First things first: WITHOUT GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where to start, it was an absolutely amazing weekend all along. Wednesday evening I drove to Juniper's boyfriend's place in Den Haag, from where we would leave early the next morning along with another couple friends of Juniper's. The drive to Clisson was smooth overall, yet still very long of course. All in all it took us some 11 or 12 hours I think, including breaks. We were there around 5 PM, found the place quite easily and were directed to our parking spot. Then carried our stuff to the festival entrance, got our wristbands and continued to the campsite to set up our stronghold, we were 7 or 8 tents I think. All this went very smoothly, no lines, no waiting, perfect. Arriving at Clisson as well, no traffic queues, no delays, nothing.
On our way from our cars to the festival entrance we already met Cis (Sabine) and she helped us carry our stuff. We met Camille as well shortly after and helped a bit setting up their (huge) tent. We spent the rest of the night checking out the place, and consuming the first beers of course.
Friday
The next day the bands started and boy, what a program.. First thing I went to see was
Death Angel, not really familiar with their stuff, but someone else wanted to see them and I didn't regret joining him, good, powerful and enthusiastic performance. Next was
Paradise Lost, was good, but they have lost the 'fire' in their live performances a loooooong time ago i.m.o., or at least Nick Holmes has, still I enjoyed it, but I was summoned away from the gig about half way to pick up phantomorchid (Cinzia), I helped her set up her (beautiful Swedish flag) tent and we went straight back to the stage area where we witnessed the last approximately 15 minutes of
Mayhem.
Then the wait was on for
Katatonia!
They opened with "Consternation" again, other songs played were July, My Twin, Cold Ways, Teargas, Ghost of the Sun, Evidence.. but they saved the best for last! Jonas announced 'see if you recognise this one' and boy, did I!! "WITHOUT GOD"! Hell fucking yeah! I went into a headbanging frenzy and they made me even happier when afterwards they fired out another blazing rendition of "Murder" as well! I mean, they don't even always play one growling song, so I never expected yet another one after "Without God", but yes, we got both of them! That totally made my day. Yet another amazing show guys!!
BTW,
Elishia, I think I saw you walk away from the stage right after Katatonia.
After that I turned to the main stage for
Dimmu Borgir, excellent show as well, really enjoyed it. First Dimmu show I really enjoyed in quite a while actually.
Straight after it was time for
Testament, excellent show, Chuck was in a great mood and the band was on fire.
Straight after Testament,
In Flames was on on the main stage. I saw them at Wacken last year and was very impressed by the overwhelming power of their show and at Hellfest it was no different, they fucking crushed. Amazing in every way, performance, incredible light show, killer pyros, huge fireworks at the end, absolutely crushing sound, each song delivered with amazing accuracy, power and intensity. I was in awe. They have lost me as a fan of their music many years ago, but live few bands can beat them, they just absolutely fucking destroy. Respect.
Then
Carcass, I had quite some expectations, but I was slightly disappointed I have to say, I really enjoyed most of the concert, but I expected a lot more fire and enthusiasm after this much-anticipated reunion. They played well, the sound was good, but from Jeff Walker's obligatory and absent attitude I almost got the impression they're doing this reunion for the money or something. Hopefully they will convince me at Wacken.
Venom closed the Friday night but I went to sleep, cause after a whole day of walking and standing my back and feet were aching and I don't really care for Venom anyway. I did the right thing apparently, cause I heard the concert was rather disappointing. Pity for them, because reportedly they were recording a dvd there.
In the night the others came back to the campsite and one of the guys, Ramon, was drunk
out of his mind and started giving people attitude (in a non-aggressive way) much to the hilarity of the others (and his own embarrassment the next day
). I heard the whole thing from my tent, couldn't help but smile several times myself.
Saturday
First thing I saw was a bit of
Disfear in the tent, amusing, but not my thing. Didn't notice until after a few songs that it was Tomas Lindberg of At the Gates on vocals
First band I wanted to see was
Satyricon, good show, Satyr gathered an excellent live line-up again, the sound was excellent, good song selection as well. I could do with a little less "hey hey hey" though. Still enjoyed it a lot. Great band.
Next was
Anathema, great great show, great interaction with the crowd (that's a given), passionate performance (another given) and excellent setlist. No new songs this time, just classics, killer, loved it.
Straight after we moved to the left, to the mainstage for
Porcupine Tree. First thing I noticed was the absence of their live guitarist John Wesley. Steve did mention this, but not
why he wasn't there. Because of this, sometimes some songs lacked some punch. Pity, cause they of course selected the heavier stuff to be played on this Metal festival. Also the screen with projections was missing. I enjoyed their show as usual, but it was one of their less good shows i.m.o., but then, 'less good' is still pretty damn good in PT's case of course.
The day was pretty much over for me then, as for the bands I really wanted to see. Except for
Shining, I missed them unfortunately, because we were having a bbq at the tent and I didn't want all the meat to go to waste. Caught some fragments of "Yttligare ett Steg Närmare total jävla utfrysning" from a distance though.
After the bbq I went back to the stage area, where we sat outside the tent stage where
Watain was playing. There I got increasingly worrying sms updates from my brother about the Euro 2008 quarter final of Netherlands vs. Russia. Afterwards I'm glad I didn't see the match live and have my weekend ruined, but instead spent my time at Hellfest, having an absolute blast..
The night progressed great, there was a fireplace at the stage site where we stayed for some hours, drinking beer and keeping the fire ablaze, lotsa fun
Sadly, after
Cavalera Conspiracy (listened to it from the fireplace, cool) ended at 2 AM, the stage area was swept clean and we were forced to leave. We then continued at the 'biergarten' tent, a dejay was playing metal and the crowd rocked out. As the beer started to flow the scenes got crazier and crazier. What a night, über party till 5 AM!!
Sunday
First thing I saw was the last bit of
Year of no Light at the tent stage. Intense stuff, cool, should check it out. We then stayed for a few
Ghost Brigade songs, cool as well. Up next was
Origin, brutal and tight as hell, but not being familiar with their albums, I took off after a few songs to check out
Meshuggah at the main stage. After a few songs I went back to the tent to fresh myself up.
Opeth was the first of a string of bands I really wanted to see. Mikael was in a good and funny mood. Good show and good set, Demon of the Fall, Baying of the Hounds, Master's Apprentices, Heir Apparent and The Drapery Falls. Yet another great gig at Hellfest.
Then we moved to the 2nd stage for
My Dying Bride. Was pretty good, but actually the first band that didn't have such a good sound. Also the set didn't include a lot of songs that I knew.
The contrast couldn't be bigger when straight after MDB,
NOFX was on on the main stage. I did not intend to watch them, but I was hanging around the stage area and couldn't help but chuckle at their funny comments ("Thank you, Metal people!"). Also their tiny logo banner on the back of the stage was hilarious. They did an excellent job I have to admit.
Towards 21:30, after NOFX, we gathered at the 2nd stage in eager anticipation of
At the Gates. After a short intro they blasted into "Slaughter of the Soul" and within a fraction of a second the crowd turned into a turmoil of limbs, adrenaline and dust. First mosh-pit I had been in in a long time. The band sounded incredible, tight as hell, powerful and great sound, all you could wish for. Add to that a dream setlist and a great Tomas Lindberg and surely this was one of the highlights of the festival. Just awesome.
During Motorhead we had some more beers and recovered from At the Gates. Towards midnight it was time for
Morbid Angel, I hadn't seen them yet since David Vincent rejoined them, so I was really looking forward to it. And boy did they deliver, an incredible hour of pure unholy Death Metal classics followed. Lots of stuff from the old albums, except they skipped Blessed are the Sick, which just so happens to be my favourite album. But I'm not complaining, I absolutely loved the show, great sound, incredibly powerful performance and a great David Vincent. Sandoval also totally slayed, what a machine that guy. Setlist included Pain Divine, Rapture, God of Emptiness, Chapel of Ghouls, Maze of Torment, Lord of all Fevers and Plague, Dawn of the Angry, Where the Slime Live, Blood on my Hands, Sworn to the Black and a new song, which promised great things for the upcoming album.
The last band was
Slayer, I always love to see them live, but this time the real fire was missing a bit I thought, so we just watched from a distance and later went to get a beer and went back to the fireplace. Was cool to hear "Ghosts of War" btw, don't think I ever saw that live.
Monday
Time to leave, sunburnt, dirty and very satisfied. We packed our stuff and I said goodbye to Cinzia. We drove off at around 1:30 PM I think, we got stuck in traffic in/around Paris, took us at least 2 hours I think. Shortly after midnight we were finally back in NL. There the procession split, 2 cars were taking direction to Den Haag and I continued to Utrecht. I was finally home at 1:30 AM. I quickly unpacked most of my stuff and then jumped to the -much needed & desired- shower. I slept like a rock till 11 AM this morning. All laundry has meanwhile been done
Beforehand I was a bit unsure because of the stories about Hellfest last year, but I have to give the organisers a huge compliment. It was an absolutely great festival. Great bands, great weather (maybe even too hot), only a very little rain shower Saturday night and Monday morning. Great setup of the whole terrain, everything looked great, so nicely decorated, the fireplace, the skateboard 'boat', metal market, bars, the beautiful stages. No (considerable) waiting lines anywhere. Good information. Just some small things that could be improved are the absence of showers, plenty of water, but a shower would be nice or at least some privacy where to use water. Some more shady areas (parasols for instance) and maybe video screens on the stages.
Another thing was the deposit system for the drinking glasses. You had to pay one token deposit for the glass and a beer cost 2 tokens. Normally, when for instance you need 4 beers and you have 6 glasses, you can pay for the 4 beers with 6 tokens and the 2 extra glasses (worth one token each). But at Hellfest apparently they made you
buy the glass, cause throughout the festival they only accepted payment in tokens. Any extra glasses you had to keep with you. Even at the end of the festival you didn't get your token deposit back for the glass, if you didn't want to keep it, they just took it back.
So, there's some small lessons to be learned for next year, but just minor things. Also some better knowledge of the English language of the staff would be nice, it gets annoying when some official pretends to understand you and then talks French back at you in a way which makes clear he hardly understood one bit you said and just keeps repeating the same thing. On the other hand I have to give my appreciation to the staff and security for being generally co-operative, relaxed and tolerant.
Last but not least I thank Juniper (Patty) + friends (Ramon, Manuel, Peter, Mitchel, John, Floris, Paul and Elmar) and Cinzia for making the whole experience even more pleasant! All totally cool folks you lot!
Again I spent a weekend with people who I had largely not met before and had a great time with them.
