Brief review of who we saw, Clare's comments in italics:
Friday:
Insomnium: quite enjoyed them. they took a bit to get going though, but had to contend with poor sound, and managed to win through. fairly impressed.
They're more my kind of thing than Dave's, and because of that I went to the front and headbanged. Thoroughly enjoyed it, though I'd agree that they suffered from being the third band of the festival, and would probably perform better if headlining (or supporting) at an ordinary gig. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter - didn't catch much of their set, but they seemd quite fun. their keyboard player had a gimp mask and a swing.
Municipal Waste (is gonna f**k you up) - Ridiculously good fun, they had so much energy, and this is by far the biggest stage i'd seen them on. Great setlist, played pretty much everything you'd expect them to, and a couple of new songs. They created the biggest pit of the festival by a mile, and also attempted to break the world record for most amount of crowdsurfers in one song. HEADBANGER! FACE RIP!
Fun, though I was feeling really ill by the time they played (I've got the worst cold in the world ever and this meant I didn't enjoy the festival that much apart from Insomnium and the bands we saw on Sunday). I enjoyed watching the great circle pit from a distance, which was huge for a festival of that size.Sodom- zzzzzzzzz
Saxon - so much fun, they pulled out classic after classic, and put on a great show. up there with Carcass for favourite band of the day. Biff's still got a hell of a voice on him aswell.
Arch Enemy - got pretty bored of these years ago, so just caught the last two songs of their set. they seemed pretty tight though. Clare had decided to get some rest as she wasn't feeling at all well at this point.
Carcass - I wasn't sure what to expect from them, as I'd heard they'd been pretty hit-and-miss since their reunion. I really enjoyed them though, they put on a good show. Not massively familiar with their material, but i also wasn't with At The Gates last year and really enjoyed them.
They were quiet enough that I managed to fall asleep... Stage didn't point towards my tent, luckily.Saturday:
Battlelore- quite boring, until the last two songs, which were pretty good. vocals were rubbish though.
they seemed to not deal very well at all with the size of the stage, which was a shame as i think they could have played a lot better. they do need a different male vocalist, and their female vocalist could do with putting more emotion into her singing. Wolf - they were fun, old-school heavy metal, and put on a good show. some of their stuff reminds me of Dio-era Sabbath.
Entombed- enjoyed these, even though their singer was incredibly drunk. had an interesting choice in intro music aswell. one for me to investigate properly at some point.
Candlemass - DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM.
I love this kind of stuff. I thought they put on a good show, and it seemed to be appreciated by the crowd despite the fact that doom tends to only be good for real fans. Sunshine and doom generally don't go well together, but Candlemass managed to overcome the blue skies and blazing sun.
Enslaved - Again, black metal, like doom, doesn't work too well in the sunshine. Still, they put on a great show and managed to keep everyone's attention. One of my highlights.
Kreator - heard one song, heard 'em all. I've not heard a single German thrash band who i didn't get bored with after about three songs.
Apocalyptica - Wasn't quite sure what to expect from these, but i found them really entertaining. Honestly I enjoyed their covers more than their own material, but i'm not sure if i enjoyed it as a novelty or the music itself.
I was really looking forward to these, and they didn't disappoint. I enjoyed their more classical stuff most, but I expected that as I think the cello is a fantastic instrument in its own right. Their three best songs were the cover of In The Hall Of The Mountain King, the cover of One, and the ballad which I believe was called Bittersweet. The only thing that soured the set for me was the group of 15 year olds on my right who acted like they were on helium and didn't shut up about Cradle of Filth for the whole show, and they had the sword and not me... However, it was overall a fantastic set and I'd definitely choose to see them again.Blind Guardian - Wow, these guys put on a great show. Really, really good, solid power metal, with an (un)healthy Tolkien fixation. A lot of fun, and a good solid set.
This band put together two of my favourite things- metal and Middle Earth. I cannot complain.f**k cradle of filth. one of the guitarists got hit in the face with a bottle and they cut their set short because of it. shame for the people who liked them. although the post-set chants of "Dani is a wanker!" were amusing.
Sunday:
Sabaton - power metal with WW2 based lyrics. musically strong, and managed to get the crowd going early in the morning, but not sure quite what to think of them.
I'm not entirely sure whether I like the idea of a kind of fun band about WW2. It was an odd mix, but they did well to get the crowd going (however, I believe this energy may have had something to do with alcohol...Girlschool - not my kind of thing. we went to pack up.
Anathema - DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM (again). These were great, really, really solid. Wasn't expecting a Maiden cover though.
I went and headbanged, having got some energy from an enormous plateful of noodles. I thought they were great, though much lighter than most of what was played at the festival. The die-hards at the front were really into it, but they failed to engage many of those who were further back.Turisas - BATTLE! METAL! as fun as always, although would have been nice if they'd managed to fit in another song. Rasputin and Battle Metal were great though.
This was probably the drunkest pit of the weekend, which meant that the men were weak and I was safe to go in with my glasses on. The crowd was in general quite young and as a result the chanting didn't have as much impact as the band might have been used to. During this, somebody crowd-surfed on a bouncy castle, which was amusing.At this point, we decided we weren't going to stick around for Amon Amarth or Europe, and went home.
Other highlights/memories of the festival included:
Sir Carlsberg, a guy dressed as a knight with armour made out of empty beer crates and a hammer made out of empty cans. His shield had "The Game" written on it. And the Knights of Ni were also there, complete with shrubbery.
We also were horrified at a fat guy in a fluorescent yellow mankini. Pics to follow (not of the mankini guy, because that was wrong.)