Day three started with a weather warning pinging on the Nova Rock app as we drove to the festival site. With the sun shining, we expected this to be a message of don’t forget your sun cream and hats, but no. Worryingly, it stated, “Our weather service is forecasting rain for tonight from around midnight.” Perhaps we had jinxed things by comparing the weather that festival-goers at Download had experienced the day before. But for now, the sun was blisteringly hot, so we carried on.
For me personally, today’s lineup was a mixed bag, with some bands we were genuinely looking forward to seeing later in the day and quite a few we knew little about first on the lineup. From the first six bands today, four of them hailed from Austria or Germany and spoke purely German on stage. Figuring out what was said between songs was a little tricky as we definitely need to download the Duolingo app and learn some German before next year’s festival, but the music was brilliant.
Starting with a bit of Austrian metalcore at the Red Stage from We Blame The Empire, lead vocalist Sebastian “Borsti” Penninger bounced onto the stage and led the rest of the band in a heavy performance that got the crowd raring to go for day three of the festival. The second song of the set gave guitarist Moritz “Molli” Osterer a chance to show off his clean vocals. With mosh pits and crowd surfers throughout the set and a huge wall of death during the third song, We Blame The Empire was a brilliant start to day three.
The next act was a combination of nu-metal, dance-pop, and folk metal that provided more of a party atmosphere. The lederhosen-clad Kontrust was an interesting band to see live and one that we wanted to see back in 2019. However, they clashed with another band that we knew. With all the members running onto the stage, the crowd instantly began to bounce and dance. With the state of politics around the world at the moment, “Just Propaganda” is a particularly relevant song while still fun to see performed live. The band ended the party with “Bomba”, which saw the party atmosphere intensify to the levels seen during their biggest song, “Hey DJ!” earlier in the set.
Against The Current was the first band of the day that I had known prior to the festival and spoke English as they hail from New York. Having seen them support Good Charlotte a few years ago, we knew we were in for a treat. The band has been on a grueling tour of Europe in recent weeks, starting with Slam Dunk Festival appearances and hitting many other festivals and headline shows since. Despite the hectic schedule, the band was still bursting with energy. Lead vocalist Chrissy Costanza utilized the whole stage, especially during “good guy” when she ran to the far sides of the stage, getting closer to the crowd at the edge of the arena. Even some technical difficulties during “Running with the Wild Things” couldn’t stop the band, with Costanza joking, “We’d almost finished that one, so we’ll skip to the next song. If you want to hear the rest of it, you will have to come to one of our shows.” There were so many phones in the air recording the final song of the set, “Legends Never Die”, which Costanza introduced by saying, “If there’s one song you’ll know, it’s probably this one.”
After a quick lunch break—today’s choice being a pulled pork sandwich—we continued our run at the Red Stage with the fourth band in a row, Saltatio Mortis. Saltatio Mortis is a German medieval metal group, with a name that translates from Latin into English as “Dance of Death”. With an appearance that matches their medieval sound, they also play some very unique instruments, which I will admit I have no idea what they were. While we only caught a few songs from the band before heading to another stage, “My Mother Told Me” gave us sea shanty vibes, while a cover of Electric Callboy’s “Hypa Hypa” and the band’s own “Keine Regeln” that were played as we walked through the festival grounds had a much more techno sound.
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We made it up to the Red Bull Stage just in time for ALLT to enter the stage. While we only stayed for a few songs as we needed to nip away to get a drink and find some shade due to the sweltering heat, they are a worthy mention as they were a last-minute addition to the lineup, having only been announced a few weeks before the festival when the stage times were released along with the winners of a band contest, ARKLIGHT.
The final German band of the day for us was Future Palace from Berlin. Having listened to songs like “Dead Inside” prior to arriving in Austria, I was expecting a sound similar to that of Against The Current earlier in the day. But with the band opening with “Defeating Gravity” and “Fever” from their 2022 album *Run*, it was clear that I had been listening to the band’s tamer tracks and that lead vocalist Maria Lessing has an impressive growl to match her striking clean vocals. We will definitely be following Future Palace from now on and be going to see them next time they are in the UK.
With the biggest clash of bands for the whole festival for us, we now had a choice to make. Do we go and see the final festival performance in Austria by Sum 41 before they disband, or do we go see festival favourites Steel Panther, whom we have never seen before? What we decided on was a little bit of both: see the first few songs from Sum 41 before running through the secret passage between the stages reserved for members of the press and arrive just in time for Steel Panther.
While Sum 41 might be on one last final hurrah before calling it a day, they are in no way done yet. For the part of the set that we saw, lead vocalist Deryck Whibley never stood still for more than a couple of seconds, making full use of the runway protruding from the stage to get closer to the adoring fans. While guitarists Dave Baksh, Steve Jocz, and bassist Jason McCaslin stayed on the main part of the stage, they, of course, performed their signature move of standing together on a podium while playing in sync. Opening the set with “Motivation” definitely kicked off the experience with a bang. However, as much as we would have liked to have stuck around to hear iconic tracks such as “In Too Deep” and “Fat Lip” one last time, it was time to run to the Red Stage.
I’m not sure how much I can actually write about a Steel Panther show without being cancelled, but I think the best way to describe it is crude, at times ridiculous, with frequent references to substance abuse and sexual acts, but overall so much fun. Having never seen Steel Panther live before, we had been told by a friend that they are a must-see, and they weren’t wrong. Their show is clearly choreographed with plenty of time devoted to talking to the crowd to tell anecdotes of the band’s rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, but sandwiched between this are the band’s unique tracks that promote the crazy lifestyles of rock stars in the ’80s. You will have to Google the setlist yourself, but it included all the biggest hits, including the first song I ever heard by the band, “Death to All but Metal.” There was plenty of nudity in the crowd throughout the set, which was certainly encouraged by the band, especially when they jokingly suggested breaking the world record for the most girls on stage before inviting at least 100 ladies on stage, a good percentage of them topless for “17 Girls in a Row.” With the band seemingly running over their allotted time for the final song, we had to leave to make our way back to the Blue Stage for the next act of the day.
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When Avril Lavigne was first announced for Nova Rock Festival, I initially thought that this was a slightly unusual choice, however the more I thought about it the more the announcement made sense. For anyone in their late 20’s or early 30’s artists like Lavigne were a huge part of developing a taste in heavier music and we noticed when walking back into the arena for the set, Lavigne had pulled in one of the biggest crowds of the weekend so far. The set was a pure nostalgia fest and kicked off with a bang with ‘Girlfriend’. Feeling like I was back in primary school, I’m not afraid to admit that I sang my heart out to the likes of ‘Complicated’ and ‘Sk8er Boi’.
Breaking up the performance towards the end of the set, they showed a video containing clips of scenes throughout Lavigne’s career and clips of music videos. Closing the set with a two-song encore of slower tracks ‘Head Above Water’ and ‘I’m With You’ Lavigne’s vocals were on point for the entire set, however in my opinion she did lack a little stage presence and energy during the performance, simply wandering around the stage and swaying a little even during the more energetic songs.
We had made it to the headline acts this evening without any sign of the forecasted rain, however that changed as Lavigne’s set finished with a quick shower while we took shelter in the press area. With the rain slowing and us thinking we had dodged a bullet we left the press area with myself heading to the blue stage to see Måneskin and Jack heading to the red stage to photograph Alice Cooper. Looking back on it now, the shower ten minutes earlier was a warning shot from mother nature. With Måneskin barely two songs into their set the heavens well and truly opened and the heaviest rain I have ever seen began to fall. With Måneskin lead vocalist Damiano David commenting “We’re so hot, we made the sky wet!”
While the crowd initially attempted to embrace the weather conditions and continued to enjoy the performance with lots of dancing during ‘DON’T WANNA SLEEP’ and multiple crowd surfers appeared during ‘GOSSIP’, the addition of lightning and the rain somehow intensifying meant that a mass exodus started. While I tried to stick it out to enjoy the 2021 Eurovision winners set, by song six of the set ‘GASOLINE’ it was time to admit defeat and make a run for the safety of the car along with what seemed to be the majority of the festival attendees.
Seeing the puddles and mud already forming we were slightly worried about making it out of the car park but luckily, we had no issues and had a very soggy drive back to our airbnb.
Photos by Jack Barker Photography
