Day two of Hellfest brings yet more sunshine to the French countryside and as Clisson basks in the shimmering heat, several thousand metal heads do their best to shrug off hangovers and stumble into the arena.
The night before was one of heavy drinking mayhem and Motley Crue only left the stage seven and a half hours previously. As the longhairs wander bleary eyed in search of breakfast though, the hardcore faithful are already down the front and the Saturday promises to provide even more carnage.
Thrash Metal Lives In Gama Bomb!
Aside from the crushingly heavy introduction by local favourites Trepalium, the day kicks off with those cheeky Irish thrash boys Gama Bomb. Their tongue-in-cheek party metal may not be a very appropriate soundtrack to croissants and orange juice first thing in the morning, but it certainly helps to blow away the cobwebs of the night before.
Clad in old school horror t-shirts, hair flying in the wind and with guitars crunching loud, Gama Bomb are thrash metal through and through. With lyrical subjects ranging from drunk zombies to Jean Claude Van Damme and the villain from the Robocop movie, they don’t do much to work the grey matter but that was never the intention. This is dim witted, knuckle dragging metal that makes for a blinding thirty minute blast on a hot summers day and the crowd absolutely love it.
Hellfest Meets The Hell Trucker!
Soon, the dust is churning up into the air and heads are banging up and down the front row. Vocalist Philly Byrne bounds across the stage with a massive grin etched across his face, lyrics flying from his mouth at high speed while the guitars jostle for space in the melee. Then as a thousand voices start chanting the chorus to OCP, the area in front of the main stage goes completely nuts.
If there’s anything to stop this being a high speed thrashterpiece though it’s that it’s far too short. With a mere half hour to air the material, a lot of their best songs don’t get a showing and Global Warming was a strange omission given it’s popularity among their fan base.
This being said though, for a brief period of time thrash is alive and well in the French countryside. Like every eighties cliché rolled into one band, Gama Bomb are relentlessly entertaining and provide one impossibly loud wake up call for the second day of Hellfest. Now let’s see them higher up the bill next year!
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