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2006
Saturday
June 10
Bugger me! It’s hotter than yesterday, my
car isn’t made to work in this kind of heat and neither
am I – I swear the road is melting, or maybe the heat is
playing with my head. England open their World Cup campaign today
and I hope they don’t put a downer on the day, they really
need to win, if I’m bummed out for Metallica, Erickson is
getting hate-mail.
As if some
kind of ill omen, lady-fronted metal-muppets Arch Enemy
suck the big one, I don’t know what front-woman Angela Gossow
is trying to prove. Maybe this is an equality issue, loads of
blokes can make a career out of having little vocal talent in
the metal genre so why can’t she - just make some angry,
scary noises and you’re away. I think about this a little,
but come to the conclusion their just rubbish and go for a drink.
Life
is good – I’m standing in the glorious sunshine,
England are beating Paraguay one nil and Alice in
Chains have just started to play the main-stage –
it just doesn’t get better than this.
New front-man William DuVall does an exemplary job of filling
Mr Layne Staley’s boots, delivering the power and emotion
that the Chain’s classic grunge-metal tunes demand but
making them his own. Hearing them play the brilliant ‘Them
Bones’ makes me grin a nostalgic grin. I’m just
baffled as to why this legendary band aren’t higher
on the bill – it’s obvious not everyone appreciates
pure quality.
England are still winning, playing like buffoons but winning
none the less. |
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I watch the
rest of the game in the hospitality area with lots of people huddled
round one screen – England win and Erickson has escaped
my wrath. I’m accosted by some Giger aliens on the way out
of the toilet, I can now add ‘patted a scary alien on the
head’ to my list of achievements (other weekend activities
include ‘hugging Boba Fett’, ‘telling Darth
Vader to behave’ and ‘pretending to be Welsh’).
Compared to
the alien incident Avenged Sevenfold don’t
excite me that much – I like the energy of their punk-metal
shenanigans but can’t help but feel it’s all a bit
old hat and they are trying to hard to be ‘hip’ and
‘now’ – which by the reaction of ‘the
kids’ they are achieving easily.
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It’s
all a bit retro round here, metallers-of-the-moment Trivium
are quite simply the ‘mini-Metallica’ –
front-man Matt Heafy is as close to a young James Hetfield
as it is possible to be and the music is lifted straight
from the classic thrash-metal song-book.
Saying
this, played this well Trivium’s music looks set to
send them into the higher echelons of the metal hall of
fame.
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Rumours have
been flying around that Korn’s Jonathan
Davies is ill in hospital and so won’t be able to perform,
but the band will go-ahead with ‘guest singers’ –
this sounds like it could be interesting. After a quite moving
speech from the band about not letting down the fans, Korn Karaoke
begins. Several metal front-men join the fold and perform Korn
songs, reading the words off an auto-cue. I never liked Korn that
much in the first place and this is pretty dire, funny but dire.
Only Benji from Skindred does a worthwhile job.
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After Korn I have been standing
around for ages and Metallica are at least half an hour
late, the only thing keeping me entertained is the freaky
marble effect the sunset is forcing on the sky.
The
sun’s nearly down and still no Metallica,
I’m just about to go home when the symphonic tones
of ‘Ecstacy of Gold’ ring out over Donington.
After his absence in 2004 Lars Ulrich bounds happy as Larry
to behind his drum kit and the band break into ‘Creeping
Death’ – the Kings of Donington are in court.
Metallica have come back from the brink of self-destruction
and tonight show that they are totally back on form and
happy with the music they are making. |
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Tonight
is special – twenty years on from the majestic Master
of Puppets album the 70,000 odd fans present are treated
to the album played in its entirety plus a smattering of
other classics.
Metallica are the best metal band in the world – no
arguments.
by Vashti
Bunyton
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