France, Clisson - Hellfest Open Air 2012

Orange Goblin, Napalm Death, Ufomammut, Unsane and Blood Red Throne were a blast.

A few Death Metal or Grindcore sets were fucked up by bad balance ("Is that a drum solo? No that's a song.") especially early in the day.
Liturgy was a sad sight (they still do not have a new drummer and still have their shitty electronic beats).

I saw 40 bands in total, a lot of them for the first time.

That was awesome.

Written by Promonex on 19.06.2012 at 02:36

Refused and Vulture Industries were the definite highlights for me.

Add Unexpect for me to that list
Also, Enslaved were great, even if I was too tired to really enjoy them; Benighted and Gorod great as always; and Arcturus and In Extremo were damn nice too.

Written by Qube on 19.06.2012 at 14:34

A few Death Metal or Grindcore sets were fucked up by bad balance ("Is that a drum solo? No that's a song.") especially early in the day.

Yep, especially on Friday, the sound on both Altar and Temple was quite shitty - thankfully it got better

Had a blast, managed to see 31 full shows, but had to miss a couple coz I was just dead . Overall the sound was good, except maybe The Altar had a few problems, like with Entombed where the left side was mute for a while and Anaal Nathrakh where it was all bass.... (but don't know of The Warzone, didn't set a foot in there the whole all week-end).

Best ones for me were KING DIAMOND (soooo awesome), Arcturus and Death Angel (wasn't expecting it to be that good). Alot of other great stuff (Sólstafir, Sunn O))), Enslaved,....).

Weather was a pain, somehow managed to get my face burned (twice), freeze to death and get all wet in 3 days

No freezing, no burning, only got wet on Friday and amazingly tanned on Saturday

Saw pictures of an oyster bar and grilled leg of beef this time around. Nice.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 19.06.2012 at 23:07

Saw pictures of an oyster bar and grilled leg of beef this time around. Nice.

yep,, those were just next to the wine bar, just behind a little wood (well, some trees)

For my part I must have seen something like 20 full shows and 20 others not in their entirety.
The best bands for me were Uriah Heep and Blue Oyster Cult, even though I had never heard their music before. I appreciated Sacred Reich a lot, Machine Head finally got me interested, Unexpect confirmed that I should definitely check them, and Trepalium and Dying Fetus filled my need for more extreme stuff.

Best moment however was when Unisonic played Helloween's March Of Time. With Kiske on vocals, I felt like it was the first time I could actually hear Helloween live - despite having seen the band numerous times with Deris.

And... Guns N' Roses were on time!

Written by wrathchild on 21.06.2012 at 14:31

And... Guns N' Roses were on time!

How bad were they?

Written by Spirit Molecule on 21.06.2012 at 14:45

How bad were they?

Not bad, not good. I'm no fan anyway but I was told it would be boring, with lots of solo spots. And they were lots of solo spots but it wasn't that boring.

Written by wrathchild on 21.06.2012 at 14:31

Best moment however was when Unisonic played Helloween's March Of Time. With Kiske on vocals, I felt like it was the first time I could actually hear Helloween live - despite having seen the band numerous times with Deris.

yep, that was something indeed

Written by Spirit Molecule on 21.06.2012 at 14:45

Written by wrathchild on 21.06.2012 at 14:31

And... Guns N' Roses were on time!

How bad were they?

The Chinese Democracy stuff was awfully tedious. But seeing Axl Rose faceplanting on stage might have been worth it.

Written by Promonex on 21.06.2012 at 16:59

Written by Spirit Molecule on 21.06.2012 at 14:45

Written by wrathchild on 21.06.2012 at 14:31

And... Guns N' Roses were on time!

How bad were they?

The Chinese Democracy stuff was awfully tedious. But seeing Axl Rose faceplanting on stage might have been worth it.

Would have loved to see that, especially considering I got out of the Valley, heading to the Warzone, at that very moment

Crue and Skynyrd were my big disappointments at Sweden Rock, which I promptly switched with Sacred Reich and Cannibal Corpse respectively. how did they fare at Hellfest? (did any of you guys actually go see them? )

Skynyrd were actually quite decent. But then again I didn't expect too much. Still, the oldies and the youngsters in the audience all chanting along to "Sweet Home Alabama" was quite nice.

Crüe didn't want to have any press close to their stage, so I did them the favour.

Damn I missed the faceplant! Only saw the bassist nearly fell off stage after slipping.

Skynyrd did well but that's definitely no stuff for me. I still don't like Motley Crüe even after watching quite a few songs this time.

Hmmmm I regret not seeing Unisonic... really wanted to see, but Darkspace was priority. Also some others like Rompeprop (apparently a helluva fun) or Vulture Industries that looked interesting... can't get everything

Anyone know what was the suprise Mr.Sammet was talking about ? I was already thinking of an Avantasia song with Kiske (yes, was asking too much )

Written by Vombatus on 22.06.2012 at 01:31

Hmmmm I regret not seeing Unisonic... really wanted to see, but Darkspace was priority. Also some others like Rompeprop (apparently a helluva fun) or Vulture Industries that looked interesting... can't get everything

Anyone know what was the suprise Mr.Sammet was talking about ? I was already thinking of an Avantasia song with Kiske (yes, was asking too much )

Sadly, Darkspace's sound wasn't great... And Rompeprop were fun (at least the last two songs)
as for Edguy's surprise, I can't say...

Did any of these shows feel a bit short? at Sweden Rock, which had almost the same line-up as Hellfest aside from the underground extreme bands, pretty much all the concerts they did were as though they were headlining their own gig, which was pretty awesome that everyone had at least 1-2 encores.

Most shows (except for headliners) are usually much too short at Hellfest. Price to pay to have that many great bands on the bill...

Written by Darkside Momo on 22.06.2012 at 01:42

Most shows (except for headliners) are usually much too short at Hellfest. Price to pay to have that many great bands on the bill...

Sweden Rock does the exact opposite, in that they get pretty much only good bands but only about 30-40 in total for 4 days and 4 stages (so most get around 75 minutes time, some 60 and some 90, the headliners get 2 hours and 30 minutes), and then fill the time slots of the small stages with local bands. I prefered this this year, but maybe based on you guys' review of this year's Hellfest I might just make an appearance there next year. My review of SRF is on its way too

Written by Valentin B on 02.07.2012 at 01:14

Written by Darkside Momo on 22.06.2012 at 01:42

Most shows (except for headliners) are usually much too short at Hellfest. Price to pay to have that many great bands on the bill...

Sweden Rock does the exact opposite, in that they get pretty much only good bands but only about 30-40 in total for 4 days and 4 stages (so most get around 75 minutes time, some 60 and some 90, the headliners get 2 hours and 30 minutes), and then fill the time slots of the small stages with local bands. I prefered this this year, but maybe based on you guys' review of this year's Hellfest I might just make an appearance there next year. My review of SRF is on its way too

I can't blame either approach honestly, both have their pros and cons... More bands vs more playing time, I honestly can't decide.
(and yeah, report WIP)

Written by Valentin B on 02.07.2012 at 01:14

Sweden Rock does the exact opposite, in that they get pretty much only good bands but only about 30-40 in total for 4 days and 4 stages (so most get around 75 minutes time, some 60 and some 90, the headliners get 2 hours and 30 minutes), and then fill the time slots of the small stages with local bands. I prefered this this year, but maybe based on you guys' review of this year's Hellfest I might just make an appearance there next year. My review of SRF is on its way too

Every year since 2006 someone new tells me Sweden Rock is the best festival there is. Tobias Sammet even said that on stage at Hellfest. It has to be true.

Written by wrathchild on 14.07.2012 at 10:47

Written by Valentin B on 02.07.2012 at 01:14

Sweden Rock does the exact opposite, in that they get pretty much only good bands but only about 30-40 in total for 4 days and 4 stages (so most get around 75 minutes time, some 60 and some 90, the headliners get 2 hours and 30 minutes), and then fill the time slots of the small stages with local bands. I prefered this this year, but maybe based on you guys' review of this year's Hellfest I might just make an appearance there next year. My review of SRF is on its way too

Every year since 2006 someone new tells me Sweden Rock is the best festival there is. Tobias Sammet even said that on stage at Hellfest. It has to be true.

well I can understand him saying that because Edguy was one of the headliners of this year. As organisation I would say it's very streamlined and nothing out of the ordinary usually happens, kinda like Wacken but without the whole disneyland feel. The sound was mostly great to perfect and the only sound problems I noticed were during a few of Exodus' songs.

There is one problem though and that's the ridiculous price of pretty much everything there (a burger/fries/coke menu costs 90 SEK, which is approximately 11 euros, I didn't even bother to visit the drinks stands as I knew I wouldn't buy anything from there) and the ticket+camping costs twice Hellfest's ticket. imo it was worth it as I've seen many bands that will probably never visit Romania (Adrenaline Mob, Black Spiders, Sacred Reich, Fear Factory, Gotthard, Symphony X, Soundgarden) and some that might just not go out and play/tour ever again (10CC, Bad Company, Lynyrd Skynyrd).

Can someone tell me how Amenra, Year Of No Light, Alcest, and Ihsahn were? Is their any links to feeds from when they played? Would love to hear them.