Main Stage

Sabaton are on far too early considering their immense popularity. With just thirty minutes under their belt, they execute most of their set from ‘The Art of War’ but ‘Primo Victoria’ truly strikes a chord with the crowd. Making their first UK appearance is Equilibrium, who falter in that only their frontman is doing any moving with the remainder of the band coming across as bored. Nonetheless, their Viking/folk metal goes down a treat with the crowd.

The biggest surprise of the day is the imposing presence of decorated sticksman Nick Barker behind the kit for Scouse Prog rockers Anathema as last minute replacement for usual drummer John Douglas. The Liverpudlians prove a breath of fresh air amongst all the blast and bluster of the rest of today's bill with their restrained, eloquent and enchanting melodies. A stirring cover of ‘Phantom of The Opera’ and a guest appearance by Martin Powell also make this an occasion to remember.

While the chest beating battle metal of Turisas exemplifies the true spirit of this festival and many folk have turned up dressed like their heroes this afternoon, it's a shame that the forty-five minute set features a measly four songs. Front man Warlord Nygard spends too much time talking between playing music and their Predictable cover of disco hit ‘Rasputin’ is getting extremely tiresome and threatens to overshadow the depth of their own material.

Moonspell's dramatic Goth metal is far more rousing live than on record.  Vocalist Fernando Ribero encourages us to sing along to their anthems of horror and beauty with a set highlight being the glorious rendition of ‘Opium’. With this performance they cement themselves as more that just a euro metal Paradise Lost and stand up as true airs to the Gothic Rock crown.

Of course Amon Amarth draw in a particularly large crowd, and the stage presence of frontman Johan Hegg forces the observer to enjoy the show. The setlist is ripped from their last two albums predominantly, but ‘Pursuit of Vikings’ and ‘Death in Fire’ are the songs that strike the audience strongest and close another spectacular performance from these melodic death metal masters. Much like Enslaved earlier in the weekend, Satyricon focus on their last four albums of stripped-down blackened heavy metal.  Crowd-pleasing versions of ‘The Wolfpack’ and ‘Now Diabolical’ are thrown out casually but you can't help feel that they restrict themselves somewhat, especially drum-lord Frost whose only blast is on sole older number ‘Mother North’.

Finally it's up to the 12 million album-selling Europe to close the festival. While their show is as tight and professional as one could ask for, you really wonder how much soul goes into their performance and if they are just going through the motions. While tracks like other classic ‘Rock The Night’ are pure air guitar fodder the main reason most people are watching their set is to drunkenly sing the keyboard part to mega hit ‘The Final Countdown’, which is saved to the end of the set. Still, this years B.O.A. has been another resounding success .Let's just have no throwing of objects next year. [RB] [EF]

Other Stages

On the unsigned stage today, Pagan Folk metal band Annwn impress with their Tyr-meets-Falkenbach take on the genre.  Where some of the keyboards may sound a little too typically fiddle-dee-dee style Celtic folk, their primordial aggression on numbers like ‘Mountains Farewell’ will stand them in good stead.

Primitive Graven Image weigh in with some Immortal-meets-Anaal Nathrakh necrotic thrashings. PGI show much promise but although they claim 70's prog rock as an influence, they don't yet possess the progressive chops of a Nachtmystium. [RB]