Metalfest 2025 - DAY 1!

My first Metalfest Open Air experience was in 2022, and it was an interesting comfortable one. The grounds of the festival seats on an open-air amphitheater type of place in the Czech city of Plzen, around 83 km from Prague.

The beauty of this place is that it shares grounds with the city’s zoo, so if you want to skip a band you can easily go to the zoo and pet a cheetah or some kangaroos (things that by misfortune and distraction I didn’t manage to do) you can also enjoy a nice walk around the park that surrounds the venue, it’s also located not more than 10 min by tram from the city’s center.

This year, I was excited as I was during my first time there, as for grace of the unknown powers of booking the first night of the festival had us with a trilogy of female fronted metal as Lacuna Coil, Epica and Within Temptation played one after the other. A tour poster that I couldn’t have ever imagine be possible.

Day 1

Majestica, All For Metal, Bloodbound, Lacuna Coil, Epica, Within Temptation

Majestica:

I got into Plzen around midday and after a long line to pick up accreditations and top up my bracelet I headed into the venue, after saying hi to some familiar faces among the crowd on the barrier, I found a place to see Majestica again as I remember seeing them in 2022 at this exact festival. This year they came promoting their new album ‘Power Train’ released early this year.

Their set was a great start of the festival, I think until Tommy Johansson, decided to invoke Thor and for sure the god of thunder was listening as we got rained pretty quickly, which was an omen for the rest of the weekend.

 

All For Metal:

I remember having my first-hand experience of this band at the Rock Castle festival last year as I found their live stage gimmick appealing and quite enjoyable. This time around even with the rain and all, it was also a great experience to see them live, they have this traditional metal vibe type Manowar but a bit more elaborated and so well done that thrills the audience every time, we will get to see them later in the year as they will headlining their first ever tour, so we are excited and look forward to it.

Bloodbound:

Also present in the 2022 edition, Bloodbound was again a great set to watch this year, I think their stage presence and sound has been getting better and better since that last time I saw them. The highlight of their set was definitely the chance to listen ‘Nosferatu’ performed live.

Lacuna Coil:

As the motto goes ‘Once a coiler always a coiler’ and this has been true for me since I started listening to Lacuna Coil back in high school. This time around their stage presence was a bit different since the last time I saw them, always changing for the best for sure.

It was providence that their show felt on Cristina Scabbia’s birthday which was a good opportunity to see a rare event as Simone Simons and Sharon Den Adel walked on stage holding a cake for Cristina as they urge the crowd to sing happy birthday with them to Cristina which for what I saw was overwhelmed by emotion.

Their show continued with several new and old songs, but with the mentality of their new album Sleeping Empire, from which we will see a date here in Zlin in late October.

 

 

Epica:

The Dutch quintet came back with a different stage design and a more minimalistic approach as they are starting to promote their latest album Aspiral released at the beginning of the year.

Their setlist this time around was an amalgama that reflects their career and highlights their new opus.

Since recent years we have seen how the band has created a party time around their live shows and what we witnessed on stage at Metalfest was exactly that; an Epic Party. From Coen and Issac playing around the stage with each other, Rob and Arien having a beat section party between them and Simone and Mark enjoying the vocal duality of the band.

Within Temptation:

Following their spectacular headlining show last November here in Prague, Within Temptation return to Metalfest was an amazing one. Continuing with their support to Ukraine, they were promoting their latest documentary about the cause.

Their set was full of new and old songs among them were; ‘We Go to War, Bleed Out, Faster, Stand My Ground, In The Middle Of The Night, The Reckoning, What Have You Done, Paradise (What About Us?), Our Solemn Hour and the now classic Mother Earth

 in general, a great set from a legacy band.

 

 

Text: Miguel Rozo

Photo: mijis.xpspot