Sonisphere 2010 Sunday review

Soni 2010 Friday

Soni 2010 Saturday

Soni 2010 Sunday

Our Sonisphere Sunday 2010 started with Aussie rockers Karnivool on the main stage. This is another band that we knew very little about before the festival. Their proggy rock sound was the perfect way to start the day and they put on a good show for all of the early arrivals.

After the relaxing introduction of Karnivool, The Defiled were our next port of call in the Bohemia tent. Now this is a band who are clearly discovering their own identity. In places their sound was reminiscent of Slipknot, albeit without the intensity of Corey Taylor and from our vantage point at the back of the tent they seemed to be a band who were still discovering their own identity.

They certainly have an interesting stage presence, with Keyboard player The A.V.D. (yeah, really) competing with frontman Stitch D for your attention. We enjoyed their set far more than we thought we would, and look forward to catching up with them again soon.

Via the wonders of the social network Twitter, a number of us had arranged a 'tweetup' to see Sacred Mother Tongue. This is a band that lots of good things are being said about, and today on the Jagermiester stage they certainly didn't let us down. They opened their set with 'Hour Glass' before letting rip with a stunning 'Wake Up Call'. Their set also included a great sounding new song called 'Bleeding Out' and ended with their best known track, 'Two Thousand Eight Hundred'. The good things we had heard about this band were all true, and it was one of the most enjoyable sets of the day.

SMT also took audience participation to a new level when bassist Josh went for a walkabout in the crowd, climbing the stairs to the top of the Jager bar's terrace before coming back down to earth an playing IN the crowd. This was a brilliant moment and no one who saw this Josh Pit will forget it in a hurry.

More than a few eyebrows were raised when Pendulum were added to the bill, with mutterings about 'that sort of thing' at a rock festival. Many of the Iron Maiden fans in the crowd had already decided that they weren't going to like this band and nothing was going to change that.

In the CackBlabbath camp opinions were very strongly and clearly divided between the lovers and haters, but bringing on Anders from In Flames to do their 'Death Metal Drum and Bass' track 'Self Versus Self' certainly got many of the metalheads to sit up and take notice.

It is the variety of music that you are exposed to that makes these festivals the great events that they are. It never seems quite 'right' to us that people go to these things with a preconceived idea of what they will and will not like. You have to be open to listening to different types of music to get the most out of these, surely ???

The announcement that Iggy Pop and the reformed Stooges were going to be appearing on the bill was another that was met with indifference by many. OK, he is an iconic figure in the annals of Rock but that doesn't always equate to an impressive festival performer.

As soon as the band took to the stage it was immediately clear that the years had not diminished the frontman's energy or stage presence. Iggy led the band through a predominantly greatest hits set that showed just why his career has endured. He is a proper frontman and we are happy to say that we saw one of the performances of the festival.

All that remained was the small matter of Iron Maiden's headline set. There had been a number of rumours circulating prior to the festival that Maiden were going to be playing more new stuff and less of the classic stuff that many wanted to hear. And this rumour turned out to be mostly true. A set without 'Aces High', '2 Minutes to Midnight' or 'Powerslave'... Surely not. And no 'Run To The Hills'? Unheard of. And surely they MUST play 'The Trooper'?, what, no, really ?

But that's what they delivered. From the storming opening of 'The Wicker Man' Maiden sprinkled a few classic tracks among the newer material, but it was an odd setlist. Perfect, probably, for a fan club show but not what the bulk of the Sonisphere crowd were expecting.

Maiden obviously can play what they want, and they still put on a brilliant show but in our opinion it was Rammstein who stole the show. Even people who were not self confessed fans of the music had to concede that the Germans knew how to entertain.