21-06-2015 Hellfest

Location: Clisson (France)
By: Sandra Nunes

Day 3 – 21.06.2015

Woke up in the morning with this anxiety of not missing the one that was the surprise of the day, by 11:05 a.m., the Norwegian metallers, Nidingr would invade the Temple and gift us with a good but very good and energetic gig with their mix of black/thrash and death metal.

Nidingr has a great potential live and did conquer the ones that didn’t know about them – my case! – are now in my “bands to follow” list.
After that, back to my tent for lunch and arrived on time to catch Dark Tranquility live under a burning sun at the MainStage 2, and what a show, the vocalist Mikael Stanne got the audience on his hand since the first minutes, and one of the highlights of the show was “The Wonders At Your Feet” where Stanne stepped down the stage to greet the audience and crowd surf a little bit, escorted by the security staff, which have been incredible during the whole festival (one of the remarks of the Hellfest public is the constant and somehow annoying crowd surfing, no matter which band is playing, during slow or fast songs, you have to be careful and brave when standing on the front rows, so the security main role is to remove the crowd surfers coming above you).

Dark Tranquillity simply don’t know how to play bad concerts, it’s already in their mystic to get high and “Therein”. Bombastic show even with some technical problems on the sound.

Ran again to the Temple where Grave Pleasures (ex-Beastmilk) had just started their ceremony of post-apocalyptic rock that could lead you to other dimensions, more properly to a delirious state and “Love In A Cold World” defined it so well, to a compost audience, waving a Finnish flag, making the band feeling welcome as if they were at home, giving a cozy ambiance, and the band thanked them a lot for that. Recommended for true fans or appreciators of the genre.

Then at the MainStage 1 I tried to get a good spot to watch Cavalera Conspiracy when some troubles with my pocket camera happened, my SD card decided to have an Alzheimer crisis during “Sanctuary” and suddenly had to ran away to my tent to get the case with other SD card supplies and luckily arrived on time to listen to one of my fave Sepultura songs “We Who Are Not As Others”…s*it happens and all you have to do is to get over it and to be strong.

Cavalera brothers, Max and Igor were hitting it hard and proving to the audience that they were still kicking some asses, and huge moshpits were formed at the same time many Brazilian flags were waving since the first minutes of their performance, there was no need for Max to ask for more battles signs, their sound speaks for itself.
The bad luck also hit them during “Roots Bloody Roots” when the PA failed and the band left without any explanation. These technical issues tried to ruin most of the shows during the whole festival, and the bands tried their best, being brave enough to face while others simply had to give up, shortening their set as a precaution.

Meanwhile, the Dutch symphonic metallers Epica were enchanting the crowd at the MainStage 2, I decided to grab a spot for Samael gig as they would be playing their album “Ceremony Of Opposites” in its full and it was such a unique moment, so more opportunities to see Simone Simmons and company will follow.

What can I say about Samael’s energetic gig? Well, this band never disappoints, Vorph and his comrades gifted us with a luxury set and some other songs from “Passage” and “Lux Mundi”, I couldn’t take my eyes off from the stage, totally concentrated at this fantastic performance by these incredible Swiss, for whom time seems to not pass them by, they always play like if there was no tomorrow, making the most out of every minute, and there’s one thing I really missed, the funny jumps of their ex-bassist Masmiseim, who was a star on this subject.

Then, no rest for the wicked as the festival’s end was approaching and another spot for the next band Triptykon was won. Tom G. Warrior and his partners in crime played a brilliant show. “Are You Morbid?” It was with this question that Tom greeted the audience, enthusiastic from the beginning to the end, surprisingly no crowd surf was done, and that pleased me a lot. The highlights of this dark and genial gig were Celtic Frost’s covers “Procreation Of The Wicked” and “Circle of The Tyrants”, only a few songs from Triptykon’s last two albums “Eparistera Daimones” and “Melana Chasmata” were played, and I did hope for my fave song “Aurorae”, a beautiful song that should have been played, but as others are so long and time to play is always short…patience, next time, I’ll keep on dreaming for that day, but this performance at Hellfest was a truly memorable one, together with Samael’s.

The last acts to be checked out were for sure a clash of titans, Arch Enemy at the Altar versus Phil Anselmo’s Superjoint Ritual at the Valley, blessed were the large screens placed at each tent’s entrance, this way it was possible to confirm that Alyssa White-Gluz was really able to conquer the public without being at Angela Gossow’s level but being herself and she did succeed from the little bits I could see though my eyes were more or less concentrated on Uncle Phil’s movements, yep, this man is a mass leader and still has the charm, from what I’ve heard he is a regular presence at Hellfest, so the audience does “Phil” it, going wild most of the times. The battle is won by Superjoint Ritual and I could notice by the crowd that filled the Valley tent, lots of Phil fans and Pantera fans.

Tiredness was already threatening me but I had some strength left to appreciate a little bit of the headliners show that would close the MainStages performances of the day while In Extremo and NOFX were still conquering some public and delivering their last notes at the Temple and the Warzone, respectively. The headliners of the MainStage 2 were one of the most expected bands to play at Hellfest judging by the amount of the t-shirts seen everywhere.

Nightwish enchanted their crowd, with Floor’s voice and the happy looks of the remaining band members, smiling and making funny faces while playing their instruments. The drummer Kai Hahto (ex- Swallow The Sun) is very well integrated in the band and proved that when he played one of the golden hits “She Is My Sin”, at least I enjoyed to listen to this song here sang by Floor, I confess I am not a huge Nightwish fan at this moment, I was when Tarja was still there but after her departure, guess the band’s mystic is somehow lost and they still have a long path to follow with Floor if they want to get it back. And the songs in whose Tarja did perform, are the ones that fit into Floor’s voice due to her classical approach. Anyways, Nightwish were victorious.

And with this memorable edition, Hellfest 2015 has ended and we hope to come back in a future edition. Hellfest is more than a party, has lots of attractions to please the public and it’s important to keep it entertained in many ways. Feel yourselves invited to discover this festival.

Photo’s by Ozirith

Links:
Ozirith Official