Welcome With Open Hands
Open Hand make a change for a RoadRunner-signed band - a pleasant change. As well as providing the brutal Slipknot-esque bands, it's always fantastic when a more melodic band is also pushed in to the mainstream metal community and welcomed with open arms. This is exactly where Open Hand stand.
As they walk on the Snickers Stage a few minutes early to a reasonable sized crowd, which continues to grow throughout the set, Open Hand immediately launch in to their blend of rock, indie and metal. This sounds like the kind of cross-genre mixing that could end up painful to listen to - but instead you hear the best aspects of everything within their music.
They're a band with heavy, powerful low-ends and hammering drums that combine perfectly with searing axe-man ship and some of the best vocals that Donington has seen all week.
Open Hand have already made their name in the UK by supporting bands as juxtaposed as Killswitch Engage and My Chemical Romance recently and it shows as the crowd cheer along to the band's most recent single that has currently been receiving heavy airplay on Scuzz.
Anyone who has chosen to see 'A' or Panic Cell over Open Hand has made a big mistake - Open Hand are a breath of fresh air in to a genre that has sat stagnant for far too long.