Masters of Rock day 3

Saturday 13th July.

Another early start after a very late night as we said farewell to Peter the head of the PR team. We got to the site with time to spare and caught the first band on – Gate Crasher who set us up nicely with some quality hard rock. Exit from Switzerland were up next, and they gave us a taste of their Trivium style metal but by the 4th song we knew what was coming. At this point we were advised to fill our stomachs because the distillery tour was approaching. The festival site is set in the grounds of the Robert Jelinek distillery where the make various highly alcoholic spirits out of plums and apricots. They have also branched out and now make a wonderfully smooth single malt AND they have just started making rum. All of which were sampled very generously. We drank responsibly (yeah right!). Whilst walking to the various areas of booze we were serenaded by Manchester’s finest Wytch Hazel who gave a great account of themselves but please don’t ask me what they played. We just about managed to get for a band I had been looking forward to seeing – Cyrha – especially after hearing their latest stunning album ‘The Vertigo Trigger’ they didn’t disappoint. It was powerful and melodic with singer Jake E formerly of Amaranthe, Dream Evil and Kamelot really showing what he can do.

Dynazty came and gave us an 80’s throwback especially on the last song which was straight out of the Van Halen book. After the melodic Scandi tomfoolery of Dynazty we got absolutely battered by Cavalera Conspiracy who dished out the brutality to the next level and beyond. ‘Bestial Devastation’ was the start of a truly serious aural kicking of Sepultura classics. ‘Morbid Visions’, ‘Mayhem’, ‘Funeral Rites’, ‘Refuse/Resist’ were all aired and played with an energy and aggression that I’ve rarely seen. I had to check to see if anyone was hurt. Thankfully these Czech’s are a hardy bunch.

My exposure to Avantasia is limited but I had been listening to quite a bit over the weeks prior to leaving the UK. Let’s just say they didn’t disappoint. A real rock opera and even though the albums follow storylines the songs can be listened to alone, that’s how good they are and let’s not forget that in Tobias Sammit they have a world class frontman. He was ably assisted by fellow singers Adrienne Cowan who did both the clean clear vocal and the growly thing, Ronnie Atkins from Pretty Maids – just WOW!, Bob Catley and the legend that is Geoff Tate – Mr Hextall was beside himself! The performance by everybody involved was seamless and world class. I seriously hope they come to the UK soon because they are well worth seeing.