. Despite a few sound problems in the beginning the band were fantastic ultimately being driven by the soaring vocals of Fabio whose vocal diversity was really put on display. Angra showed that nothing has been lost with flawless performances of favourites such as ‘Lisbon’ and ‘Rebirth’, and while it was nothing more than a showcase of excellent ability the show was enjoyable.
Equilibrium
Equilibrium are a personal favourite, and we were very much looking forward to seeing them live. We recognised however that a live performance would not do Equilibrium’s music any justice given the overtly complex nature of the orchestras and synths that play an integral part of the compositions, and most of the live music would have to be fed through a backing track. Another large crowd emerged at the Altar Stage, further justifying that the French love folk metal, and again threw their full energy as the Bavarian quintet kicked off with the first track off their new album ‘Was Lange Wahrt’. It was as expected, the backing tracks made up most of the music playing with the band only adding to that which is always a bit of a shame, but the pure energy that frontman Robse managed to whip up justified a live performance which made it a fun little show.
The Black Dahlia Murder
The same sidestep that has become an hourly ritual at Hellfest was required directly after Equilibrium to turn focus to The Black Dahlia Murder. Barely a few steps were taken before the band took their places on the stage and launched into ‘In Hell Is Where She Waits For Me’. The Black Dahlia Murder are another one of those bands where everyone just seems to know what to do, with an instant exchange of energy between the band and the air-tight crowd that had showed up to see them. The band had no time for nonsense, and they packed their hour set with music and live favourites such as ‘Necropolis’ and newer animals such as ‘Raped In Hatred By Thorns’. The full hour was packed with notes and the energy was brilliant, not much to be said but The Black Dahlia Murder came, saw and conquered.
Behemoth
It was time for mighty Behemoth – the Polish quartet who have become veterans of the live performance, with the unhindered ability to adapt to any stage with any audience worldwide. Hellfest was no different. Having just released a critically acclaimed album, Behemoth had the pressure of building a critically acclaimed stage show to follow, and have succeeded in every sense of the word. There aren’t many bands who can really bring the music they play to life and manage to bring a theatrical themed performance to a festival, but as the band started with ‘Blow Your Trumpets, Gabriel’ this was going to be a performance to remember. Dressed in their traditional corpse paint and leather attire the band members stood behind their symbol-sculpted microphones and scanned the audience, becoming more animated with the tempo of each of the songs on the setlist. Combined with fire, spitting blood and Nergal’s persistent energy, the show was nothing short of one of the best of the festival.
Emperor
Having seen one of the final Emperor shows at Wacken in 2006, it seemed all too appropriate to come and watch one of the reunion shows here at Hellfest in 2014. As Emperor emerged on stage, what we saw surprised us -it almost seemed like each member of the band had become a gentrified indie hipster. Ihsahn came on with a white and gold guitar donning hipster glasses, Faust looked like a soccer dad and keyboardist Einar Solberg looked as if he was spending most of the show on his MacBook…yes a MacBook. Is this the same legendary black metal band? But back to the matter at hand – the show. Despite the drastic change in appearance that hardly looked like a band about to perform black metal, the performance itself was indeed quite reminiscent of where Emperor left off in 2007. The blast beats started and the band was off like they had never quit with their atoned atmospheric black metal sound resonating perfectly through the main stage PA. Like most black metal bands Emperor aren’t ones for crowd interaction or prolific stage movement which on occasions could be rather dull to watch, but the high points of the fantastic light show and of course the flawlessly performed classics such as ‘Comsic Keys To My Creation and Times’ and ‘I Am The Black Wizards’ proved to be a reunion worth watching.
Black Sabbath
And finally, again weary after a massive day of excellent metal, we wonder over to Black Sabbath where evidently many had made a pilgrimage from all over the world with the large display of world flags, a metal United Nations if you will. As we just don’t know how much longer Black Sabbath will be able continue, this was an absolute must as the whole 50’000 strong festival converged unto the Main Stage. As the lights dimmed and lighting rig shone blue, the most audible roar of the festival was belted from the crowd, as they were about to see the legendary heavy metal band that had really only heard about in fairytales.
After a lengthy intro and a massive build up, the 3 instrumentalists of Tommi Iommi, Geezer Butler and Tommy Clufetos marched onto the stage to a closed high hat and the opening chords of that jukebox anthem we all know, ‘War Pigs’. And here comes Ozzy, the prince of darkness back with the band that built his career, and we’re not going to lie…this was quite exciting to see!
With ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Into the Void’ being as close to perfect as it was during the 70’s, Ozzy’s age and weariness sadly became very apparent as the set progressed. Moving into ‘Snowblind’ keys and words were missed, and the audience interaction between songs suggested that he didn’t even know where he was. Iommi and Butler remained consistent throughout however driven by the powerhouse drumming of Clufetos (Ozzy’s solo drummer) and kept the set afloat, but the as the vocals deteriorated so did the performance.
There were moments of brilliance where we were just happy to be there, such as the performance of ‘Iron Man’ where Ozzy’s vocals weren’t even noticeable with the 50’000 strong crowd singing at the top of their lungs, as well as Clufetos’ battering drum solo. By the time the set reached the newer track ‘God is Dead?’ towards the end Ozzy’s voice was gone being totally off key and jumpy.
The band however went off between the encore, and Ozzy just seemed to recharge just enough to but in a final excellent performance of ‘Paranoid’ that left the crowd extremely content and pleased with what they had just witnessed. Although the performance was by no means brilliant, it was legendary in the fact that we had finally got to see Black Sabbath – that band on all those t-shirts, books, documentaries and jukeboxes, the godfathers of heavy metal and the ancestral root of whatever metal you listen to now. We couldn’t have been more pleased.
