In the difficult first slot of the afternoon Code Orange brought all they had to the sparse but reverent crowd. They are on the face of it just another deathcore outfit but with the unique selling point of their drummer also being their growler in chief. The problem with having the drummer as your lead singer means there is no on stage focal point for your band on stage. Despite the best efforts of the three guitarists and bassist they just looked a bit lost on stage as a disconnected voice swirled from behind them.
Regardless their set was very entertaining. The only down point being the strange decision, after playing 30 minutes of relentless deathcore, to let their otherwise awesome female guitarist to change the pace with a tunelessly sung ballad. I can only think that she is the one with the driving license.
Regardless their set was very entertaining. The only down point being the strange decision, after playing 30 minutes of relentless deathcore, to let their otherwise awesome female guitarist to change the pace with a tunelessly sung ballad. I can only think that she is the one with the driving license.
Sleeping with Sirens
Didn't watch any of this set as was busy playing Double Disc Court with a Ukrainian Ultimate player we had just met. They made excellent background music, was surprised to find out later than the lead singer was not in fact a women.
Prophets of Rage
If you were in a rap group and you wanted to replace your lead singer you couldn't do any better than drafting two hip hop legends B-Real and Chuck D.
This is exactly what Rage Against the Machine have done. Despite the name change this is still Rage Against the Machine albeit without Zach. They played all the Rage favourites storming through legendary track after track, arguably even better than when Zach was around. Not even a biblical rain storm or technical issues could distract from the brilliance of this show.
If there was any doubt that Rage Against the Machine is Tom Morello this gig settles it. He is doing things with a guitar that no one else does, perhaps there may be technically better players out there but musically he is peerless. At one point he even played a solo just using a guitar lead. Mind blown.
By far the highlight of the whole festival. I look forward to their album in September.
System of a downDidn't watch any of this set as was busy playing Double Disc Court with a Ukrainian Ultimate player we had just met. They made excellent background music, was surprised to find out later than the lead singer was not in fact a women.
Prophets of Rage
If you were in a rap group and you wanted to replace your lead singer you couldn't do any better than drafting two hip hop legends B-Real and Chuck D.
This is exactly what Rage Against the Machine have done. Despite the name change this is still Rage Against the Machine albeit without Zach. They played all the Rage favourites storming through legendary track after track, arguably even better than when Zach was around. Not even a biblical rain storm or technical issues could distract from the brilliance of this show.
If there was any doubt that Rage Against the Machine is Tom Morello this gig settles it. He is doing things with a guitar that no one else does, perhaps there may be technically better players out there but musically he is peerless. At one point he even played a solo just using a guitar lead. Mind blown.
By far the highlight of the whole festival. I look forward to their album in September.
Old favorites SOAD had a hard act to follow and they never quite hit the heights of the Prophets of Rage. Bedevilled by sound problems, Serj's vocals strangely lacked power, possibly because of the wind, rain storms and a badly paced set, nevertheless there were still a cut above the average, but still a touch disappointing.
View
A Finish hip hop performer in the style of Faithless was always going to be a bit out of place at a rock festival. Admittedly he had been exiled to the small stage but even so it was an unusual change of pace. I don’t think he was known much outside of Finland, an assumption which was borne out by his lack of preparedness for
the heat. It's only 15 degrees in summer where I come from he said at one point, indicating that perhaps he hadn't been out of Scandinavia much.
Nevertheless he performed his tracks flawlessly, he and his producer create some great beats overlaid with View's deep dark vocal style. The handful of people that watched him were very appreciative. A band to look out for.
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