Sonisphere Knebworth 2011 Friday Review - The Big Four Hit The UK
For many of the rock and metal festival going public in the UK, this year it really has only been about one festival: Sonisphere Knebworth. Sonisphere promoters Kilimanjiro had assembled one of the greatest looking UK festival lineups of recent times, possibly ever. Whilst the Download lineup had the odd highlight, it was unable to match Sonisphere for star power and for the combination of experienced popular bands combined with up and comers, memorable events (the big four, the return of Slipknot) and rare appearances (Watain anyone?).
With this in mind, all in our party were most happy to be at Sonisphere for the third year running when the time rolled round a few days ago, and we were eagerly awaiting Friday afternoon. So it seems was everyone else, as the queue to get into the arena from the campsite was very slow moving and as a result, we missed Diamond Head's entire set. Not the most auspicious of starts to put it mildly. Neither was the news that all the men's big four shirts had seemingly sold out of all normal sizes by quarter to four in the afternoon but we were not put off for long by such things. Heading for the Apollo stage on a Friday was a new experience as it was the Saturn Stage only last year, but we were able to get a good spot in plenty of time as the first ever big four show in the UK began.
Seemingly having finally settled on a proper lineup again, Anthrax returned to grace the Apollo stage of Knebworth for the third year running. It was 45 minutes of what you would expect from Anthrax, though they were given some added power by stand in guitarist Andreas Kisser of Sepultura (not a bad replacement for Scott Ian by any means). There were one or two surprises in the form of new song Fight 'Em Till You Can't, and a brief foray into Sepultura cover world with the first part of Refuse-Resist with Andreas on vocals, but aside from that it was largely the same performance and songs that we had seen from Anthrax last year (2009 being a bit different with John Bush handling the vocal duties). One thing that was not present during previous Anthrax performances was one of the big Metallica beach balls, which escaped over the top of the main stage during Madhouse (not something you see happen everyday). However, they did not have the same impact as in 2010, and thus despite closing with fan favourite I Am The Law, the reaction to Anthrax was a little bit muted, and in my opinion deservedly so. 6.
Joey Belladonna: Power needed recharging?
Anthrax's setlist was:
- Air Raid Siren (intro)
- Caught in a Mosh
- Madhouse
- Antisocial
- Indians
- Fight 'Em Till You Can't (new song)
- Only
- Refuse-Resist (Sepultura partial cover, Andreas Kisser on vocals)
- I Am The Law
The only debut amongst the big four in terms of appearing at Sonisphere Knebworth, Megadeth wasted no time in bringing out the hits by opening with one of their best tracks of the last 15 years, the hugely popular Trust, complete with Dave Mustaine playing a (magnificent or hugely OTT, depending on your opinion) 12 string double guitar. A moody In My Darkest Hour and a quick sprint through fellow "always likely to be heard early at a Megadeth show" song Wake Up Dead set the tone for a fantastic hour of thrash goodness. Hangar 18 appeared surprisingly early in the proceedings to set off circle pits and mass headbanging alike and Sweating Bullets produced the unusual kind of singalong only that song is capable of from Megadeths varied repetoire.
Ellefson and Mustaine: 2 MegaDaves are better than one
In full flow, we were treated to a new Megadeth song, Public Enemy Number One, and recent favourite Headcrusher with something of an acapella intro from Mr Mustaine. From there on out it was back to classic Megadeth with Symphony of Destruction, an awesome sounding Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? (on the 25th anniversary of the album) and Holy Wars finishing off the allotted hour with Megadeth sounding as energised and punishing as they have at any time since they returned in 2005.
The Full Megadeth Setlist was:
- Trust
- In My Darkest Hour
- Wake Up Dead
- Hangar 18
- Sweating Bullets
- Poison Was The Cure
- Headcrusher
- Public Enemy Number One
- A Tout Le Monde
- Symphony of Destruction
- Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?
- Holy Wars...The Punishment Due
This was my 8th time seeing Megadeth live and this is the most I've ever seen the band, and Dave Mustaine in particular enjoying themselves. The trademark Mustaine snarl was replaced with a genuine smile on a regular basis during this performance, something that has never been witnessed before by myself. Whether it is having longtime friend David Ellefson back in the band, having made a degree of peace with Metallica, other factors or all of the above, MegaDave seems to be in a good place right now. After thanking what he said was an exceptional audience, and god for keeping the rain away during their performance (amen) Megadeth were gone, leaving a very happy and satisfied assembled throng of metalheads behind. Anthrax were long forgotten and the bar for those to come had been set very high. 8.5
Last year at Sonisphere, Slayer seemed pretty pissed off at their mid afternoon time slot, and I think their performance and show suffered as a result. Whilst I found it perfectly enjoyable many others did not, with them being referred to in some quarters as the worst band of the festival, not a remark you expect to be uttered about a Slayer live show. With this in mind, and with Megadeth's performance to follow, few people will have been surprised when Slayer came out all guns blazing, and then some. Disciple and War Ensemble were delivered with a brutality I have not heard from Slayer live in years as were newer songs such as Hate Worlwide which fit in nicely amongst the older songs. In terms of the band themselves, as Metal Hammer put it, Gary Holt from Exodus who is standing in for Jeff Hannemann on this tour due to Jeff's health situation seemed to be in the shredding form of his life, while Tom Araya's presence was ever more imposing on stage and Dave Lombardo and Kerry King were on fine form.
Slayer: Dancing With The Dead In Your Dreams
Like Megadeth, Slayer unleashed a punishing last third of their set with South of Heaven, Raining Blood and Angel of Death following in quick succession, but unlike last year they were delivered with such enthusiasm and purpose you just knew that people were beating seven bells out of each other in the assorted circle pits in reaction to a fantastic Slayer performance.
Slayer's full setlist was:
- Disciple
- War Ensemble
- Hate Worlwide
- Dittohead
- Dead Skin Mask
- Snuff
- Seasons In The Abyss
- Mandatory Suicide
- Chemical Warfare
- South Of Heaven
- Raining Blood
- Black Magic
- Angel Of Death
This showing by Slayer will have done the band and its fans the world of good. Their live reputation in the UK thoroughly restored, they rose to the challenge set by Megadeth and matched them head on with their own hour of thrash fury and the main beneficiaries were all of us in attendance. Long may they keep it up. 8.
After Megadeth and Slayer you almost felt Metallica were going to have to pull out something a little bit more special than usual to keep pace with their bay area thrash colleagues. After the obligatory AC/DC warm up song and The Ecstasy of Gold intro, any thoughts that Lars, James, Kirk and Rob wouldn't be up for the challenge were thoroughly smashed as they launched into Hit The Lights and then followed straight into Master of Puppets. 60,000 jaws hit the floor only to be swiftly scooped up, moshpits joined and long heads of hair thrashed into the air at will. Metallica were just getting started. "Knebworth, for you we pull The Shortest Straw!" announced James Hetfield to the masses as one of the And Justice For All rarities got a heavy airing, followed by usual closer Seek & Destroy, which has closed pretty much every Metallica show for the last several years. The big four came to mean business and the main three of them had certainly brought their A games to the UK.
Kirk Hammett soloing away at Knebworth
The title track of Ride The Lightning being riffed out in all its glory for us was a nice surprise, though not nearly as much as the surprise of getting to hear the magnificence of The Call of Ktulu, all 9 minutes plus of it in a live setting for the first time. James made a couple of mistakes during the song, however I doubt anyone cared and most people were so into it probably very few even noticed. After the instrumental mesmerisation it was back to hard and fast classics with One, For Whom The Bell Tolls and Blackened being served up one after the after for more headbanging aplenty. Fade To Black was promoted to take the Nothing Else Matters slot in the setlist (surprisingly conspicuous by its absence, but it was also a nice surprise that it was missing) and sounded fantastic in doing so before the most familar mainstream metal riff of the last twenty years emanated from Hetfield's guitar to bring home an enormous singalong and the main part of Metallica's set.
As the crowd chanted for more, a lot of equipment was hastily wheeled on stage. The Metallica guys made light of this, with James asking "what's all this equipment doing on stage?" as if he was oblivious. Much backslapping, high fiving and hugging commenced when the members of the rest of the big four converged on stage for an encore jam (seeing James Hetfield smiling and hugging Dave Mustaine in the flesh was a very cool, surreal experience). The fact that not only were there most of the members of the big four all together on stage, but the fact they were joined a) by Andreas Kisser of Sepultura and Gary Holt from Exodus and b) Brian Tatler of Diamond Head (as Lars put it, without Diamond Head none of them probably would be on the stage at that very moment) means that those present saw probably the greatest collection of thrash and riff based metal talent ever assembled on stage together at any one time. With Bryan leading the riffathon Am I Evil was performed to a very high standard, vocal duties being shared between Msrs Hetfield, Belladonna and Mustaine. It was the stuff metal dreams are made of and I'm just glad I was able to witness it.
Following more mass male bonding, Metallica were once again by themselves on stage and you were wondering after what had already transpired what would be next. An intro-less, pummelling run through Battery would be the answer, before Creeping Death assumed "the Seek & Destroy position" to bring to a close a magnificent night of history making thrash metal in the UK.
Metallica's full setlist was:
- The Ecstasy of Gold (intro)
- Hit the Lights
- Master of Puppets
- The Shortest Straw
- Seek & Destroy
- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
- Ride the Lightning
- The Memory Remains
- All Nightmare Long
- Sad But True
- The Call of Ktulu
- One
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Blackened
- Fade to Black
- Enter Sandman
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- Am I Evil? - Big four jam with members of Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth and Diamond Head
- Battery
- Creeping Death
As any semi-regular reader knows, Metallica are my favourite band and thus I am biased towards them. However I am objective enough to review them according to the level of performance they put on. Quite simply, it was one of the best performances in the 11 times I have been privileged enough to see them live. Spurred on by the very high standards of Megadeth and Slayer, they were simply outstanding and I don't think I've ever been happier at the conclusion of a day of any festival. 9.5
And thus, the big four came and all apart from Anthrax certainly concurred. We can only hope that some day it happens again on these shores, or that Dave Mustaine and Metallica remain on good terms and perhaps the two may someday do an arena tour together. After that, it was easy to forget there were two more days of the festival to come. Stay tunes for reviews of Sonisphere Knebworth 2011 Saturday and Sunday!
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