What can I say, brothers? Should've been there! Any worry about the amount of 'contemporary' bands on the bill wouldn't have been a problem, as it turned out to be quite easy to sort the wheat from the chaff. I was pretty unenthusiastic about most of Saturday's lineup but managed to have my mind changed quite nicely 
Chimaira and Arch Enemy were first on the small stage and both played pretty solid sets. Chimaira turned out to be fairly generic nu-metal, although having said that they actually had a pair of balls to 'em. Kerrang had kina set 'em up to be a great old-school band, but ah well. Arch Enemy, though...man, that was good shit! I need a copy of Wages of Sin pronto!
We listened to Funeral For A Friend from the other end of the field, and boy do they suck. THe sound was horrible from where we were, but just listening to the actual songs you could tell they sucked. Real whiny, real poppish, real geigh.
Amen came on straight after and blew 'em away. Pit was heaving. For some reason, during the middle of the set, the bass got turned up real high and drowned out the guitars. Didn't mind though. Casey Chaos was, of course, nutty. The drum kit got trashed three times (though I guess only the last one was a proper trashing), Casey climbed halfway up the rigging on the side and promptly dropped his mike, and towards the end of the set grabbed a guitariast by the strap, dragged him halfway across the stage and then beat him with a mike stand. Good stuff ^_^
Murderdolls were pretty fine. The music varied between 'alright' and 'good'. Loved their outfits though, plus they could throw some pretty good shapes, so a thumbs up from me
I can't remember if we listened to some or all of InMe's set, but all the same they sucked too. I suppose the music's alright, but it's awfully soft. Real wimpy. Heard about a song or two of Ministry but we were more concerned with getting ice cream ^_^
Back to the small stage we caught the end of Soil. They were pretty good, actually. Then HIM, which bored me to tears. They played real well and their frontman is amazingly charismatic, but it's music for girls really.
Marilyn Manson was ok...fairly good shit, the fanboys loved it. Something that struck me was that for such a supposedly controversial dude the most controversial thing we got was a pair of dancing girls...ho hum. Made for some good photos. Luckily they cut his set short by half an hour
Without a doubt, the night belonged to Iron fucking Maiden. And I tell ye this, they were fucking ON FIRE!!! Definately the best gig of theirs I have ever been to. You could tell watching them onstage that they were loving it, and there was something about the way they changed their solos that just said "We love this". They were drastic changes, more like Dave putting just that ounce more passion in. Fuck, it rocked.
Bruce was bloody chuckling away at every little thing between songs, it seemed. He pulled off a great stunt in Bring Your Daughter...To The Slaughter were he held a note for what must've been a good 40-odd seconds, and then got the audience to do it. Shot my throat well proper ^_^
The three guitars totally shone in Revelations and The Clansman (three way harmonies! Yeah!), and their new song Wildest Dream is pretty damn cool. It's your typical Maiden single, but this one is real fucking upbeat (more so than The Wicker Man, possibly), fairly short, and the solo is pretty damn sweet. Not an uber shred fest, but it starts off normal and kicks into a slow, melodic part. That bit of the song is killer, I say.
The amount of stretchers going back and forth the front (I think about half a dozen) shows that everyone else loved Maiden too much as well ^_^ the crowd were roaring away for the entire two hours. According to me mates who were a bit further back (I was crushed against the barrier) I appeared on the big screens a few times so I for one am hoping they release this on video sometime
Roll on the new album and tour! Maiden rule!
Chimaira and Arch Enemy were first on the small stage and both played pretty solid sets. Chimaira turned out to be fairly generic nu-metal, although having said that they actually had a pair of balls to 'em. Kerrang had kina set 'em up to be a great old-school band, but ah well. Arch Enemy, though...man, that was good shit!
I need a copy of Wages of Sin pronto!We listened to Funeral For A Friend from the other end of the field, and boy do they suck. THe sound was horrible from where we were, but just listening to the actual songs you could tell they sucked. Real whiny, real poppish, real geigh.
Amen came on straight after and blew 'em away. Pit was heaving. For some reason, during the middle of the set, the bass got turned up real high and drowned out the guitars. Didn't mind though. Casey Chaos was, of course, nutty. The drum kit got trashed three times (though I guess only the last one was a proper trashing), Casey climbed halfway up the rigging on the side and promptly dropped his mike, and towards the end of the set grabbed a guitariast by the strap, dragged him halfway across the stage and then beat him with a mike stand. Good stuff ^_^
Murderdolls were pretty fine. The music varied between 'alright' and 'good'. Loved their outfits though, plus they could throw some pretty good shapes, so a thumbs up from me
I can't remember if we listened to some or all of InMe's set, but all the same they sucked too. I suppose the music's alright, but it's awfully soft. Real wimpy. Heard about a song or two of Ministry but we were more concerned with getting ice cream ^_^
Back to the small stage we caught the end of Soil. They were pretty good, actually. Then HIM, which bored me to tears. They played real well and their frontman is amazingly charismatic, but it's music for girls really.
Marilyn Manson was ok...fairly good shit, the fanboys loved it. Something that struck me was that for such a supposedly controversial dude the most controversial thing we got was a pair of dancing girls...ho hum. Made for some good photos. Luckily they cut his set short by half an hour
Without a doubt, the night belonged to Iron fucking Maiden. And I tell ye this, they were fucking ON FIRE!!! Definately the best gig of theirs I have ever been to. You could tell watching them onstage that they were loving it, and there was something about the way they changed their solos that just said "We love this". They were drastic changes, more like Dave putting just that ounce more passion in. Fuck, it rocked.
Bruce was bloody chuckling away at every little thing between songs, it seemed. He pulled off a great stunt in Bring Your Daughter...To The Slaughter were he held a note for what must've been a good 40-odd seconds, and then got the audience to do it. Shot my throat well proper ^_^
The three guitars totally shone in Revelations and The Clansman (three way harmonies! Yeah!), and their new song Wildest Dream is pretty damn cool. It's your typical Maiden single, but this one is real fucking upbeat (more so than The Wicker Man, possibly), fairly short, and the solo is pretty damn sweet. Not an uber shred fest, but it starts off normal and kicks into a slow, melodic part. That bit of the song is killer, I say.
The amount of stretchers going back and forth the front (I think about half a dozen) shows that everyone else loved Maiden too much as well ^_^ the crowd were roaring away for the entire two hours. According to me mates who were a bit further back (I was crushed against the barrier) I appeared on the big screens a few times so I for one am hoping they release this on video sometime
Roll on the new album and tour! Maiden rule!
