SONISPHERE 2009
DATE:
VENUE:
Saturday 1st August - Sunday 2nd August 2009
Knebworth, UK
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
METALLICA; LIMP BIZKIT; MACHINE HEAD; LAMB OF GOD; KILLING JOKE; BUCKCHERRY; AVENGED SEVENFOLD; ALICE IN CHAINS; FEEDER; MASTODON; SAXON; PARADISE LOST
LINKIN PARK; HEAVEN & HELL; ANTHRAX; TAKING BACK SUNDAY; ALIEN ANT FARM; BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE; AIRBOURNE; THE USED; BJÖRN AGAIN; SKINDRED; SOIL
Reviews & Photography by Kristell Gathoye
BUCKCHERRY
Sunday brings a different, maybe a bit heavier and more “metal” feel to Sonisphere. Today, the first stage to rock is the Apollo one with Buckcherry. Unlike SOiL yesterday waking up everyone with some awesome heavy grooves, the sleaze rockers’ sounds are suitable for any hangover but fail to impress. The set didn’t really manage to catch my attention and it felt like Buckcherry was one more of those bands that had a successful hit, years ago, and never did anything since. The hit in question, ‘Crazy Bitch’, closes the show.
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SUNDAY 2ND AUGUST
KILLING JOKE
Continuing the British trend on the Apollo stage are 80s rockers Killing Joke. A mix of gothic and pop/rock music, they are the missing link between The Cure and Marylin Manson. Jaz Coleman, lead vocalist and one of the band’s founders, is undeniably a very charismatic frontman, more so because he seems so far removed from reality and becomes an oddity that intrigues you. Reminding me of a dark guru, he entertains the early crowds with an array of scarecrow like facial expressions while performing ‘Wardance’, ‘Eighties’ and old hit ‘Love Like Blood’, one of the songs being jokingly dedicated to “Dave Grohl and all the members of Nirvana…that are living”.
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LAMB OF GOD
It’s now 13:20 and the official time that saw the whole crowd finally moving. Lamb Of God came as the espresso shot that Sonisphere needed after Saturday’s excesses as not only was the sound incredible and by far the clearest and most intense of the festival but the energy of the music really woke the audience up. The band wasn’t even on stage yet when a moshing pit started during the introduction. With smashing hits like ‘Set to Fail’, ‘Dead Seeds’, ‘Redneck’ and ‘Black Label’, they gave the festival its second wind after Saturday’s hangover, exorcising any demon left by Dead By Sunrise shocker.
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MASTODON
American metallers Mastodon definitely have a reputation preceding them as being this massive beast of intelligent moody rock, but although delivering a very good set, it doesn’t quite translate so well into the open-air bright setting. A band such as them would really require a cloak of darkness that comes with night or a captive intimate venue but sadly not with a sunny Sunday afternoon. All that said, the performance is tight and showcases perfectly their talent through some seven songs including ‘Oblivion’, new album title track ‘Crack The Skye’ and ‘March of the Fire Ants’.
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PARADISE LOST
Opening the Saturn stage on this hot sunny day are doom rockers, Paradise Lost, a place on the bill that gave me and plenty of others the feeling that today’s Saturn line-up could have been mistakenly turned upside down with those northerners opening at 11:50am and Avenged Sevenfold headlining. Question of tastes maybe…and record sales surely. Frontman Nick Holmes, possibly resenting this early slot, comes across as moody and hungover complaining about the breakfast prices. Typically British! Opening with ‘The Enemy’ and ‘Pity The Sadness’, the band transforms yesterday’s party memories into a darker and moodier atmosphere. Visibly the sun chose the wrong day to shine.
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MACHINE HEAD
A few weeks before the festival kicked off, a massive blow to the line-up was struck when Machine Head announced their decision to pull out of the bill due to a disagreement with the organiser regarding their slot. Machine Head’s fans, that includes your humble reviewer, were in shock, gutted and angry about the news even if most of us understood the band’s anger at being moved before long gone nu-metallers, Limp Bizkit. There was nothing we could do about it but hope for the replacement to be if not as good, at least a mere consolation. A few days prior to the UK edition, strong rumours started to spread that the “Special Guests” slot would be in the end allocated to the mighty MH. At my arrival on site, I was pleased to see that the rumour was now a confirmed fact. Welcomed with a deafening roar and now familiar chant “Machine Fucking Head”, Robb Flynn and his mates jumped on stage ploughing into the best intro song metal history has known, ‘Imperium’. After ‘Ten Ton Hammer’ and ‘Beautiful Mourning’, Flynn took a break to give a moving speech explaining that the band had changed their mind: “not because of Sonisphere’s organisers nor Limp Bizkit but for the fucking lunatics who love us here as it is always a privilege to play for you”. As first note of ‘Old’strikes, Robb asks the crowd to beat the circle pit record of 12 at the same time. It’s now real mayhem at Knebworth and the guys seem to have as much fun as every single person in the audience rewarding them with the full 8 minute version of ‘Halo’ and metal clubs floor filler ‘Davidian’. They made my day and I don’t seem to be the only one.
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ALICE IN CHAINS
One of today’s other highlights is Alice In Chains performance on the Saturn stage. Having had a long break due to former vocalist Layne Staley’s substance abuse that led to his death, the band has been back on the rock map since 2005 after recruiting William DuVall. A major line up change is always an inevitable risk for a band but DuVall not only fits perfectly with the rest of the band but also spookily mimics the previous singer’s attitude well. Looking at the crowd’s size, it might even have been a good decision to move them to the bigger stage. Mixing grunge and bluesy sounds, Alice takes us through wonderful performances of most of their Greatest Hits album that included ‘Angry Chair’, ‘Would?’ and ‘Rooster.
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Reviews & Photography by Kristell Gathoye
NINE INCH NAILS
Supporting Metallica on the main stage tonight are industrial dark rockers Nine Inch Nails. For a while now, it has been said by Trent Reznor himself, that this tour named ‘The Wave Goodbye’ tour would not only celebrate debut ‘Pretty Hate Machine’s’ 20th anniversary but also the end of NIN. In a forum post on their official website, Reznor had said that he had: “been thinking for some time now that it was time to make NIN disappear for a while.” A very sad piece of news for thousands of fans across the world and what would make this particular set even more special. Most non- hardcore NIN fans might have been disappointed by the performance, having had a day kicking off by Lamb Of God filled with energy and excitement and followed by the sheer power of Machine Head, as Trent Reznor and the current outfit that is NIN delivered emotional rather than physical intensity. The production was clear, precise and slick which left room for a very raw and intense performance by Reznor, if a little detached physically from the situation. It felt a bit as if he wasn’t at a festival with 40,000 people waiting for him to play his most famous tunes. Enveloped in sombre backlights, the band is here to play and wastes no time with stage banter, mesmerizing those accustomed to NIN’s darkness with ‘Wish’, ‘Something I Can Never Have’, ‘The Wretched’ and ‘The Downward Spiral’, culminating with the highly emotional ‘Hurt’. If you were ready to listen and accept NIN’s invitation to their gloomy, possibly somewhat depressing world, you would have had an enthralling experience. A beautiful end to an iconic band.
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METALLICA
Whether you like it or not, Metallica is and will certainly be for a few more years the biggest rock/metal act there is and it’s only 10 am when I see dozens of kids running towards the still inaccessible main stage. A lot of people today are clearly here for them. As tradition goes, you always have to wait for Metallica as for some reason, they never make it to the stage on time. The Los Angeles guys start their impressive set with ‘Blackened’, playing in front of thousands of convinced fans. The legendary rockers show will bring everything a pure rock performance demands: heavy guitar riffs, fist pumping anthems and last but not least, fire. Rewarding the patient audience with rarely played ‘Dyers Eve’ and ‘Fade to Black’ as well as crowd pleasers ‘Cyanide’, ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and ‘Enter Sandman’, the set culminates when during the final song, ‘Seek And Destroy’, fontman James Hetfield decides to celebrate his birthday by jumping off the stage to reach his fans. He will then climb back up to be welcomed by a rain of cream pies thrown at him by various friends and family present on the day. A little something that makes this Metallica performance stand out from the strings of usually very predictable sets. The sun has gone down on the Knebworth estate and Galbraith and his team will undoubtedly have a hard time topping up this year’s line up.
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AVENGED SEVENFOLD
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