So I've been to Sonisphere yesterday and holy fucking shit did it kick ass. There are so many words that I could say about it, but I'll just summarise it.
First, Behemoth. Well, not much there to say about. They were there only because they are the most known polish metal band. It was quite fun, but oh well. I knew only one song, they didn't even play their most famous song. Whatever.
Secondly, Anthrax. I am not really the biggest fan of Anthrax and I hardly know any songs by them but holy shit was this concert great. They had fantastic contact with the audience. It improved the overall experience by far. Not only that, but they've also played great, every single song sounded much MUCH better than studio versions. I really enjoyed the concert, for me it was the biggest surprise of the whole festival.
After that, Megadeth. No fucking around, they've started right off the bat with Holy Wars. In-fucking-credible. They played the whole Rust In Peace (well, apart from Dawn Patrol, but nobody cares about this song anyway) and after that Head Crusher, Sweating Bullets, Symphony of Destruction and Peace Sells. The setlist was incredible and they played it simply perfectly. The only downside was that Mustaine said hardly anything, they simply played song after song with very few breaks. Still, it's balanced by the sheer quality of the concert. At that point pogo started being pretty damn great too, my dream of being in the middle of the crowd, headbanging and moshing during Tornado of Souls came true. So Good.
Fourth band to come on stage was Slayer. Or should I say, fuckin' Slayer. No,
MOTHERFUCKIN' SLAYER. Majestic, incredible, incomparable. When it comes to pure technique, they were unrivaled. Lombardo is a beast, simple as that. The best drummer ever. Extended double bass part after solo of Angel of Death blew everyone's minds. Kerry King is badass. Incredible solos and he had spikes around his whole forearm. Holy shit. Setlist was great and mosh pit was beastly. Deadly even. I hardly survived it. It was so much fun though. Overall, though, fuckin' slayer. I can't say much else about it. Simply incredible.
Finally, Metallica. It was obvious that they were star of the show, it wasn't until that concert that most of the people came to the festival. They didn't know what they missed, but screw them. Their loss. So, anybody who has ever been to Metallica's concert know who great they are. This was no exception. Amazing special effects, great pyrotechnics, fireworks and shit. Apart from that, as always, they were incredible live. Setlist could've been better, but they are redeemed as they actually played
BLACKENED. I love this song and it was one of the songs I expected the least. They didn't play anything from St. Anger (thank God) and only Fuel from Load era. Overall, 3 songs from KEA, 3 from RTL, 2 from Master of Puppets-ahhhh, 2 from AJFA, 3 from TBA, 1 from ReLoad, Stone Cold Crazy cover and 3 from DM. There were quite a few surprises, but a solid set nonetheless. Rob saying "fucking awesome" in polish at the very end only sealed it.
Sadly, there was no crossover and a lot of misses opportunities. It was more of a Metallica with others as a support. Hetfield's guitar pick was a nice touch (with one side bearing logos of the four bands and the other side "The Big 4" writing) and he kept on mentioning this as a history in the making, but they didn't actually come all out on stage. There are some backstage photos, but I believe everyone hoped for more.
Especially with The Four Horsemen, maybe some crossover with Mechanix, whatever. Nothing like that happened, which is definitely a shame.
Nonetheless, it was a great experience. Now I have to heal my wounds as I'm all beat up after being nearly crushed several times
