Harry: June 24^th, 2010: a day that most metalheads in Athens, Greece had been waiting for. At first it was only a rumor, but then it hit us like a blast! 'Sonisphere Festival' would make a stop in our homeland and we were going to see a tour that already written history even before it started. ANTHRAX, MEGADETH, SLAYER and of course METALLICA would tour together for the first time! Some may object and say that this is not the Big Four, marking that it should have been the Big Five with the addition of EXODUS, but that's another story…

Dimitris Kokkinopoulos: How could a Greek Metal band be feeling opening the most historic Thrash festival in Greece? What about a 'state of euphoria'? Anyway, SUICIDAL ANGELS have earned a very wide recognition due to their hard work, the endless hours in the studios and their company, Nuclear Blast. To what their performance is considered, I can say that thousands got to listen to their Thrash-y tunes that morning while their loyal fans (or the so called 'Moshing Crew') spread chaos and clouds of dust! Playing some new songs from their upcoming album too ("Dead Again", "Final Dawn"), they took the game to another level, showing that they're here to stay. Classic hits like "Evil Attack", "The Prophecy" and my personal favorite "The Pestilence Of Saints" combined with a good sound quality proved to be even more killers although most people didn't react, probably saving energy for the Big Four. To sum up, the band had a great time playing stuff from their two albums and some new too, the fans enjoyed their performance and more people got to listen to the work of this excellent uprising band.

SUICIDAL ANGELS setlist:

1. "Mourning Of The Cursed"
2. "Dark Abyss (Your Fate Is Colored Black)"
3. "Bloodthirsty"
4. "Dead Again"
5. "The Prophecy"
6. "Evil Attack"
7. "The Pestilence Of Saints"
8. "Inquisition"
9. "Final Dawn"
10. "Apokathilosis"

Dimitris Kokkinopoulos: Having listened to just a bunch of songs before the show, most of which were from their new album "Fever", I was curious to see BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE live and see if they were made of steel, since they had been constantly stereotyped as an 'emo' band. What I saw was a very impressive performance full of young energy and thirst for Heavy Metal! Their fan base - ranging somewhere between 13-25 years old - was very excited, singing the lyrics (or just shouting) and headbanging opposite to their heroes. Matt Tuck was the true leader of the band, being the center of attention and in contrast to his recent surgery his voice was very good. The band promoted their new album by playing many songs from it; among them some were hits like "Scream, Aim, Fire", "Tears Don't Fall" and "Waking The Demon" which made the people in the front rows go insane. But I and my friends were counting the minutes for ANTHRAX to hit the stage!

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE setlist:

1. "Your Betrayal"
2. "Fever"
3. "Waking The Demon"
4. "Tears Don't Fall"
5. "Pleasure And Pain"
6. "4 Words (To Choke Upon)"
7. "Last Fight"
8. "Scream, Aim, Fire"
9. "Begging For Mercy"
10. "Hand Of Blood"
11. "Alone"

Harry: Not being able to watch the two opening bands of this festival, I was just in time to grab my first beer and find a good spot in order to see STONE SOUR on stage. They opened their set by playing a new song, "Mission Statement", from their forthcoming album called "Audio Secrecy" witch will be released in the coming September. The sound was very good and Corey, despite the death of his friend Paul Gray a few weeks ago, seemed to be in a good mood. And, for one more time, he showed us why many people believe he is one of the best performers in the Metal scene. He gave everything on stage, despite the lack of rest since they flew from Sofia to Athens the same day that 'Sonisphere' took place, but in my opinion sometimes he became a bit stodgy with the silly dance and long monologues. STONE SOUR - among some of their well known songs like "30/30-150", "Blotter" and "Come What(ever) May", also played two more new cuts: "The Bitter End" and "Digital". Last but not least, I have to mention the noise their fans made when Corey presented the rest of the band and said the name of the bass player, Shawn Ekonomaki, who is half-Greek. This was a really good performance for fans of STONE SOUR and this genre in general. But the time had come for the four bands that we all had been waiting for. So we grabbed another beer and were ready to see ANTHRAX's performance. Time for some Thrash!

STONE SOUR setlist:

1. "Mission Statement"
2. "Reborn"
3. "Made Of Scars"
4. "The Bitter End"
5. "Blotter"
6. "Your God"
7. "Idle Hands"
8. "Digital"
9. "Come What(ever) May"
10. "Get Inside"
11. "Hell & Consequences"
12. "30/30-150"

Greg: You were given a hard time trying to grab a glass ob beer or some grimy hot dog; and it was only 5:00 in the afternoon. Escaping this plan, it was time to grab some good view at some 30 meters from the fest's second stage in order to enjoy ANTHRAX's second appearance in Greece (again in the same area/festival). The giant vintage banner backing the stage saluted as with trust and the band stormed in with "Caught In A Mosh". Needless to say, the sound was average – or worse – in the beginning, later to reveal a sharper level. The front rows would not mind anyway, hence local mosh pits and a variety in crowd surfing methods was a basic dish over there. One hour passed by quite vividly, to tell the truth; the American band's seltist was a crucial factor. Songs like "Antisocial", "Indians" (with a Ronnie James Dio intermezzo part of "Heaven And Hell") and "I Am The Law" surely are crowd friendly and the bands seemed to have enough good energy to share. Old-school thrashers were probably in some big shock listening to obscure numbers like "Medusa" and "Metal Thrashin' Mad", this should be noted down. Scott Ian was relentless and a non-stop figure onstage while Joey Belladonna was as friendly as expected. His vocal picture, though, was somehow cropped at more demanding song-parts and this shouldn't go unnoticed by core followers of ANTHRAX all these years. The singer successfully covered such malfunctions with his experience, needles to say.

ANTHRAX setlist:

1. "Caught In A Mosh"
2. "Got The Time"
3. "Madhouse"
4. "Be All, End All"
5. "Antisocial"
6. "Indians" (w/ "Heaven And Hell" excerpt)
7. "Medusa"
8. "Only"
9. "Metal Thrashing Mad"
10. "I Am The Law"

Greg: This was another royal performance by a band that had and still has few things in common with its companions in this road circus. SLAYER came, saw and conquered, objections overruled! Bad thing – and I mean really BAD THING – was that the band performed long before sunset; cut out 50% of a great experience if you happen to see SLAYER playing under the sun…

The fewer the words, the better the image. "We came here to play music", Tom Araya roared in between the first couple of songs and the vast majority of the crowd (clearly participating in this event for the sake of METALLICA's exuberant commercial status) stood quite still being bombarded by the hellish quartet's ravenous setlist. With Araya in the middle and the King/Hanneman duo triumphing over each of the stage's sides, the real signal for warfare was given with "War Ensemble". Consisting of newer ("World Painted Blood", "Jihad"), older ("South Of Heaven", "Angel Of Death") and infamous ("Chemical Warfare", "Mandatory Suicide") cuts, one hour passed by quite brightly with two things occurring for sure: a) Dave Lombardo remains a killing machine in easy, and b) the obscurity SLAYER supply when playing their evil (and newer, more aggressive) stuff has nearly no real rivals all this 25+ years. Kill, stop, kill, stop, new song, stop, kill, stop, new song, stop, kill stop…"Reign In Blood". Darkness descended and it was only 19:30 in the evening when the skies became blacker than black. SLAYER's image, onstage attitude and songwriting (back in the golden 80s) philosophy always kept and still keeps a safe distance from everything else called classic American Thrash Metal. Apart from historical reasons including these massive killers in the 'Sonisphere' troupe, I do not get why SLAYER had to be more communicative with the crowd or smiling while slaughtering souls with "Seasons In The Abyss" (a massive hit, in terms of commercial recognition). That's a SLAYER gig, like it or not. Imagine what the eerie on a darkened sky gig would be like…

SLAYER setlist:

1. "World Painted Blood"
2. "Jihad"
3. "War Ensemble"
4. "Hate Worldwide"
5. "Seasons In The Abyss"
6. "Angel Of Death"
7. "Beauty Through Order"
8. "Disciple"
9. "Mandatory Suicide"
10. "Chemical Warfare"
11. "South Of Heaven"
12. "Raining Blood"

Harry: 20:00 o' clock: the sun was going down. Many years have pasted since I watched them on stage. Uncle Dave, Ellefson (we don't have to hide behind our finger, those two are MEGADETH) with Chris Broderick (guitar) and Shawn Drover (drums) came on stage. The ones that are fans of our beloved music and not a particular band where there screaming and applauding. Dave faked that he is going to start playing, then smiled and seconds later the opening riff from "Holy Wars…The Punishment Due" was heard. I'm sorry boys and girls that you are reading this report but during the first minutes I lost contact with the rest of the world. But unfortunately the bad sound made me get back too soon. I have only one thing to say: MEGADETH don't deserve to play in small scenes like this one! All the set was performed 100% accurate by the band, but the sound didn't help them at all. Things did get better as time passed, but still they didn't even reach the sound that STONE SOUR or SLAYER had. Dave was in great shape, having good communication with the crowd and really enjoyed playing that evening. Ellefson brought back the chemistry that, in my humble opinion, MEGADETH lost after he left the band.The set may have not been the one that everybody wanted (for example who didn't want to listen to "Wake Up Dead" or "Tornado Of Souls"?), not that I didn't enjoy "Skin O' My Teeth" or "A Tout Le Monde".I believe that if they had the opportunity to play at the same stage with the same sound as the others then they could have been the best band of the festival. Hope to see them again soon with the sound that they ought to have as a big legend they are.

MEGADETH setlist:

1. "Holy Wars…The Punishment Due"
2. "Hangar 18"
3. "Headcrusher"
4. "In My Darkest Hour"
5. "Skin O' My Teeth"
6. "A Tout Le Monde"
7. "Hook In Mouth"
8. "Τrust"
9. "Sweating Bullets"
10. "Symphony Of Destruction"
11. "Peace Sells"
12. "Holy Wars…Reprise"

P.S. 1: Shame to some Metal fans(?) that left even before MEGADETH finished their setlist. But things in the music industry are not always fair…

P.S.2: I still can't believe that I saw them performing "In My Darkest Hour" live. For me it was one of the best moments of that evening.

Panos: So it was time for this wonderful Thrash day to continue with the headliners of the Big Four, METALLICA, taking the main stage of the 'Sonisphere Festival'. Despite the fact that METALLICA since 1997 and "Reload" haven't managed to release anything matching the quality of their previous legendary releases, or equal to the latest releases of MEGADETH or SLAYER, they were justifiably the headliners of the night since they are by far the most famous and commercially successful Thrash Metal band and they still deliver excellent live shows.

At around 21:45 the "Ecstasy Of Gold" intro marked the beginning of the METALLICA performance accompanied by the first rain drops. Their set officially opened with "Creeping Death" and the fans were simply ecstatic creating mosh pits and lighting up flares. The rainfall was becoming more and more powerful but no one really cared, "dancing in the rain" with the classic METALLICA Thrash hymns "For Whom The Bell Tolls", "Ride The Lightning", "Harvester Of Sorrow" and "Fade To Black". Then it was time to perform a couple of "Death Magnetic" songs. Even that there has been almost 2 years since the album's release most of the fans were much less enthusiastic with "That Was Just Your Life" and "The End Of The Line" compared to the previous ones. "Sad But True", which was dedicated by Hetfield to the Big Four bands, marked the return to their past material with Ulrich unfortunately missing some drum breaks. As time passed with "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and the new one "Broken, Beat And Scarred" (which was dedicated to the audience) the wet-to-the-bone fans were becoming even more excited, while the rain was eventually starting to stop. What followed was the peak of their live set: "One" (in which Ulrich totally screwed the double bass drum part), "Master Of Puppets" in which hell was unleashed, "Blackened" with huge flames rising around the stage every time Hetfield sang "fire", the touching "Nothing Else Matters" and the great "Enter Sandman", which temporarily ended their set, simply drove the fans crazy. In the encore METALLICA continued their excellent show with a cover on BUDGIE's "Breadfan" from "Garage Inc." and "Motorbreath" and "Seek And Destroy" from their legendary debut album "Kill 'Em All", winning the thunderous applause and cheers by the entire audience. METALLICA stayed for much time on stage bidding farewell to the fans, throwing many picks to them and stating that this time it will be less than 3 years until their next live show in Greece. All in all METALLICA delivered an excellent, full of energy live show, with a crystal clear sound, huge screens giving the opportunity for all of the fans to witness everything that was happening on stage (with good stage direction and many cameras) and a really good setlist despite missing some classic songs such as e.g. "Unforgiven". It was a stunning performance that every METALLICA fan enjoyed.

METALLICA setlist:

1. "Ecstasy Of Gold" (intro)
2. "Creeping Death"
3. "For Whom The Bell Tolls"
4. "Ride The Lightning"
5. "Harvester Of Sorrow"
6. "Fade To Black"
7. "That Was Just Your Life"
8. "The End Of The Line"
9. "Sad But True"
10. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"
11. "Broken, Beat And Scarred"
12. "One"
13. "Master Of Puppets"
14. "Blackened"
15. "Nothing Else Matters"
16. "Enter Sandman"
17. "Breadfan"
18. "Motorbreath"
19. "Seek And Destroy"

Harry: What can anyone say about this festival? The young metalheads had the chance to see the three most important bands and for this became part of history watching the Big Four together. They showed that the flame of Metal still burns (even if it is way different than in the older fans' era). As for us, the older ones, we were happy to see those four legends playing songs mostly from their past and listen to some hymns like "Caught In A Mosh", "Chemical Warfare", "In My Darkest Hour" or "Seek And Destroy". This is going to be a night to remember for a long time. But it would have been better with a larger second stage in order for all the bands to be 'equal'. I'm sure that we all left Tera Vibe having the same thing at the back of our heads: "hope to see some thing like that next year, too!" Until next time…

(photos by Vagia Anagnwstou)