Sonisphere Festival

The Czech Republic will finally have a festival of the world format

A travelling English festival Sonisphere will roar also in the Czech Republic in the year 2010. The promoters of this festival announced that they had already made the first steps on the Czech ground regarding the festival organisation. In the Czech Republic the festival is held by the agency C.A.R.P. Entertainment s.r.o.

Everything will be launched out on 19th June, 2010 at the airport Hradčany near Mimoň. At the time of the beginning of advance sale the promoters announce the first confirmed headliners. They are no-one smaller than three-quarters of the thrash metal quaternion: Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, supplemented by the bands Mastodon and Heaven & Hell! The idea that the just mentioned bands would ever play live together has been only a dream for the Czech fans.

Beside the mentioned headliners the Sonisphere will be packed not only with harder guitar music from the beginning to the end. A promising line-up is betokened by the previous years which have run through Great Britain, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Germany and Finland. This year, beside these countries, not only the Czech Republic will be added, but also Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria.

One of the biggest musical events of the year will thus be played at the airport near Mimoň on 19th June, 2010, which will please not only the fans of hard music and metal. The festival will be held on two big stages and one talent scene, on which also a selection of the best of the Czech bands will present themselves.

Brief history of the Sonisphere Festival:

Sonisphere is a travelling one-day festival which was established in Great Britain in the year 2009. The past year was held in six European countries as a one-day festival and in Britain then also as a two-day one. In the year 2010 the Czech fans will have the opportunity to experience this show since this gigantic musical event will be arranged for them as well. In the year 2009 the average visit rate in the particular countries reached up to 40,000 – 60,000 viewers. At the particular events there appeared for example the bands Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Lamb of God, Hives and many others. Sonisphere, it is one day full of fantastic musical atmosphere, which had a splendid line-up already in the year 2009. However, in the oncoming year the promoters have surpassed all the expectations by announcing that the headliners for the year 2010 will be true stars, the bands Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax.

Biography of the confirmed headliners:

The American thrash metal legend Metallica was established by drummer Lars Ulrich in Los Angeles in the year 1981. The beginnings of the band are characterised namely by fast beat, instrumental maturity and musical aggressiveness. All these attributes placed the band into the great thrash metal quaternion next to Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. The band came from the underground spawn, but very soon after its establishment it exceeded beyond this musical field. In the year 1983 Metallica releases the album “Kill’em All”, which is still considered as the classics of this genre. However, three years later the album “Master of Puppets” is released, which is perceived both by fans and critique as one of the most fundamental “heavy” thrash metal albums ever. The last released energetic album called “Death Magnetic” returned the band back to the roots of the 80s. For the nearly thirty years of its existence the band has sold nearly sixty million albums only within the USA and more than hundred million copies of the last album “Death Magnetic” have been sold in the world. Nine studio albums, two live shows, two EPs, 24 videos, 45 singles and 9 Grammies in a nutshell rank this thrash metal legend among the most sold and most demanded bands in the world.

The Californian thrash metal band Slayer was established by Kerry King together with Jeff Hanneman in the year 1981. They got to the top already three years later with their album “Reign in Blood” which was labelled by the magazine Kerrang as the hardest album of all time. The music of Slayer is characterised by incredibly fast vibrations, atonal guitar solos, double pedal and vociferous vocal. A significant component of their music are also controversial texts including stories of serial killers, Satanism and war motives. Since their debut in the year 1983 Slayer have released two live albums, shot four videos and nine studio albums, of which four were awarded by a gold certificate in the USA. The band has also received three Grammy nominations, in the year 2007 it won with the song “Eyes of the Insane” and one year later with the song “Final Six”.

Another thrash metal legend, which is going to perform at the Sonisphere Festival, is the good old Anthrax. The band was established by Scott Ian and Danny Lilker in New York in the year 1981. At the beginning the sound of Anthrax was defined by a combination of frantic and fast hard core punk, based on excellent guitar reefs and heavy metal singing. Anthrax debuted with their album “Fistful of Metal” and they have made nine albums in total for their twenty-five year musical career. They put forth their last piece in the year 2003 under the name “We’ve Come for You All”. The fans are at the moment still awaiting with expectation the long-time promised album “Worship Music”. It is possible that Anthrax will play a part of it during their set at the Sonisphere Festival.

Mastodon was established by drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher in the year 1999. Mastodon is a progressive metal band from z Atlanta, which is often attributed to having started a new wave of American heavy metal. They have four albums at their account; the last of them called “Crack the Skye” was released in the year 2009. In the year 2008 they were guests of the European tour with the bands Slayer and Trivium and last year they participated in the European part of “The World Magnetic Tour” with Metallica. Mastodon have brought new elements into metal music and ranked themselves next to the giants of thrash metal, with whom they will perform at the airport in Mimoň.

Heaven & Hell is a musical groupment which was established by the duo Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Apicce together with Tony Lommi and Geezer Butler, thus two members of Black Sabbath. This quaternion recorded and had concerts together under the name Black Sabbath in the years 1980–1982 and later in the years 1991–1992. In the year 2006 the four musicians got together again in order to record three new songs for the compilation album of Black Sabbath: the Dio Years, which they decided to present in the years 2007–2008 on their tour. Lommi (the owner of the name Black Sabbath) decided to rename the band to Heaven & Hell in order to get distinguished from Ozzy’s Black Sabbath. The new name of the band is taken from the first record which Sabbath recorded with Dio.