Critiques

The Fab Beatles (The Beatles tribute act) - An enjoyable singalong, odd how they referred to themselves as though they actually were the original members, but I guess it was supposed to add to the authenticity along with the costumes. Members looked nothing like the originals but sounded like them. A good tribute act if there ever was one to warm people up for the main attractions of the day, and closed with a nice Beatles-esque rendition of "Run To The Hills", pleasing many of the seeming millions of Iron Maiden fans on site. 6/10

Skindred - Benji Webbe must be one of the greatest frontmen in the world today. No joke. He had tens of thousands of metalheads in the palm of his hand, and when he asked them to bounce to his band's energetic "ragga-metal", bounce they did, from front to back. It was insane. Whoever had come last year would have expected such a brilliant performance, but this year was even better, and some of the crowd were left genuinely shocked afterwards. …

Pia 30 VII – Sonisphere Festival 2010
Note for all non-Polish users: This review is unfortunately in weird, Polish language, because I'm a lazy bastard and it's much easier for me to write in my first language. However, you can still enjoy brilliant pictures, taken mostly from first rows, close to the stage. Just look into links which are located in almost every part of my review. And, of course, you'll notice, I attached ratings(bolded) into review of every band. I'll be pleased if you agree or disagree with my conclusions. Ok, "hey, ho, let's go!" :-)

Po pierwsze, ORGANIZACJA festiwalu.

Tutaj należą się wielkie brawa dla wszystkich osób biorących udział w tym, niewątpliwie wielkim przedsięwzięciu, jakim był tegoroczny Sonisphere. Nie ma chyba ani jednej rzeczy, ani jednego aspektu, do którego mógłbym się przyczepić. Zaczynając od lokalizacji samego festiwalu - oddalonego na północ, praktycznie 35 minut M1 z Londynu; samego miejsca nie sposób było przegapić…

Lacuna Coil - A very shaky start to the set from the Italian metallers, and while they pick up towards the end of the set with a decent rendition of "Our Truth", they fail to really bother much of the crowd and feel very much like a warm-up act. Mediocre. 5/10

Soulfly - Max Cavalera's "other band" are on brutal form here, and ripping through songs such as "Eye for an Eye" and "Back to the Primitive" create massive pits. It's a shame that they only play for half an hour and when they blast through Sepultura covers "Roots Bloody Roots" and "Refuse/Resist" towards the end of the set, you can't help but wonder how mind-blowing a Sepultura re-union would be at a festival like this. 8/10

Anthrax - Joey Belladonna is back and Anthrax perform the original classics just the way they were meant to be played, and add in a couple of nice surprises like covering Joe Jackson's "Got the Time" as well as Black Sabbath's "Heaven…

Delain - Vocals from Charlotte Wessels were top notch and the performance was tight although they didn't have the back catalogue to really get the crowd going. Decent opener nonetheless 7/10

Turisas - Definitely a metal band with a difference, entering the stage with war paint and accordions and violins and playing their "battle metal" to a huge reception to the crowd and some even bigger mosh pits made this the highlight of the day for me, especially their rendition of the song "Battle Metal" and the singer's banter with the audience. Cheesy, fun, and one to watch. 9/10

Black Spiders - A new classic rock-style band from Wolverhampton who had spades of energy on the stage, even if, much like Delain, they didn't yet have any big tunes to pull it off fully. 7/10

Gary Numan - This was a surprise. Playing a really dark, NIN-esque set and playing a version of "Cars" more similar to the heavy Fear Factory version…

Fri 30 Jul – Sonisphere Festival 2010

(k - that's an in joke from the campsite)

Right - I'm home, I've shat, slept, showered and shaved and I'm beginning to feel like a member of the human race again, so while it's fresh in my noggin (and yeah, I'm just writing this to remind myself of what it was all like ;) ) - my first festival at Knebworth!

Overall, awesomeness incarnate with 3 of the most spectacular headliners imaginable - so here's a quick run down (the order might not be quite chronological - there was beer involved):


Friday
I somehow managed to miss Delain and Turisas - I suspect I was tanking down some cans in the campsite I'm afraid, £3.70 a pint (yeah, yeah, I know - standard festival prices and so on - but I don't even like Carlsberg much) in the arena was a good way to ensure I didn't get too wasted inside I guess. So, on to what I did see.

Europe - yeah... not really my thing, my other half had a great time bouncing around though…

Fri 30 Jul – Sonisphere Festival 2010

First off, let me just say what a fantastic weekend with some very friendly people!

Friday Bands seen:

Delain 7/10
Turisas 8/10
Bigelf 5/10
Europe 2/10
Sylosis 6/10
Alice Cooper 6/10

Saturday Bands seen:

Sabaton 8/10
Lacuna Coil 3/10
Soulfly 6/10
Anthrax 8/10
Futures 4/10
Katatonia 10/10
Apocalyptica 9/10
Good Charlotte7/10
Placebo 2/10
Rammstein 10/10

Sunday Bands seen:

Karnivool 7/10
Madina Lake 0/10
Skindred 9/10
Slayer 9/10
Alice in Chains 7/10
Pendulum 6/10
Iron Maiden 11/10

Best act(s) of the weekend: Iron Maiden, Katatonia, Rammstein
Worst act of the weekend: Madina Lake
Biggest disapointment: Lacuna Coil
Biggest surpise: Skindred

You may disagree but theres not much I can do about it.

Pia 30 VII – Sonisphere Festival 2010 Was awesome and great gig to see!

Fri 30 Jul – Sonisphere Festival 2010


I attended sonisphere festival for the first time this weekend, and has i have today off work i thought i would write a quick review of some of the bands i saw over the 3 days and rated them accordingly. So... here it goes..

Delain - 1/5
The band kicking off sonisphere was Delain - a goth-rock band from holland with a female vocalist. I wasn't convinced with the vocals and i thought their music was a bit one-dimensional. I may be a bit biased here, because i love the gathering and delain are always going to be in their shadow.

Turisas - 4/5
I've always liked metal bands that are unusual and these guys really are unusual. Coming out on stage dressed in bear furs and red and black war-paint, they are only metal band i have ever known to have an accordian player alongside a violin player and get away with it. Great banter from the front man with the crowd aswell.

Europe - 4/5
When i saw the lineup for the first day i saw that Europe had…