REVIEW: Sonisphere 2014

Friday 4th to Sunday 6th July 2014 – Sonisphere @ Knebworth House, Hertfordshire Words: Michael Glynn

When Sonisphere 2012 was cancelled unexpectedly and didn’t return again the following year it seemed like once again Download Festival could lay claim to being the undisputed champion of rock festivals in the UK. But with Knebworth celebrating 40 years of festivals on its hallowed grounds Sonisphere is back with a vengeance in 2014 with its biggest line up yet to challenge for the title.

Even with the sun blazing high in the sky Derby’s LostAlone manage to draw a large crowd to the Bohemia Tent as they open the festival with a cathartically energetic and sweaty set.

The Defiled have quickly built a reputation as being a show stopping live act and as bassist Vince Hyde smashes his £2000 bass just minutes into their Apollo Stage slot they almost literally end up having to stop the show. A sheepish looking Hyde is forced to blitz through the rest of their pulsating set with a damaged instrument.

American punk heroes Anti-Flag attempt to pick up the pace with a decade spanning set but, bizarrely, most crowd seem more bothered in topping up their suntans than joining in the “wo-ahs”. Gary Numan on the other hand brings nothing but the hits and with barely any audience interaction the Sonisphere favourite gets the first mass sing-alongs of the weekend care of ‘Cars’ and ‘Are my Friends Electric?’ Sensational stuff

If ever a band was designed for dark indoor venues then it’s Finnish love metallers HIM and while they couldn’t look more uncomfortable in the sun if they tried, they still manage to deliver a stand out performance culminating with a driving rendition of ‘The Funeral Of Hearts.’

As Limp Bizkit burst onto the stage to ‘Rollin’, it’s clear that Fred Durst & Co mean business and for the next hour they manage to prove just why they’re the comeback kings. You want hits? How about a gargantuan performance of ‘Break Stuff’. Covers? Here’s ‘Killing in the Name of’. Limp Bizkit have well and truly brought the party and who better to invite next than The Prodigy? While the idea of thousands of Slayer and Metallica fans having a bit of a rave sounds ludicrous in theory, when the Friday night headliners throw out bangers like ‘Omen’, ‘Breathe’ and brutal set closer ‘Their Law’ it’s near impossible to find a head not banging. Just like at Download two years earlier, The Prodigy silence their critics.

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A combination of spending the night watching wrestling in the Satellite Tent and partying too hard sees a disappointingly sparse crowd show up for TesseracT as they get Saturday underway with a delicious prog-metal masterclass.

The same certainly can’t be said of Babymetal who manage to draw one of the biggest crowds of the weekend on their debut UK show. Fusing J-Pop and heavy metal, the trio’s choreographed dance moves and high-pitched vocals starkly juxtapose the oft-brutally heavy riffs. It’s weird, confusing and oddly incredible.

Fresh from playing their seminal album ‘Among The Living’ last night in the Bohemia Tent, thrash legends Anthrax take to Apollo Stage for a their second set of the weekend which sees them blitz through an all too brief set including ‘In The End’, ‘Deathrider’ and ‘Indians’. A man with an acoustic guitar is the last thing you’d expect to hear between Carcass and Deftones but Frank Turner manages to pull it off as his folky anthems provide the perfect soundtrack to the mid-afternoon sun .

Back in 2012 Hundred Reasons were set to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album, Ideas Above Our Station by playing it in full at Sonisphere, it might be two years late and the album might be twelve years old now but they run through it as though it was released just yesterday.

As the final notes of ‘Avalanche’ ring out all eyes are on the sky as a full on World War I recreation dogfight is taking place led by none other than Bruce Dickinson. It’s a bit hard to keep up with what’s actually happening but damn it looks cool. Deftones might be knocking on a bit now but that doesn’t stop frontman Chino Moreno throwing himself (and his microphones) across the Apollo Stage like a man half his age.

It’s been three years since Iron Maiden kicked off the Maiden England tour and tonight they finally wrap it up ready to work on their next studio album (we hope!). While the set largely remains the same as their appearance at “the other festival down the road” there are a couple of changes with the addition of ‘Revelations’ proving a particular crowd favourite. As they fly from ‘The Trooper’ through to ‘Run To The Hills’ before closing on a rousing double hit of ‘The Evil That Men Do’ and ‘Sanctuary’ Iron Maiden manage to prove just why they’re the most successful English metal band of all time. Incredible and incomparable.

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Technical difficulties push back the music on Sunday morning providing the happy campers with an extra couple of minutes sleep before Gorjira and Protest The Hero smash the silence with a duo of brief but visceral sets. Talk about blowing the cobwebs away!

Things mellow out when The Devin Townsend Project treat the Apollo Stage to a rare UK festival appearance with a well received set culminating in a momentous ‘Grace’. Next up is the battle of the Australians as Karnivool and Airbourne play back to back, the latter prove the overwhelming winners though when frontman Joel McKeefe climbs the side of the stage to play a face-melting guitar solo.

After Mastodon lay down a typically brutal set it’s almost a shame when Alice in Chains lower the pace of things with a surprisingly downbeat run through of their greatest hits. It’s even more of a shame when Dream Theater’s singer James LaBrie struggles to hit many of the notes during their headline set on the Saturn Stage and while they can get away with it in their usual surroundings, tonight it throws a major spanner in an otherwise sublime performance.

When Metallica first announced their “By Request” tour there’s no doubt that many in attendance tonight thought it was a perfect opportunity to hear rarities like ‘Frayed Ends of Sanity’ or even ‘St Anger’ but instead they roll out a pretty standard greatest hits set which by no means disappoints.

Although there’s none of the pyro and fire that they last brought with them when they played Download in 2012 this is Metallica at their absolute best, ‘Creeping Death’ and ‘Whiskey in The Jar’ proving standout highlights, getting fans to introduce their favourite songs was also a nice touch. As they close their set, and indeed the festival, with ‘Seek & Destroy’ it’s business as usual for Metallica.

An epic close to a phenomenal weekend. After this triumph, hopefully Sonisphere can now establish itself as a permanent fixture on the UK festival circuit!

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GALLERY: 87 Incredible Photos of Sonisphere 2014!

Photos by Sonisphere / Danny Pardoe: ConcertsCaptured.co.uk