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Countdown To Sonisphere, Part One: That Friday Feeling

A Spotify playlist, a bunch of live videos and the bands you can't miss on the first day of Sonisphere - this is teeming with win.

Click here to listen to our Sonisphere Friday playlist. This article is improved by a factor of about a billion if you're listening to some hefty metal while reading it.

When is too early to get excited about festivals? Never, that’s when; even if you’re not over-the-top nutty about this year’s Sonisphere line-up it’s diverse enough to encompass at least a few gems out of whatever you’re into.

The lack of any Main Stage bands on the Friday, however, hasn’t exactly filled everyone with joy. Granted, Rammstein are going to be doing something quite ridiculous on said stage on Saturday but a) you want a festival to hit the ground running and b) what if you don’t like Rammstein?

Good old Alice Cooper is going to be holding the fort with his none-more-theatrical stage show, and as classic as Alice is – don’t get us wrong, we’re not talking smack about the dude who wrote ‘Poison’ – there’s going to be a lot of dressing up and make-up on display all weekend, so what about people who want to see some bands who just, like, look like bands?

Word up to the brilliant Failsafe, Karma To Burn and 65daysofstatic, then. The former are going to be bringing the energetic punk rock righteousness, the latter the head-spinning electronica-versus-rock fist-fight and the dudes in the middle the crushing stoner riffs. Oh, and if you want to see a million-piece orchestra playing space-age weirdness while a carnival of freaks twist around like they’re falling into a worm-hole, there’s only one option: Chrome Hoof. Check out the video below and tell us you’re not a little intrigued by how they’re going to do all that in a field.

Nice bit of diversity there: cheers, organisers. Chorganisers.

Of course, you can’t really not mention the legendary Gary Numan, or the staggeringly ridiculous Europe and Turisas. Ask yourself: what’s more ludicrous, being That Band Who Does The Final Countdown But We’re Going To Make Everyone Wait Forty Minutes Before We Play It When We Could Just Play It Ten Times And That’d Probably Be Better Than Our Main Set or dressing up like Vikings? While we decide, here’s the aforementioned electro-goth overlord doing what he does best: being moody in the future.


Over on the smaller stages there’s the vicious hardcore of Throats (we would have posted a video but if you search for ‘throats hardcore’ on YouTube you find some seriously weird shit), instrumental brutalists And So I Watch You From Afar and the ace March Of The Raptors. And that’s what Sonisphere seems to have nailed – aside from the headliners it might not have the big-name draws that Download had but the smaller stages are liberally packed with genuine talent.


Like Deaf Havana…

…massively insane Leeds bastards Chickenhawk…

…and Sylosis, who’ll be performing with a new vocalist after Jamie left the band a couple of months ago. Definitely one to check out.

But if you’re looking for a definitive ‘GO AND WATCH THIS BAND THEY WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE’ recommendation, we’re not going to give one. Best piece of advice for Sonisphere 2010: wander around and find some new sounds.

Check back tomorrow for all this except talking about different bands!