The Chaoszine Hellfest 2024 report, day 4: All Hell Breaks Loose!

Sunday morning was very sunny indeed, with almost no traces of the rainy clouds that took the spotlight on the previous day. At this point, the queues for official merch were finally short enough for me to take a closer but of course many of the products were already sold-out, although I got myself a couple of souvenirs. I also had the chance to finally check out the Warzone and Valley stages, which are a bit further from the mainstages. My first show of the day was Dutch heavy rockers Dool, probably the best discovery I made while checking out new bands before the festival. Their set consisted mostly of songs from their excellent album “The Shape of Fluidity” released earlier this year, with singer/guitarist Raven van Dorst delivering a powerful and touching performance. If you haven’t listened to their stuff yet, I highly recommend it.

Although I initially thought that Sunday would be a slower day, there were a few surprises left and next up were German death/black metal outfit Thron, another great discovery I made recently thanks to Hellfest. I guess it is impossible to keep up with all the new bands and releases so festivals like this are a great opportunity to check out new stuff. The temperature was quite high at this point so I had to eat two triple ice creams to stay alive. Greek melodic black metallers Yoth Iria delivered a chaotic set and Batushka also gathered a huge mass at the Temple. Sierra’s synthwave performance was nice for a change after so many days listening to almost purely metal. One of the most striking things about the festival is how open-minded people seemed and I saw no signs of elitism or prejudice when it comes to different music styles.

I took one last trip to the mainstages which were already very full of people waiting for the closing day’s main attraction Foo Fighters, and I didn’t even bother to queue for the endless photopit line. Queens of The Stone Age was one of the most entertaining shows of the day with a nice mix of classics and new songs from latest release “In Times New Roman”. This is a band I don’t listen to so much at home but their live show left a very positive impression on me. The Offspring is also maybe not my cup of tea and from what I could hear their vocal performance is not the best around but their tunes are catchy enough to keep the audience amused with some comedy bits and snippets of rock classics in between.

My last two shows of the festival took place at the Altar and Temple tents. American death metal four piece I Am Morbid, featuring former members of Morbid Angel and playing solely classics from said band, delivered one of the most intense sets of the day, with frantic drumming by the legendary Pete Sandoval and the instantly recognizable growl of David Vincent. Last but not least Norwegian symphonic black metal heroes Dimmu Borgir, performing in front of a huge crowd despite having the Foo Fighters playing at the same time on the mainstage. A little dose of extreme metal was the perfect way to wrap up these four days of metal mania but by midnight Hellfest 2024 would eventually close their gates for one more year. Nothing lasts forever, as they say.

All in all, Hellfest 2024 was an awesome experience beyond the musical point of view, and I have no big complaints to the organisers. The only annoying thing about my last night at the festival was the noisy people from the camp shouting until 4 AM when I was trying to get some sleep before a long trip back to Helsinki. Other than that, people were very friendly towards this lonely reporter from Finland. If you like heavy music and haven’t had the chance to visit Hellfest, you should do it at least once during your life, maybe sooner than later.