Sonisphere: After

Well I'm back, I'm barely awake, but I'm here to give my thoughts on Sonisphere UK 2010. I arrived on the Thursday, as I had chosen early entry as opposed to arriving on the friday, which turned out to be a good thing as the campsite was much quieter and it mean that those of us in our group could get a good spot to pitch our tents. As there were no bands on the Thursday and none on the Friday until 5pm, we sat in our tent circle and spent a little while exploring the festival grounds. Ok, but what about music? Well here's my report:

Friday:

The first band I saw on the Friday was Delain, in fact this was the first act of the festival. The genre of this band was had a sort of symphonic rock/metal feel to it, similar to H.I.M., I thought they were ok, a couple of their songs were quite good. The next band I saw was Turisas, they are classified as battle metal, and perform dressed as war painted warriors. I really enjoyed their set, they got the crowd moving and their music was great, I loved the presence of an accordian in their band, I think I have a soft spot for rock and metal bands that have accordians, I'm not sure why. After Turisas was Europe. I was somewhat surprised by their set, as I didn't know their music very well. I quite enjoyed it, but the last track was the best, as it was the track I, and doubtlessly a lot of the crowd had been waiting for: The Final Countdown was awesome, it had the audience leaping into the air and was a great end to their set. The next act was Gary Numan. His set was just awesome, again I didn't know his music but I enjoyed it all the same. The final act I saw on the Friday was Alice Cooper, Friday's headline act. He put on a great show, he performed his Theatre of Death performance where he dies several times whilst delivering all the hits of his career. He started and finished with School's Out, it really was a great gig.

Saturday:

I saw many acts on the Saturday, so I shall only describe a few in detail. I thought Anthrax were brilliant, they were really tight musically and seemed on even better form than at the Big Four Show at a European Sonisphere that was broadcast in cinemas. Joey Belladonna showed his skill as a frontman once again. One of my favourite acts of the day was Skunk Anansie. This band were the first metal band I ever listened to and I never expected that I would see them live until they reformed last year. At Sonisphere they played for about 45 minutes, with Skin the lead singer performing with such skill and energy. It was a truly awesome performance. The headline act of the Saturday was Rammstein. Their stageing consisted of 200 tonnes of stuff that had to be hauled in several lorries. They put on a show of staggering pyrotechnics that you could feel on your face even far from the front row. The frontman of Rammstein- Till Lindemann, captivated the audience and his talent was obvious. The music was faultless and the show was entertaining to say the least.

Sunday:

Sunday began with me catching the last half of Karnivool's set. I hadn't heard them before, but I had heard many good things about their music, it turns out that the rumours were correct, they were pretty good. I also saw The Fab Beatles, a Beatles tribute as you might expect, they were pretty good, I quite liked it when they played I'm Fine and then changed into Run to the Hills half way through. Another band I saw on Sunday was Skindred, and they were utterly brilliant. Their frontman Benjy has such a stage presence and they are fantastic. I predict that they will make it big as a live act in the future. Later on it was time for the thrash gods Slayer, and they did not dissapoint, their set, while short, was brilliant. With Tom Araya delivering great vocals and Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, and Dave Lombardo playing to an excellent standard the gig was great. Later on that day I got to see Alice in Chains, one of my favourite bands, and they did not dissapoint. This was a band that I had been hoping would be announced for Sonisphere this year as they played last year when I wasn't there, so I was very pleased when they were announced. They played a fair bit from their latest album with songs like Check My Brain and Your Decision, all in all a really good performance. I saw many other bands that day that are worth a mention: Iggy and the Stooges, Pendulum and Converge as well as others. But now the matter of Sunday's headline act must be addressed. Yes, Iron Maiden played brought Sonisphere UK 2010 to a close. Their stageing was a futuristic space set with a starry background. They played a lot of tracks from their last few albums, so while a few of the classics were missed, for example Can I Play With Madness, The Trooper, Aces High, 2 Minutes to Midnight and Run to the Hills, they did play a lot of awesome tracks that they wouldn't normally play, for instance: These Colours Don't Run, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, Dance of Death, Ghost of The Navigator, Brave New World and many others. It was a fantastic gig, with all members playing to the best of their ability (including Eddie the eight foot tall mascot at one point), I throughly enjoyed it, but then they are my favourite band, so I'm a little biased.

So there you have it, my review of Sonisphere UK 2010. I have tried to mention most of the bands I saw, but I have only scratched the surface of what went on, I haven't mentioned any of the banter we had in our tent circle at all. But I leave you with a quote from Bruce Dickinson, which I think sums up the whole experience:

"SCREAM FOR ME KNEBWORTH!"

Cheers,

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Sonisphere: Before

Gosh, it's been forever since I last posted. Apologies, I've been very busy. Anyway, on with the post.
This post is the first of a two part series about Sonisphere festival which I will be attending next week. It runs from the Friday to the Monday morning and is being headlined by Rammstein and Iron Maiden. I write this article before the final announcement of the last few bands so I won't be able to talk about any of them.
As you may well know, my favourite band is Iron Maiden, so already I'm excited about going to Sonisphere, I get to see my favourite band live that I've never seen before. Yes, it's safe to say I'm looking forward to it. I'm also quite interested to see what they'll play, because during their latest tour they have played a lot of rare tracks, I have no problem with this as I love a lot of their lesser known tracks. However, I wonder whether they'll keep these rarities for the Sonisphere gig, or whether they'll go back to their usual set of mostly classics. The problem is that at a normal Iron Maiden concert it's safe to play lots of rarities because the crowd will be mostly die-hard Maiden fans, but this won't be the case at festivals, so it'll be interesting to see what they do. Their recent concerts have included tracks like Dance of Death and These Colours Don't Run which are some of my favourite tracks of theirs, but on the other hand they haven't been playing classics like Aces High, Two Minutes To Midnight, and Powerslave. I don't mind much either way, but I can imagine that some people would.
Another band I'm really pleased about seeing at Sonisphere UK is Skunk Anansie. Skunk Anansie were the first metal band I ever listened to, and I grew up listening to their music. So when they reformed last year I was very pleased as I never thought I would get a chance to see them. The song Twisted from the album Stoosh is my favourite track of theirs.
I'm also looking forward to lots of other bands, including: Alice in Chains, Slayer, Iggy and the Stooges, Pendulum, Anthrax, Papa Roach, Skindred, Apocalyptica, Alice Cooper, Polar Bear Club, Gallows, and so many more. In short, it is going to be an awesome three days of music.
Also, this is my first proper festival, so I am very much looking forward to the atmosphere of it all, and the excitement and atmosphere.

I'll be back sometime after the festival with a review of it, where I'll talk about the various bands and the general feel of the festival. Anyway, thanks for reading and your comments are welcome as usual.

Thanks,

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