First band of the day for us is the Dutch band The Charm The Fury. They’ve played at Jera On Air before as upcoming talents and by now they’re definitely past that stage. The band kicks everyone awake in a pleasant, energetic way and especially for the visitors who have problems with coping with their alcohol consumption of the night before this is a great way to get back at their game. After a couple of songs even the (circle) pit started to get more and more attendees and in the reasonably filled tent the bar has been set high for the rest of the day. The sound wasn’t optimal with some big reverb going on, but this fortunately didn’t have an effect on the band. (Gilles)

 

 

Gnarwolves, a band that played every corner in every city of the UK and now they’re focusing on the European mainland. With a big DIY-approach these guys just live it and that shows. They produced some melodic and catchy punk rock, but it lacked a response of the crowd. Eventually it felt a little bit like an after-dinner dip, a bit washed out and so we went for some serious crate-digging at the merchandise stands. (Gilles)

 

 

 

With The Filaments we once again got a British act, but this time it was more of a party than with Gnarwolves. Their mix of ska, punk and hardcore turned a smile on many faces and was a great pre-party for the much anticipated show of Dropkick Murphys, later today. Nothing really spectacular or original, but definitely a nice party. The same goes for Brutality Will Prevail, playing the same stage as The Filaments. They presented their down tempo hardcore with a great dose of energy. Brutality Will Prevail showed what they’re capable of and this resulted in a good performance with great interaction with the crowd. (Gilles)

 

 

 

The Netherlands houses one of the most appreciated bands of Western European hardcore scene, but not in the Netherlands itself unfortunately. They have some killer tracks and a solid live show, but Born From Pain can’t really manage to fire up the Dutch crowd. This is not on the band, but on the audience. With especially singer Rob really giving all, but with a crowd that just doesn’t really respond. Too bad, they deserve more. (Gilles)

 

I didn’t know Against Me! prior to this festival and when walking to the main tent I came to the understanding I wasn’t the only one. With the tent being filled for just 1/3, or maybe even less, this wasn’t really encouraging for my expectations. Listening to their so called rebellious punk rock for a couple of songs I couldn’t really think of something I liked about this show. Their music was just mediocre and nothing outstanding, there was no movement in the audience whatsoever and the sun was still shining bright, so the party was outside with some DJs spinning at different places on the festival ground (Gilles)

First Blood knows how to give a flaming hardcore gig, but today they weren’t on top of their game. Sure their songs were killer and singer Carl Schwartz did a good job entertaining the crowd, but they weren’t as furious as they could be. Still highly enjoyable show with especially the songs from their 2006 record Killafornia. Furthermore I have to mention they had both the ugliest and funniest merch of the whole festival, but I’ll definitely have to give them point for creativity. (Gilles)

 

The award for best live-show of this fest goes to Letlive.! Haven’t seen another band perform with this level of energy and this kind of passion. Singer Jason limped with a taped knee on stage prior to the first song, but judging from his stage act the adrenaline was a great painkiller. Besides the performance, also the songs themselves stood out. They make one of the strongest post-hardcore songs at the moment and both on record as on stage it has the power and intensity to impress. Only downside of the show was the tent that was far from full, but this fortunately didn’t hold these guys back. (Gilles)

 

When you look back in our database you would see that my fellow editor Gilles is the real Hatebreed fan on our site. But since he had the urge of doing some serious hardcore slam dancing moves like, Picking Up The Change, The Lawnmoyer or the Two-Step I told him I would do this part of the review. With the release of their latest effort Divinity Of Purpose in their pocket they have been touring across the globe ever since. To be honest Hatebreed has never been a band that would sell a lot of albums without performing live. Something that Jamey Jasta is well aware off. So across the years he gathered some of the finest musicians he could find around him and led them across the world aiming for perfection, and he got pretty close to it. To cut the story short. You know what you get when you attend a Hatebreed show. A superpumped Jamey Jasta playing every song like it’s his last. Backed by a tight ass band that pushes themselves to the limit. This evening was an exception to this, during a nice mixture of new and old material I questioned myself if they would be able of closing down one of the major stages on a big metal festival. Well maybe in the future we will see.