|
Tuesday, 28 April 2009 13:04 |
 Arriving in advance and leaving after festival goers have left the site will give you a somewhat strange viewpoint of a festival, and Hammerfest was certainly no different. Atmosphere comes, builds, and then leaves, and behind it is an empty husk, that being the Pontins Holiday Camp in Prestatyn, North Wales.
Everyone has their own opinions, and everyone that was here will take their own memories, their own special moments away with them. For one Opeth will have been the defining moment of the entire weekend, for another seeing Sepultura bring a rhythm of power and annihilation with them straight out of Brazil and onto the Hammerfest Stage. That's the beauty of festivals, there's something for everyone, and everyone can claim ownership of a memory that will stay with them a lifetime.
And not just the fans, but the bands themselves.
Take Kiuas for example who closed out the opening night. Certainly the band brought a stage presence that was as strong as any of their contemporaries, yet it was the humour, candour, a connection that front man Ilja Jalkanen brought with him that could well have made their performance the best of the entire weekend. High praise you say? True enough, but Kiuas have a something special. Watching them perform is like slipping into a favourite pair of old shoes; it's comfortable, you feel at ease, you feel like you know every inch of them. Jalkanen certainly seemed to feel the same way, commenting perhaps in jest that he felt he knew every single one of the crowd personally. Maybe it was only a slight exaggeration, because the whole band were visible for the rest of the weekend, and credit must go to them for always being seen talking to fans, being approachable, wanting to share this experience with the fans that adore them.
High praise indeed, yet praise that was earned.
Similar high praise can equally be bestowed on Alestorm, who completely filled the venues second stage when they swaggered onto the stage. It was shoulder to shoulder, hot sweaty bodys crammed together, and further proof if any needed to be given that this should be the last time you see Alestorm playing anywhere but on the main stage of festivals like this. With the bands second album due to drop in June, 2009 is shaping up to be the year that Alestorm finally take their place among the elite of the UK metal scene. Yes they are that good. Yes they sing about pirates, wenches and mead. No it doesn't matter. Fun is something that is so often lose within metal, and Alestorm bring superb music complete with an overwhelming sense of fun that people are just swept along.
It's perhaps the strength of Hammerfest, and Hard Rock Hell, that it's the bands that people don't expect that catch them unawares, and Skindred were easily able to grab hold of that mantle and make it their own. For a band that has performed at Ozzfest, been a staple in the UK for more than a decade, they are perhaps a band that for some reason just slips under peoples radars for no apparent reason. It's possible that they are now about to put that firmly behind them, on balance they may well be the most talked about band, the most talked about performance of the entire weekend. So many people expected so little from them on the main stage, yet everyone who saw them play took a deep breath and realised that they had seen something special, something that was so totally unexpected that it blew them away.
Sepultura have also come like a shot out of the blue in 2009 with their latest album A-Lex. So many said that it was the bands last roll of the dice, and if it didn't succeed, the band that was forged with the name of Cavalera and now holds none of the family would fade away slowly into the night. Not this night. Not on the back of this album. Times have certainly changed, there's no way to deny that, and you shouldn't, but with time comes change, with change comes evolution, yet with Sepultura, enough of the old is still present alongside the new that this is both an old and new band. They have energy, power, and a sense that they will soon be back on top of the world. It's amazing what difference a new album can make isn't it?
And if new albums are the way to go, how can you not be inspired by Saxon? Their new album shows a band that are as diverse as perhaps any in the world right now, drawing styles and influence from the whole spectrum of rock and metal, yet taking to the stage as the old masters who know every trick in the book, and a fair few that they just haven't got round to writing down yet? Saying that it wasn't in the least surprising that Saxon were intensely brilliant on stage is both true and an insult to an institution of the metal world. True because that is their legacy, their reputation, their reward for everything they have worked so hard on for so many years, the payoff if you will. The insult? You just don't give them the credit they deserve for being THAT good, you really don't. You expect it, you demand it, and for Saxon to raise the bar is a monumental moment. Yet thankfully, it's the combination of the two that make them the perfect headliners on a night like this. They owned the stage. They owned the fans. They played twenty minutes longer that they should have, and nobody was going to tell them to stop.
The new material is first rate, yet despite it's previously mentioned diversity, slots in between the classics from the Saxon back catalogue like it had always been there. Saxon are, and will continue to be one of the true heavyweights on metal, one of the most hotly appreciated live bands on the circuit, and quite honestly they'll most likely still be doing the same thing in another 10 years time, and words like these will still be written about them then.
Hammerfest was a success there's no doubt about it. The combination of both the old and the new, the known and the unknown, the expected and the unexpected made this everything that was expected of it and more. Just like Hard Rock Hell, Hammerfest is here to stay. Just like Hard Rock Hell, Hammerfest has award winning potential in it. Unlike many other festivals on the circuit Hammerfest is for the fans. From promoter John Davis at the top all the way down, this a festival designed to give people everything that they want, and then find something they didn't know they needed, and give that to them as well.
If you weren't there, don't miss out on Hard Rock Hell III in December, and Hammerfest II in March 2010. These are two festivals that the UK should, and quite rightly is proud to have on these shores, and each event produces a gold mine of memories that fans are taking home with them and locking firmly in their memory drawers to be looked back upon with a great reverence.
Trackback(0)
|
|
Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 April 2009 15:49 |
|
Twitter
MySpace
Facebook
RSS
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed