As we headed into day three of Hellfest, it was set to be another packed schedule for us. Read on to find out the bands we caught during the day!
Danish rockers D-A-D have been around since 1982, originally called Disneyland After Dark they had a forced name change to D-A-D. We are glad to have caught them after rushing over from Nantes on the train a little later than planned, we were well prepared for the 2am finish this time though! Vocalist Jesper Binzer is joined by his younger brother Jacob Binzer on guitar while Stig Pedersen is on bass with Laust Sonne on drums, the four-piece had their first breakthrough album in 1989 with No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims which opening track Jihad was from as well as Girl Nation and the excellent Sleeping My Day Away, the latter turned out to be the last (and best) of the set. 9/10
As we moved across to Main Stage 02, Visions Of Atlantis were a surprise act for us today, led by the stunning vocals from Clementine Delauney the Austrian band worked the crowd so well with the usual crowd surfing and circle pits being as lively as the previous day even though the temperatures were touching forty degrees today, there was an addition too … rowing! Clementine demanded that the crowd get down and row, row, row, everyone followed the order and it was just made the performance even better creating some great memories for the fans too. With nine studio albums behind them now after the release of Pirates II – Armada last year they had a large back catalogue to choose the eight songs from, Hellfire was a standout but Melancholy Angel took it to the next level as the crowd joins in with the chorus “Hail Jolly Rodger”. Great performance. 10/10
Myles Kennedy needs little introduction back on Main Stage 01 as the frontman and guitarist of Alter Bridge and touring musician alongside Slash plays an astounding forty-five minute set with tracks mainly taken from his October 2024 album The Art Of Letting Go, in fact the title track was the opener, the crowd are more laid back for this one but is still appreciated all round. Say What You Will is the last of the set and also the one that gets a decent circle pit going after Pasquale does his rounds with the water hose. 9/10
German symphonic metal band Beyond The Black took to Main Stage 02, we went into this one without any prior knowledge of the band and were pleasantly surprised how good they were. Led by the beautiful vocals of Jennifer Haben they definitely hit the spot with the massive crowd watching. We were fortunate to be the first to hear new single Rising High live while other highlights were Reincarnation and Heart Of The Hurricane. 9/10
Black Country Communion are a supergroup made up of Glenn Hughes (vocals & bass), Joe Bonamassa (guitar), Derek Sherinian (keyboards) and Jason Bonham (drums), the son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. The crowd reacted well to the performance knowing that they were watching four top musicians. 8/10
Two legends played together today as Joe Satriani and Stevie Vai joined forces under the name Satchvai Band, it was difficult to keep our eyes off Satriani especially as he produced an exhilarating performance on the guitar while Vai on vocals kept the crowd energetic. At one point a triple guitar is wheeled out on to the stage which Vai plays to the amazement of everyone watching, not to be outdone though Satriani once again explodes into life wowing the crowd with his skills on the six string. Two of the best guitarists in Joe Bonamassa and Joe Satriani playing on the same day though … wow! The cover of Born To Be Wild at the end of the set was a masterclass and had some decent crowd involvement too. 10/10
Forming in Birmingham way back in 1969 Judas Priest had a hardcore group of fans over from England and beyond for this performance. The first thing that struck me was that vocalist Robert Halford constantly left the stage during each song making us wonder if he was ill, don’t get us wrong his vocals were decent as he ran through a set that included all the classic songs such as Breaking The Law, You’ve Got Another Thing Coming and Painkiller from which album most of the tracks were from. 7/10
As good as Judas Priest were we headed off near the end of the set to catch Defeater over at the Warzone stage, the hardcore band worked the crowd well covering older tracks alongside some recent ones including openers Bastards and No Shame. During Dear Father singer Derek Archambault was very emotional while last song The Red, White and Blues received a good reception from the French crowd. 8/10
What can we say about our first time seeing Russian Circles live? They took to The Valley stage just up from the Warzone where we would be headed next at midnight to a packed-out crowd that were about to witness something unique: a band playing a full hour without uttering a single word! Yes that’s the Russian Circles style, they let the music do the talking and boy did it do just that. This isn’t a performance with a wild crowd, maybe lots of head nodding and even closing the eyes as the music almost puts you in a trance like state. The visuals were a big part of the show too at times reflecting something that Pink Floyd would have done back in the day and let’s remember that there are only three musicians on the stage, they make one hell of a racket for one three people! The Chicago-based trio are Mike Sullivan (guitar), Dave Tumcrantz (drums) and Brian Cook (bass) and with seven studio albums behind them now are well established, this has to be see to be believed, the eight minute epic Mladek is a standout. 10/10
Picture the scene: its is now 1am on a Sunday morning and the Warzone arena is lit up like a fire pit as fans fight for any tiny spaces to watch the last band of the night Turnstile, there is an absolute buzz in the air that something special is about to happen. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, USA Turnstile are a hardcore band by tradition but latest album release NEVER ENOUGH seems to be a more gentle take on this at times, for example tonight’s opener NEVER ENOUGH is a soft start to the seventeen track set making them sound almost mainstream … This soon changes though as they delve into the more hardcore punk style the fans are here for with tracks such as T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection), Keep It Moving and I CARE creating scenes of absolute chaos among the crowd, the constant stream of surfers has the security team on their toes for the full hour! Brendan Yates on vocals is so energetic on stage tonight with LOOK OUT FOR ME and BLACKOUT being the standout tracks for us. Turnstile have just announced a tour for the end of the year and tickets for that will be much sought after. 10/10
What an incredible end to Saturday at Hellfest with Russian Circles and Turnstile, yes contrasting styles of music but they both hit very hard and both deservedly on the ‘top five band of the weekend’ list.
Check out our review of day one and day two of Hellfest.
Written by: Alan Brown
