Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany10th June 2014
Beastfest Festival with Huntress, Battlecross, Thy Art Is Murder, Miss May I, Coldrain, Suicide Silence, Crossfaith, Trivium
It is Tuesday after a long and hot Pentecost weekend, and the heat did not cool down until now. Metal-heads, who could not get enough of making party or who got still enough power for this event, floated into the Markthalle in Hamburg. This day, for the very first time, the Beastfest took place, the warm-up festival and little brother of the Elbriot festival taking place on 16th August. The concerts were alternately in the two rooms of the Markthalle. The beginning was at the MarX, the smaller of the two halls. The only sure about the time table was that the headliner TRIVIUM would play as the last band. Everything else was top secret and no one should know before on which stage which band was playing at which time.
Huntress
At time on 5 o'clock, HUNTRESS opened the festival. They were the only band with a woman as front singer of all present bands. Founded in 2009, Jill Janus (vocals), Blake Meahl (lead guitar), Anthony Crocamo (lead guitar), Ian Alden (bass) and Carl Wierzbicky (drums) from Los Angeles released their first long-player in 2012. In 2010, they put only an EP on the market. Now, they were presenting songs out of their second album ‘Starbound Beast’. Their genre can be described as pure Heavy Metal. Very melodic vocals harmonize with dominant guitar sounds, a sound that was also the cleanest on this evening. Through the low distance between stage and auditorium, Janus often bend down to the fans, but did not leave her stage. As a beautiful eye catcher but with sometimes very strange facial expressions, she lured the people to the front of the stage. But as Janus denotes herself as a modern witch, I can say nothing converse. The MarX was not completely filled during HUNTRESS, but many of their fans, even from Berlin and much further away, fought their place in the first rows to rock along. With only a playing time of half an hour, nevertheless HUNTRESS made a good start and warmed the crowed perfectly up for the next bands. http://huntresskills.com/
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.5 / 10
Battlecross
Up to the other room, simply called "Großer Saal" (big hall), BATTLECROSS started right as HUNTRESS ended their show in the neighbour room. BATTLECROSS did also not fill the room completely, but pulled in enough people. It was not a real overlap of the two concerts, but nevertheless the people needed first a little time to change halls so it was possible to miss the first song or the last of another band or cannot get the place you wanted. This little problem would be lasting through the whole night. As a little "bonus", BATTLECROSS started with an intro from a CD, which gave the audience the chance to see as much of the show as possible. The other bands would do the same btw. The five guys from Michigan, USA, brought along some Thrash and Death Metal into the Markthalle. With a good vocal mix out of growling and screaming from singer Kyle “Gumby“ Gunther, BATTLECROSS were a total difference to HUNTRESS. Gunther first joined the band, which exists since 2003, four years ago. Also drummer Kevin Talley is not a real band member, but only live support. But this does not matter, because together with the two guitar players Hiran Deraniyagale and Tony Asta and Don Slater on the bass, they were a well-coordinated team, which harmonize perfectly. BATTLECROSS also had an half hour time for playing their show. http://battlecrossmetal.com
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 8.3 / 10
Thy Art Is Murder
Back again in the MarX. Conspicuous at this band was the very young audience. The fans of THY ART IS MURDER (TAIM) started also the first mosh pits in the evening and brought some movement into the crowd. With their Deathcore, respectively Death Metal, they tied on the sound of BATTLECROSS, but lead with their core elements more towards the musical direction of the evening. TAIM had only published two long-players until now, and the last one, ‘Hate’, was two years ago. It was re-recorded in 2013, so the band only presented the newer versions. Coming from Australia and not even anymore in the original line-up, the band does not have the best reputation in their homeland. Excluded from the Soundwave Festival in Australia because of prompts to destroy the barriers and attack the stage to make party without any borders between band and crowd, the show at the Beastfest ran out quite normal for a metal concert with mosh pits and head banging. TAIM had also an half hour time for playing their show. https://www.facebook.com/thyartismurder
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.3 / 10
Miss May I
Now we're in the Metalcore sector. Sadly, MISS MAY I brought along some technical problems. The instruments were perfect - but there where almost no voices to hear. So mostly it was kind of instrumental concert. The rocking of singer Levi Benton was unfortunately assigned effortless. MISS MAY I just published their fourth studio album ‘Rise of the Lion’ in May and wanted to use this show for supporting it. But unflustered of this unfortunate circumstances and maybe of the fact that they did not have the time to fix it properly, the band around Benton, consisting out of guitarists Justin Aufdemkampe and B.J. Stead, bassist Ryan Neff and drummer Jerod Boyd, passed through their eight songs, mostly their singles, including their latest "Gone" and "Echo". MISS MAY I was the first band playing over half an hour, but in this case, half an hour like the bands before would have done it much better. Lyrics-safe fans and those, how were standing in the first rows, could enjoy the show a bit better, but of everyone else had bad luck and so, it will be hard for the band to win some new followers. https://www.facebook.com/MissMayIMusic
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 5
Light: 9
Total: 6.8 / 10
Coldrain
COLDRAIN, the Japanese Alternative Rock and Post-Hardcore band, had also the youngest ones in the audience standing in the first rows. With a lateness of 15 minutes and because of the strict time table, their show was cut down from a 45 minutes to only half an hour. But the fans did not care and cheered the short concert nevertheless. Better a good short show than the same problems like MISS MAY I in the Big Hall before them. COLDRAIN brought along some variety in the evening. Next to all the shouting bands, they also had some clean parts in their songs. Generally, their music was a bit more relaxed in the hard parts than the other bands, but still full of power. Just in February this year, Masato (vocals), Sugi (guitar), Y.K.C (guitar), RxYxO (bass) and Katsuma (drums) played together with CALLEJON and BULLET FO RMY VALENTINE at the Große Freiheit 36 in Hamburg, so to many people in the crowd they were well-known and correspondingly welcomed and celebrated. Not everyone was very happy about the shorted show, but COLDRAIN were sticking to the timetable and left the stage when their planned time was over. As a little extra, the guys came out to the fans after the show and took time for autographs and photos with them. http://www.coldrain.jp
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.3 / 10
Suicide Silence
SUICIDE SILENCE are back. After old singer Mitch Lucker died after a motorcycle accident in 2012, it took one year until SUICIDE SILENCE re-recorded ‘You only live once’ with new singer Hernan "Eddie" Hermida. For many fans it was the first concert with Hermida. Indeed, SUICIDE SILENCE are working on new songs for their fourth studio album, but for this show they only unpacked old songs from the past seven years. The Big Hall was again not totally filled, maybe only a new singer would not make that big difference into the old songs. But Hermida could promise to the fans that their new album will be published in July 2014. For the single ‘Wake up’, he wished for a big Wall of Death, which the fans performed very well, especially since there were so good news heard. As finishing song, SUICIDE SILENCE chose ‘You only live once’ - in this case another homage to Mitch Lucker. With this and nine another songs, the band left the stage after a show of 45 minutes. http://www.suicidesilence.net
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8 / 10
Crossfaith
CROSSFAITH was the second band coming from Japan and the second last one at this evening. And with them, the biggest fan community was standing in the MarX. The Metalcore band laid down the biggest entry. Coming separately from the stairs at the sides, singer Kenta Koie, guitarist Kazuki Takemura, drummer Tatsuya Amano, and bassist Hiroki Ikegawa and the DJ Terufumi Tamano were being rejoiced by their many, many fans in the crowd. After this incoming parade, the concert of 45 minutes started. Really impressive was Amano on the drums. He played his instrument with such a speed which you may only know by big drum heroes like Joey Jordison. Together with the DJ set the show became an interesting mix out of Techno and Metal elements, as you can hear rather less in the Metal scene. That may be a reason why more the younger people were standing in front then the fraction who was waiting for the headliner TRIVIUM. Not music for everyone, but worth to listen to it and decide for everyone himself. It became the loudest of the shows, and not only from the stage side. The MarX was also a big party and the crowd let CROSSFAITH only reluctantly leave. But at the last song, the first people left the room, to get good places in the Big Hall, because now the headliner would begin. http://www.crossfaith.jp
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.8 / 10
Trivium
While waiting for TRIVIUM, the fans sang along loud to all of the playback songs during the rebuilding break. The band played already last year on the Beatsfest's big brother festival Elbriot, but as one of the opening acts. Now they were standing here as the headliner of the evening. On time at 22.15, the lights in the Big Hall went out and TRIVIUM opened the last show of the Beastfest with ‘Brave this Storm’, one of their latest singles from last year. After this long concert evening, the crowd still had enough energy left for mosh pits, wall of deaths and generally to party along with the US rockers. Travish Smith on the drums was standing elevated over the heads of the other band members. Matthew Heafy as lead singer and guitarist welcomed the crowd. After playing at last at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals, he wanted the Markthalle to top the volume of the concert - challenge the fans immediately accepted.
Together with the co-singers and guitarist Corey Beaulieu and bassist Paolo Gregoletto they went on to their next songs like ‘Down from the Sky’, ‘Black’ and their very first single ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’. In one hour, TRIVIUM brought the best out of 14 songs straight through their discography. With this show, TRIVIUM's tour in Germany was also ended. A perfectly finishing concert, of their tour and of the first Beastfest Festival in Hamburg. http://www.trivium.org/
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 10
Light: 8
Total: 9 / 10
Full Gallery
All Pictures by Jan Termath (http://www.profound-passion.com/)
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