The main stage openers on Saturday were Family Force 5. This is not a band that anyone here at
CackBlabbath had heard very much about, and certainly not anything good. Visits to YouTube didn't
fill us with confidence and a description of the band on their Wikipedia page as 'Christian crunk
rock' should really have been enough for us to know to spend our time elsewhere. But, I mean, surely
they can't be THAT bad ???
And you know what, they really, really were. I mean check out the rather attractive monster hands.
On the main stage. Of a rock and metal festival. And we thought the 'Fab Beatles' were the joke band
of the festival.
After the joys of the Christian crunk we went off in search of something to displace the god-awful
sound of FF5. This task was performed adequately by the classic heavy metal of Swedish band Enforcer.
This is a band who unashamedly play up tempo 'Old School' heavy metal and they made an excellent job
of getting the Bohemia tent bouncing.
This is one of the things that these festivals is all about. Catching a band that you may not have
seen, or even heard of, before and having a bloody good time watching them.
The next band on the main stage were one that had divided opinion since their lineup for this
festival was announced. Anthrax played Sonisphere in 2009 with vocalist John Bush and there were
some who hoped that he would make a permanent return to the fold. In the end this didn't happen and
some were less than impressed that Joey Belladonna, who sung with the band in their 80s heyday
before leaving in 1992.
Some, but not us. We were dying to see Joey back where he belongs.
The band treated us to a 'greatest' hits set dating back to their heyday, and it was delivered
to the best crowd response we had seen yet. Caught in a Mosh kicked things off and sounded as good
here as when it was first aired in 1987. The band were all clearly loving their time on stage. This
was a set for the long term Anthrax fan that also seemed to impress those checking out this lineup
for the first time. They threw in a couple of cover versions that they have long since made 'theirs'
in the form of Joe Jackson's 'Got the Time' and Trust's 'Antisocial' as well as a blast of Sabbath's
'Heaven and Hell' worked seamlessly into 'Indians'.
The band finished off with their homage to Judge Dread, 'I am the Law' and we knew we'd seen
something a bit special. There is apparently a new Anthrax album on the way and hopefully it'll
lift the profile of this still impressive band.
The Jaegermeister stage was our next port of musical call to see Norwegian post-grunge rockers Audrey
Horne. We had seen these guys a week before at the High Voltage festival and here, as there, they put on an
excellent show. Their setlist here was pretty much the same as their HV one, which was fine with us.
Tracks like Charon, Sail Away and the brilliant Blaze of Ashes are made to be performed live, and
Audrey Horne have an impressive visual stage presence, fronted by white clad vocalist Torkjell Rød
really connecting with the audience while guitarists Arve and Thomas provide riffage
and shredding aplenty. This is a really very good live band that you should go and check out.
The Jaegermeister stage was the setting for our next band of the day, Malefice. We have ben fans of
the Reading band for a while now, and here they didn't disappoint. They drew one of the biggest
crowds that we saw on this stage and had little difficulty getting the fans in the mood with their
powerful Metal. Another excellent set.
Our penultimate band of the day were Motley Crue who were, in all fairness, not brilliant. Their
set was plagued with technical issues which didn't help, but even putting this aside it wasn't a
brilliant performance as the band appeared to be going through the motions. They were a mere shadow
of their former selves.
As the Crue wrapped up their greatest hits set we were already heading back towards the main
stage for the event we were all here to see...
Rammstein's recent UK arena tour has been widely regarded as one of the best the UK has seen.
Much more than mere concerts, those shows were pyro-fuelled spectacles. When the Germans were
announced as the headline act for Saturday we were stupidly excited. More so than for any other
band on the bill.
The stage set was very impressive, even before the band came on with the Apollo stage
being converted into the inside of some enormous engine from where Rammstein could blast out their
industrial strength metal. Tracks from the latest album, Liebe ist für alle da, featured heavily
along with classics sich as Feur Frei, Ich Will and Links-2-3-4.
As expected there was a huge amount of pyro set off during the show, in fact you could feel
the heat from it way back into the crowd. Keyboard player Flake also did his party piece, being
carried out over the crowd in his rubber dinghy. He even picked up a stowaway for part of the
journey.
The only notable omission from the recent arena tour was, for us, Engel. The band did finish
half an hour earlier than billed and there were rumours later that the set had been shortened
for some reason. No doubt the truth of this will come out in time.
Tonight Rammstein showed exactly what a stage show could, indeed should, be all about. Speaking
to some of the crowd after the flames had died down it was clear that even people who weren't big
fans of the music before this were blown away by the majesty of the spectacle. How on earth could
Iron Maiden possibly top that ?
