Given how pant-wettingly awesome the second Hard Rock Hell was back in December and that this, the first ever Hammerfest, is run by the same company and at the same Pontin's in Wales, to say that eFestivals is excited about the weekend’s oncoming tomfoolery would be like saying that Vin Diesel isn't quite cut out for Shakespearean drama. Throw in some stunning blue skies, a heavier lineup and the introduction of an outside acoustic stage and you just might have yourself the most hotly-anticipated new festival of 2009.
eFests arrives just in time to catch East Anglian death metallers Thirteenth Sign, who brutalize the third stage with their relentless blackened assault. It's one hell of a way to kick things off, and makes Scottish rock troupe Firebrand Super Rock seem relatively tame when they arrive on stage fifteen minutes later. Not that frontwoman Laura Donnelly will let you know it, of course; her impressive vocals render the group as a sort of Pantera-as-fronted-by-Veronica-Freeman deal, and make another stark contrast to the progressive tendencies of follow-up act Tesseract, who kick off the first real moshpit of the weekend. Pretty impressive at four in the afternoon in a sweltering pub in Prestatyn, to be fair.
Having said that, if Tesseract can be said to have really got the party started, then Soilwork-alikes The Defiled have turned up, drank all the beer, slept with all the girls and trashed the house. Singer-guitarist Stitch D (a moniker presumably chosen in another life as a Public Enemy tribute artist) decides near the end of the set to bust a solo on top of the speaker stack, while keyboardist The A.V.D. (no, us neither) proceeds to smash his keyboard into pieces on the pub floor soon after. Unexpected to say the least, but it gives a few punters some unique souvenirs, which is nice. Not long after, things finally get going on the main stage as UK upstarts Trigger The Bloodshed stake their claim as England's hottest property under the relatively new 'deathcore' tag. They attract a healthy audience and give a fantastic account of themselves, proving a more-than worthy main stage opener in the process.
Meanwhile, the second stage sees ballsy London metallers Blood Island Raiders rip things up nicely, imposing their brand of doomy riffage with effortless aplomb and firmly establishing their right to a higher slot at future festivals. Somewhat similarly, Hammerfall arrive on the main stage at a surprisingly early 7 'o' clock, but gather one of the biggest crowds of the weekend all the same. Plastic hammers and axes are waved in ridiculous ecstasy as singalong favourites such as 'Hearts On Fire' and 'Riders Of The Storm' are aired, and while an attempted pre-encore break leads to an embarrassing number of fans heading straight to the bar, the 'Fall still provide another solid highlight. The cheesy bastards.
A particularly thrashy double-header of Mutant, and Evile sends the second stage crowd into a high-fiving mosh frenzy for a hectic ninety minutes, and by the time much-lauded newcomers Architects take to the main stage, the atmosphere around Pontins has warmed up nicely. The Brighton metal mob don't drag a particularly immense number of punters into the main stage area, but they do give a solid performance that just about reinforces the growing hype surrounding them. And, speaking of hype, few aspects of this year's line-up could provoke more nipple-stroking excitement than the thought of Paradise Lost, and Opeth sharing the same stage. Unfortunately, the 'Lost are haunted by sound problems throughout their set, and though they still go down a treat with the swelling (and noticeably drunker) crowd, theirs could have been a show-stealing performance. Another time, eh?
Opeth also suffer from slightly muddied sound, but it isn't as severe and fails to prevent them serving as the best band of the day by some margin. Mikael Åkerfeldt's progressive melodeath stalwarts might not have the gusto of Hammerfall or the manic enthusiasm of some of the thrash bands on the bill, but what they do have is a fantastic stage presence coupled with a catalogue of songs that grows more luscious with each passing album. Åkerfeldt himself is an extremely likeable frontman; warming the crowd to him with ease and pleasing casual fans and hardcore followers alike by picking a setlist that features both well-known numbers and rarities such as the epic 'Hessian Peel', taken from last year’s rather immense 'Watershed' album. They leave a difficult void for death metal bruisers Annotations Of An Autopsy to fill, but fill it they do, even if not in the most graceful manner imaginable. It's one hell of a racket for two in the morning, but if five burly blokes throwing themselves around a stage doesn't get you in the mood for one final boogie, what does?
review by Merlin Alderslade photos by Chris Perowne
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