by Darkweasel on Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:45 pm
The way I saw it:
EVILE:
Great way to start the proceedings (for me and my lazy mates anyway). Energetic, fast and furious and the crowd responded in kind.
PRAYING MANTIS:
We played the "Spot the Iron Maiden Riff" game. We lost count.
HOD:
Absolutely chuffing brilliant. One of the best bands of the day. Give 'em a couple of years and they'll be main stage material. TRANSFORMERS!
AKERCOCKE:
Blurry sound mix didn't help but they were still suitably brutal and managed a very impressive mosh pit.
DESTRUCTION:
A few (almost compulsory) sound gremlins aside, they were utterly marvellous and contender for band of the day. Moshpit of the weekend for sure. Huge.
PRIMAL FEAR:
Typically impressive set from the germans. Shame their last two albums weren't as good as this performance.
SOULFLY.
Utter wank.
Worst set of the weekend on the main stage without a doubt. Max has become a joke. His "lyrics" are repetitive and infantile and they play the same song over and over again. The only time any interest was raised was when they did the usual trick of butchering old Sepultura tracks. Even Max must know how bad they are when they even resorted to playing some of Slayer's Angel of Death.
Awful.
HELLOWEEN.
I've waited over 20 years to see Helloween. Were they worth the wait? Christ, yes.
OPETH:
More of Mikael's dry wit and more great tracks. Definitely not the best I've ever seen them but still very good.
ELUEVETIE:
Finntroll/Korpiklaani copyists. Fun, but hardly memorable.
SWALLOW THE SUN:
Yawn.
COMMUNIC:
See Swallow The Sun.
BLOOD ISLAND RAIDERS:
Heavy and tight with lots of nods to Sabbath in the riffing and (especially) the drumming. Shame about the vocalist though. Flat with no range. Sounded like a third rate Danzig a lot of the time.
MOONSORROW
Bathoryesque Fintrollisms.
NAPALM DEATH:
Best set I've ever seen them play. Ever.
SOILWORK:
Highly impressive. The new songs work really well live.
ICED EARTH:
Band of the weekend by a fucking mile. I could spend hours writing about how good they were.
But I won't.
Ace.
DIMMU BORGIR:
A shortened set length didn't stop them from finishing the night on a high. Great songs but shame about the strong wind making the pyros look bent.
HEAVEN'S BASEMENT:
Take the best bits of Motley Crue, G'n'R, Aerosmith and The Wildhearts and you've got a great up and coming band.
CROWNING GLORY:
Bog standard power metal. Went back to the car after two tracks.
ALESTORM:
Fun, and quite obviously one of the most anticipated bands of the weekend, but very sloppy and teetered on the brink of total embarassment more than a couple of times.
GRAND MAGUS:
Great band, great songs, great set.
Me like.
MOB RULES:
See Crowning Glory.
KATAKLYSM:
Not too bad but got bored and wandered off to see...
TED MAUL
...And promptly wished I hadn't bothered. What a fucking mess. I'm not too sure if it was the hideous mix, the interminable wait for the soundcheck to be completed (not that it made any difference whatsoever), or the way that they seemed to prove to people that they had never played their instruments before which hurt my ears the most.
Ghastly noise.
OVERKILL:
Thrash band of the weekend. Here's to the old school indeed.
AT THE GATES:
Glad for the opportunity to see them before they finally disappear again but they'd have been better just playing the entire SOTS album rather than dipping back to their first albums every five minutes.
NIGHTWISH:
More sound gremlins stopped Emppu's guitar from being heard for the first few songs (not to mention Annette not being able to hear anything through her earpiece) but they carried on regardless and you'd never have known anything was wrong. Excellent way to end a festival.
Or, it would have been if the organisers had actually let them finish their set instead of cutting them short because a couple of other bands had overrun. There were problems like this last year but everybody was still allowed to complete their full set.
Good to meet you, Lev.
And cheer up, Norsie, it might never happen.
what a description
