Chuck Billy and the band come out on stage to a huge roar and kick off with Brotherhood of the Snake which they have started many other gigs with this year, followed by The Pale King, the first two tracks off 2016’s ‘Brotherhood of the Snake’ record. These two songs have everything you’d expect from Testament, plenty of thrashy tempo changes, face-melting guitar and, of course, endless air guitar from Chuck! The album itself is one of the band’s most successful yet released, both commercially and critically.
Next we’re treated to More than Meets the Eye and D.N.R. from albums released either side of Chuck Billy’s illness in the early 2000s. Also from The Gathering is Eyes of Wrath which I get a great view of now that I’m out of the photo pit. While Chuck Billy’s vocals are still great, Eric and Steve’s guitar and bass sound great and Gene Hoglan’s drumming is dead on target but for me it’s Alex Skolnick’s guitar that steals the show, he is note perfect with huge scales and tricky artificial harmonics. No wonder Lamb of God paid tribute to him earlier in the day!
It was a little disappointing not to see more material off Dark Roots but it would be hard to complain about seeing this concert if it was your first time seeing Testament, jam-packed as it was with great metal.
Their European Tour this time around has taken in 11 countries and 14 concerts so far but with more to come at big events like Wacken OA and Pol’And’Rock before going back to the States in September. Testament had planned an album, their twelfth studio album, for release in 2018 but it was then pushed back to 2019 and now looks to be pushed again to 2020 breaking the band’s promise that it wouldn’t be another 4 years between albums. The fans here today don’t seem to be complaining too much about that!
The rip-roaring Disciples is next and then we finish off our evening with Testament with The Formation of Damnation. A great show, by a great band.
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I had imagined writing so many things for this show but the truth is… you had to be there. I know, cliché right? There is a gigantic shimmering Slipknot banner covering the construction of the set and lit by stage lights behind it, it’s an iconic logo and even the sight of it gets fans gathering around the stage way too early for the show.
To let fans know to get in place (as if they didn’t know already) AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock is blasted over the sound system and once it ends abruptly it is replaced by the uncomfortable sounds of (515) from ‘Iowa’. The dialing code for central Iowa including Des Moines, (515) is a perfect opener, it’s squealing, squirming sounds are designed to let you know one thing: you’re in Slipknot territory now. Just like on the record itself the song is followed by the iconic People=Shit which I saw previously in Ireland from them but there was no way Dublin’s RDS could match the vocals of this Spanish crowd crucifying the chorus on Slipknot’s fiery altar in front of them. It was breathtaking. The banner covering the stage is whisked away and the 9 are revealed beneath.
Slipknot have transcended a generational boundary and now a whole new wave of younger people get to experience Slipknot as well as their original followers. Veteran maggots are eager to welcome more to the fold.
In between (sic) and Get This, Corey speaks to the crowd about the importance of family and how so many things in our lives are designed to divide us but that music is a uniting force. We move onto new song Unsainted off their upcoming August release studio album ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ named after a line in their first single off the album, All Out Life.
Slipknot’s catalogue is so jam packed now that it allows the band to put together any ass-kicking setlist you can think of. It was a veritable anthology of many of their greatest songs spanning most of their records. Hold on to something because Disasterpiece is next up followed by Before I Forget and the band’s national (Heretic) anthem “if you’re 555 then I’m 666!”.
This is a carnival of sound, light, and action. A show, a trip to the theater. Fully controlled poetry in motion. And right now, Slipknot would put any band in the world to shame for their sheer effort both in designing the show and performing it all. From 2008’s ‘All Hope Is Gone’ we get Sulfur and Psychosocial interspersed with Custer and The Devil in I from ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’, the first record not to feature deceased bassist Paul Gray.
We are now twenty years on from that iconic first record from Slipknot, released two years after their initial demo recording, they came to the world with a heavier more impulsive brand of metal than ever seen before and that great sound continues today. They may not have the original nine members they started their journey with, in fact the newest member who’s been performing all tour with the band has yet to be revealed, but the message is the same; we are not your kind.
They come back on for their encore, a 1am rendition of Spit It Out. Just like the last time I saw them, everyone was instructed to sit down and even though I’d seen it before and taken part it was a joy to behold so many people doing it once again.
I’m pretty sure I headbanged myself unconscious because when I woke up we were on to the high pitched screeches of Surfacing. I saw Slipknot opening for Metallica more than a decade ago in Dublin, Ireland and they were amazing. At the time I was more than convinced that they were an incredible live act but this thing they’ve become is a whole new beast. A beast number 666!
Slipknot’s European tour has reached new heights. I do wish they had played Eyeless or Wait and Bleed but that’s just being greedy. In all honesty, this was probably the best metal show I have ever or will ever see. Slipknot have set the bar very, very high.
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Nine o’clock on a Friday night and there are few better places to be than at Resurrection Fest 2019. The acts so far today and those still to look forward to tonight are mouth-watering. Now, add in the fact that everyone has that Friday night feeling and you get an idea for where the crowd is at when Swedish death metal melody-masters Arch Enemy take to the main stage.
They opened with The World Is Yours from 2017’s ‘Will to Power’ album, a song designed to be a jump cable to get crowds started, and why not? It works everytime! ‘Will to Power’ is the first album with current guitarist Jeff Loomis and we’ll be sure to see plenty of material off that album today hopefully.
Just like last time I saw them in Denmark, Alissa White-Gluz’s vocals are perfect. Alissa was Angela Gussow’s replacement in 2014 after her departure from the band to become their manager and the band has gone from strength to strength under her stewardship. Next up is War Eternal from the record of the same name, a song that has loads of individual great headbanging moments.
The Race and My Apocalypse follow, mixing older material from ‘Doomsday Machine’ with their latest music, it all blends seamlessly and the crowd is completely engaged with the band throughout.
Alissa White-Gluz is an awesome front-person for a band, engaging, talented and passionate always as the guitars lead us into You Will Know My Name, taken from the first album she sang on with the band after their line-up change.
Arch Enemy have a full hour-long set to showcase their sound to the waiting Spanish crowd and they waste none of it, playing through loads of their newest material and some older classics too, they had everyone clapping along and headbanging to tracks like The Eagle Flies Alone and As the Pages Burn. A great set complete to tee us up for the mighty Slipknot next on the main stage!
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The group is together for twenty years this year and what better way to celebrate than hitting the road for a European Tour. Resurrection Fest is the last stop on a tour that’s lasted for around six weeks now, starting on June 7th at Rock im Ring in Nuremberg and ending at this show in Northern Spain.
The Grammy-nominated band are still touring off the embers of 2017’s well-received ‘The Sin and the Sentence’ which we’re going to hear plenty of tonight we hope. As a way of goading the crowd, frontman Matt Heafy lets everyone know that the previous show (in Lisbon) had the best crowd of the tour. Predictably booing ensues and Matt challenges the crowd “Well if you want to be the best you need to give us more!”
Challenge Accepted.
The performance was non-stop, no breathing room, no respite between the tracks. It was a metal blitzkrieg, shock and awe starting with the title track off 2017’s ‘The Sin and the Sentence’ and the excellent drum sound of Beyond Oblivion from the same record. They are lightspeed songs, easy to enjoy for metal fans of any creed.
Older songs Like Light to the Flies and Down from the Sky are sandwiched in with newer material like Sever the Hand off their most recent album. It’s a cracking setlist and one they’ve used most of this tour which is no bad thing because by the last show we get to listen to a perfectly polished sound!
They close out the set with Pull Harder on the Strings from ‘Ascendancy’ and In Waves from the record of the same name. This felt like a band wanting to give their everything to the last show of the tour and they really did make it a memorable one. Trivium set the bar high for Arch Enemy and Slipknot to follow them. They may not have had the theatrics or pyrotechnics but what they did have was a wall of pure rock fury.
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Walking into the Pub Station for the first time in over a decade was a risk I was willing to take, especially knowing that I was about to hang with the boys from Buckcherry, but I was not prepared for Joyous Wolf….at all!
To say the charisma of Nick Reese, lead singer for Joyous Wolf is instantaneously gravitational towards a higher plane is an understatement. Mix Captain Charisma, Nick Reese with the slaughterhouse axing of Blake Allard on guitar, sludge tones of Greg Braccio’s base and the tub thumping beats of Robert Sodaro’s cloned John Bonham drum set and you get JOYOUS F’N WOLF in the 406!
Hailing from Southern California, vocalist Nick Reese, guitarist Blake Allard, bassist Greg Braccio, and drummer Robert Sodaro are beginning to rise faster than most and have just announced a supporting roll with Foghat and DEEP PURPLE!!! Not to mention a solid rise on Sirius XM’s rotations and being featured on @IAMJerhicho’s hour show on SXMOctane!
Just heard @JoyousWolfMusic on @IAmJericho via @SXMOctane!!! I love my LIFE!
Thank you @powerofmetaldk!
See you dudes soon!!! Come back to #MyMontana #TIWMafia pic.twitter.com/jrG3JU1x9V
— Josh Richards (@406Yeti) June 28, 2019
The SHOW!
With an amazing visual show, killer tunes that caught my ears quickly in of course this guy did what he always does:
- Buy an album.
- Get it autographed
- Meet the Band
- Listen to the album incessantly for a month to absorb and relive that same LIVE experience as often as I can.
The recorded music, body of work, LIVE show and meeting Nick, (Mr. out on his phone), Greg and Robert was a true pleasure. Taking time out of their busy schedule to listen to the cause of Mental Health Awareness and Suicide in the state of Montana was huge. Joyous Wolf is breaking out in 2019 and they are breaking out hard. Below you can see just a few pics of the amazing night compliments of Brendan Dekievet of Montana Music Media as well as my night witnessing Joyous Wolf, not just for the first time EVER, but for the first time EVER LIVE!!!
…but to the juice right!
If you are the type of person who arrives and are expecting a typical, “warm up band”, you’re ears are going to sing with JOY as JOYOUS WOLF is not in that category. NOT EVEN CLOSE!
As I stepped into the Pub Station for the first time in almost ten years the sounds, the smells and the electrifying atmosphere was palpable as Blake was wailing on the axe, Nick was contorting on the stage, Greg was grooving with the crowd while Robert smiled from ear to ear beating the shit out of the kit! It was game time!!!
Missing the first two songs of the set in “Undesired” and “Place in Time” was a well played delay by the universe, but walking into a LIVE rendition of, “Holy Diver“, not to be confused by Dio’s “Holy Driver” was an instant ‘hook’ for me! You know that feeling right? When you hear that lick, or that voice or that tone or that beat that clicks in your soul. That is Joyous Wolf, and when they set that hook, they reeled me in with my favorite song off their PLACE IN TIME album in “Had Enough“.
Expect Nick Reese channeling a young Chris Robinson as the soul, southern influence and american metal mix will instantly grab you as it should. – /raVen/
Sitting at the #1 spot on the album, Joyous Wolf takes no time in busting into your ears with the necessary drops, splits and silences in the first fifteen seconds of “Had Enough” that you just cant stop listening. These young men are on an amazing ride and look forward to a POWER OF METAL Exclusive Interview in the coming weeks with front man Nick Reese as we talk everything on the WARPAINT TOUR and how that experience has prepared him and the rest of the band.
YOU know the deal! TAG POWER OF METAL on Twitter with any pics of the boys from Joyous WOLF and be entered to win an authographed set list signed by all 4 members of the band!
TAG: Power of Metal, Joyous Wolf, and /raVen/ for the Autographed SETLIST!
DOWNLOAD – STREAM – FUKIN BUY!
Hurry up and see them now as they will be headlining tours in the years to come. Thanks for owning guys each and every square inch of that stage guys! Period.
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‘So What?’ was released in March of this year after four singles and a behind the scenes rockumentary. While the band has their own label, Sleep Brothers, they are releasing this latest album in conjunction with American metal masters Spinefarm Records. This is the label behind acts like Bullet For My Valentine, Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Rammstein, etc., which should ensure this latest record reaches as many future fans as possible.
The set kicks off with rapid fire songs You Are We, Anti-Social and Brainwashed to get the crowd moving. If you’re not familiar with While She Sleeps’ sound it might be described as uplifting punk metal. Formed in Sheffield, UK just over a decade ago and winning Best Newcomer at the Kerrang! Awards in 2012. Since then, they’ve kept the same line-up throughout and continued from strength to strength. What better way to continue showcasing their talent to the world than at Resurrection Fest 2019 where they’re playing on the exact same stage that one of their influences, Slipknot, play on later tonight!
Before we move onto Civil Isolation, singer and guitarist Mat Welsh has a special thank you; one for the crowd and another one for Bleed From Within singer Scott Kennedy who has stepped in on short notice for singer Loz Taylor who has had to depart the tour. Loz Taylor and the band announced on July 1st that he wouldn’t be completing the rest of the tour for personal reasons but the band insisted that the show must go on.
For a guy who has just learned another band’s work to perform in front of thousands of people Scott Kennedy has done amazingly well and dare I say the crowd don’t seem to mind missing out on seeing Loz all that much! Kennedy has stepped up to the plate here big time and nailed his performance which deserves an awful lot of credit. Not only were Kennedy’s vocals great but Mat Welsh was as well, screaming every part with passion.
While She Sleeps are full of energy now and whipping the crowd into a circle pit frenzy with crowd surfers raining over the barriers. Then, everything slows down a bit for Four Walls but it doesn’t stay slow for long and the tempo ramps right back up again. The band close out their set with Silence Speaks and Hurricane both from 2017’s ‘You Are We’.
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Everyone remembers their first Slayer show, it’s like a right of passage for metal fans. However, now we’ll have to remember our last ever Slayer show. At Viveiro’s Resurrection Fest 2019 they play the final leg of their last ever world tour before retiring.
Let me set the scene. Just before 10PM the heaviest North America has ever produced stepped out into the heaviest rainfall in northern Spain. The crowd is baying for blood by now having been kept warm by metal and cervezas all day. Then it starts. 
Picture this: Lightning splits the night. Rain from the heavens falls as the sky opens up. The crash of thunder rolls over the hills nearby. Is there any better way to start a Slayer concert? Well, actually in this case it got so bad that the concert had to be abandoned! I am not kidding, the crowd had to disburse and the concert stopped before it had even begun! 
Almost an hour later and the crowd comes back to the wait for their metal heroes and Slayer finally hit the stage full force with Repentless and World Painted Blood followed by one of my favourite songs, Postmortem! Three crucifyingly good performances, Kerry King’s solos in particular were sheer perfection.
Tom Araya got the crowd to help with War Ensemble soon after by getting everyone to scream “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…” to open the first track of Seasons in the Abyss. The tempo slows down for songs like Seasons in the Abyss and Hell Awaits. 
Then, Raining Blood echoed out across the Spanish hills as the band played through the storm soaked in rain themselves! What an occasion, a perfect way to end Slayer’s domination of the metal world. 
It’s heartbreaking to see one of your favourite bands call if quits but at the same time you can’t help feel that it’s the right time to do it after Jeff Hanneman’s death in 2013 to be replaced by Gary Holt of Exodus and Dave Lombardo’s departure from the band in 2013 following a pay dispute, only two remained of the original line-up.
The show was closed with Dead Skin Mask and the machine gun speed guitar and blistering drums of Angel of Death. Tom’s voice nails the intro vocals perfectly, an iconic scream, the death throes of a metal giant.
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I remember reading about Parkway Drive in Kerrang! on my way to Copenhell 2018 and thinking there was no way they could live up to the hype. Then, after I’d seen them in concert I declared to myself that I thought they were world beaters, able to go toe-to-toe with any band in the world. Now at Resurrection Fest was a chance to watch them again and see if the hype was real or I’d gotten it wrong.
….I was not wrong. Parkway Drive are one of the best bands in the world right now and look like they can’t be stopped on their road to world domination. They’re not here to take part. They’re here to take over.
The show started off with the press being cleared out of the media area, we just assumed the area was closing for the night because it was far after midnight by now after the delayed Slayer show earlier. However, emerging behind us we saw torch bearers lighting the way for a procession. I couldn’t believe it, the band was actually going to walk straight through the thousands of people to get to the front of the stage. I still have no idea how they got everyone to move but the tone was set for the night ahead as the band climbed over the barriers.
They get to the stage and it’s not long before it all kicks off. A slow melody for a minute or so for the intro vocals of Wishing Wells off 2018’s record ‘Reverence’, followed by Prey and then Vice Grip, all of which are individual sounds with great guitar riffs designed to get your head banging with hardly a breath between them.
At Copenhell they had the precision and the passion. At Resurrection Fest they added theatrics to the mix, from the entrance walk to the pyrotechnics, fireworks and orchestra (yes actual wind and string instruments being played on stage). We play on through the set with heavy explosive songs like Idols and Anchors from 2007’s album ‘Horizons’, then Writings on the Wall from ‘Ire’ followed by the devastating Absolute Power.
I’ve talked before about Winston McCall’s vocals, after writing my thoughts when seeing them at Copenhell 2018 I said “he holds the audience’s attention and won’t accept anything less!” and it just rings so true this year again. He is a tour de force of a frontman, one of the band’s most recognisable elements. And I definitely feel like Jeff Ling’s guitar parts were particularly exceptional and the guitarist himself was a lot more engaging with the crowd, mouthing along all of their lyrics! It’s always great to see when a band enjoys their own music.
By the time we get to the encore songs, Parkway Drive set Resurrection Fest alight. Literally. The whole stage was in flames and that’s before the fiery torch bearers entered the stage to add even more to the atmosphere. The diversity of entertainment Parkway Drive managed to fit into their slot would make you think they had played a full three hour concert on their own, they absolutely hit it out of the park and please bear in mind their set had been delayed by almost an hour so by now they were playing well past 2 a.m.!
There’s no denying it, Parkway Drive stole the show.
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I can hardly find a time in the past few years where Gojira haven’t been touring. I was lucky to have a great photographer in Ireland (the sage Fiaz Farrelly) point me in the direction of listening to Gojira since he had been their photographer for a time and he couldn’t stress how much I would fall in love with this band. He was right, I was hooked but by then it was too late to catch their Dublin show. Now, at northern Spain’s heaviest music festival it was time to right that wrong.
Joe Duplantier and brother Mario take the stage along with guitarist Christian Andreu and bassist Jean-Michel Labadie kicking straight into Oroborus, the circle of life and death. Opening with that insane tapping guitar riff and then biting vocals, you’d swear you were listening to a recording their sound was so perfect. Soon after came big hits like Stranded and mosh fuel Flying Whales. In truth every song was amazing right through Grammy-nominated Silvera, heavy hitting L’Enfant Sauvage before finishing off with Blow Me Away You (Niverse) from debut album Terra Incognita. The sound and pyrotechnics were great and well-timed throughout and it wasn’t even too hard to squeeze my way through the crowd for a closer look.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who wanted a closer look because after the set finished Mario Duplantier ran off stage and joined the crowd on his body board. He was literally going to crowd surf. “Don’t keep him, we need that mother-fu*ker back on stage to finish the tour” his brother Joe said over the microphone.
In hindsight I think I would rather see them in a smaller venue on their own rather than as part of a festival billing to get the experience I was looking for but there’s no denying Gojira are one of the metal bands you absolutely have to see in your life.
Until next time, Gojira.
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Straight from Tokyo, Crystal Lake are here to change all that.
I showed up to the main stage on the first full day of the festival having just stepped through the entrance for the first time in time to see these metal heads take to the stage in a full-on spectacle of energy, distortion and vocals. If you’re wondering what kind of sound it is imagine Limp Bizkit combined with The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Or to have a closer look check out the videos for tracks like AEON and Apollo. Singer Ryo Kinoshita takes to the stage after drummer Gaku Taura wearing a classic ‘Existence is Punishment’ Crowbar shirt, a band which played this same venue a few years back and immediately starts goading the crowd into action.
They’ve brought their own take on a brand of heavy music made for stadiums, huge venues and festivals just like this. It was loud. It was in your face. It was metal. The crowd loved it too, it was hard not to get infected by the energy on stage!
This for me is one of the best things about a festival, the surprises. You might not have gone thinking a specific band would impress you but there are always a few that really stick with you and, while I don’t think they’re ready to topple the world leadership of metal music just yet they’re a band I’ll be keeping a closer eye on in the future.
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