Rock Fest: Where all elements of Rock and Roll came into play

It has been a while since we saw a rock event which saw the biggest names in metal perform on the same stage and it certainly was one which should have been not missed! Like any event Rock Fest too was surrounded by issues with a band deciding to pull out last minute because they weren’t happy on the agreed lineup, slandering campaigns against the event to a vocalist announcing his retirement from a band on facebook adding that he will not be performing that night.

Yet it did not stop fans from attending the event and supporting these great bands! Over the last two years Killfeed has certainly grown in strength but it was very unfortunate that Zeusz the vocalist of the band announced his departure on Facebook in the morning of the event. So with a replacement vocalist Killfeed took to the stage and immediately you realized who was the odd one out but halfway through the performance in a dramatic turn of events Zeusz decided to get onstage for one last time to perform the remaining of the Killfeed set and at that point you could hear the cohesive unit they were and the crowd loved it! That night Killfeed had had to close a chapter but we look forward to what is to come.

Nevi’im was next in line with a very impressive performance continued to take the energy forward  – they are also releasing an EP which was exclusively available at the event and after their performance no doubt many got their hands on their disc. The highlight was their covers of Lamb of God which included the famous song laid to rest. This is where the moshing began and almost everyone head banging! DIlshan who’s the drummer took the spotlight too with a jaw dropping drum solo.

One of the things that I Love about Tantrum is the sense of humor that’s brought on to the stage not only do they provide you with some great music but a few jokes along the way  – Former winners of TNL Onstage showed everyone how it’s done! Tantrum continues to amaze me with how fluid they are on clinically ripping the stage apart so to speak. Their closing set included Metallica’s master of puppets and they freely distributed their albums and posters to the fans!

And then we come to the final act of the night – Stigmata headlined Rock Fest 2014 and provided a lesson in metal education performing many of their originals that included Andura and On The Wings of the Storm to which they released a music video couple of months back. In the middle of the set Tenny managed to break one of his strings which left Suresh having to stall during what probably was the longest single string replacement in history (jokes) but he did entertain the crowd and we were entertained with a very good drum solo! Stigmata made sure that Rock Fest ended with a bang!

What was great to see was that every band acknowledged the hard work of the organizers. Shafeek Shuail and Natasha Soysa did an amazing job of bringing to us Rock Fest 2014 and we look forward to next year’s edition and we do hope that it grows in its numbers further!

Reviewed by Samila Wanigasekara