"Festival season is officially open!" by Nick Azinas

I recently bought my first plane tickets for this summer's festival season and I just thought I might ease it up for some of you who are considering going to a festival this summer. Every year it’s the same story over and over again. Getting in that awkward and oh so familiar position of deciding whether “to festival or not to festival”? This extremely rhetoric question immediately triggers an intensive search on the interweb in order to find the festival which could potentially be our home, and our life for a weekend. The choice is obviously great with many bands doing a bunch of festivals and with many line-ups looking pretty much the same, so the real decision comes down to the festival organisation and the place where it’ll take place! The most obvious choices are of course Download, with the only European date of Black Sabbath along with Metallica playing the entire Black album, and the Sonispheres festivals who's UK version went the classic rock/metal way this time by booking Kiss, Faith No More and Queen! Nevertheless many prefer the slightly non-commercial fests such as Hellfest and Graspop. Hellfest managed to gather a stunning line-up with headliners Ozzy and Friends, Guns’n Roses, Megadeth and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It is also pretty cool that King Diamond will be there since he is not a act you see very often. Graspop on the other hand booked Limb Bizkit as their 3^rd headliner who will be joining Ozzy and Guns’n Roses on the top of the bill, which is ok I guess but I have to admit personally it feels slightly disappointing. For those of you who like tall, blond, blue eyed metalheads then Tuska Open Air could be an option  with bands such as Megadeth, Lamb of God and Sonata Arctica, while if you rather spend a weekend enjoying the Mediterranean climate then you might want to take a look at Gods of Metal or Hard Rock Hell Ibiza. Gods of Metal managed to book Manowar, Motley Crue, Guns’s Roses and Ozzy as headliners and it clashes with Graspop, so if you were thinking of doing both then bad luck. Ibiza on the other hand is the opener of the festival season, at least to me, from the end of May till the first days of June. Headlining the festival so far is Marky Ramones from the Ramones while other bands such as Irish prog metalers Shattered Skies and Attica Rage will also be present. Of course the ultimate metal fest has always been Wacken but good luck finding tickets on that one! If on the other hand you are not really the true metal fan there is always an option for you too! What about Rock am Ring/Rock im Park? A little bit of good heavy metal such as Metallica and Killswitch Engage, and also a bit of Tinie Tempah! Nice mix huh? On the other, other hand you might be one of those who can only tolerate metal in small doses. Well in that case you do have your Reading and Leeds fest in the UK but you also have a variety of choices in mainland Europe with most dominant, I believe, being either Pukkelpop or Rock Werchter in Belgium. Pukkelpop still hasn't announced anything up to today, while Werchter are projecting a line-up including the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Snow Patrol and Florence and the Machine along with Mastodon and Wolfmother. Ultimately, if staying in a tent for your summer holidays is not really your thing then you can always wait up till October and attend the Euroblast festival in Cologne, Germany. Last year’s edition was a complete success and with a bigger venue this year it looks as if it is going to be one hell of a festival again! Whatever your decision may be, have a great summer and stay safe!

Posted by Nick

Euroblast Video Review - 21/22 Oct 2011 (Cologne, GE)

Euroblast Festival 21-22 Oct 2011 (Cologne - GE)

From the beginning of September we have been very excited here at Peek from the Pit, since in a bit more than two weeks this year’s edition of the Euroblast Festival is about to kick off! This year, the organisers really went for the best line up possible with an amazing accumulation of djent metal bands including Tesseract, Chimp Spanner and Monuments along with two Nuclear Blast djent(arguable) acts, Danish metalers Mnemic and Dutch Textures as headliners! Also on the line up are Sybreed, Vildhjarta, Aliases and London’s very own Subversion. Many things to look out for this year’s edition, but definitely one of the main things we will surely be paying attention to is to hear some new Textures tracks live, out of their new album Dualism, which is out now via Nuclear Blast. And while we’re talking about new songs, there is also a big possibility for some new Chimp Spanner to be heard on Friday night on the Yellow stage (2^nd stage) right after Mnemic’s set, so be prepared! Another very nice addition to this year’s edition are the workshops that will be held by members of Monuments, David Maxim Micic, Jakub Zytecki and Devastating Enemy just before the gigs blast off on the Yellow stage on both days! This means that if you have any question regarding music, genre, composition, gear etc. then you will be very well served. So everything is set up for what looks like it is going to be an epic 2 days of intense guitars, blasting drums, atmospheric mayhem and a hell lot of headbanging! And if you want to be a part of it well you might want to head to www.euroblast.net for tickets! Hurry up, they are starting to run low! See you all in Cologne! 

Posted by Nick