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NOVA ROCK

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Nickelsdorf, Austria: 19 – 21 June 2009

Nova Rock. The first festival on the MetalObsession tour of europe, and its a cracker to start off with. For their fifth birthday they have really brought together a stellar line up of metal and rock.

The Nova Rock festival takes place just outside Vienna, in a small town called Nickelsdorf. Whether by car or train/bus, its pretty easy to get to. As with most European festivals, this is a 3 day camping extravaganza. Arriving on Thursday to get a decent camping spot, it was nice to see no ridiculously big lines. None to get a park, and none to get into the festival. Once the wristband is on, its time to set up the tent, and 1.5 litres is each downed by the time that is done. As expected, the tent isn’t set up brilliantly, but it’ll do the trick. The first night is all about alcohol, music (if you’ve bought something a long, or else listening to someone else’s) and more alcohol. A positive for Nova Rock is the camping area, with their food stalls in the camping area, you don’t have to travel far for food if you haven’t brought any along, and for half litre beer cans setting you back only 1 euro, there wont be any complaints about that either. Time for bed before the music starts in the morning.

The sun is shinning a little too brightly on the morning of the Friday, waking up in a sweat isn’t pretty. After a beer or two the festival grounds open at 11:30am. Unlike some other European festivals, the camping area surrounds the festival grounds, so its never far to walk to see some music. Nova Rock is based over 2 stages, and with the distance between them, you wont be getting any interference between stages, but the bad thing is it takes 10 minutes to walk between stages (longer in the mud!).

Anywho, up first on the Red (second) stage is Rolo Tomassi, with their brand of extreme Nintendo metal, and they got a nice reaction from the small crowd gathered. As happens with most festivals of this size, a band (in this case The Sword) pulled out prior to the festival, but after people would have left for the festival, so upon reaching the main stage you wouldn’t know why the band playing didn’t line up with the time table, definitely something they could have organised better to let people know whats going on. So rather than getting in the D Barrier just prior to Sweden’s Sonic Syndicate, we were instead treated to Drumatical Theatre. 15 metal kegs used as drums, 15 drummers all dressed the same. While it may sound tacky, it was fucking brilliant, and although there’s only so much you can do with 15 kegs, half hour wasnt too much for them to keep the crowd entertained. Sonic Syndicate were up next and had the pleasure of being the first band at the festival to call for circle pits and the wall of death. 50 minutes later I’d enjoyed some new Syndicate material, and for the more knowledgeable European fans, a nice chunk of their earlier material as well.

Next up was Caliban, a last minute replacement for Flyleaf. I certainly wasn’t complaining, as they always offer up an entertaining experience. Seeing them infont of a german speaking crowd showed just how much more they can work a crowd than when I saw them at the Corner in melbourne. 2 metal bands down, 2 walls of death, too many circle pits. Caliban have been on the WoD band wagon for a few years now, and they didnt call for just a wall of death, they wanted 2 in the D barrier, but as the crowd was so set on their way of having a big one down the middle, there ended up being 3 walls of death in the D barrier! That’s a fair effort. Time for beer and food back at the tent for a few hours to maintain the energy. One days festivals are always a struggle to avoid clashes, missing good bands always sucks. At a european festival you’ll miss bands from the odd clash (generally they have a lot less stages than Australian Festivals) but also because you’re willing to skip the odd good band to last out the 3 days. Disturbed and Mastodon fell into that category.

Pleasantly full on a kebab, we entered the D at the Red Stage (Blue is the main stage) and watched Gogol Bordello. Picture a sligthtly less heavy Dropkick Murphies on drugs, this was some fun, yet crazy shit. Now the moment a lot of the crowd had been waiting for, and willing to skip Slipknot for. Faith No More. And they did not dissapoint! Coming out last of the band members and walking like a frail old man with a walking stick was a slick looking Mike Patton in a red suite. The first song of the night was to be Reunited, a cover by Peaches and Herb. Featuring lyrics like ‘I was a fool to ever leave your side, Me minus you is such a lonely ride, That breakup we had, Has made me lonesome and sad, I realize I love you, ‘Cause I want you back’“, a quality, opener for the reunited Faith No More. They really were on fire, ripping throughtracks like The Real Thing, Ashes to Ashes, Midlife Crises, Epic, Be aggressive, they crooned their way through Easy, and Just a Man, and well, reworked Pokerface by Lady gaga. 70 minutes was never going to be enough, but it was a great show!

Closing the night on the second stage was Nine Inch Nails, with their now dubbed ‘Waving Goodbye’ tour. *Sniffle* I still maintain that seeing NIN is a religious experience. Trent and Co. take you on a ride, and don’t let you off till they’ve left the stage. I didnt think it would be possible for anyone to top the FnM performance, but they did just that. Starting with Somewhat Damaged from 1999’s The Fragile, I knew this was going to be an amazing night. Following was a set of classics featuring Terrible Lie, Heresy, MotP, Burn, Gave Up, The Fragile, Wish, Mr. Self Destruct and Hurt. Half way through the Day the Whole World Went Away the rain started, and it was great that it did! Although we are in the start of a European summer, the festival ground was incredibly dry and resembled a Melbourne Big Day dust pit our rather than a typical European festival ground. The rain picked up during the beautiful and amazing full band version of Hurt, before starting to piss down during The Hand That Feeds, and climax during Head Like a Hole, which lead to a power failure half way through the song, with the crowd finishing off the verse and chorus. What a way to finish the last ever NIN Austrian concert! The rain was needed in the pit, but once outside of the crowded warmth, it was fucking wet and cold, throw slippery and dark into the mix as well, and you have a fun run back to the tent for some shelter and warmth. As the storms had finally come that they’d been warning us about for a few hours, metallica was only to be heard from the tent for me. One day down, one fucking awesome day was had.

Day 2 started much like day one. Beer. Apart from the whole storm happening overnight and the festival grounds being turned into a muddy shitty browny looking thing. I know you cant really prepare a dusty ground for such a thing, but god it made things hard (and also fun), epsecially the the mud puddle covering the entire path to get to the camping toilets! First up from the multistage listening pavilion known as a seat outside my tent while playing cards was Eisbrecher, a rammstein-esque band with chunky riffs, not bad from where I was sitting. Atrocity followed before we made our may to the stage for Dir En Grey, a japanese metal band gaining a decent following in europe. Having not listenened to them since Rock am Ring 2006, I was enjoying their set a lot more now than I was back then. Dredg were up next on the main stage, but played to a surprisingly small crowd. 15 minutes before the band was to start, there was still barrier access near the middle. Crazyness. They put on a solid show showcasing new material, along with older tracks, although I didnt know much material apart from tracks off Catch Without Arms, and some new tracks off MTV, it was a great set, and with a drumstick to go along with it makes it even better.

A few moments of Staind while grabbing my 3rd kebab in 3 days was enough before joining the gathering crowd for Killswitch Engage on the second stage. Since the departure of former KSE vocalist Jesse Leach a few years ago, the band has slowly been on a downhill slope from their metal beginnings and venturing into a less original sound with somewhat generic hard rock. Thankfully with the live performance the band can still put on a solid show. Featuring only one new song from their upcoming album, it was a sing/scream a long for many a fan, and with a few too muddy circle pits, and witty comments from adam d, it was a top show.

It was now time for a change of pace, a long walk through the think sludge that was the festival grounds to see the Kaiser Chiefs, followed by festival headliner Placebo. Kaiser Chiefs was a weird experience, sure I was at a predominantly harder rock/metal festival, but circle pits during KC? What’s going on!? I mean, there are some soft pits, the one for Devildriver at soundwave was well, I think its more dangerous running laps at soccer practice than being in one of those circle pits, but you get the point. Chiefs were a good sing/dance a long, before Placebo took the stage. They were a slick unit with sometimes 3 guitarists on a track, keyboards, violin, and drums. They played a lot of new material, but of course the classics were there as well. 2 encores though was too much for me to handle at 1am after a long day of walking through the mud.

The final day started in the early afternoon with a band I couldn’t last more than 2 songs of. Bring Me The Horizon. The D was packed for an early show, but the band was pretty terrible, and the mix was worse! Sevendust took the Red Stage next, a band I’d been wanting to see for a long, especially after their late cancellation at the last festival I was at that they were meant to play. They were.. good. Anything better is an exaggeration. They played a set filled with their singles, main omission being their biggest single, waffle though. Again the mix didnt do the band any favours. I dont see how some bands can get it so wrong at festivals.

Statix X took the stage next as a 5 piece. We have Wayne Static on vocals and guitar, some dude on guitar, some dude on bass, some dude drumming, and the white trash, quite possible ex-pornstar) that is Mrs Static in a skimpy…. outfit is a strong word, but you get the point, dancing on the stage for the entire show. Just proves how strong their live show is when they need a more naked than not dancer to maintain your attention.

The mud had dried up a bit for the trek to the main stage to see one of Germany’s biggest bands reunited. Guano Apes. I’d been wanting to see these guys for years, and just happened to hit the right summer that after 4 years apart, they decided it was time to rock once more. The crowd was massive for this one. While the band was on form, Sandra Nasic unfortunately wasnt, missing a lot of lines, and struggling to hold a note. I’d never been a fan of her live from DVD’s, but this settled it for me, the Apes will be a CD band for me now. It was still an enjoyable set though if you sing loud enough to fill in her omissions.

The second last bands playing on each stage were both worth watching, while neither had enough interest for me to chose them before either started their set. So I started at Dimmu Borgir, who despite me knowing none of their music, put on a great stage show with some extreme sparks, fireworks, and flames. The pulling power of Limp Bizkit though got me over there for a few songs. I had somewhat high expectations for these guys. Its not the most complex music you’ll hear in your life, and the masses love it, so surely it’ll go down a treat at a festival. Not quite. 3 songs was enough for me, I mean they sounded decent enough, just not the energy I was expecting from them. 10 minutes later i’m back at Dimmu catching the end of their entertaining set and waiting for Machine Head to take the stage and finish off the festival. After a ridiculously long break and sound check, Machine Head eventually graced us with their presence. They put on an entertaining show, for their first headline show in over a year. Being an old school fan, by old school I mean kindaold school… Burn My Eyes, The Burning Red, and Supercharger, there wasn’t much in their set for me. (Bulldozer off Supercharger was all that was fromthat album and The Burning Red. An hour through the set I was ready for bed after 3 long days of metal and rock, 4 kebabs, and too many beers.

Novarock comes highly recommended as a festival worth visiting. The facilities there are good, enough toilets to keep the wait down, otherwise there’s always a fence nearby waiting for your watering, cheap beers and food on the camping grounds, a fun camping ground atmosphere, and a relatively cheap price for the line up that was given. As for transport, train is probably the best way to get to the festival, shuttle busses run to the Nickelsdorf station nearby, where as the exit form the festival grounds took over an hour with the car, before an 8 hour drive back to Frankfurt. This is definitely a festival I’ll be checking out on future visits to Europe!