Hellfest 2016 Report : Day 2 in Hell

And we’re in for the 2nd day in Hell ! (Day 1 report here) As we were coming back to Nantes every night we took a bit too much our time to go to Hellfest and missed the 2 first bands under The Valley stage : The Lumberjack Feedback & Hangman’s Chair. Though we already saw those 2 kickass bands, BUT we really didn’t want to miss the gig from those crazy Americans, CROBOT !

Mr. Stone : Being sick that day, I wasn’t really in the best mood, especially after missing The Lumberjack Feedback because of it. Even if I can see them quite regularly in Nantes, I wanted to know what their crushing doom sound with two drummers could do with the sound of the Valley stage (which is pretty loud), but I’ll have to wait for them to come back.

When I heard for the first time Crobot’s first album “Something Supernatural“, I was instantly hooked. And in the end, I even placed them at the 8th position in my 2014 TOP Album list. So it was with a lot of excitement we hurried up with Mr. Stone to reach the Valley stage and take in the face the first (and not the last !) dose of groove of the day 

Even if we’re a bit late to the party, we managed to catch up a few songs from Crobot, and even in that short period of time these guys delivered way more groove than the majority of the bands we saw during this weekend ! It’s insane how each of their riffs are made to make you headbang as soon as the first notes comes into your ears 

They also feel very comfortable on stage and you can see these guys are used to it. Of course, the lead singer Brandon Yeagley takes all the attention with his sexy moves and his piercing gaze, add to that the perfect high-pitched rock’n’roll vocals, and you get one of the best frontman of this weekend (at least for the gigs we saw). But Chris Bishop the guitarist, and Jake Figueroa the bassist also know very well how to move on stage and communicate with the crowd. For example, Chris climbed up several times on his Orange amp, and even took Brandon on his shoulders while playing, as you can see on the picture above 

Crobot ended their short set with their face-melting and most popular tune : The Legend Of The Spaceborne Killer !!! Watch it just below 

So yeah, I couldn’t have dreamed of a better gig to start this 2nd day, so glad I finally saw these guys, now let’s wait for their 2nd album “Welcome To Fat City” out 09/23 ! You can already listen to a single taken from this album just below (it’s badass.) :

We then went to see the mighty Gleen Hughes on the main stage. You know that guy who played in Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and 2 killer supergroups Black Country Communion & California Breed  Well yeah he was here, in Clisson.

What surprised me is this dinosaur of Rock’n’Roll still has his AMAZIIIIIINNNG voice, unlike another vocalist who plays in a little band that starts by “Black” and ends by “Sabbath”. We were quite far away from the stage so I can’t add a lot of things concerning this gig, I just remember he played some songs from his past bands of course, like “Mistreated” from Deep Purple. By the way, you can hear it in the beginning of the 360 video we published :

Time to be assaulted by the rage of the German duo Mantar, under the Valley, again.

I gotta say I’m not the biggest fan of their music in studio, because it’s just something I won’t listen to alone at home, but in live setting it’s something completely different : THEY SLAY.

We already saw them twice, once in a little venue in Nantes, and the other time at Freak Valley Festival (poor hippies who were there.), and even if they are better suited for a nasty club, these guys have something unique. Do you know the words ANGER ? RAGE ? VIOLENCE ? BOARFFFFF ? Well apart the last one, I think you can understand what these guys are all about, a nasty punkish sludge that’s more face-melting with 2 members than any Black Metal band who played this weekend !

Mr. Stone : Being my third time seeing Mantar that wasn’t a big surprise, and my condition didn’t help me to fully enjoy the show, but that was a cool gig, I mean, Mantar always deliver a raw and violent show, and that time wasn’t an exception.

I heard a lot of good things from Torche but never took the time to listen to them carefully, so it was another discovery for me. That’s one of the thing that makes the Hellfest so damn cool : All genres of Metal are represented and as there are so many bands playing you’ll always discover some new ones you never saw or heard of !

So these guys coming from Miami, FL play a bone-crushing mix of down-tuned Stoner Rock and Sludge with some really cool clean vocals. I remember I enjoyed a lot this gig, it was really heavy and I was headbanging almost during all their set !

Mr. Stone : Torche was one of my favourite gigs of the week-end, they master how to do the perfect sound, dark, greasy, doomy, and yet aerial at the same time, it’s brilliant, really, so I let myself go, surfing on these heavy waves of sound…

We then went to see the UK band Lacertilia at the Metal Corner stage. Too bad because this stage is kinda far from the other stages and thus there were not a lot of people to appreciate the killer Stoner Rock of these dudes !

If you remember well I reviewed their first release “Crashing Into The Future” when it came out, and I really enjoyed their unique sound mixing Heavy-Psych vibes with some Stoner grooves and Doom heaviness.

They came up on stage with some weird makeup on their faces, a typical hippie T-Shirt for the crazy singer (something quite unusual at Hellfest), you could clearly guess they were here to have fun and blast the maximum of fuzz to the face of their audience !

Too bad we also wanted to see With The Dead at The Valley so we left Lacertilia in the middle of their set. Next time I hope to stay for the whole gig because they really kickass 

And for your information, they’ll soon release their debut album”We’re Already Inside Your Mind” on Red Sun Sound on 29/07/16. You can have a preview with the track “The Wired And The Weird” just below :

THE Doom supergroup we’ve been hearing a lot since they formed in 2015, consisting of Lee Dorian at the vocals (ex-Napalm Death/Cathedral), Tim Bagshaw at the guitar (ex-Electric Wizard), Leo Smee at the bass (ex-Cathedral) and Alex Thomas at the drums (ex-Bolt Thrower). Well in fact, it was Mark Greening, ex-Electric Wizard, (we saw him with Ramesses the 1st day) who was on the drums at the beginning, but he left (or maybe it’s better to say : he was “kindly” asked to leave…) the band early 2016.

So yeah, indeed this album is truly one of the filthiest Doom album I ever heard, but as you know by now, to me it’s still Doom, and thus a bit boring… But what about live you’ll tell me ? Weeeellll… it’s basically the same feeling I got. Truth is, it was indeed a massively heavy sound, but apart Leo Smee who was the only one really communicating with the crowd, the others looked bored as fuck ! Damn, look at those pictures from Lee Dorian ! Well ok ok, I know, it’s Doom, and maybe this is what they want to show their audience, but sorry, not for me, and I’m sure a hell lot of people enjoyed this concert way more than me 

Mr. Stone : After a detour at the metal corner to enjoy Lacertilia’s cool stoner vibes, we’re back for With The Dead, and I must say I wasn’t impressed. Visually it was nice, the guys are dressed classy and mysterious and it goes well with the sound, but I don’t know, it lacked something, soul, maybe, or energy ? but Dorian felt tired and the rest of the sound seemed to be on the same page. Anyhow, it wasn’t bad, but I hope to catch them in better conditions someday.

It was the 3rd time I saw Goatsnake and their unique Bluesy Doom vibes, the first being at Freak Valley Festival and the 2nd at DesertFest Antwerp, this last one was truly amazing and one of the highlights of the festival. So my expectations were quite high for this one at Hellfest…

Aaaaannnnd unfortunately it didn’t surpass the DesertFest concert in my opinion. Well, let me be clear, the massive sound of Greg Anderson and his 3 Sunn amps, the powerful and soulful vocals of Pete Stahl, the pounding bass lines of Guy Pinhas, and the huge punch of Greg Rogers on his drums, were there, there’s no doubt. But maybe I was in a different mood I don’t know, still, they did a killer show and I’m waiting to see them again and again !

Mr. Stone : Another beer later, Goatsnake is on, which is not a band I’m really fond of. We saw them last year at the Freak Valley Festival, and I was already sick (maybe there is a pattern here), but I enjoyed the HellFest show better, making me reconsider a bit what I think of them (but I guess that voice will still annoy me). So I hope I won’t be sick next time to fully enjoy the fat heaviness these guys deliver.

We didn’t move much after that, staying as close as possible from the front row, because Hermano and Fu Manchu were next, and these were two of the shows I looked forward the most, and I got exactly what I was here for.

Here is the 2nd concert I was so psyched to see when they announced this edition’s lineup (the 1st one being the last concert of this day, you know who I’m talking about ) : Fuckin’ Hermano with John Fuckin’ Garcia !

One thing to note is it was a reunion gig. Yup, these guys haven’t gone up on stage together since 8 years  So we were, the people of Hellfest, the first to experience the new Hermano at the Valley stage, how lucky we were !

They even played a new song you can watch below, does this means a new album is coming… We hope so !

So they seemed all happy to play together on stage, blasting those classic desert rock tunes with a lot of fuzz & energy. John Garcia was especially in great shape, indeed the last time he played at Hellfest with Unida he left the stage in the middle of the set, letting the others members play a little jam… I don’t know if it was on purpose, but it was kinda weird. I think every fuzzer in The Valley was so glad to see THE voice of Stoner Rock having his distinctive pose, you know the one where he’s holding his mic with his 2 hands and moving his body like if some hot wind was brushing his face 

I was also very impressed by David Angstrom, the guitarist and also the main guy behind the killer band Luna Sol. By listening Hermano’s and his band’s albums, I already knew the skills of this guy, but damn, seeing him for real was… unreal ! Kudos to him, and I should also add he has some of the craziest faces expressions I ever have seen from a musician 

Mr.Stone : Hermano didn’t lose any time, delivering their stoner into our faces without mercy, John Garcia was less drunk than two years ago with Unida, his voice was perfect and he and the guys seemed really determined to give us the best show possible, looking happy to be there throughout the whole gig. We had a blast and even if it wasn’t a surprise, the Valley sweated greasy grooves and we all bathed in it, headbanging, footstumping, crowdsurfing and all.

Here it is. My favorite concert of the festival. The Kings of Riffs : FU MANCHU !

I imagine like many fuzzers out there, I wanted so badly to see those legends live, especially for us Europeans because Fu Manchu doesn’t often play here… And I guess I’m right seeing how packed was The Valley even if Twisted Sister was playing their farewell show on the main stage.

So it’s with a lot of excitement we’re all waiting for the Californians to come on stage, and right off the bat they blasted the classic “Hell on Wheels” as you can see on the setlist below :

And as you can also see, the rest gig was just a pure best-of of the most kickass/badass tunes you ever heard in the history of Rock’n’Roll ! Well, it missed a little “Laserblast“, but sometimes you just have to make do 

Fu Manchu are so badass they even activated the “insane-mode” on the crowd ! By that I mean their avalanche of fuzzy riffs triggered a special neuron in the people’s head, making them headbang constantly and even do unstoppable crowd-surfings during all their set  Trust me, the security team of The Valley was overwhelmed by the numbers of fuzzers they had to get back behind the security bars, something they are not really used to at The Valley !

Also seeing from my own eyes (and shooting with my camera) Scott Hill the guitarist/singer in his charismatic pose with the mic way above his head like Lemmy, his knees a bit bent, and his gorgeous plexiglass guitar was something truly amazing ! Though his guitar sound was way below Bob Balch one, I suppose this was on purpose because even if Scott is the frontman, Bob is the true Riff Dealer ! That guy is so skilled (he even gives guitar lessons via his website PlayThisRiff.com), and what a MASSIVE FUZZY sound, damn it’s just so fuzzilicious 

So yeah, I saw Fu Manchu live, and I’m already dying to see them again…

Mr. Stone : And then FU fucking MANCHU was there, and the whole tent lost it instantly, you could already feel it during the waiting between the two bands, like before a storm, the air was electric, hot and groovy, and it just exploded like a supernova on the first notes.

Unstoppable riffs succeding unstoppable rifs, over and over, my brain still hurt, but I didn’t care, clenched my teeth and kept headbanging like crazy. It just lasted one hour, but what an hour, these Kings of the Riffs blast your head off, the needle blocked on the 200mph mark all along.

That was insane, the best gig of the week-end for me, it’s amazing how these guys crafted the perfect stoner sound, efficient, raw, greasy, breaking necks with each note, blowing up the temperature gauge.

After breaking our necks on Fu Manchu, we saw gorgeous fireworks in the memory of Lemmy and then decided to head over to the Warzone to experience a unique movie called Gutterdämmerung.

Basically it’s a B&W movie featuring lots of famous musicians like Lemmy, Iggy Pop, Slash and Henry Rollins as one of the main character. What was unique is The Black Flag frontman was, for real, on stage from times to times, speaking as if he was in to movie that was just behind him, quite weird, but I’ve never seen anything like this  Also there was a real band playing the soundtrack behind the movie screen, how cool is that ?!

But to be honest, we didn’t stayed for long with Mr. Stone, and it was more a way to end this 2nd day calmly with a joint in the hand  Though I’d love to watch it in its entirety, maybe someday…

Now it was time to go back to the VIP area to meet our 2 other friends and drive back to Nantes after this amazing 2nd day in Hell !

Mr. Stone : Oh and on our way to the VIP zone to go home, Korn was playing some oooold stuff (Blind, Twist…) so we stopped a few minutes to go back in time, just like the day before with Offspring !