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Review and photos: Rob and Danni Wilkins
Day One – HERE
Day Two – HERE
Hellfest Le Off – HERE
We headed up to the Festival a little later for day three. A bit of an odd day, as several of the bands we had hoped to catch had dropped out late on (Tom Morello due to a family emergency and headliners Volbeat for, well, who knows what reason really, as it was described as ”logistics”!)
The day was dedicated to thrash, which isn’t one of our favourite genres, so we aimed to have a relatively quiet day, keep out of the heat a little, and aim for a BIG last day, refreshed and ready to go (little did we know just how much we would be pleased with that life choice!).
We arrived at MainStage 2 just as Insanity Alert finished their set and instantly regretted not being there earlier, catching a cover of Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” with the lyrics replaced by “Run to the Pit. Mosh for your life”. The pit crew kindly let me shelter from the heat and then gave me permission to pop in to photograph the band, even though it was their last song, which was hugely appreciated.
Slay Squad followed them on and brought attitude and energy to a set of “ghetto metal”, which was some sublime rap, coated in a series of dark and heavy riffs. Hailing from California and sporting twin vocalists trading back and forth, their set more than blew away the cobwebs and drew an ever-increasing crowd out into the sun-baked mosh pits.
We took a break for lunch, making the most of a relatively quiet food village. The quality and price of food at Hellfest is a level above any other festival that we have attended. Today being a Middle Eastern feast, and our (by now customary) bar order of a pint of soft drink and a pint of the Muscadet that one local producer supplies to the festival (and it really is rather good!) Yes, we do share both pints!
Back to MainStage 1 for Aussies Thornhill and a set that perfectly illustrated that you can be both tuneful AND heavy. Very much a band on a rising trajectory, they blend nu metal and metalcore into a series of meaningful, listenable moments from the latest album “Bodies”. Fronted by Jacob Charlton, who delivers both clean and growled vocals seamlessly over layered melodies, I add them to the list of “not seen before, definitely see again” bands of the weekend.
We take a brief trip over to the Valley stage to catch Psychonaut and grab a few pics of the Belgian trio. Their sound spans decades with clear influences of early, more progressive rock and a more modern backbone. The front row is almost entirely made up of Psychonaut T-shirts, so they clearly came with keen and loyal support!
From Valley, we wandered past Lemmy and raised a glass en route to the Warzone for Canada’s Cancer Bats. The wonderful thing about covering a festival is being able to see a band play that you wouldn’t necessarily GO to see, and boy am I glad I did! From the first explosive chord, the place went nuts. On stage was a blur of movement. Off stage, a stream of crowd surfers, mosh pits everywhere, and a cloud of sweat that, rather than condensing into cooling rain, hung like morning mist above the guard towers and barbed wire walls. I loved it, as evident from the fact that I probably took more photos of the one song we got in the pit before letting security do their job than almost any other set.
In the mid-afternoon heat, we took time out at our favourite little hiding place at Hellcity acoustic stage for Bob’s Not Dead. Unfortunately, technical gremlins meant that poor Bob didn’t get more than a few lines into his setlist before the sound cut out multiple times. He was a complete pro and dealt with it with a wry smile, but we had to leave to get back to the main before really hearing any of his material.
The long-awaited return of Enhancer, whose first album was released 25 years ago, drew a huge crowd to MainStage 1. Starting the set with the entire band on the drum riser, the next fifty minutes was one of the most chaotic, fun, insane, glorious performances I can remember. Special guests (Pleymo and Joey Starr) appeared and disappeared, showing the high regard the band are held in. At one point, I counted six vocalists; it might have been seven. I completely lost count. One of those vocalists, David Gitlis, heads down towards the crowd. I move forward to photograph, and he takes off over my head into the crowd, surfs into it, and appears rising on shoulders to deliver his rap. It’s one of the sets of the weekend. Just sheer, unbridled energy, and I am utterly exhausted by the end.
Finally, for us, for the first time, Anthrax. On a day of enforced changes, another, due to injury, is that drummer Charlie Benante is replaced temporarily with Brit Darby Todd, but he slots in perfectly, and the remorseless rhythm he sets up shows he is a perfect substitute. Of course, the fulcrum of the band, Scott Ian, is the focus of instrumental attention whilst Joey Belladonna delivers some of the best vocals in the genre.
The thing that struck me most about Anthrax was that somehow, they made a style of music that can be somewhat divisive into one that drew me in and took me along for the ride. Back in Covid times, they were announced as a headliner for Steelhouse Festival in Wales, and at the time, I simply couldn’t see how that would work. It didn’t happen for reasons we all know, but now, finally, I can see how it would have been quite glorious!
So, an early departure.
We decided to give A Perfect Circle, Megadeth, and Limp Bizkit a miss and listen back at the campsite so that we could be back on-site for the opening band at 10.30 on Sunday.
Once back, we received notice that a Red Alert for weather had been issued for that final day, with temperatures forecast to reach over 40 degrees, and that alcohol sales were to be restricted, along with a series of other actions being taken.
Would we survive our final day?
