Crisisbookings managed to organise another insane show with an epic line-up; 50 Lions, Grave maker, Antagonist AD and Dead End Sin tore up the stage and gave their fans what they wanted: one hell of a party.

Green grass, grazing cows, church bells in the distance and the endless grunting and screaming… It’s called Metal Méan. This annual festival is the highlight of the year for fans of the Metal scene. Since 2005 the festival has been providing us with great names such as Destruction, Grave, Enthroned, Finntroll, Belphegor and Taake.

Unlike last year this edition took place over a period of two days. On Friday there was an AC/DC cover band, followed by a party and Saturday the real festival began, including a short contest between four young bands.

I packed my tent and my sleeping bag, although I knew there wouldn’t be much sleeping, and headed to the little peaceful village of Méan.

Come rain or (heavily belated) shine, Bloodstock Open Air is always a monolithic landmark on the festival calendar, and the 2010 edition, featuring headlining slots from Opeth, Children of Bodom, Fear Factory and Twisted Sister, has proved to be no exception. Appropriate, indeed, for the ten year anniversary of Bloodstock itself!


FESTIVAL: Bloodstock Open Air
DATE: 12/08/2010 - 15/08/2010
VENUE: Catton Hall, Derbyshire, United Kingdom

Today we headed out to Vort'n Vis in Ieper[BE] to see some fine national and international bands at work. Even though the venue was small and cramped, most people were in a party mood and were ready to start it off.

Bruskellive is a free Belgian festival in Brussel.
The line-up burst at the seams of Belgium's talents.
To my surprise Bruskellive only excists 4 years.
Still there are already 3 stages. (2 rock pop, 1 elektro techno)
Nevertheless it stays a free festival. Sweet!

This festival takes place in a nice park, called the Ossegempark.
Everyone can find it easily because it's next to the Atomium.
The mainstage is placed in the old amphitheatre, the Groentheater.
It looks so nice, almost like it's a scene from a movie.
And luckely it's good weather today, knowing that nothing is indoor or in tents.
I arrived quite late and three groups  "The Man Up North", "Willow" and "School Is Cool" already played.
Those three band are upcoming Belgium talent.

Drive Like Maria ascends the main stage and starts rocking.
I like the music but it doesn't fit in the peaceful environment and kind of loses it's magic.
The rather high age of the audience isn't helping
but at least that keeps the fourteen years old kids away.
I liked Drive Like Maria better the previous time i saw them.

At the other stage Marble Sounds starts playing.
It's so perfect with it's almost magical rythms.
The singer is awesome and you can really hear what he sings.
He really adds a message to the music with his wise lyrics and magnificent voice
because every word reaches you clear and with a frightening beauty.
The girl of Isbells - another great group - sings along with a couple of songs.
I heard Marble Sounds their music before but this performance really impresses me.

Next we head back to the main stage.
The more famous Belgians of Mintzkov rock the best they can over there.
They recently made a new album and got some new songs to play for us.
The first couple of songs are overloaded and totally don't furfill my expectations.
After that disappointment i'm about to leave but suddenly they play much better songs.
They now prove that they are worth standing on the main stage
and Mintzkov keeps playing amazing tunes till the end of their show.

On the meantime Isbells is already playing on the other stage.
I like their music but I didn't hear much of them because they played at the same time as Mintzkov.
Then it's the turn of the headliner, Das Pop. They have the honor to finish Bruskellive 2010.
This is another a Belgium band like all the others i mentioned in this aricle.
I'm not staying tonight to hear Das Pop.

This was the first time i went to Bruskellive and i must say: "It's more than just okay!"

cj

http://marblesounds.com/

http://www.myspace.com/marblesounds

Ah, the festival season – it’s good to have you back at last! Where would we as metalheads be if we were forced to go without our summertime doses of mud, sweat and moshpit injuries? What would we do without our annual ritual of contracting agonizing sunburn, happily allowing ourselves to be horrendously overcharged for merchandise, and breathing in the scent of a thousand kinds of undercooked junk meat? And most important of all, what kind of soulless wrecks would we be without an overpriced hot beer in our hands and some spectacular heavy metal bands on our stages?

FESTIVAL: Sonisphere UK

VENUE: Knebworth

DATE: 01/08/2010

Our destination was JC Metteko at Mechelen (BE). On the menu: Poison My Blood -which replaced Liar-, Morda, Postmortem Promises and, last but not least, Sworn Enemy.

We arrived too early at the venue, so we waited outside for a bit and watched the other people waiting. It struck us that, once again, this was an entirely different crowd than the ones we are used to back home in Kortrijk (BE). Here it was all about the looks and about looking as unique as possible. After a while we were able to go inside and we waited for the first band.

Amazing to see, the Black Heart Procession for free!

- Rock Herk at Herk-de-Stad, saturday 17 July 20:35.
I hardly believed it when I first heard it, but it was true and they gave a remarkable performance.

Lovers sitting on the edge of the pond. Enjoying the sphere, enjoying the sun.
Most people didn't come here to hear one band or more.
With a quarter of an hour to go, the main stage remains rather empty.
As the show begins, more and more people get caught by the distant notes and sweet melodies.
These four guys know exactly what they are doing. The Black Heart Procession doesn't have any inferior member, but
tight drum, good bass rhythm and also a creative keyboard and guitar sound instead.
They play a lot of quiet songs with a handful of magic and levitation.
No wild jumping or showing off in front of the camera, only this overwhelming and compelling music.

In the middle of nowhere, in the scorching summer heat and without a clue of what was awaiting us we made our way to Leverage Of Chaos fest in Lommel (BE). With a promising line-up, that included bands such as Haribo Macht Kinder Froh, Pay No Respect, Nasty and headliner Texas In July, it was bound to be a succesful and entertaining day.

When everybody arrived at the camping site, people were already questioning the organisers' skills. Lots of small things went wrong, such as the fact that there were no camping bracelets, they had to work with markers. Also, there were no trashcans on either the camping site or the festival site. There weren't enough toilets for such a huge amount of people and there weren't any time tables to be found, so most people just had to walk back and forth between the two stages to see which band was performing at that time. Small errors that are probably due to the fact that it was the first edition of the festival.

Last tuesday, July 6, a serious party went on at the Frontline in Ghent. After ending up lost once again (we
should really start using a gps or something), we arrived there and waited for the first band to take over the stage.