Sonisphere

An overwhelming reminder that Metal is still with us and as popular as ever, Sonisphere festival 2010 was a veritable tour de force of metal; showcasing some of the best new acts mixed with legendary heavy metal gods! With minimal promotion Sonisphere festival is fast on the heels of the almighty Download and likely to crack it's nose with a swift elbow as it steams on past.

Set in the stunning location of Knebworth Manor grounds, home to such classic concert memories as Queen, Oasis and Robbie Williams.This has to be one of the most accessable and amiable festivals I have ever experienced. Forget the treacherous mile trudge to the toilet from Glasto and the lungs of death caused by the plastic fires of Reading and Leeds. Sonisphere is comfortable and superbly presented with an intimate atmosphere brought on by a crowd brought together by a mutual love of all things metal!

The two main stages are situated either side of a small hill and were perfectly organised to take turns in churning out the tunes, there were no queues for the bars and the awesome strongbow tent(complete with beer garden and table football) was the perfect place to chill out on an astroturf sofa.

Due to liscencing reasons the main stage was not open on Friday but the equally huge Saturn stage held it's own
with the festival's first highlight in the shape of the classic Gary Numan playing to a huge crowd of happy fans including Noel Fielding of the Mighty Boosh fame. This was swiftly followed by a steaming stage show from the legendary god of metal Alice Cooper. Still as energetic as ever, his varied set saw him beaten in to a straight jacket and thrown into a guillotine to be decapitated on stage only to instantly reappear and sing his next track into the face of his own decapitated head! Immense!

Early Saturday afternoon saw the jaded masses swarm to see an inexplicably early and short slot from Soulfly. This set just proved that this band are a true classic and have stood the test of time, Max Cavelera threw in the Sepeltura favourite refuse/resist much to the crowd's satisfaction. Then with barely enough time to get a round at the bar the seamless changeover was complete and the stage was then taken over by the almighty Fear Factory.
These guys had the hard task of following the awesome Soulfly set and did not dissappoint. They played a sound set of all their biggest records and the crowd peaking at the start of Edgecrusher and continued to mosh into oblivion.

For many the highlight of the day seemed to be Skunk Anansie's set which showed that this band are back and better than ever, working the crowd into a frenzy with some excellent showmanship from Skin. At one climactic point she climbed aloft of the barriers to the crowd and scream to the sky as she slowly fell in to arms of adoring fans. The classic singles such as 'weak' and twisted (everyday hurts) rang out with more passion than ever before and showed that Skunk Anansie are ready to immortalise their talents.

Later into the evening saw thousands of devoted Motley Crue fans dressed in their tightest cockrock outfits descend upon the saturn stage and sing girls girls girls all night long. That would be if it wasn't for the slight distraction of thunder cracks and fireworks coming from the reliably huge and fire fuelled live show from Rammstein, their first outdoor show in the UK.

There were too many acts to mention them all but I would have to say that the find of the festival would have
been made early on Sunday in the form of The Defiled. Playing true metal the way it should and
putting on a show that even the greats would be proud of, this band are what so many of us have been looking for
over the past few years and deserve a special mention up there with the bigger bands of the festival as their thirst
put a lot more experienced acts to shame.

A formidable portion of Skindred and then up to an impecable set from Pendulum that got everyone on their feet and included a good long show of crowd favourite Tarantula. Then to everyone's amazement onstage came Anders Fridén from In Flames and the tone changed completely showing that Pendulum have more to them than just dance classics as they slayed out heavy metal to win over even the most hardcore of metalheads.

The epic Iron Maiden closed proceedings playing a hefty dose of their new album The Final Frontier which seemed to be Maiden at their best. Perhaps a bit too much talking and not enough playing the classics the set was
redeemed by some beautiful guitar solos.

All in all, Sonisphere is a perfectly organised event with a solid atmosphere that deserves to be praised as one
of the nations best festivals. Pulling together a mixed crowd from all walks of life this weekend was one for both
young and older metallers and mixed classic metal with newer breeds bringing them together to show that the spirit of heavy metal lives on forever!