None more black
The second stage at Hard Rock Hell is a big one for these guys, far more open plan and spread out than your average festival stage and it doesn’t work well for a hardcore band that are used to a tightly packed crowd at the front of the stage.
I’ve come across Blackhole at a few festivals this year and they’ve always done alright without ever really impressing and today is another such occasion. The sound is a bit muffled for them, which doesn’t help but they go all out on the performance today with plenty of energy and even singer Rich, whom we’ve chastised before for not doing very much, rises to the occasion, going walkabout in the crowd for a song. He deserved more reaction than he got for such a bold move!
That aside the tunes still lack something and the vocals could certainly do with being mixed up, there’s no respite and the odd cleaner section with a bit of melody would probably make a real difference. It’s a good performance and you feel that they’ve done all they could today but that’s the problem, they don’t seem to have anything else to offer. Finishing with ‘Forever’ they remain frustratingly close to breaking through but not quite close enough.