Full Force
After returning to live action with the first as successful post-pandemic edition one year before Full Force rocked the city of iron again. More than good to know our Ferropolis-fave becomes quite regular again as it had been before.
In its very beginning the 2023-edition had to deal with some strong rain, so the Morecore-warm-up-party had to be canceled and most arrived visitors warmed up at their camps. The rain stopped nearly in time shorty after the program had started on friday afternoon. From then on the sun reigned, so the fans just had to deal with a couple of puddles.
The set-up of the festival ground got a bit rearranged to offer the spectators shorter as quicker ways between the Mad Max Mainstage and the Medusa Seastage including a nice viewpoint to watch the shows at the beach. After adding the Backyard Stage on the festival area the organizers continued the four-stage-program being lead by Papa Roach, Gojira and Electric Callboy. This year a gaming area was part of the
Ferropolis peninsula where we saw several fans playing race games, ego-shooters, etc. while viewing this new part of the festival area.
The last year invented chip payment system being integrated in the wrist-bands got continued withanother service providing partner. This worked very well again. Visitors could easily load their wrist-bandamount while this system made payment actions much easier and probably avoided several thefts. Alsomentionable was the shuttle bus schedule driving the visitors in even smaller intervals.
Besides that we noticed Beck’s instead of last year’s Krombacher was the beer to enjoy and have fun with. On the way between the festival area and the camp grounds the new sponsor Burger King had a festival branch next to all the other food options.
As mentioned above when the program started and the sun came out everything was set for anotherunforgettable weekend on the peninsula. In Ferropolis 73 bands appeared on four stages for about 20000 visitors.
Friday
Mad Max Mainstage
Annisokay After Polaris-guitarrist Ryan Siew had suddenly died four days before it was up to thefourpiece from the close city of Halle to open the Mainstage-program of this year’s Full Force instead. Their melodic Metalcore motivated several fans to defy the still rainy weather as sing along from “Like A Parasite” over “Unaware”, “Good Stories” to “Coma Blue” and “STFU”.
Caliban Without bassist Marco Schaller the Metalcore-icon assembled many fans despite the rain to move. Supported by pyro as smoke effects numerous crowdsurfers celebrated the newer “VirUS” as the classics “We Are The Many”, “Davy Jones” and “Memorial”.
Motionless In White Finally the rain stopped and to my surprise the fivepiece from Pennsylvania filled up the area in front of the stage. Supported by a digital backdrop mainly showing a crystal ball balancing in someone’s hand the crowd jumped and let follow the first wall of death of this weekend. To me it was the first time watching the band with its horror-make-up, others seemed to be more experienced singing along with the opener “ Disguise”, “Scoring The End Of The World”, “Voices”, “Reincarnate” and “Eternally Yours”.
Jinjer To have become a co-headliner of the Full Force Festival shows the rise ot the Ukrainian ambassadors in hard, groovy as experimental Metal. Starting with “Perennial” left no doubt how much they deserved it while getting celebrated by the motivated crowd which got in consequent motion by the following “Words Of Wisdom”, “Call Me A Symbol” and “I Speak Astronomy”. Lead by the variable voice and the presence of Tatjana Shmayluk the quartet totally convinced in front of the backdrop held in the Ukrainian colors blue and yellow.
Electric Callboy The Madmax Mainstage area got pretty filled up by curious supporters to celebrate their Electro Metal. From “Tekkno Train”, “MC Thunder (Dancing Like A Ninja)” and “Spaceman” on the crowd jumped and sang along. To me this was a bit too party-orientated, but the audience was in the right mood for this. So animated by their two fronters Kevin and Nico the sixpack knew how to catch the crowd by the Cascada-cover “Everytime We Touch” the Scooter-reminder “Hypa Hypa” as “I Want It That Way” (Backstreet Boys). So they finished 90 minutes of joy by the encores “Pump It” and “Mindreader” as by the bonus encore “We Got The Moves”.
Medusa Seastage
Spiritworld In front of the backdrop showing the cover of their current output “Deathwestern” the Thrash Metal formation from Las Vegas tried to animate the audience to move while rain on the beach which worked for a couple of headbangers in the first rows.
Unearth This worked much better with the Metalcore original from Boston with new compositions from their brandnew masterpiece “The Wretched: The Ruinous” like its title song, “Into The Abyss” and “Dawn Of The Militant” as classics like “The Great Dividers”, “Giles”, “Black Hearts Now Reign” and “My Will Be Done”. It didn’t take long till the first circle-pit got started. Lead by the shouts of fronter Trevor Phipps and the riffs of guitarist Ken Susi they kept the crowd in motion by headbanging and moshpits during strong rain. Awesome!
ZSK A complete acoustically change was up to follow by the fourpiece from Berlin. Their Street Punk chilled the beach, on the other hand their was less party after the rain than it had been during the wet Metalcore show before.
Decapitated Back to brutal sounds: The technically skilled quartet from Poland attracted the headbangers back to the beach. And those ones got a lot to do to “Earth Scar”, “Last Supper” and “Spheres Of Madness” as the title track of their recent release “Cancer Culture”.
Mantar The Sludge duet from Hamburg could have been the right act to create some evening atmosphere at the beach, but somehow this didn’t work that much. Just the first rows celebrated their static sound until “Era Borealis” and “White Nights”.
Bloodbath This worked much better during the following 50 minutes of pure Death Metal. The opener “So You Die” made clear lots of necks were supposed to ache the next morning. Nick Holmes and his comrades created a brute atmosphere on the beach in the night by “Breeding Death”, “Outnumbering The Day” as “Cancer Of The Soul”. Moshpits as headbangers everywhere turned the seaside to a battlefield, so the all-star-collaboration between Katatonia, Opeth and Paradise Lost fulfilled a brilliant set by “Cry My Name” and “Eaten”.
Hardbowl Tentstage
Terror The Hardcore institution from Los Angeles returned to Full Force and showed for another time why they are counted to one of the biggest icons of the Hardcore scene. Headlining the Hardbowl Tentstage shouter Scott Vogel and his four comrades inspired their supporters to jump and to take part in circle-pits to “Can’t Help But Hate” like the title track from their current output “Pain Into Power” as to classics like “One With The Underdogs”, “Always The Hard Way”, “Stick Tight” and “Keepers Of The Faith”.
Saturday
Mad Max Mainstage
Blind Channel The double-fronted sixpack from Finland were the right opener to spread positive vibes onto the festival ground. By the opener “Happy Doomsday” and “Flatline” they introduced two new songs from their forthcoming album. The present audience celebrated those ones as probably more familiar tracks as the final “Balboa” and “Dark Side”. For sure they did by the Anastacia-cover “Left Outside Alone” as the reactions of the audience showed.
Vended The band of the two sons of Corey Taylor and Shawn “Clown” Craham from Slipknot, Griffin and Simon, who actually sing and drum in their band as well didn’t really surprise by performing some kind of Nu Metal. They attracted a couple of curious spectators that probably found out the sons aren’t even close to their fathers’ sound yet.
Lionheart After Terror the night before another one of the fewer West-Coast-Hardcore bands appeared on the peninsula. The fivepiece from Oakland grooved and thrilled by the newer “Hell On Earth” and “Live By The Gun” as by classics like “Hail Mary” and the finisher “LHHC”. Another highlight became their interpretation of Beasty Boys’ “Fight For Your Right”.
While She Sleeps Like in 2019 Sheffield’s finest in Metalcore attracted lots of fans in front of the Mainstage. They started intensively by “Sleeps Society” and “Anti-Social”. Numerous jumping fans, moshpits as singalongs supporting fronter Mat Welsh especially during “You Are We” and “Silence Speaks” made these 50 minutes very furious ones. Just sad there was no time left to play “Know Your Worth (Somebody)”.
Hatebreed The openers “To The Threshold” and “Call For Blood” were the signal for the most active moshpits of the day. Lead by chief shouter Jamey Jasta the East Coast Hardcore fivepiece from Connecticut had quite a home game and kept their supporters in motion to their evergreens “Live For This”, “This Is Now” and the final “I Will Be Heard”.
Gojira The main attraction of the day assembled lots of fans on the festival ground looking forward to theperformance of one of the most innovative bands in Metal. And after a countdown shown on the video walls those ones got caught from the first tones of “Born For One Thing” after which the classic “Backbone” left no one in the audience passive by headbanging and/or participating in the moshpits. Lead by the Duplantier-brothers behind the microphone and the drums the French quartet appeared on a multilevel-stage-set in front of the digital backdrop showing videos like the official one of “Another
World” or illustrations like one completely held in red. In combination with the amazing light show and the smoke as fire effects “Stranded”, “Flying Whales”, “Silvera” and “The Art Of Dying” deployed its full effect. Before “The Chant” vocalist Joe Duplantier taught the audience how to singalong by “whahaha” instead of “whohoho” which worked very fine as well during the song. So “Vacuity” marked the end of the best show of the whole weekend as probably of the whole festival summer.
Medusa Seastage
Milking The Goatmachine In front of five little single backdrops showing the band logo in the middle and goat faces combined with the make-ups of the band Kiss the fourpiece with the grunting drummer tried to wake up at the seaside by their Grindcore. Surprisingly many spectators were present to experience their personal “Ding Dong”.
Konvent The following female band from Copenhagen surprised with deep as brutal Doom-Death. “Pipe Dreams” and “Puritan Masochism” as the grunting voice of Rikke Emilie List left no doubt who reigned the beach.
Born Of Osiris After being sad about the canceled appearance of Loathe on the Seastage this feeling got totally blown away by the progressive Metalcore quintet from Illinois and the opener “Bow Down”. „Poster Child“, „Angel Or Alien“ as „White Nile“ showed the new material from their current album kills, too. Lead by fronter Ronnie Canizaro and the agile keyboarder/co-shouter Joe Buras the motivated fans applauded and participated in moshpits. So “Open Arms To Damnation” and “Machine” marked the end of a successful performance.
Insomnium There probably wasn’t any band matching that much with the Seastage as the quartet from the land of the thousand lakes. Especially in the evening their stage set with the white trees on the back drop created some tremendous atmosphere. By its title song, “White Christ”, “Godforsaken” and “Lilian” the Finns considered half of the set from their new album “1696”. Those ones worked pretty well, the classics “While We Sleep” and “Mortal Share” even did better showing much headbanging action on as in front of the stage.
Igorr The experimental fourpiece from Paris showed their mixture consisting of nearly everything between Death Metal and Electronic Music. By time this sounded a bit too confused, meanwhile Sleep Token were the much better option at the Tentstage to us.
Hardbowl Tentstage
Dog Eat Dog The Crossover heroes from the 90ies were supposed to have kind of an home game at the Hardbowl, but the tent wasn’t really crowded, maybe because they got confirmed a few weeks before replacing another band. The fivepiece including saxophonist performed motivated and obviously enjoyed to let the present supporters move to “Who’s The King?” as “Pull My Finger”. Fronter John Connor also announced to remember the passed former guitarist Sean Kilkenny. “Rocky” and the band hymn “No Fronts” left no doubt about the band’s still able to rock.
Sleep Token The masked shooting stars from London filled up the tent, so on each side there were lots of curious spectators when the quartet opened by “Chokehold”, besides “Granite”, the brutal “Vore”, “The Summoning” and “Rain” from their new masterpiece “Take Me Back To Eden”. For even those new ones the audience majorly seemed to know the lyrics they sang with vocalist Vessel. They celebrated classics like “Alkaline” „The Offering“ or “Higher” as well, so this became a triumphant show. Next time they’ll
surely appear on the Mainstage.
Sunday
Mad Max Mainstage
Stray From The Path It was up to the New York City Hardcore fourpiece to start the last day’s action on the Mainstage. And they did well, from the opener “Needful Things” on the energetic shouter “Drew York” ran and jumped over the stage, and so did the crowd in front of it. Their social as political issues in songs like “Goodnight Alt-Right” and “First World Problem Child” matched as well, so this was a good start into the final day.
Skindred In front of a backdrop showing several amps and the band logo the Welsh Reggae Metal commando seemed to enthuse every present person on the festival ground. By the opener “Set Fazers” and “L.O.V.E. (Smile Please)” they even let the people interact with two new as still unreleased songs from the forthcoming album. By “Rat Race”, “Kill The Power”, “Pressure”, the final “Warning”, some T-Shirt-action and several “Whoopwhoops” by fronter Benji Webbe this show entertained pretty well.
Spiritbox The time had come to watch the shooting stars from Vancouver around ex-members ofI wrestledabearonce and As I Lay Dying. Many spectators seemed to be curious about that moving, jumping and singing along from the start consisting of “Rule Of Nines” and “Hurt You” on. The tight show became even more sympathic when vocalist Courtney LaPlante emphasized they don’t give the audience instructions what to do, they should decide themselves what to do. After “Secret Garden” and the much celebrated “Circle With Me” they performed Holy Roller together with the fronter of Stray From The Path, “Drew York”. Hopefully we’ll see them again soon.
The Halo Effect The next formation with just one debut album, but many well-known musicians was about to rock the Mainstage area. The collaboration of (ex-)members from In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Actually guitarist Jesper Strömblad was missing, Jensen from The Haunted replaced him while bassist Peter Iwers appeared with a leg splint. Of course their setlist mainly consisted of songs from their “Days Of The Lost” – debut record from the opening title track to the final “Shadowmind”. In the middle of their set the Swedes introduced by “Become Surrender” one song from the next album. Lead by the agile as usual front entertainer Mikael Stanne this show thrilled a lot.
Meshuggah The slow intro including switching lights to each tone showed the mighty Tech Death masters were coming to start with “Broken Cog”. From then on there was a moshpit in front of the stage raging on and on. By “Ligature Marks” and “The Abysmal Eye” further compositions of the recent album “Immutable” got considered. The charismatic as unique riffs of the sixstringers, the exactly tight rhythm section and the vocals of Jens Kidman left no wish open. The cool light show and the varying stage set supported this first class show. Highlights became “Rational Gaze”, “Demiurge” and the final classic “Future Breed machine” closing an outstanding show. In the end Jens Kidman asked the crowd to stay alive to meet again. Okay, we’ll do so.
Papa Roach What should follow after this? The fourpiece from Sacramento which showed an energetic performance from the oepener “Kill The Noise” on. The band played tight and fronter Jacoby Shaddix entertained very well leaving no doubt they deserve the headliner slot. “Getting Away With Murder”, “Between Angels And Insects” and “Broken Home” including some Rap-beginning got enormously celebrated as their interpretation of Prodigy’s “Firestarter” did. So the band hymn “Last Resort” finished a strong headliner show as another excellent Full Force Festival.
Hardbowl Tentstage
Aviana The Djent-/Metalcore-quartet from Gothenburg attracted an astonishing number of visitors in the afternoon. And they didn’t just come to watch, band as them harmonized brilliant mainly celebrating songs from their new album “Corporation”. Just the “Epicenter”-tracks “Erased” and “My Worst Enemy” made it into the setlist. In front of his masked bandmates vocalist Joel Holmquist convinced shouting, singing as entertaining. So after the melodic “Anomaly” and the harder “Obsession” the fronter counted to three and asked the crowd then to shout “Scheiße” for the final photo.
Landmvrks After the successful show at Full Force last year the organizers invited the fivepiece from Marseille to rock the Tentstage again. And so they did beginning by “Lost In A Wave” and “Rainfall”. During “Death” vocalist Florent Salfati got support by Stray From The Path – fronter “Drew York”. The following “Visage” as “Say No Word” became further highlights for the jumping and shouting fans.
Backyard Stage
Our Mirage The quartet enthused by their melodic sound. Singer Timo Bonner announced how glad they were to be in Ferropolis which was easy to see as well. Mainly considering songs from their recent release “Eclipse” the highlight of the show became the jump-interaction for “Help Me Out”.
Conclusion:
The four-stage-concept got well-established since last year. Band cancelations got managed as replaced well by the organizers. Besides that the organization worked well for another time by taking care about the safety of the visitors while the windstorm on thursday as by offering enough water supply over the sunny hot weekend. Besides that the awareness team was there for visitors feeling unsecure or needing help in any way.
The prices stayed the same as in 2022 (e.g. 5,50 € for 0,4 l beer), the variety of food guaranteed a big choice.
Our special thanks go out to Tobias Zwiebel, Vincenzo Sarnelli, Matthias Lumm, Good Live GmbH and the FF-team!
In the city of iron rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi and Wirwa!