Thursday was the day Copenhell really shifted into gear. The grounds were more tightly packed, the blood alcohol level a touch higher, and the festival started to look like itself. The bill ranged from modern metalcore with AI anxiety to Brazilian thrash and a man in a kilt playing guitar as if time had stopped existing.
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Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
Six stars
Bring Me The Horizon – beautifully packaged, but a little too much like a software update
Maybe Bring Me The Horizon was the festival’s biggest name. Maybe also its most debated.
That actually makes a lot of sense.
Try putting on their first record and then one of the newer hits. It is almost impossible to believe it is the same band. The evolution is impressive, but it also divides opinion.
The production was gigantic. The stage was built like a massive church, and visually, a lot of thought had clearly gone into it. The whole concert revolved around an artificial intelligence that... well, of course, was not an artificial intelligence. A fake dystopia that seemed to fascinate quite a few people in the crowd.
For me, it just took up too much space.
At times it started to feel like the loudspeaker voice on a ride at Djurs Sommerland, the same voice again and again and again, until all you really wanted was to hit “skip intro.”
The band played well. Oli Sykes seemed engaged, and you could tell they wanted to deliver a huge show.
But when the music peaked, it sometimes came close to boyband territory with downtuned guitars. The combination of pop melodies, giant production and AI universe never quite landed for me.
Pretty? Yes.
Convincing? Not quite.
★★★☆☆☆
Papa Roach – the kind of concert that makes you forget how many hits it actually has
If you were more into Eminem than Slayer in the early 2000s, you probably heard Papa Roach too.
But it would be unfair to reduce them to a nu metal relic.
The band has been around since 1993, released eleven albums and still looks like people who genuinely love playing live.
Jacoby Shaddix was an unstoppable frontman. He had the crowd in his hands from the first song and spent almost the entire concert whipping even more energy out of them.
...To Be Loved, Getting Away With Murder and, of course, Last Resort worked exactly as they should.
Before the finale, the band threw in a nu metal medley packed with bigger hits than their own. It felt a little like the stunt Mötley Crüe have also pulled, suddenly playing everyone else’s songs. Slightly odd, but the crowd loved it, and it actually built nicely toward Last Resort.
Sometimes it does not need to be more complicated than that.
★★★★☆☆
Sepultura – Thursday’s knockout
Brazil’s Metallica?
Some people would probably say so.
There was not much of the Cavalera brotherhood left in the lineup, but that did not change the fact that Sepultura came to play.
And good lord.
They came out swinging from the first second, the crowd was ready, and by this point on Thursday a fair few people had probably also been helped along by the festival’s many beers.
That certainly did not make the atmosphere any worse.
The concert had exactly the intensity you hope for when a band with such a long history takes the stage. Everything felt seasoned without becoming routine.
They closed with Roots Bloody Roots, which apparently is just the song everyone wants to hear. Several people around me seemed almost surprised by the choice, because some of the other tracks had actually been even wilder along the way.
What we expected and what we got were not necessarily the same thing.
But it turned out to be one of the week’s very best concerts.
★★★★★★
Black Label Society – kilts should be mandatory at Copenhell
Zakk Wylde is a living caricature of himself.
And that is meant as a huge compliment.
He has played with Ozzy Osbourne, is now part of Pantera and has performed on every major stage in the world.
The internet is full of memes of Wylde spinning around with his guitar in those trademark butterfly loops. Naturally, they showed up this Thursday too.
Otherwise, his stage presence was actually fairly restrained.
It does not need to be more than that.
His signature guitar sound almost does the work on its own, and together with the iconic bullseye guitars, he becomes hypnotic to watch.
He stood on stage wearing a kilt and a leather vest.
I suggest that becomes the official dress code at Copenhell from next year.
At one point he played a solo with his guitarist, both of them wearing their guitars on their backs at the same time. A completely unnecessary “because we can” exercise.
And precisely for that reason, it was fantastic.
Come back soon.
★★★★☆☆
Thursday’s other highlights
There were also strong sets from Rival Sons, who once again proved how confidently they move between classic hard rock and a modern stadium sound.
Gatecreeper delivered the heaviest wall of sound of the day, while Die Spitz gave the festival a shot of chaotic punk energy.
And then, of course, Nordic Elite Wrestling deserves a mention too. There are simply not many festivals where you can go straight from death metal to professional wrestling matches without blinking. That is Copenhell too.
