The final day of Hellfest had arrived far too quickly, before heading over to see Novelists we thought we would take a walk around the site, today was the first time there was barely a queue at The Sanctuary, that’s the place to be if you’re buying merchandise and we thought it rude not to buy a Hellfest t-shirt. The fifty-acre site that the festival sits on alongside the six stages is vast and would host an incredible 250,000 fans over the four days.
Every band on the list today are new for us as the final day kicks off with Novelists on Main Stage 02, the Paris metalcore band were formed in 2013 by brothers Florestan and Amael Durand, they are now on vocalist number three with Camille Contreras who joined in 2023, their firth studio album CODA is still very fresh after being released on 16th May. The forty-minute set was filled with some very energetic guitar drops alongside the outstanding vocals from Camille, who has the vocal range that any metal band would be proud of. The crowd reaction is decent for the home-based band, we even have a chap being passed across the crowd in a wheelchair … well it’s either that or we were suffering heatstroke early in the day! 9/10
A shuffle to the right and just five minutes later we have BLACKGOLD Taking to the stage for a visually breath-taking performance, all the band members are wearing black and gold masks. We knew absolutely nothing about this band before today but they left a great impression on us as could be seen with the crowd involvement. The stage walkway was used to full potential to the delight of everyone near the front, to be honest most people didn’t seem to know their music but that didn’t really matter here, the circle pits were still flowing. The French metalheads really are an open minded bunch, this turned out to be one of the most energetic sets of the day but how the band members could stand the heat while wearing those masks is beyond us. 9/10
We had heard how good Poppy was at Download Festival the previous weekend and decided to get down near the front for this one, the biggest question being do the band members other than Poppy really need to be wearing balaclavas in this heat? Moriah Rose Pereira wows the crowd with a very energetic performance with half the tracks taken from 2024 album Negative Spaces, the Bad Omens collab V.A.N. is by far their biggest song with well over fifty million streams but we though the end of the set was a standout with They’re All Around Us and No Way Out. Poppy commands the stage very well and had some standout interactions with the fans, a lot of whom were singing the lyrics back to her. Must try to see Poppy on the next tour. 10/10
Dead Poet Society took to Main Stage 01 starting the set with .intoodeep., their biggest release to date and one that gets the crowd riled up nice and early, the energy basically stays like that for the full set as singer Jack Underkofler uses his charm to keep things moving while Dylan Brenner (bass) and Jack Collins on guitar provide extra entertainment with their stage antics. Final song of the set HURT was released as a collaboration with Mexican band THE WARNING, any chance of a duet today were well gone though as the three sisters had other festival commitments after performing on Friday. 9/10
Lorna Shore would be the heaviest, thrashiest band of the day by far and what a reaction they get on Main Stage 02, the crowd energy and passion during this set was second to none, Lorna Shore is a completely unrecognisable band from the one that was formed in 2009 in New Jersey, USA but the performance from vocalist Will Ramos was jaw dropping, that’s how good they were. Latest release is Oblivion from the upcoming album I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me, this track is an eight minute epic that just grabs hold of you from the word go, both musically and lyrically, and doesn’t let go until the last note … and the crowd reaction to this one had to be seen to be believed. Possibly the biggest mosh pit of the weekend opens up as fans all around us are screaming the lyrics to the full set amid incredible scenes. The opening lyrics “Shaking hands with death, a means of fallacy/take all of your regret and fucking bathe in it” hits hard with the drummer Austin Archey helping to keep the high bpm up and the energy high while appropriately To The Hellfire also gets a wild Hellfest reaction. This set had everything you could possibly want. 10/10
Californian rock band Eagles Of Death Metal drew a massive crowd to Main Stage 01, officially they only have two band members in Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme but the touring musicians are a standout too Scott Shiflett (guitar), Jennie Vee (bass) and Leah Bluestein (drums) provide an extra edge to the performance that included a few covers such as Boots Electric track Complexity and Moonage Daydream by David Bowie. In a tribute to the late Lemmy Kilmister and Motorhead The Ace Of Spades cover gets the place bouncing and quite rightly so. Eagles Of Death Metal are another band to add to the ‘must see again’ list. 10/10
We caught the start of the Motionless In White set before heading off for a wander along to an arch that also played the part of a shower for anyone wanting to cool down, we can confirm that this was a big attraction throughout the day. We could hear the music and watch on the screens from afar and a half hour chill sitting on then grass allowed us time to reenergise for Swedish hardcore masters Refused who it turns out are on their last ever tour before splitting up so we didn’t want to miss this one. Dennis Lyxzen (vocals), Matthias Barjed (guitar), Magnus Flagge (bass) and David Sandstrom (drums) are the band members as Hellfest hade a bold decision in having a hardcore band on the main stage, the crowd are surprisingly quiet for the start of this one but soon get moving when Elektra and New Noise are played at the end of the set, the fans give them a good send off. 10/10
“Insane in the membrane, Insane in the brain!” are widely recognised lyrics from Cypress Hill, we aren’t even sure if they fit into the dynamics of a predominately metal festival but the crowd seem to think so as everyone around us is singing along. The House Of Pain cover of Jump Around has the crowd doing just that at the end of the set, we enjoyed I Aint Goin’ Out Like That too, it’s just crazy to have hip hop at Hellfest and not sure what to make of it all to be honest. 8/10
All the way from Las Vegas are Falling In Reverse, led by the sometimes controversial figure that is Ronnie Radke who was refused a visa to enter the UK for a tour in 2024 due to his past misdemeanours which we won’t go into, lets just stick to the music. The set was very entertaining, the screen visuals were great too, people can say what they want about Ronnie Radke but he is a very talented musician without a doubt. One of the highlights of the set for us was Asshole as Ronnie repeatedly tells us “I’m an asshole, I’m an asshole, I’m an asshole baby!”. The Drug In Me And You and last song Watch The World Burn were also standouts with the screen imagery during the last one being very dramatic. 10/10. We decided not to hang around for Linkin Park in the end, as the long day in the heat has once again taken its toll.
And there we have it, our first Hellfest and festival on foreign soil has come to an end. If the Hellfest people are kind enough to allow Bring The Noise to return for 2026 we would do things a little differently, camping instead of travelling back and forth from Nantes would save so much time (and energy) and would allow for a full day of music. So does Hellfest live up to the reputation as being the best festival in Europe? Hell yeah! Au revoir à l’année prochaine?
Check out our review of day one, day two and day three of Hellfest.
Written by: Alan Brown
