Stevo's Sonisphere Weekend Review

a few days ago.....I went to Knebworth to watch a lot of great bands at the Sonisphere Festival and here are my review of the bands I saw

Saturday Bands
Soil: I haven't heard of them for a long time since they were gettin a bit big at the start of the 00s with the song 'Halo' but either all....the atmosphere during these were just amazing and there were a few pits goin which were great and was a great opener

Alien Ant Farm: Again, another band I haven't heard for a long time and they were just amazing.....the crowd was massive for them and were a great opener for the big stage called the 'Apollo' stage. They played thier great classics like Wish, Movies and Smooth Criminal

Skindred: Not many ppl would of heard of these but they are a ragga-metal band who are great and when I watched them live they got a great reaction especially when they were playin thier big hits like Nobody, Rat Race, Trouble and Pressure

Anthrax: Normally, they would play with thier new singer Dan Nelson but he left band a week before thier performance at Soni but they got thier old singer John Bush to play for them at this day and bloody hell, they were just bloody amazing. Even tho they didn't play Madhouse, they were great and the crowd were wild for them from the start of thier opener What Doesn't Die. They also played Caught in a Mosh which was amazing. Safe Home, Room for One More, Antisocial, Indians and I Am The Law were also great to listen. They finished thier great set off with Bring The Noise which was cool.

The Used: These were a disappontment for me since they were one of the bands I wanted to see but they are not good at playin thier great songs like The Bird and The Worm, Take it Away and Pretty Handsome Awkward live but it shows that some bands are not able to play thier songs live really well and these were an example.

Airbourne: They were a suprise package and were one of the best bands live on that day. They played songs really well with a great crowd reaction and a lot of pits were starting to open. They played Diamond in the Rough, Runnin Wild, Too Much Too Young Too Fast and Girls in Black really well. One of the highlights of the performance was when the singer climbed on the tower scaffold during Girls in Black and played the solo amazingly while on top of the tower. Here's a vid of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiWwR660saA

Heaven and Hell: Another Great band of the day. They started off in a great fashion with The Mob Rules. Even tho I didn't know a lot of Dio-era Sabbath songs, they also played I, Time Machine, Children of The Sea and Heaven and Hell which were the only songs I remembered but they also played Bible Black which was great. Also, Tony Iommi eneded up doin a great solo which Dio really loved hearing from him.

Linkin Park: These were a great headliner and I really enjoyed them. Even tho they didn't play Papercut, they played some of thier great classics like Breaking the Habit, One Step Closer, Faint, From The Inside, Points of Authority. Some of thier new songs were okay like No More Sorrow and Given Up but they I like the performance of What I've Done and Shadow of the Day. All the others were okay. During the Encore, Chester gave us a preview of his new side project, Dead by Sunrise which played Crawl Back In, Fire and My Suffering. I thought they were not bad and liked hearing My Suffering.

Sunday Bands
Saxon: These were the first band I watched on this day even tho I heard a lil bit of Buckcherry before but when I watched these they are impressive and liked hearing songs like Heavy Metal Thunder and Strangers of the Night

Lamb of God: These were just plain great. Started off with thier intro of the new album, Wrath called The Passing and then started with In Your Words. The pits were just amazing to see during thier great songs like Laid to Rest, Now You've Got Something to Die For, Redneck and Set to Fail. At thier final song 'Black Label', a Wall of Death was made and it was a great finish to a great set.

Machine Head: There were a special guests slot and loads of ppl thought it would be either Machine Head, Disturbed, Slipknot or Korn but it concluded to be Machine Head and they were one of the best bands of the day. They started with Imperium and then played thier other great songs like Beautiful Mourning, Halo, Ten Ton Hammer and Struck a Nerve. The Highlight of the set was when Rob Flynn wanted more than 12 circle pits which happened at Download 2 years ago but Soni ended up having amazingly 21 circle pits created at the same time during one of thier songs and then they finished off amazingly with Davidian which was great. Also, there were a lot of '*bleep* Limp Bizkit' chants during them which was funny xD

Limp Bizkit: Even tho they were not as better as Machine Head on the day, they were another suprise package on the weekend with a lot of brutal mosh pits during the heavy part of most of thier songs like Rollin and Take a Look Around. The best performances they made were from the songs Break Stuff, Eat You Alive and a really impressive cover of Faith but they also covered Closer by Nine Inch Nails. The highlight of the set was when everyone was removing the plastic sheet which was on the floor during Break Stuff and somehow it start a little wall of death and turned into a mosh pit but it was great. Wes looked so intelligence-less with a White Suit and Blue Facepaint

NIN: I was looking forward to these but they were sadly disappointing even tho it was suppose to be thier last gig in the UK. They didn't play thier Heavier tracks like March of the Pigs, The Hand That Feeds and The Perfect Drug. But the ending track which was hurt was gd but the set was mostly very soft tracks but they were good heavy parts in some of the songs that were played. But they could of done better for thier last gig in the UK and maybe Europe.

A7X: These were really gd. They played some of thier great tracks like Critical Acclaim, Chapter Four, Bat Country, Gunslinger, Afterlife and Almost Easy and the funny part of the gig was when The Rev broke his kick drum after they played Scream I think but they were really gd and enjoyed them.

Metallica: They were bloody awesome. They opened with Blackened and played a lot of thier great classics like Creeping Death, Master of Puppets, Of Wolf and Man, Fuel, Hit The Lights, Fade to Black, Dyers Eve and One. There were a awesome pyro and fireworks display before thee start of One which described the explosions and gunshots at War which was what One was mainly described about One I think with the effects of war I think lol but it was great. They also played thier new songs like The Day That Never Comes, All Nightmare Long, Broken Beat and Scarred/Cyanide. They finished off amazingly with Seek and Destroy. At the end of the set, Hetfield had cream and silly string thrown at him and he looked like such a mess xD but it was funny since it was Hetfield's birthday but it was a great finish to a great weekend

Might post some pictures later if I can find my Mobile USB sometime lol

Sweeeeet XD



BTW: I hate you for being able to go and me not