«The task of art today is to bring order to chaos.» wrote Theodor W. Adorno in Minima Moralia and the organization and coordination of the Sonisphere Festival in Basel was characterized by chaos, as various bands noted in announcements and last Friday we were lucky that nothing happened. But there were also great shows by Hatebreed, Slipknot, Eluveitie and Iron Maiden. Bands great, weather great, rest not. But the OK des Swiss Sonisphere can this after last year's mud fight obviously perform ... - because it could have been worse. The great bands made it possible to overlook a lot and put a smile on the face of most of the metalheads.

Last Friday it was that time again: Sonisphere pitched its tents for the second time and after Maiden voyage in Jonschwil, this time the festival took place in Basel's St. Jakob Stadium, including the surrounding area. The weather showed its good side and the almost inexhaustible number of bands let you overlook the organizational deficiencies - but don't forget them, because already with the start of the festival on Friday it became clear what the Sonisphere really knew: Profit maximization! Unfortunately, the playing times of the bands, which had already been changed x times in advance, were rearranged and compressed at the beginning of the day, which should not have caused enthusiasm among fans or bands, but didn't really matter to me personally.

The ribbon exchange was organized in an amateurish way and the ribbons were great, because you can buy them 1: 1 for 120 francs at Flyerking ... 1000 pieces, the link to it was even printed on and that wasn't enough, with one ticket you could get as many ribbons as you wanted and to make friends and acquaintances happy. But this should only be the beginning of the organized chaos, because the festival had been under a bad star for weeks, as the event had to be postponed from the football stadium to the athletics stadium due to a lack of spectators and it was not possible there to take the paid seats can. All buyers of a seat ticket for admission received vouchers for two drinks and a sausage. But where the hell could you redeem the vouchers for the promised free drinks and sausage? In any case, 90% of the catering stands did not want to hear about these receipts. It also seemed strange that as soon as you entered the Metal Festival, the first thing to see was a cake stand ... well - I didn't know anything like that before, but it can also be nice to indulge in Hatebreed coffee and cake. After a concert like that, the exhausted metalhead needs a blast of sugar as is well known ...

Sonisphere 2011 // Slipknot - Sid Wilson crowdsurfing after he jumps from a truck

But let's first get to the essentials of the festival, the music! Unfortunately, at the beginning of the festival, you could not really enjoy this either, at Sick Puppies on the Apollo Stage, notably the main stage of the event, there was a power failure, which again raised doubts about the professionalism of the organization. At Cataract on the Red Bull Stage, you were no longer allowed in because the hall was already full. The security was left to some students and teenagers who also had the dubious pleasure of rejecting disappointed fans in front of closed doors, which could easily have escalated with more alcoholic fans. As a rule, we had some sunshine, so we lounged on the lawn near the Apollo Stage and left the first trouble drown fly away ... and enjoyed Mr Big a bit, but they don't really meet my taste.

So the first show you could really enjoy was with Dave Wyndorf, the linchpin of the drug-heavy Monster Magnet. After Dave and his men, a highlight of Sonisphere's was announced: Hatebreed! It's just great how these guys managed to captivate the audience right from the start. Loud as hell and with such a fat sound, the guys don't know how to stand still. With such fat riffs there is simply no mercy. Honest emotions, impetuous passion, a fat sound and particularly powerful energy. In front of the Bohemia Stage, the audience moved almost as one, Jamey Jasta raged over the boards and heated up the sweating crowd more and more and they celebrated with the best sound and to killer tracks like «Destroy Everything», «This Is Now», "Live For This" or "Doomsayer" a huge party.

Monster Magnet - Crop Circle (Complete song)

The The Eluvites and Slipknot had to play at the same time was a small imperfection that annoyed many a fan, as well as the marketplace, which was set up completely beyond, because who buys flip-flops at a metal festival? At all of my countless festivals I have participated in, I have never - but never - seen flip-flops for sale! The 4 dl water that was sold for 5 francs fits into the whole picture of profit maximization, but that's not enough, bottles were not allowed to be sold at the stands while people walked in openly with party kegs. I don't know how excited Iron Maiden would be if they knew you could walk in with guns without any obstacle. I've seen a lot, but I've rarely come across anything ridiculous and unprofessional, because even taking a rocket launcher into it wouldn't have been a problem.

But let's get back to music. Of course, other Sonisphere exponents such as Hammerfall, Mastodon and deserve recognition The Eluviteswhich all offered great shows and absolutely convinced the fans. Chrigel von Eluveitie also noticed the organizational chaos and tried to loosen up the whole thing with a joke, chaosphere is just one of the expressions that was used. As always, his band offered what was expected of them with their Melodic Death Metal with Celtic melodies: rock, groove, dance, jump, sound, dream, let go.

Since last year's (drug)Death of Slipknot bassist Paul D. Gray the band from Iowa rarely performed. Nevertheless, or maybe because of that, they offered Slipknot a real firework. On the main stage they gave a rendezvous that was furious as it was enormous. Despite the daylight and sun, the bizarre, clownish-looking metallers screwed the viewing and hearing experience to spherical heights. In terms of rotor, Joey Jordison and his drum station also screwed himself up and, in addition to pyrotechnics, Slipknot performed stage diving. The gig lasted around 90 minutes, demanding spectator sacrifices not a few times and giving helpers and accomplices busy minutes. Unfortunately, you could hardly see the screens of the Apollo Stage from behind.

Sonisphere 2011 - Dawn of the Joggeli

The food stands at the Sonisphere (not the ones in the hall) were hygienically piggy. Pre-made hamburgers lay open in a box. The money was accepted with bare hands, in order to then press the cheese onto the meat and the bun and meat together. Seconds later, the same hand scratches its face, picks up rubbish from the floor and then goes back to eating unwashed. Not one person at the stand does this, no, everyone does and there were fries and money in the coin stick, sometimes mixed in and with food. I wish you bon appetite. And friends, 9 francs for a 4 bite of pizza is not only slightly exaggerated, but borders on usury, there is only one sip of water left from the mug with the gold rim

But let's get back to the music, there are still big headliners like Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden queue. Even if Mr Cooper doesn't manage to impress me vocally, it's still exciting to see which scene the next song is supposed to be for. It's easy to hear that "I'm Eighteen" hasn't been true for a long, long time. Fortunately, his imagination and fun playing with crazy props has hardly overtaken this age. With an impressive wealth of vitality, energy and grotesqueness, the 63-year-old old rocker leads us through his theater of kitsch and self-portrayal.

Totally not cheesy Iron Maiden. At the beginning, the iron maiden mainly brought songs from «The Final Frontier», their latest album and which I couldn't get warm to the death of. In keeping with the new disc, the intro banged out of the speakers along with the following «Final Frontier» and «El Dorado». As almost always, the stage was designed the same way or based on the latest output, i.e. a science fiction landscape - lined with two radio towers and a starry sky. A true classic followed: «2 Minutes To Midnight». It is still fascinating how fit the six gentlemen sweep across the stage. And when later the 20-meter version also stares across the stage and sparkles evilly with its red eyes, all is right with the world anyway. Ok, the guy may look like a space pig now, but dammit, it's still Eddie. Screeeeeaaaammmmm for me Basel, Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmm for meeeee!

Very large cinema and lights twinkle like stars in the dome roof and stage background. Somehow galactically beautiful. But that wasn’t all that was offered to the eye: For many of the songs, suitable giant fabric images such as theater backdrops were drawn into the stage background and Eddie was not absent either.

And again a few newer tracks followed ("Blood Brothers", "The Wicker Man" and "When The Wild Wind Blows"), until "The Evil That Men Do" introduced the block of classics. From that moment on, even the biggest skeptics were gone: It doesn't matter whether it's the melancholic passages of "Fear Of The Dark" or the godlike twin leads of "Iron Maiden": Who didn't get goosebumps in these minutes or so rough yelled along that he had to eat kilos of cough drops the next day, he did something wrong that evening!

Iron Maiden live at Sonisphere Basel June 24.6.2011th, XNUMX - Blood Brothers

Pickpockets, allegedly from Romania, made all stages unsafe as a further evil and many metalheads lost an iPhone or wallet. It was clear that the perpetrators could not be «Metal», because I had never seen them steal from each other. But as the saying goes, at some point is the first time, maybe this also applies to flip-flops. At least pickpockets were already organized (!) at the Greenfield, so this phenomenon seems to be slowly becoming the norm at open air venues.

I could write a lot about this year's Sonisphere event, but there were also other things Hubbub, In Flames, Judas Priest and and and at the start. But too many words spoil the text ejaculate and so I just hope on fertile ground for criticism, because somehow that kept coming back to me in the chaos Mud bath by Jonschwil 2010 in mind. But as is well known, all good things come in threes and maybe next year we will finally manage to sizzle a professional and all-round convincing festival in the kitchens of Outfield Productions and the Zurich concert agency Free & Virgin, because this year they have once again anything but with Stained fame. Next year there has to be a great line-up for me to come back ... or I'll be on top of it Parking garage and watch me the concert for free an

Sonisphere Iron Maiden - Dance of Death 24.06.2011/XNUMX/XNUMX

Pics by Rockslave (Metal Factory) and videos from TheLostDevil, MrNomBidon, gagadumiau, protyreus and Haldi4803.

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