Hellfest 2025 – Saturday Recap

How does Day 3 compare to other days of the festival? It’s usually the crisis day, when in the mornings you feel like you can’t take it anymore — the constant drinking, sweating, lack of showering, long days and nights, standing on your feet for too long, the noise. You want to eat a meal like a normal person, not hunched between the bins like a raccoon at the back of an alleyway. But what gets you out of bed is the sick lineup, and Saturday in Clisson was stacked. It was a pleasure to cover it.

With Warzone as the main camp during the day, we soaked up some of the hardcore classics. The number of crowd surfers I carried across the front barrier with others was insane. I lost count after five minutes. But before we get to all that, there was some work to be done at the main stage first.

Visions of Atlantis

Visions of Atlantis is one of those cinematic bands bringing the lore of pirates and nautical themes into their music and stage performance. Sea shanties on dry land, with their traditional blend of symphonic sounds and orchestral metal themes, brought a refreshing breeze into the hot and sticky air on the grounds of Hellfest. It’s the kind of metal that paints pictures of ocean lore and the monsters lurking in deep shadows. A nice crowd had gathered in front of the stage for their act, giving a glimpse into a different metal universe, one you might never witness again. Festivals allow you to see an array of different acts from across the metal genre umbrella. Visions of Atlantis are for those craving vibrant stage antics, and with their awesome costumes, we were not disappointed.

Stick to Your Guns

I had to leave the main stage for the rest of the day, as we had spent most of our time there the day before, and Hellfest has so much more to offer. Five packed lineups and five massive stages. After another tasty pit stop, it was time to catch Stick to Your Guns — a melodic hardcore band that flew in from California. Representing the Straight Edge subculture of the hardcore scene, the band lives and breathes some of its key values, embracing veganism and abstinence from anything addictive. Their lyrics are politically charged yet manage to blend and balance messages of unity and love. It’s such a great juxtaposition where the sound and stage energy seem violent at first, but they’re filled with love and tender care.

In January, they released their eighth studio album, Keep Planting Flowers, which perfectly captured their core spirit of defiance and resilience while staying soft, which is a difficult task that requires discipline. Their Warzone stage set included five songs from the new release. Invisible Rain, which came second, shook off the last of the early evening sleepiness after a long day basking in the burning rays of sunshine, and they opened up the pit. Somewhere along the way, we got lost and carried away in their set, song after song, turning the crowd into a herd of wild animals. By the time Severed Forever played, we had a full-blown party going. Spineless announced the end of their set, with some fans finally diving into the sea of bodies just moshing hard. Against Them All was the final track — the one that cemented their popularity and launched them into the metalcore mainstream. The lyrics, “Forever us against them all,” filled our hearts with hope, spreading messages of unity in a society that’s so heavily divided at the moment.

Terror

Terror came on next, and this was quite a significant moment. Experiencing this OG hardcore band felt like an adventure, as I had only really dived into the subgenre a few months ago. It’s a movement that’s gaining popularity, and I’m still torn on whether that’s a good or bad thing about it going mainstream. Some things should stay underground, as that’s what makes them special, the small spaces and explosive atmosphere. But on the other hand, there’s a global connection between scenes that makes the space HUGE. You know exactly what to do at a hardcore show, and that will never change. The energy is the same everywhere, bubbling and bursting.

That energy popped up with Terror’s opening track, “One with the Underdogs.” Damn, that was intense. Let me paint you a picture: it felt like part impressionist painting, part explosion in an action movie. I weaved my way to the very front because I had to be at the heart of the action, where body after body was carried toward the stage’s front barrier. I’m not exaggerating when I say that at least 100 people managed to flow in from the far ends of the Warzone stage area, gliding on a sea of hands with the sunset glistening behind them. It was beautiful. You felt alive. You felt ecstasy. Fourteen songs carried us through the band’s discography, countless tracks that inspired the fresh talents raging on small stages today. With over 20 years of consistent maximum output, they are the band you should stage-dive into if you want to understand the genre.

Judas Priest

For Judas Priest, I literally ran to the main stage, not wanting to miss the grand entry on a Harley-Davidson. The motorbike appeared later during the set, but still, it was a legendary moment we all had to tick off the list. “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath was an excellent choice to warm us up for this heavy metal fever coming straight from Brummie, sounding just before the band arrived to play.

The album Painkiller got the most stage time, packed with their greatest hits, ones we shamelessly boogied to, because heavy metal makes your hips don’t lie. “Breaking the Law” came early, crashing through the barriers and shifting the mood higher and higher, throwing everyone into a groove and chanting the lyrics like a gang of renegades outside a biker bar. Of course, we didn’t break anything apart from putting our bodies to test at this heavy metal marathon of a weekend, as Hellfest is all about good vibes — but you get the picture.

Time flew by. When the “Painkiller” song started, it felt like the alarm bell, that blazing solo in the middle of the song filled your head with twisty riffs, like tires screeching through corners during a high-speed chase. The encore was a treat with “Hell Bent for Leather” and “Living After Midnight” — the kinky, neon-glowing songs of the 80s with double-layer lyrics, serving as a pre-game for what was to come next: The Scorpions.

Scorpions

The Scorpions‘ set was when we decided to wander around the main area, with their iconic songs playing in the background. For me, this was the last evening on-site, and I wanted it to be unforgettable, because you only make a first impression once. As we walked in the opposite direction of the crowd, I saw the glow in people’s eyes, the relief that they had almost made it through Day 3. The whole central festival area was glowing. Pyro blasted from bars, speakers, fences, and anything with a bit of height. The fire was synced to the sounds coming from the main stage. The Ferris wheel looked like a glowing eye, slowly spinning, with people on board admiring just how huge the festival site really is. The ambience was calm. Some people were lying on the grass, treating heat strokes or simply sleeping, exhausted from the day. You had to watch your steps. Others chatted and decompressed their minds, bodies and spirits.

Turnstile

I was about to jump into the War Zone again as it was time for the band of Summer 2025: Turnstile. The cherry on top of Hellfest’s Saturday pie. Now, before I try to give you an account of the energy bubbling in the pit, let’s talk about the band. To many, they seemed to appear out of nowhere, as so many bands do these days, in an age where virality can launch you into the spotlight overnight. Their free show content flooded social media: scenes from Baltimore with crowds and children running around the stage, it all looked absolutely incredible. Then, they dropped their new fourth album, “Never Enough”, at the beginning of June, stirring slight controversy over certain sounds that seemed just a bit too familiar. Now, setting aside the plagiarism debate, let’s unpack this while also absorbing how incredible the band is live and how deeply they resonate with people.

For the longest time, many hits and hooks have been recycled. One of the most famous examples? The Fugees’ “Ready or Not”, which sampled Enya, and whose chorus is based on a song by The Delfonics. It’s a practice so common in hip hop that these samples take on a life of their own, making younger generations believe these are completely new sounds when, in fact, it’s just a clever use of existing sounds. So, how does this apply to Turnstile? Well, for starters, they have excellent taste in music, drawing inspiration from a wide range of discographies. They sit under the punk and hardcore umbrella, and I’ll be honest: I’ve been playing catch-up on many hardcore bands, listening to hundreds of new releases this year from all around the world. I won’t say the songs and albums all sound the same, but there are parallels. Similar structures, effects, riffs, tempos. Turnstile went viral and is now under much more scrutiny. And because of their lo-fi textures, some of these inspirations are just easier to spot.

But now, let’s pause and focus on what they actually do on stage, and how much they resonate with people. Because being there, at Hellfest, was beautiful. I cried a little at the end, probably from exhaustion, but also because the vibes were there, omnipresent, wrapping around you from all directions like a warm blanket in front of a fire in the winter. There’s something about how Brendan sounds live, his echoing, soothing voice full of hope. I’d trust him with my dog if she were still alive. The crowd was going absolutely wild, crowdsurfing, moshing and yet it didn’t even feel that hardcore, you know? Turnstile sounds like home, like nostalgia, just the good old days. It’s simple, not overly complicated and yet it’s significant. Like cheering the underdog. They sample their own songs, they repeat similar structures, but they feel like a warm hug, and there is only one formula for a decent squeeze, one that feels the best with someone that you deeply care about. They managed to write in a way that they become that special someone.

Such is Turnstile Summer. Go and hug your mates.

Artist: Hellfest - Saturday Recap

Photographer: Chelsea Savage

Reviewer: Natalia Kasiarz