Atreyu
The American metalcore band whose name is inspired by the character in the fantasy movie ’The Nevereneding Story’ opened the last day on the main stage. While the members got on stage they had a Queen’s song on the background. The music is quite intense, with lots of screaming and the guitar solo almost resemble power/speed metal.
Evergrey
This is a band that I have recently discovered and fell in love with. And another personal interest in watching them was to see how the ex Therion bassist, Johan Niemann integrated into the progressive band. He seemed confident with his playing and was a cool surprise to see him doing backing vocals as well. The singer, Tom, joked that they would play fast since they want to run and see Katatonia. They had a good performance, but I think the sun must have been a killer for each of them since it was shinning right above the stage.
Mucky Pup
I went to the small stage for a bit of shadow and of fun with the Americans who have been around for 23 years now. To celebrate this, they came up with a new tshirt, which gave the opportunity to the singer to throw his other tshirt to the crowd. And also because of the celebration they didn’t play any new song. The lyrics of the band are extremely funny and after the song ’Little pigs’, the singer joked that his mum never believed him when he said this song is going to be famous outside Europe. But now she’s going to believe it when she sees the recording they made. This concert gets the title of the funniest of the festival.
Jon Oliva’s Pain
A band that’s getting heavier and heavier yet, the voice stays as pleasant as many years ago. Jon Oliva came on stage with his piano and while getting soaked in the really hot sun, he performed most of their biggest hits, getting the crowd of all ages to sing along and cheer. He dedicated the song ’Believe’ to Dio because he was a big hero and support for him as he toured with Dio for the first time. He also told us that they had some technical problems due something that happened in the plane. All in all it was a cozy concert for a Sunday afternoon.
Bloodbath
After a long break in the shadow and watching some football (Germany – UK) along with the metalheads in the artists/press area I finally decided to walk through the sun to see Bloodbath in the Marquee I tent. Oh, what a great choice I made. We were informed that this was the 6th concert of the band so that felt like a big honor to be there. The death metal delivered by the Swedes (a mix of Opeth and Katatonia members) was of excellent quality, but most of the show was made by Mikael Åkerfeldt and his long minutes of talking to the crowd. He told us that he was drunk, that the band is not very religious, that he doesn’t know wtf the song X is about, that another song is for stupid people like us and him, etc. They had a good selection of songs which made the crowd really happy to be there and see them live.
Korpiklaani
For a new portion of folk metal, again, in the small Metal Dome. The Finns started the show with the tune ’Vodka’ and set the mood for another of the most awesome moments of the festival. They had horns decorating most of the stage and the microphone. The violin was filling the air with good mood and joy and I can only regret that I left the concert in an attempt to go and see the panda metal from Immortal. It was too full at the entrance to bother swimming through the crowd. And unfortunately it was the same later on at Finntroll, so I had to miss their performance as well.
KISS
I knew they are a band with incredible show, but what I got to see there on Sunday evening was way above my expectations. Kiss played 2 years ago at Graspop, but being the last concert of the European leg of their tour, the band did each and every of their tricks and actually exceeded the allocated time by 40 minutes. They came on stage from above, they fired a bazooka, flew over the crowd, fired their guitars, smashed a guitar. And many man others. The scene was packed with smaller or bigger monitors, each showing different images. The clothing were exactly as we see in all KISS photos, the makeup as well and the tongue of Gene Simmons performed its own show. The drums went up in the air a couple f times, lifted by steam. The band had a come back of 40 minutes or so. They played all their hits and everyone was singing along. They got the crowd to scream, either right or left side or all together and got the loudest cheer in order to do the flight over the stage. I saw other musicians and of course, people in the crowd, with their faces painted. And it was really funny to take a trip at the toilet and hear at least two guys singing as high pitched as possible along with the band. It was a mad concert and definitely the number 1 one show of all the concerts I’ve ever been to. Perfect end for a great festival.
