Concert Review: Sonisphere Festival 2012 in Yverdon-les-Bains with Metallica, Motörhead and Slayer

The first edition in Jonschwil sank in the mud, the second Organizers Free and Virgin broke in Basel the neck. The Sonisphere Festival has been under a bad star so far. The third attempt followed last Wednesday in a new environment and with a new organizer. 32 metalheads - more than expected - flocked to the Parc Rives Du Lac site in Yverdon-Les-Bains on Lake Neuchâtel with the headliners Motörhead, Slayer and Metallica. The restart was successful, but it is far from perfect. The sound was when it came - at Mastodon For example, the PA didn't run half the time and kept failing - but surprisingly well. The Golden Circle was too big and once again, Jonschwil says hello, you had to queue for drinks for over 30 minutes. Nevertheless, my impression was that this was the best Sonisphere festival so far, the sunny weather and the brilliant location made up for it a lot.

Metallica lured around 32 music fans to the former Expo.000 site in Yverdon-les-Bains, which itself has 02 inhabitants, where the third edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Wednesday. This was the first time that a festival of this size was organized in this city. The festival started at 28 p.m. in beautiful weather, the atmosphere was ok and the decibels were high, so high that the concerts could be heard up to Cheyres (FR), 000 km away. Around 15 helpers were involved in the success of the festival, the assembly took a week and it had around 13 snack bars, 1 km barriers and 200 mobile toilets. Funnily enough, there was no bar set up in the Golden Circle area, which I didn't really care about, as I'm not one of the fabric softener with too much money in my sack anyway, but organizationally this could certainly have been better solved, but that's how the rich had to stop -People fetch drinks from the common people, which didn't exactly shorten the waiting times.

Gojira Live @ Sonisphere Switzerland Yverdon - L'enfant Sauvage

With the headliners Metallica, Motörhead and Slayer, truly concentrated metal power could be presented. Eluveitie, Gojira and Mastodon were also part of the party, but the three had to bite the bullet and make their music palatable to the sun-drenched audience - in the afternoon at 30 degrees. Unfortunately, Eluveitie was still completely dead, but that might have been due to the sound, which was probably a bit out of the ordinary compared to the rest of the program and didn't meet the expectations of the visitors and the band had to play half an hour after the doors opened. But Gojira also had to remind the audience that this was a metal show and called for pits, which didn't take place. And so only Mastodon, who mainly offered their latest album «The Hunter» for sale, could create a good atmosphere. Unfortunately, during 45 minutes the sound got out 15 times without exaggerating and this was really the lowest level, so I can only give a lot of praise to Mastodon, who didn't let that deter them and kept going sovereign and without batting an eyelid .

The living legends that followed, Slayer, had no inconsistencies with the technology, but somehow they gave the impression of having problems with the musculoskeletal system. As dynamically as a terracotta army, they reeled off their setlist. Perhaps this was also due to the audience and Slayer let themselves be infected by the motionless crowd - or it was simply the age, because in my eyes Tom didn't seem quite the freshest anymore. Slayers impressed with their uncompromising, lightning-fast and rock-hard sound. With this incredible precision, Slayer could not necessarily be expected, because guitarist Jeff Hannemann has still not recovered from his spider bite infection and had to be replaced by Gary Holt. There were still a few mosh pits, though not directly in front of the stage (Golden Circle problem), but the common people did it, although for the most part these pits looked more like children's birthday parties.

Slayer - Raining Blood - Angel of Death - Sonisphere 2012

Motörhead again showed their dirty good side and never sprayed boredom. But here, too, there was no mood right in front of the stage and Lemmy often stood there unquestioningly and waited for reactions from the audience when he announced a song. Of course, nothing new could be heard from the old masters of the hard tones. Cult rocker Lemmy Kilmister offered his usual straightforward, honest rock. At the same time the sun withdrew and gave its place to the appropriate dusk. The more time passed and the darker it got, the more they looked for their place with a direct view of the stage. The entire crowd was waiting for Metallica and expected a black spectacle. Incidentally, it doesn't surprise me that Free and Virgin went bankrupt at Sonisphere Basel, when I think of the queuing in Yverdon and how much sales in Yverdon were lost through waiting, I can only say: Shame, shame, shame.

Extremely punctual and full of joy of playing, Metallica trumped, every song-technical register was pulled out. The Californians played the "Black Album" - their legendary milestone work from 1991 - in full. But to just noodle the album down from song 1 to 12 would be too easy for the metal heroes, instead Metallica reversed the order of the songs and started with "The Struggle Within", the actual closing song of the album. The twelve songs on the disc are now considered the anthems of rock music. How much, that was shown at the Sonisphere Festival, when thousands of fans joined in the singing of frontman James Hetfield or clapped along to the beat of drummer Lars Ulrich. And not just with the radio-ready ballad «Nothing Else Matters», but with almost every single song. Metallica was convincing, except for Kirk Hammett, who always messed up the simplest passages.

Metallica @ Sonisphere Yverdon Switzerland 2012 - For Whom the Bell Tolls HD

It was gratifying for Metallica that the musical aberration with Lulu and the unsuccessful collaboration with Lou Reed survived unscathed and the interpretations of the "Black Album" didn't offer anything new, but the guys signaled with their long, courageous performance that they were still the old are. "Blackened" made every little pyromaniac's heart beat faster with large columns of flame and "One" convinced with super fat lasers. The "Black Album" was a bit lengthy from my point of view and for me it was the death of the band years ago, but you get older and so the sound came across very well overall and luckily (for me) it didn't stop with the songs from this album, but the inclined fan was also offered older fare.

All in all, it was a great, relaxing event in a harmonious environment. The Sonisphere in Yverdon was under the sign of moderation: fewer bands, fewer spectators, less gigantomania, less crowds with the same musical quality. The band changes went smoothly and the sound was amazingly transparent and came across really fat. The only annoying thing was the crowd in front of the beer stands and probably for the bands the much too large Golden Circle area for the rich people who were too fine or too lazy to move their asses. The main thing is that you go to the merch stand, buy an expensive shirt and then let the big fan hang out. And the fact that the Golden Circlers were too good to show enthusiasm was actually more than foreseeable and consequently I don't feel sorry for them - except for the bands. Nevertheless, Metallica, Motörhead, Slayer, Mastodon, Gojira and The Eluvites were just great. Obviously, French-speaking Switzerland is needed to have a successful festival. Really great location and probably the best Sonisphere so far ...

Metallica @ Sonisphere Switzerland 2012 - One

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