Rockavaria - Day 3

Hatebreed – Kreator – Testament – Faith No More – Metallica

Got out to the festival area extra early to catch the set of the guys in Hatebreed [6]. Having seen them multiple times before, the set didn't swoop me off my feet. They're always fun to watch though, even if you don't know all of their songs or are generally not massively into their music, Jamey Jasta [vocalist] will animate you to jump along as he spins around the stage like a ballerina. As always, they closed with an all-time favorite of … well, of basically everybody: 'Destroy Everything'.

I'm gonna be honest right here and say that I only watched Kreator and Testament due to not wanting to give up my place in the second row for Faith No More later on. The first section of the crowd always got closed during the last two sets of the day due to reaching the limit of people to be allowed in it … I simply didn't want to risk it. The fangirl in me needed to see the brilliance, that are FNM, up close.

Kreator [1] are really not my kind of thing and there was not a second that I enjoyed. Thrash metal has never been a passion of mine and it seemingly never will. Some parts of the performance were also rather unnecessary, e.g. Mille carrying a smoke gun, which was probably as big as a nerf gun for kids, that didn't really do much at all, especially while the sun was still high up in the sky. The sound was obnoxiously loud, too, which didn't improve their performance in the slightest.

Same thing with Testament [2], though I have to give them props for the drummer's [Gene Hogland] skills and to their vocalist's [Chuck Billy] for sounding immense during their gig. Other than that, they had a few catchy parts here and there, but it didn't get better from that on. Also, Chuck's rather cocky attitude on stage didn't fit in with the rest of the band at all, which was kind of off-putting.

To say that the audience was rather taken aback when they saw people setting up the stage for Faith No More [10] would be an understatement. As the crew carried flowers and all kinds of white instruments onto the stage, everybody simply stared in shock. Personally, I was beyond excited to see this madness up close … the rest of the crowd, well, not so much. They didn't only look weirded out, they also experessed their huge dislike about what was to come. To be honest, I have never experienced as much of an ignorant crowd as I did at that point. Probably everybody in the first section was mainly there for Metallica, absolutely no doubt about that. Also, everybody in the first section didn't show a single spark of interest into anything that wasn't thrash metal, or at least close to it. Some of them even started to boo and yell at FNM to get off the stage during their set, which was beyond rude. FNM didn't care too much though, they knew how far they fell out of the frame that day. Or at any other festival they were a part of. They embraced it with joy.

The performance they put on was mezmerizing and absolutely incredibly. My personal highlight of the whole weekend, by far. Mike Patton [vocalist] proved once more as to how much of an unbelievable voice range he has and went absolutely bonkers with any kind of device he had nearby. No matter if he was yelling into a megaphone, his mic or some voice changing device, he nailed it all. I will say this much now to round up this fangirl-ramble: Mike Patton proved that he is indeed a god and FNM are as madly brilliant as ever.

Metallica [8] didn't disappoint either. While it remains a mystery to me as to why they would have about 150 people behind them up on stage, it was probably an amazing experience for the fans who got to do that. They played some rarities they had buried for a long time and stunned the audience whenever one of those treasures came to life. Especially for hardcore fans, it must've been one hell of an experience to see such a change in their setlist. It was refreshing to see them have fun with their set, but, for some reason, they didn't seem to be in their best form that night. Metallica are always worth watching, so there's really no downside to it.

To end this all up, a few things about the festival itself:

• The Hellyeah announcement was unprofessional and uncalled for
• Not having port-a-potties at all on the whole festival area was a big burden to a lot of people. The only way to reach the toilets was to walk up about 100 stairs (from the mainstage) to the regularly installed restrooms
• Due to not having port-a-potties, most guys simply let loose in the middle of the audience, being too lazy to take those said stairs and made the whole place stink up with the sweet smell of urine
• Closing venues and stages when the capacity isn't even half filled is unnecessary and upsetting to people who paid lots of money to see exactly those bands
• Not offering the possibility to camp at the area probably made the festival a lot more unattractive to the main festival audience and made the event lose quite a percentage of the wanted crowd
• Bad sound quality made a lot of gigs impossible to enjoy
• Having too much security at said closed venues and having too less at the backstage area is not a too great representation of your priorities. Makes having backstage/working/AAA passes absolutely useless and could've endangered the artists if more people had known about the lack of security check at those important areas
• Booking all hardcore bands to a club stage where it is not allowed to stand up is an absolutely waste of bands with amazing energy
• Having a mass of festival merch but not offering any merch of any band who wasn't on the main stage doesn't throw the best light onto the festival either. The smaller bands are the ones who need those merch sales the most!
• Organizing a festival in as much of a 'reserved and snobby' area as Munich already predicted the bad ticket sales

I'd give the festival an all around 6, but only due to having a bunch of rad bands in the line up.

Cheerio x