So day two of Sonisphere Spain rolls around, and I ended up parking close to my spot from the day before, I didn’t want to hassle driving around in circles to only end up there anyway. The intention was to get in and see MASTODON’s set, which would mean that we would miss Spain’s VITA IMANA, and Sweden’s SISTER. Now I mention that the intention was to see all of MASTODON, but it was everyone else’s as well. By the time we made it through all of security, they were almost done with their set. I caught their last three tracks “Curl Of The Burl”, “Blood And Thunder”, and “Creature Lives”. What I saw was good, for everything that is said about their vocals, they were pretty good on this occasion. The instrumentation was top notch as always.

CHILDREN OF BODOM was on the second stage, not really a fan, did check them out for a bit, and the crowd was eating them up. More power to them, and glad they had so many people checking them out. Alexi is a great guitarist, just not my thing.

WITHIN TEMPTATION is a fairly popular band within the Spanish metal community, I for one am not a huge fan, as a matter of a fact, I’ve always seen the female fronted symphonic, gothic metal, or what have you as the cliché that followed Nu Metal. Hot looking chick, some detuned guitars, semi-programmed drums, and symphonic keyboards to boot, and ta-da, you have a fad, epidemic, or whatever you want to call it. Now before you get all bent out of shape, they’re a good band, just not my cup of tea. If I want to listen to them, there are quite a few other female fronted bands that I’d choose before them. Watched a bit on the big screen behind the sound table, and then walked over and waited for GHOST to come on.

GHOST was the revelation of the festival for a lot of people. Well I should say this; people either loved, them, or hated them. Their show was everything people had talked about, the Nameless Ghouls in the back, this time dressed all in white, with Papa Emeritus out front. The set was short, yet powerful, with highlights that included “Con Clavi Con Dio” and the closer “Ritual”.

I actually hung out around the second stage till ENTER SHIKARI came on, SLAYER was playing on the first stage, but I had checked their setlist out online, and it was essentially the same as when I saw them two years ago at the same festival. So I figured I’d watch the beginning of ENTER SHIKARI then head over to SLAYER for their encore. The band kicked into “System” when Rou Reynolds jumped over the barricade and started singing the first track from the crowd. The security guards went nuts trying to keep tabs on him as the masses embraced him. Before they started “…Meltdown” Rou mentioned, “what are you guys doing here? You do realize that’s SLAYER on that stage, why are you wasting your time with us? Is it pity? We don’t need your sympathy?” And so the track began. Very energetic sets, one of the best on day two, if not the festival. Always enjoyed their mix of different genres of music, others do it poorly to come off as a joke, something this band is not.

Over to SLAYER, they are powerful, commanding, and as I mentioned above, have been playing essentially the same songs since Dave Lombardo came back to the band. Nothing wrong with that, highlights for me include “Dead Skin Mask”, “Raining Blood”, “Angel Of Death”, “South Of Heaven” and “War Ensemble”.

METALLICA was up next, the moment I walked into the festival on this day I could tell there was a lot more people than the day before. Sure the bill was chalked full of a lot of great bands, but the majority were there to see the biggest metal band in the world. Love them or hate them, they were there to give back to their fans, and celebrate the most sold metal album of all time, their self-titled album, also referred to as The Black Album. For all of the bands flaws, they are also the first to auto-critique themselves, for all the things they do wrong, they usually rectify in some fashion. What I’m getting at is for everything people bitch about Lars Ulrich, he’s the one that puts the set lists together. He’s the one that sits there and painstakingly sees what tracks they’ve played the last few times through a city or country, and makes sure they give them something different. For example they started off with “Hit The Lights”, went into “Master Of Puppets” and then gave us “The Shortest Straw”. Everyone went nuts. They followed this with “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and the somewhat new track “Hell And Back” off of Beyond Magnetic. All of this before launching into The Black Album in reverse order. Highlights for me off of the album included “Of Wolf And Man”, “Through The Never”, and “Don’t Tread On Me”. Their encore consisted of “Battery”, “One” and “Seek & Destroy”. They blew every other band away, that includes everyone that came on before and after they played. They had a show, giant video screens, ramps, a “snake pit”, pyro, lights, etc. All of this to accompany all of the classic tracks they laid down on the audience. Someone mentioned afterwards, it’s not fair; they have an unfair advantage, why don’t they allow everyone to use their entire stage setup, lights, etc. And I thought, hmmm, I wonder if OZZY OSBOURNE let them use his stage on the Bark At The Moon Tour? What about VAN HALEN, SCORPIONS, or DOKKEN for that matter on the Monsters Of Rock tour throughout the US? I bet they were relegated to using a fraction of the headlining bands, and blew them away night after night! There is a reason why they are this big of a band, it didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t come without a ton of hard work. For all of you keeping score, they didn’t start to headline until …And Justice For All, they were the second band to play each day on that aforementioned Monsters Of Rock tour. Getting back to Sonisphere, I was happy that I was witnessing a special event with them performing everything off of The Black Album, especially since it’s uncertain if they’ll ever do this again. The band was also gracious, and thanked the crowd several times not only for coming, but for allowing them to be as lucky as they are as a band, and have the longevity and celebrity they’ve achieved. Most people’s gripes about the show had to do with a few flaws Lars Ulrich had in his playing. Me personally, if you want perfection, stay home and listen to the album! I’d prefer to hear him screw up than finding out there was a drum machine behind him at the live show. Also, when you’re the biggest metal band of all time, you’re also going to have more detractors than most. To them I’d say we get it, you don’t like the band, let the rest of us enjoy them, if so we choose.

GOJIRA was after it seemed as if everyone went over to see them. I’ve always felt that the band sounds better live than they do on album. The production of their albums has always left me feeling a little cold. Too much bottom end, too much distortion, that is until I heard their new single “L’Enfant Sauvage”. The studio version sounds punishing as ever, but clean and intricate where it needs to be as well. The track was the next to last song and sounded spot on as well, and definitely one of the highlights of the entire day. A lot of people mentioned that they were their favorite band of the festival. Other highlights of their set included “The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe”.

In Europe you get all types of weird mixes at festivals. Although the next group may not fit in with some of the other bands, they put on a hell of a show, and did a decent job hanging in with some of the other acts, outperforming a lot of other bands along the way. The band is EVANESCENCE, although I appreciate some of their music, I’m not a die-hard of the band. That said, the band kicked things off with “What You Want” and “Going Under” possibly two of my favorite tracks by the band, and the highlight of their set for me.

After that I stepped away to watch CLUTCH. The band is one of the biggest underground bands of all time. They have slowly transformed from a metal band, to basically a blues based rock n roll band, in the process they’ve taken thousands of fans worldwide with them on a great musical journey. Nothing wrong with that, actually it’s very commendable that they have been able to instill what they believe in into many a rabid fan. My personal favorite of their set was “Profits Of Doom” and “The Mob Goes Wild”.

Last up was FEAR FACTORY, Burton C. Bell quipped a few songs in, “we’re the last one on, we must be the headliner!” I have been a fan of the band like most, since Demanufacture. I have always gone out of my way to purchase special editions of their albums, and have seen very good things from them live, and very bad things as well. I’m happy to say this was the best performance I’ve seen by the band. Were Burton’s melodic parts off? When aren’t they? Again, I prefer that he sound off, rather than knowing they’re piping in 16 prerecorded tracks he’s just lip synchs to. They played tracks off of every album Dino Cazares played on, three from Obsolete another three from Demanufacture, two off of Digimortal, two from Mechanize and “Martyr” off of Souls For The New Machine. Highlights for me include “Smasher/Devourer”, “Linchpin”, and of course the closer “Replica”. I was shocked that they didn’t play “Recharger” which is the first single off of The Industrialist. They were in my opinion the second best act on the entire festival.

The second day of the festival was head and shoulder above day one, so many bands delivered. METALLICA, FEAR FACTORY, GHOST, ENTER SHIKARI, MASTODON AND SLAYER all did their part to entertain, and destroy the crowd. Major increase in grade! Third part regarding the entire experience is next.

by Victor M. Ruiz