With the temperature constantly climbing throughout the day, the infamous Nova Rock dust began to make an appearance. Walking through the festival grounds just before the masses descended was slightly surreal. The general vibe throughout the day was much more relaxed (probably due to the heat), with many people sitting around and camping at certain stages.
First up on Friday was the duo Wargasm, a band I hadn’t heard of before, but I was thoroughly impressed with the energy they put into their opening performance. There were some slight technical issues with the cameras showing the stage on the big screens being off-center, but being early in the day, the crowd seemed to adapt and move forward to see the stage itself. Closing out their set with Milkie Way stating, “We’re here for a good time, not a long time,” they powered their way through “Spit”, one of the band’s earliest tracks.
Sticking to the Blue Stage, Of Mice & Men were next on the lineup. With a continuously growing crowd, the Southern California band took to the stage for an impressive performance. “Would You Still Be There” had an uncountable number of crowd surfers, and lead vocalist Aaron Pauley was clearly in awe of the response, as he ended the song saying, “Make some noise for yourselves, that was incredible!” A lot of artists express their gratitude during their sets, but Pauley constantly thanked the crowd for following them over the years and welcomed the new fans to the family.
Next, it was time for some pop-punk over on the Red Stage with Neck Deep bouncing onto the stage after their recorded intro song, opening with “Dumbstruck Dumbfuck”, which was only released in January this year. Lead vocalist Ben Barlow loved egging on the crowd, starting circle pits and urging on surfers with comments such as, “Let’s put these fellas to work, they’re doing a great job” (talking about the security). If anyone has seen Neck Deep before, you will expect to hear a talk about politics and the current state of the world, and today was no exception, with Barlow stating, “We all need to stick together, you have more in common with the person next to you than any billionaire or CEO.” There were lots of signs in the crowd asking to play/sing “December” with them. Unfortunately, Barlow had to disappoint them as they didn’t have a long set, but he did jump down to the barrier and let them sing some lines.
It was now time for us to move around the stages a lot as we were seeing snippets of a few new bands to us. Aviana was up first and was by far the heaviest of the three bands. With an appearance to match their sound, Joel Holmqvist entered the stage wearing a black overcoat, and the rest of the band sported terrifying masks. In complete contrast, Yaenniver, wearing a bright pink leather outfit, had a much more poppy sound and seemed to have a comedic value to her set. The crowd broke out into laughter at several points; however, as she spoke purely in German, we had no idea what the punchlines to the jokes were. Trekking back across the festival site, we returned to the Red Bull Stage for the final of our quick-fire trio of bands, Cemetery Sun. The band from California was playing the festival for the first time, despite having traveled to Austria in 2022 to play Nova Rock, only for their set to be rained off at the last moment.
Taking some time to walk around, it amazes me how many different activities there are throughout the festival site. From a roller disco to a 65-meter bungee jump, which is a staple at the festival, fairground rides, and a DJ stage with acts like MoreCore Party. And you cannot forget about the headbanging workshops before the first headbanging championship.
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With very unusual (and cool) looking guitar and bass, Dead by April dived onto the stage to a substantial crowd. Continuing their uncommon theme, Pontus Hjelm used a headset instead of a stand microphone to allow more movement around the stage. Having fairly recently suffered from severe pneumonia, Hjelm’s performance wasn’t lacking any energy, and the entire band moved seamlessly together onstage. “My Light” showcased the blend of clean and screaming vocals, and it was obvious the crowd was having a great time throughout the entire performance, given how loud and consistent their applause was.
As a very last-minute fill-in for Malevolence, who pulled out due to family commitments, GHØSTKID definitely drew in the crowd. Opening with “Hollywood Suicide”, a circle pit opened that rarely closed throughout the entire set. Stanislaw “Stanni” Czywill (bass) and Jan Marco “Jappo” Heinz (guitar) spent the majority of the second song within the pit! During “Heavy Rain” from their latest album Hollywood Suicide, I noticed how many were singing along to the choruses of songs throughout the set, showing just how popular a substitution GHØSTKID was. Lead vocalist Sebastian “Sushi” Biesler kept the crowd entertained while security dealt with a situation, before blasting their way into the final and most popular song of the set, “Supernova.” Czywill took one last opportunity to get close to the crowd by managing to skillfully crowd-surf and finish playing their song. Posing for a quick photo with a rapidly disappearing crowd heading to the Blue Stage for Parkway Drive.
We didn’t stick around for Parkway Drive as we made our way back to the press area for a moment of rest. The band has headlined Nova Rock in the past, and with how large of a crowd had gathered, they definitely deserved their return to the festival lineup. As we were walking past the stage, we heard lead vocalist Winston McCall shout, “You guys did not come to mess around! Swim on your friends!” and from what we could see, they did exactly that.
One final trip of the day back up to the Red Bull Stage to see Fit For A King. Opening with the title track of their most recent album, “The Hell We Create”, I don’t think I’ve heard the opening six words to any song shouted back at the stage as loudly as this. Before “Breaking the Mirror”, lead vocalist Ryan Kirby asked the crowd, “Where’s my surfers at?” which the crowd took as a challenge, with a constant stream throughout the entire performance. Towards the end of the set, it looked like a rather stupid individual decided to light what looked like a flare in the middle of the crowd, but with a swift response from security, the issue was dealt with without any disruption to Fit For A King’s performance.
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Avenged Sevenfold feels like a guilty pleasure of mine, as they’re one of the few bands me and Jack don’t share mutual appreciation for. Now I’ll admit, with so many new bands that I’ve been listening to lately, their latest album is still on my to-listen-to list. As soon as the stage lights dimmed and lead vocalist M. Shadows took his position sitting centre stage, the cheer from the crowd was deafening. Although the crowd’s response to the first two newer songs was a little calm, as soon as they began “Afterlife”, it was like a switch had been flipped and the energy multiplied.
Taking some time to show appreciation for their crew, Shadows thanked those who, in just 24 hours, had moved and reset their staging from their previous show in Italy. When the first note of “Hail to the King” began, instant chants of “Hail” filled the arena with lots of crowd interaction and many circle pits. We left during “Buried Alive” to move across to the Red Stage for the alternative headline act Pendulum (although I did make us go back after a few songs).
We were intrigued to see what the ratio of people between the stages would be considering the two headline acts were very different, and I’d say it was very close at around 60:40 to Avenged Sevenfold. Pendulum is a completely different genre of music compared to the rest of the festival acts, although this didn’t stop an immense response from the masses that had gathered. Opening with “Napalm”, a song that has still not been fully released on streaming services, it was clear the crowd was ready to rave the night away. The fact that they played my favourite of their songs, “Propane Nightmares”, during the short time we were there made me very happy! While I couldn’t see much of what was happening on stage from where I stood, the lighting and effects on the screens were mesmerizing.
While we would have enjoyed the full set from Pendulum, I couldn’t resist going back to Avenged Sevenfold. We arrived just as they were introducing “A Little Piece of Heaven”, with Shadows stating, “I think we’re the only band this weekend to openly have a song about necrophilia, and we’re proud of it!” We slowly made our exit during “Save Me”, and I had a sing-along to myself walking back to the car. With 11 bands ticked off and starting to feel the sunburn, it was time to call it a night to refresh and get ready for day three.
Photos by Jack Barker Photography
