With Sonisphere 2010 at Knebworth now hours rather than days away, we at Rock Sins thought we’d take a little look at the UKs main challenger to Download and give you a bit of a preview of the line-up highlights in Sonisphere’s second year in the UK.
Friday will bring lots of fun, games and fancy dress, as well as a world record attempt at doing the time warp (6 O’Clock by the Saturn Stage if I’m not mistaken) but unlike last year, Friday will also bring a healthy dose of metal. Rock Sins favourites Sylosis will be destroying the Bohemia tent around 9 O’Clock, while instrumental wizards And So I Watch You From Afar and 65daysofstatic will be unleashing their creativeness on the Jagermeister Stage and Bohemia respectively.
The Saturn Stage line-up boasts plenty of interest with Battle Metal architects Turisas, who once famously tried to get the Download crowd to chant “fuck the guitar solos” (and failed miserably) before Europe will bring their boatload of power metal goodness (yes and The Final Countdown) which could be the highlight of Friday. Gary Numan is something very different for Sonisphere and could be very interesting, and I think most people will be looking forward to Alice Cooper’s full stage show as he headlines the first night of the festival.
Saturday has some fantastic bands on fairly early in proceedings, as the likes of Lacuna Coil, Soulfly, Anthrax and Evile take to the various stages. Rock Sins has learned that some wonderful scheduling has meant two of the best bands of the whole weekend will clash as Katatonia take to Bohemia at the same time as Fear Factory will be destroying the Saturn Stage. Whoever scheduled that one deserves to be awarded a metal fail award.
Later in the day theres time relive your Nu-Metal youth (or just relive the years 2001-2003) with Good Charlotte and Papa Roach, or catch Corey Taylor’s awesome solo show in Bohemia for the second year running. Placebo are something of the wild card of the festival but I would expect a good show out of them, while Motley Crue will hopefully live up to their legendary status. All of that pales in significance to Rammstein, who I believe will be the highlight of the festival, even outdoing Iron Maiden. If anyone saw, read or heard about their show at Wembley Arena in February, we are in for a serious treat.
Sunday of Sonisphere 2010 will kick off with CKY and Madina Lake (sans the very brave Matthew Leone) after which the first real arguable highlight will be the presence of Skindred, promoted to the Apollo Main Stage after their fantastic spot on the Saturn Stage last year. From there on out its big name bands all the way with Slayer (or Slaaaaaaayyyeaaaaarrrghhhhh) guaranteed to thrash us all silly and Alice in Chains back for an extended performance after last year’s successes. The “avoid at all costs” award for the weekend is awarded to Oli Sykes lot Bring Me The Horizon before things will be back on much more pleasant listening with The Cult. Pendulum (in my opinion, I am sure loads will disagree) were pretty poor at Download last year, especially the god awful cover of Master of Puppets so they have much to do to redeem themselves in my eyes and ears. The legendary Iggy and The Stooges will close the Saturn Stage on Sunday, or you may wish to catch Darren Smiths last ever performance with Funeral For A Friend as they headline Bohemia. After that, everyone will descend on the Apollo Stage for the Sonisphere debut of Bruce, Eddy, Steve Harris and the rest of Iron Maiden. It promises to be spectacular. But be warned, if you’re expecting a greatest hits set you will be disappointed as Maiden have promised to mainly focus on their newer material from here on out (but don’t panic there will be some old favourites). So long as that includes the awesome Brave New World, and the very promising sounding bits of The Final Frontier (we will all know how good it really is as it is out this week!) It will be awesome.
That, in a very small nutshell, is a preview of Sonisphere Knebworth 2010. See you down the front for Rammstein!
