Last year I experienced the Sonisphere Uk festival for the very first time. It was truly magnificent in everyway, the crowd, the bands, the organisation, the weather everything just seemed to click in to place. This year their was an even greater air of expectation in place for many reasons, better line up by a country mile, the fact the festval is now more established and already has a fantastic reputation and the fact that Sonisphere UK 2011 was completely sold out for the first time. No pressure then.
Well lets be honest, their could have been an apocalypse during the festival and the crowd wouldnt have cared, the BIG 4 were in the UK for the first time. How epic is that? Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and of course Metallica…and that was just the Friday’s epic lineup!
Of course you would be forgiven to think that they were the only bands playing on Friday, but how wrong you would have been. To have special guests to the BIG 4, Diamond Head – one of the major influences to Metallica over the years ‘supporting’ them, was a truly epic master stroke and to get Brian Tatler on stage during the Metallica encore along with the rest of the BIG 4. Truly special history right there.
Check out our full Metallica review here
http://www.circlepit.tv/sonisphere-2011/metallica
One of the most brilliantly talented bands of the modern generation were also in town for the show and that band, Protest The Hero were absolutely phenomenal. Their style of technical aggression with Rody Walker’s magnificent vocals thrown in to the mix left them leaving with a new range of fans. If PTH are what modern heavy metal has to offer, then the future is very exciting indeed. Bring it on!
Dont forget that Sonisphere is not just about established bands. There was a fine mix of entertainment from the lovely ladies of Nympherno, with their fire-breathing and stiltwalking throughout the weekend. But what also set Sonisphere apart from the other festivals is the diversity of acts. There was a silent disco, comedians – new and old and lots of upcoming promising talented new bands. All of this thrown in to the Sonisphere melting pot really did work well.
Saturday was a day for different reasons, such a diverse line up through-out the day. The inclement weather didnt seem to dampen spirits of the 60,000 capacity crowd and the majority of them clearly happy to enjoy themselves in the mud and rain!
Starting off proceedings were Sylosis who’s old school thrash influences definitely went a long way to curing the fans mass hangovers. Rabid from the off, Syslosis were definitely a great choice to start the day, with their technical ability and crushing riffs, fans went away happy in the knowledge that this british band were also an exciting prospect which were representing british metal.
It was great to see Cavalera Conspiracy playing Sonisphere too. I was aware that they had recently played smaller UK venues, but to see how many fans turned out for their set was testament to the influence that the Cavalera brothers hard work over the years in their various bands. They even brought out their kids during the set to join in on a track – talk about having awesome rock star parents?! The Cavalera Conspiracy set was powerful and crushing as one would expect ,even if Max did seem to be lacking a little. I found them to be pretty static and maybe the smaller venues did suit them better, but still a solid performance. Still, the crowd favourite Roots did get the crowd bouncing and it brought many memories back!
Fresh from their performance at the Royal Wedding, Richard Cheese took to the helm at on the Saturn stage – and did a fantastic job. Hearing his lounge style covers of some well respected Rock and Metal songs was a real treat – gone was the roar of the Metal fans in the crowd and was replaced by laughter – it was very surreal, but brilliant at the same time.
One of the biggest disappointments from the weekend for me, was how tepid the performance from SUM41 was. I know they have been out of the game for a while, but their heart didnt seem to be in the performance. I felt they were sloppy and even though they tried to get the crowd involved, they soon lost interest. They seemed to be going through the motions, which was a great shame as I expected good things from them and before the festival was looking forward to their set. The obvious highlight of the set was Fat lip and In too deep, but was very disappointed in their half-assed Metallica covers, Master of Puppets and Enter Sandman. Trying playing your own songs to get the crowd interacting rather that relying on someone elses.
Again for me was how diverse the line up was. There was something for all which included all genre’s and sub genre’s of rock and metal. Even more apparent was the focus on bleeding thru you upcoming talent to the masses – there is no point going to a festival and not checking out a new band. One of the bands that stood out to us here at CIRCLEPIT was Six Hour Sundown which played the Jagermeister stage through the rain showers. They still had a decent crowd watching them through the set and seemed to be very well received. Lauren Harris had earlier told me that she was excited to play such a big festival and it showed on stage. She was powerful and confident yet the band had only been together four months, but that didnt show at all and it was what seemed to be an encouraging performance. It looks like Six Hour Sundown are a band to look out for in the future!
A true highlight of the weekend for me was the awesome TesseracT playing on the Red Bull stage. The south UK based metallers are next level when it comes to the technical ability they possess. The best way for me to describe their music is ‘Clever Metal’ – it has a real thoughtful style matched with intense technical ability and to see them perform such a tight set live blew me away. I really can not wait for their upcoming tour with Chimp Spanner and Uneven structure in September.
The line up was very well thought through and even though Biffy Clyro as headliner’s on Saturday night was a bone of contention, the festival organisers ensure that there was plenty of other awesome bands as alternatives. I mean the punishing Watain with their awesome pyro or the hard rockin’ Black Spiders in the Jagermeister tent. We decided to head to the Black Spiders set – find our review here.
http://www.circlepit.tv/sonisphere-2011/black-spiders
Sunday – Hangover day 2!
Yet again, diversity was the name of the game and through out the day there was something for everybody – We started our day at CIRCLEPIT with a dose of Volbeat to kick us off. I mean, a bit of Elvis Metal to get things underway was a perfect tonic to start the day and perk us up!
These Danish legends are truly brilliant at getting the crowd involved and their rockabilly style along with the damn heavy riffs make a refreshing combination and it shines through in a world made up of genre’s and sub-genre’s and even sub-sub-genre’s (Yes its that bad!)
There were many highlight tracks from their set which for me included the brilliant ‘Warriors Call’ and fan favourite Dusty Springfield cover – ‘I only wanna be with you’
Next up for CIRCLEPIT, was a band that I had only heard about through friends so decided to check them out. Parkway Drive genuinely are my new favourite band from Sonisphere – these guys brought everything with them and it showed. They were frighteningly tight, there performance was brutal and energetic and again it proves that the future of Metal is in great hands. This is how dedicated they are, the guitarist Luke Kilpatrick played the set in a wheelchair due to a leg injury – it was a bit bizzare at first as I thought he was gonna roll off the stage but fair play to him, he never missed a note – now that is rock and roll! The energy that Parkway Drive showed on stage was amazing and they really did suit the festival crowd, whipping them in to a frenzy at every opportunity.
Today was also a very emotional day for a number of reasons – the first was the beautifully observed 2 minute silence for Slipknot’s Paul Gray (#2) I could not beleive how impeccable the silence was through out the site. Credit where it is due – the fans were amazing.
Continuing the emotional side of things, when Motorhead come on stage Lemmy announced that their roadie and ex guitarist Michael “Wurzel” Burston had passed away late on Saturday night. He was clearly moved by the fans reaction and it was a very emotional set indeed. Motorhead doing what they do best, playing louder than any other band would have made Wurzel proud and they tore through the set as only 35 years of experience can do. They rocked it and showed the youg ‘uns how its done. Obviously the classic hits were played (which is basically their entire back catalogue) but the one that got the fans roaring was ‘Ace of Spades’ – even the sighting of ex factor reject Katie Waissel on the side of stage didnt put the fans off from seeing Motorhead performing at their very best level – LOUD!
To witness one of the most loved and hated bands of all time – Limp Bizkit was exciting – were they gonna be great? or were they gonna suck? Who cares? Fred Durst doesnt!!
First off I want to say that I was in the photo pit to start with getting shots of the band. The bass that I encountered was just short of the ‘Brown Note’ it was truly resonating through my organs – it felt AMAZING! There were so many highlights, from the man in the rubber dinghy on top of the crowd to seeing Wes Borland rocking hard with the band that he loves. This was truly magnificent. As I was coming out of the photopit, there was a fan being carried off with his foot facing completely the wrong direction but you know what? He was still headbanging and singing along. That is what music does – and Limp Bizkit tapped in to that and kicked ass completely – their music may be simple and people say that there is no depth to it, but who gives a fuck – Limp Bizkit did what they do best and everyone went away happy! It was awesome to hear them play Gold Cobra too from the new album, that track went down great, showing that they are back on the map.
Finally on to Slipknot – this was beyond next level – what a band to close the festival with. It had everything – emotion, energy, passion, crazyness and above all – power. Skull crushing power. No matter whether your a fan or not, to hear their performance with the crowd roaring along, it was unbeatable. This set was also streamed around the world through BT and that in itself was a stroke of genius. It was apparent that Corey Taylor was still hurting from the passing of Paul Gray but he was commemorated at every relevant opportunity. These masked lunatics were on fire – over the years they have gone from unorganised chaos to a highly polished machine that destroys everything in their path. It was a nice touch to see them in their old boiler suits and the “maggots” were proud to witness this. What a way to finish of THE festival of the year – This was the best festival in recent history, but then so was last year…can it be beaten next year?? Of course it can! \m/
Many thanks to all involved at Sonisphere this year including the awesome Noise Cartel and Headstock Distribution
If your still thirsty for more SONISPHERE 2011 - check out our gallery page and keep checking back as there is more to come \m/
http://www.circlepit.tv/sonisphere-uk-2011-gallery
