One could have felt that the weekend had come to Hellfest, as the festival site was more than overfilled on Saturday, the second fest day. That was not a problem; people there did not give much of a damn about the melting heat or the overcrowded sites. Good music and cold beer made it all great!
Saturday I decided that I wanted to spend more time enjoying whole acts so therefore this day meant for me only main stage and Altar, as here were playing some of the bands I actually came to see.
[If you missed our Day One write-up, check it out here.]
The main stages lined up bands like Jonathan Davis (Korn), Bullet For My Valentine, Deftones, Avenged Sevenfold, Parkway Drive and more, while Altar brought great names such as Memoriam, Kataklysm, Children of Bodom and Nile. As mentioned in our Hellfest preview it was an amazing feeling to finally get a chance to see live bands that you are listening to since teenage times.
Deftones gave one of the best sets of the weekend. Chino spent a majority of the set face to face with the fans, screaming with the fans and standing on the barricades. And on their final song, Sen-Dog (Powerflo/Cypress hill) came out to join the band for a mash up of “How I Could Just Kill a Man.”
On Saturday morning, news broke about the passing of Vinnie Paul. Throughout the rest of the weekend there were several bands giving shout outs and dedicating their sets to the drumming legend of Pantera, and in between the bands sets, the video screens paid tribute. Even a sound man tested the mics with “Check, Check, Vinnie Paul, 1, 2, 3, Vinnie Paul.”
Hard decisions had to be made at the end of the evening when Dimmu Borgir, Hatebreed and Parkway Drive were scheduled to start at the same hour. Although metalcore is not yet one of my strongest draws, I simply had to check Parkway Drive. It didn’t happen in a long time that I find myself in the lyrics of an album, feeling like that band sings about my life and beliefs. This is what happened with Reverence, the latest from Parkway Drive. Hours of listening on repeat, detail checking the lyrics, jaw dropping on how much I identify myself within the songs. I ended up checking all of their discography and becoming a fan. I had the honour of being allowed three songs in the pit and to be so close to a band that touched some very sensitive chords of my soul.
It was fairly difficult to focus on photography when the head just wanted to bang and the voice to scream the lyrics. This was a show to remember, with intense stage performance and insane pyro. And I guess not only for me but also for that huge crowd attending hypnotised until 2am in the night when they finished.
