Yesterday the second day of the Nova Rock festival went down and it was a legendary one, because it brought back the long awaited Linkin Park with the new singer. It also brought some Finnish friends of Apocalyptica back to Austria, which was nice to see! I went to see Motionless in White and Rise Against too! See below how the concerts were.
Apocalyptica was the first band that I saw yesterday. I never saw them live so I didn’t know what to expect exactly. But I wasn’t the only one in the crowd not knowing apparently, because one of the guys playing said on stage “We always play what we want so it’s always gonna be a surprise” and I must say, I really respect that. The symphonic metal band from Helsinki is composed of three classically trained cellists and a drummer was with them on stage too. Apocalyptica brought intense music and had a very emotional performance. They brought well known songs from Metallica too, which the whole crowd liked a lot and they sang along. All in all, it was a very moving performance!
Motionless in White played right after Apocalyptica and as a big fan I was standing right at front row. The metalcore band from USA brought exactly what the crowd wanted… energy and nice breakdowns. There was a lot of headbanging, crowdsurfing and sing along to the sometimes very emo sounding lyrics. A thing that sticked out to me was the singer saying that he is seeing so many people that it feels like they are headlining. The only thing that I would have wished is if the band would have played a few different songs from those that they always played in the last few years. A part from that… a headbanger show!
Next up I went to see the American punk rock band Rise Against. As expected, the festival site was full of people and fans who knew the lyrics of Rise Against legendary songs. Especially when the song “Savior” came on, all the people around me sang along. I already saw Rise Against once, but I think it’s always a nice performance and a concert to see and it’s definitely worth it.
The last band I saw yesterday and the most awaited one of this whole festival (the day tickets were sold out so quickly) was definitely Linkin Park. When I was staying quite in the middle under all the people, they were all wondering how it is going to be with the new singer Emily Armstrong and how she sings live. And, as it happened to me and all the people around me, she and Linkin Park in general didn’t dissapoint. She even succeeded my expectations. It felt like a rebirth of this band. The vocals were clean and powerful, the whole light show with lasers and the other lights was on point and not just the old songs were praised by the fans, but also the new ones. It was until now, my favourite show of this festival. If you ever have the chance, go and see Linkin Park! It’s worth it.
Text by Lucia Bellapianta, photos by Jules Hofer