Festival Reviews

I awoke on the Saturday morning barely able to move my neck, with aching shoulders and a raw throat – so many windmills, so many fist pumps, and so many poorly-executed death growls. After guzzling as much water as possible, grabbing an absolutely [...]

The last day at the Rockharz Festival started with a sick package of death metal. Dawn of Disease was the first act of the day, and they were the right start. The death metallers spread a powerful mood over the infield. The guys rocked the stage and [...]

After a strong pre-show, Friday saw the majority of the stragglers pitch their tents in the baking sun. Musically, the day got off to a weak start with second stage openers Fraktions. Though musically decent, less than stellar vocals and a cringe-inducing [...]

The sixth installment of UK Tech-Fest was set to be one of surprises for me – although I question the validity of the sea of cookie-cutter djent bands that stormed the metal scene a few years ago calling themselves “tech,” this year’s [...]

Pain was the first artist of the day. The guys stepped on stage while “Rebel Yell” of Billy Idol was playing which led into their opener song “End Of the Line”. The crowd created a party atmosphere with dancers and headbangers. Really nice mood while the [...]

The second day at the Rockharz Festival started with sunshine and a good, big breakfast at the breakfast stand. My first act of the day was Wolfheart. The mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen, known from Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon, founded this band as a [...]

The first day of the Rockharz Festival in Ballenstedt, Germany, was a warmup event with only one stage instead of two. I grabbed a beer and went to the infield to join the crowd for the first band of the festival: Kryptos. The heavy metal band from India [...]

It’s the final day of Hellfest and the heatwave showed no sign of abating. The arena could now easily be mistaken for the set of the next Mad Max movie, if I wasn’t there to ruin the image by surreptitiously covering my pasty white English skin with [...]