thinly veiled bragging starts
havent done a fest in 7 years, but the lineup swayed me.
this festival is in bumfuck nowhere, south france. grabbed the ferry from south uk.
cant remember what order this was in
saw therapy?, very good and did judas priest and joy division covers. heartening to see them go down so well.
later that day saw monster magnet in a small tent - awesome, plus wyndorf was mesmerised by a glowstick in my mates pint.
maiden were maiden - pure classics (uusuals plus wasted years). some swiss were singing “footballs going home”, bruce responded by pointing out they just got bummed five nil by the french - wayyy
next up in the tent at midnight was electric wizard… opened with an awesome drugged out version of supercoven. funerapolis was great as usual.
gutted i missed godflesh as they clashed with maiden, but lo, having a smoke outside the tent i heard streetcleaner stuff being soundchecked. so next up was godflesh for an elite crew of wreckheads - loved it.
crowbar early next day… great but fuck it was hot… nola sludge in 35 degree heat takes it out of this paddy.
half slayer were decent but meh at the same time. miss jeff
carcass fucking destroyed it around 1am… jeff is a funny bastard. tons of heartwork and new stuff, plus double speed corporal jigsore
behemoth are on top of their game - fast becoming the black metal KISS (in the best way). mostly new stuff. saw them at golden gods recently, definite upward trajectory
emperor did all of nightside eclipse. need i say more. perfect recital.
sabbath was sabbath - great and band as tight as youd expect (although ozzy STILL fucks up iron man. cheers to the desk for tactical muting)
phil anselmo and the illegals played the valley tent at midnight, tons of classic phil rants plus loads of pantera - hellbound, death rattle, domination/hollow, some sjr, nick oliveri crowdsurfing
speaking of which, nick did vocals with turbonegro, who also did a cover of money for nothing - very funny to see cooler than thou black hoody punk types nodding politely to dire straits.
bizarrely, status quo played - quite heartening to see such a grizzled crowd get so into dad rock.
i remember billy milano telling us to love each other or something
sepultura and soulfly both played and both seemed like maybe they’d be stronger as a combined unit. still, not bad.
rob zombie was ok but he needs to choose between leaping around like a bell end and being able to sing. did a cover of am i evil wearing a weird horse mask nabbed from a crowd
french security is pretty laissez faire, valley tent was guffed out with smoke 24/7
valley tent is stoner, altar/temple do black/death, warzone do punk and then theres 2 main stages do the rest - theyre right next to each other so we waited about ten mins between emperor and sabbath (surreal)
main thing is music finishes at 2/3am - way better than UK fests where security chase you to bed at 11
overall, if you can do it then do it…