A violin melody welcomed the entrance of A Perfect Circle, together with a hugely excited crowd, that filled the area from the front of the stage to the top of the hill.

The stage was cool and minimalistic, equipped only with round and striped lights that created a personalized atmosphere for each song. There were three small elevated stages on top of the stage, and Maynard James Keenan had the central one: he didn’t step down from there the whole concert, but still succeeded in transmitting his energy with his unique movements.

There were not many interactions between him or the rest of the band and the crowd: if you were waiting for a theatrical performance, filled in with speeches and storytelling, you were not in the right place; here it was about a perfect circle of music, melodies, guitar riffs, bass powerful notes and drum strokes. You just had to embrace, taste and enjoy the experience.

The first song, The Package, was an explosion of Devil Horns and enthusiastic shouts, while orange and yellow lights were moving fast on stage.

Classics like Judith, and Weak and Powerless, made it to the setlist with the big band logo in the middle of the background screen seemed to watch you, almost hypnotizing and bringing you to another dimension.

A Perfect Circle didn’t step onto stage with a big energy storm, they didn’t need it: they have their aura that the crowd perceived and locked them in, not only for the full gig, but even beyond.

Luca Bruschi

When Trivium stepped on stage, the sun was turning our skin red, and we felt even more red when gigantic and almost transversal pyros exploded from the front of the stage.

They set the atmosphere for the next hour.

The two guitarists were a show in the show: their solo pumped up the crowd, and their guitar duels were even better, looking like two football players passing the ball to each other in a perfect set play.

Matt Heafy constantly ran up and down the stage, engaging the crowd deeper and deeper, sending a clear message “Everybody f**ing moving!”. And of course everybody moved. The wildest moment was when he asked for more pits: he got more pits, and more people joined, more people clashed and then the two pits clashed. It was a moment of high energy release.

Between big pits, huge streamers, confetti showers, great metalcore and melodic death metal music, we came to the end of the show. Here it was where I experienced the actual spirit of Copenhell: Alex Bent threw the drum sticks, and one of them bounced and landed close to me, where two guys were very fast and grabbed it; two hands on it, high adrenaline level and it might have ended badly… but instead they looked at each other, smiled, and one of them proposed “let’s play rock, paper, scissors”; still holding it, they played the famous game and the winner got it, but only after a friendly hug.

That’s all folks!

Luca Bruschi