19-06-2015 Hellfest

Location: Clisson (France)
By: Sandra Nunes

Located in the nice and beautiful village of Clisson, near Nantes, northern France, Hellfest is one of the best European festivals with an eclectic poster covering the various genres within the hard and heavy and extreme rock for all tastes and ages . It begins to become special and even better with this 10th edition that promised to be memorable.

I often say that a festival of this caliber is always a kind of survival test due to outdoor camping experience and the difficult task of choosing which bands to see in 6 different stages (MainStage 1, MainStage 2, Altar, Temple, Valley and Warzone) and playing at the same time, I preferred to choose the bands I like or the most classic ones or even the ones doing a few tours, and trying to meet some new band, at least be a surprise.
So I traveled from Lisbon, Portugal to Clisson, France through an organized tour by bus and luckily the trip went well and good weather prevailed during all these days, it was quite hot, which forced me to go into the shade or to rest inside the tent where the Altar and Temple stages were located, my favorite ones, where I saw most of the concerts.

Day 1 – 19.06.2015

This day did not start well as I wanted, I lost the concerts of the Belgian Enthroned at the Temple and the Finnish Shape Of Despair at the Altar, due to the long entrance line to the festival grounds where the concerts would take place, for the next time I will get up early and arrive before the lunchtime at the gates.
Then I arrived in time to see part of the show of Latvian band Skyforger at the Temple, which plays a pagan / folk metal with lyrics in Latvian, and with a well-defined base of fans. Promoting their latest work, “Senprūsija”, Skyforger gave a good concert and this band is recommended for lovers of the genre pagan/folk metal, which begins to have more and more followers.

Then pilgrimage to the Altar where Vallenfyre, led by Paradise Lost’s guitarist, Greg Mackintosh, would do the job and not left anyone indifferent to their death metal with doom notes, through the themes of the album “A Fragile King” and “Splinters”, Greg also advised the audience to not miss the show of his colleague Old Nick (Holmes, Paradise Lost’s lead singer) with the terrific Bloodbath, justifying that it would completely devastate the Altar. Mission accomplished as I could check later, it was time to peek at the MainStage 1, where one of the artists that marked my childhood, Billy Idol, would prove that he still kept in shape with hits like “Dancing With Myself” or “White Wedding “and yes, Billy Idol still rocks. I was pleased with this performance.

Running back to the Altar, I could accomplish the mission on Bloodbath’s concert with Old Nick to the command, which priest celebrating a Mass with “Grand Morbid Funeral” to its maximum and the theme “Unite In Pain” set the whole audience ablaze, no doubt it was a devastating show at all levels and Greg Mackintosh was right. H

owever, in the Temple stage, Cradle of Filth began their performance and I was peering how it was being Alice Cooper’s performance in the MainStage 1 and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” served as the theme to put the public in euphoria and Alice Cooper proved that it is more a genius in good shape and still rocking. In Portugal, we have a kind of popular saying that “old are the rags” when mentioning to old people, and in this case it does apply so well.

Back to the Temple where Cradle of Filth were detonating bombs like “Nymphetamine”, “Her Ghost In The Fog” or “From The Cradle To Enslave”, I could barely see the band in the middle of the moshpit, for I was preparing myself to get a spot on the front line to the next band, because there was no time to breathe, it was hard to get a good place on the 1st row.

“The Voice of Shadows” echoed at the Temple, so the next band was Satyricon who were ruthless with a short, but intense show. The audience was rendered with “The Rite Of Our Cross”, and the frontman Satyr got all the attentions turn into him and also thanked all those who travelled from far away to see the band and stressed that “festivals are not a f * cking amusement park and yes, Hellfest, the one with the giant wheel is one of them and f * ck all the VIPs “- oh well, but this man forgot that he is one of them, most of the times, closed at the backstage and does avoid contact with the fans when approached for an autograph or a photo, whatever, the man is a great artist and does great music. The good news are that Satyricon will release 2 albums next year, one with original songs and other with cover songs, let’s be patient even the anxiety is taking care of me. The highlight theme of the show “Mother North” put everyone singing out and loud, can’t imagine a Satyricon gig without this theme. Satyr proved to be the “K.I.N.G.” in the final stretch of the concert and the band came to greet the audience which responded warmly and wanted more but time was over.

Then it was time to run to the MainStage 1 and see a bit of the performance of the headliners Judas Priest, that would close the day at this stage and it is confirmed that the Judas Priest machine was still keeping well oiled and what a machine! Judas Priest “Breaking The Law” in full swing and a beaming audience.

To end this day, the surprise of the night was destined to the Norwegians Shining, who made a memorable concert at the Temple, where combined in a brilliant and versatile way, a mixture of black metal with elements of jazz, and marked by irreverence of singer who conquered easily the public. I became a fan of this magnificent band and try to follow their journey in the near future.

Photo’s by: Immortalizr, Ozirith, Insane Motion and Nicko Guihal

Links:
Hellfest Official