The 2016 edition of the iconic French festival Hellfest is over, and dozens of thousands of bruised, bloodied, exhausted metalheads are wild eyed, ecstatic and headed back to their homes across the world. View all our photos from the fest here.
The premiere metal festival on the planet takes place in a quaint little town called Clisson, which has a population of under 7,000 people. Last year the weekend attendance was over 150 thousand with 700 thousand beers going into the belly of bangers. This year, the festival was even more packed, the whole massive site seemed to buzz and hum and resonate amidst all the people, and light and sound and fire. Over 160 of the best metal bands on the planet thrashed across six amazing stages. Most always at least three bands are playing at any given time.
The eleventh edition of the festival saw titans like Rammstein, Slayer, King Diamond, Hatebreed, Volbeat, Amon Amarth, Black Sabbath, Korn, Joe Satriani, Gojira and Megadeth duke it out on the mainstages. France embraces their musical variety and there was plenty of punk, symphonic metal, folk metal, Viking metal to gallup alongside the heavier stuff and even the occasional band like Foreigner.
The Valley stage hosted mostly doomy stoner type bands like Monolord, Stoned Jesus, Goatsnake, Torche and Crobot. The Temple and Altar stages played home to the more of the despicable, amazing underbelly of heaviness, Asphyx, Cattle Decaptiation, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Dark Fortress, Sadist, Skeletal Remains, Kampfar, Deicide, the list goes on and on.
It’s a huge party, it’s a marathon, it’s a global banger pilgrimage and it’s an annual meeting of the brotherhood that is the global metal community. This year more than ever it kicked huge fucking ass.
Metal Injection had boots on the ground to cover the festival and grab lots of shots of the amazing bands and crazy assed fans. Check’em out!
Did you hit Hellfest this year? What were your favorite bands and experiences? Let us know in the comments section!
All photos and write up by Chris Bubinas
