The first day of Hellfire started with a quick trip around the Music Live event as the press passes allowed coverage into that event. I was honestly quite surprised at how many stalls there were, mostly guitar and drum stalls but it was worth it for any budding musician wanting to get the best equipment!

The actual music side of Hellfire Festival started with Scar My Eyes on the Big Cheese Stage. After speaking to the guitarist in the hotel the night before it was a chance to see a very relatively new band to the Transcend label show what they can do…

With their combination of hardcore mixed with technical metal style they seem to be slowly building themselves up for big potential in the next twelve months, the small crowd seemed to enjoy it with their heads moving and the occasional fist and devil horn being thrown into the air.

Following this it was time for Gama Bomb who had just released their new album for free the day before the festival itself and managed to get the crowd moving a bit more especially during the brief technical difficulties which resulted in a weird version of the Lone Ranger theme with a guitar and an acapella created by the vocalist hitting his cheeks!

Ted Maul then took to the stage, I had been listening to White Label over the past few weeks and wondered whether the insanity of their drum and bass / hardcore / thrash combination carried over to the live stage, needless to say the slight doubt I had was eradicated, it was a shame that most of the crowd (as seemed to be the case on this stage) didn’t get it.

Next came, in my opinion, the band of the day in Malefice who have been on a rising platform over the past 12 months and had just recently gained fans through their tour with Devildriver and Behemoth. The small crowd had finally gained members which led to mass headbanging (but no mosh pits shockingly), and the pure Pantera style metal that can be heard will lead to even more greatness come January 2010 on their tour with Kittie. If not I will be surprised…

By this time the Metal Hammer stage had opened and I had decided to check out The Casino Brawl. Jack mentioned in his review that he could see how their style had managed to gain fans and so can I as they give the metalcore genre a band that has been missing since Still Remains. I enjoyed the set that they gave but felt at this time I couldn’t click fully with it, hopefully the upcoming headline gig in Stoke will help me fully understand the Casino Brawl.

The final band I decided to check out for the day was the Arusha Accord. Now I had reviewed for this very site ‘The Echo Verses’ and decided to make it a priority to check them out…

If Malefice were the band of the day these came VERY close, the time changes manage to work just as good live as on the record and the band gave the most energy in movement I had seen all day, jumping up and down, leaning over the barrier and coming the closest to causing dancing. The song ‘The New Face Of Revenge’ being a particular favourite of mine (as my hearing attested to afterwards for the following hour, it just had to be done!)

Onwards to the second day and the more darker side of Hellfire arrives as we hit the more doom, gothic and tech metal side of the roster…