Graspop metal meeting
Dessel, Belgium
(5 & 6 July 2002)
After countless hours of preparation and playing travel agent during the last weeks, I get the comforting message from two Greek Anathema fans that they had arrived at their hotel in Brussels and would be at my place the following day. This is just one of the many small indications of the greatness of the time to come. Many people from abroad (Greece, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, to name a few) found their way to Belgium to take part in what was to be a very exciting festival.
Thursday 04/07/2002, 6pm
Went home after work, took Giorgos and Sophia with me to Lille to pick up Mehdi (France) and Omar (Italy). After introducing one another, we went to have dinner. "Official Antimatter Kebab". The festival had started, or at least the partying had. Back to my place in Kortrijk later that night for a short sleep before actually leaving. Three hours of sleep should be enough for a festival, right? ;)
Friday 05/07/2002, way too early am
How do you put 5 people and their luggage, 3 tents and enough food to survive three days at a festival in one small Fiat Brava? No idea if this will ever be repeated, and don't ask me how we managed it, but somehow we did it. We arrived in time to find a nice spot on the camp site, big enough for us and others that were to join us later. Some Aiki supernoodles kept us alive whilst we were preparing to go into the festival area.A meeting point for Anathema fans was set very early on the festival day, but everybody was still queuing to get inside. So we went to see the first really interesting band playing at the festival: Manic Movement, playing a kind of dark metal with melodic guitar riffs with blackish vocals on top. A very charismatic singer, combined with the fact that they were playing in their home country, lead to a much appreciated concert. The first highlight.
After the gig, a few friends and I took a walk around the festival site. Talked the Moonspell guys into posing for a picture. Then we saw Jamie Cavanagh, twin brother of Vinnie and new bass guitar player in Anathema. He said he was happy to join them and very nervous about his first gig with the band in more than ten years. A few minutes later, Danny C. joined us; short-haired now, since some parasites forced him to cut his beautiful long hair. He looks so different now that I wouldn't have recognized him if Jamie hadn't said "look, there's Danny". So then we went on a tour around the festival and the different merchandizing stands and the metal market.
A while later we found ourselves sitting in the grass behind Marquee I, listening to the sets of Rage and Doro. Not too bad. By then, a few other foreigners had arrived. Coming from Switzerland, Italy and France, they were glad to meet up with Anathema fans from all over Europe. Minor point on Friday was that there was only one selling point for drink tickets, with hundreds of people standing in front of it. Nice thing that Danny went to get us drinks backstage (still got that plastic drink carrier, Giorgos?). Duncan Patterson, ex-bass guitar player for Anathema, now a fan and close friend of the band, had come from Ireland. He decided to come to the festival to meet up with the fans too.
When the afternoon was changing to evening, we went to see the In Extremo and Moonspell gigs. Moonspell pleased me more than they had earlier this year whilst on tour with Tiamat. There were still some dead moments in the set, but the fast songs were faster and the spectacular stuff was even more spectacular. A bit more of the classics and a bit less of the slow and soft new stuff would've spiced this gig up into an extraordinary performance. Now they had to settle with an average to good ratio.After some food (good ol' Belgian pu4e called "Frieten met stoverij", at least it was still kinda tasty) we went to move in the general direction of the up-front area of Marquee I. In life, choices have to be made, so I decided to skip the After Forever gig this time. I've seen them a couple of times before, and have always liked them very much. I had no idea how they would perform this time though.
At 10.30 pm, Danny came to tell us he was sorry to leave, but had to get onstage. Good thing that he didn't wait five minutes more or he would have been too late. Anathema came on stage and gave the best of themselves. Very good set, although the sound wasn't as clean as it should be at times. Jamie did a very good job on his first live performance with the band. Nice to see the three brothers standing shoulder to shoulder. Setlist included classics as 'One Last Goodbye', 'Empty', 'Fragile Dreams', 'A Dying Wish' (as the last song) and newer songs like 'Pressure', 'Temporary Peace' and 'A Fine Day to Exit'. Also the older 'Far Away' was back on. It was kinda weird to see Duncan Patterson next to us in the crowd, watching the band play songs like 'A Dying Wish', written by him. Glad to see he liked it though.
But the finer part of the day still had to come. A few minutes after the gig, Danny came to the festival area again, bringing his acoustic guitar. The rest of the band joined in and we went to the camp site. Sitting around some torches next to our tents, we played some acoustic music till 5 in the morning. Danny, Duncan and Mehdi playing, the rest of us singing and enjoying and dreaming. The rest of the band left for the party tent after a while, but Danny stayed playing with us the rest of the night.Saturday 06/07/2002, some early time
After some sleep (even if it's only 2 hours, it's still sleep, isn't it?) we tried to get ourselves together again. Corn flakes with milk were just fine as breakfast, and then it was back to the festival area. First band on stage was Evergrey, but they didn't really impress me. I left roughly halfway through the set.
The most interesting stage that day was Marquee I, with Dismember, Arch Enemy, Hypocrisy, Cannibal Corpse, Immortal and eventually My Dying Bride. In the meantime on the main stage were Slayer, Tristania and a whole bunch of heavy metal acts.
Dismember and Arch Enemy played very nice sets, whilst Tristania was kinda lacking on the main stage. Something was just not right with their sound. And they missed the second guitar. The fact that Morten Veland left the band to form Sirenia has had a rather negative influence on the last album in my opinion.
Hypocrisy played an amazing set. Peter and his guys had a very good day apparently. The show really rocked. So did Cannibal Corpse. Even after numerous times they never fail to amaze me with their technical perfection and their fat sounding death metal. I don't have much of their stuff on cd, but they are very exciting live every time again. Then came Immortal. I was watching them with mixed expectations because they had disappointed me very much last time I saw them. But they actually made up for it and although they didn't have a very good sound, they played a really good and heavy set. Too bad they weren't allowed to come back for 'Battles in the North' or 'Blashyrkh Mighty Ravendark'.Throughout the entire afternoon, we have been having pretty nice weather; rain seems to be a tradition at Graspop. Only during the Machine Head show was there a bit of rain. Thanks metalgods for keeping the rest of the rain away from the festival. Due to this nice weather, there was the inviting grass to lay ourselves down on. Drinking with friends, talking to people around. I was glad to meet Kostas, Aldo, Jeen and MastaBe on Saturday. And to be around with the Anathema guys and Ade and Shaun of MDB. Cheers guys!
Then in the evening came My Dying Bride. The gig started with 'My Hope the Destroyer', but alas also with quite bad sound. Although this bad sound improved a little during the set, it dogged the performance to its end. MDB concentrated on the newer work, but also played 'Turn Loose the Swans' and 'The Cry of Mankind' very much to the pleasure of slightly older fans. All in all not a bad gig, but we have seen better ones.
After the MDB gig there was only Slayer left. They did a very varied set with both older and newer songs. Generally speaking I think they managed to please their public. I was a bit too exhausted to follow it too closely. And besides, I was talking to Shaun and Andrew from MDB at that time. Thanks to Andrew for inviting me to the gig in Holland the next week btw.This was a great festival. Many great people, many hours of great music, etc. Thanks goes to the people from the Graspop fest, for making it possible, so many years after each other already. Thanks goes also to Mehdi, Omar, Sophia, Giorgos, Zeljka, Ilaria, Daan, Rose, Eric, Pieter, Kostas, Aldo, Jeen, MastaBe and the other people who didn't mind big distances to make this festival a true party. Thanks to Duncan, to Danny & Anathema, to the MDB guys, for making this party even more perfect.
See you again soon.
- Heiko Isselee
(17 July 2002)
Pictures from: http://www.graspop.ch.vu/
With kind permission by Daan Willems.
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