Knotfest - Review & Photo Gallery 28th February @ Flemington Racecourse, Melb VIC

KNOTFEST
Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne VIC
February 28th, 2025
Lineup: Slipknot, A Day To Remember, BABYMETAL, Polaris, Slaughter To Prevail, Within Temptation, Enter Shikari, Hatebreed, In Hearts Wake, Health, Miss May I, Vended and Sunami

The theme of this year’s Knotfest was cult bands, as every band on the lineup had themselves a core following dedicated to their cause. The result was an eclectic bill and the crowd reflected that.

We kicked off with the sun shining on California hardcore band Sunami. They shouted out Speed, AWOL and all the Aussie hardcore bands as they triggered early onset crowd violence with spin kicks and fist windmills galore. Vended have embraced the pressure of opening for Slipknot by delivering a first class, no frills performance. They opened with ‘Nihilism’ from their self-titled debut. ‘Am I the Only One’, with its bass intro, really went hard. Replacement drummer Josh didn’t miss a beat. ‘Asylum’ finished it off and was so hyped a circlepit broke out as the song was being introduced. They got a better reaction with each song so I’d say they won the crowd over. Griffin Taylor is such an image of his father that he could probably throw on the dreadlocked mask and few would be able to tell the difference (that’s a compliment). 

The Vended crowd pretty much all shifted to the next stage for metalcore icons Miss May I. The circlepit crew continued going hard early in the increasingly hot sun. ‘Into Oblivion’ popped the crowd but I found it best to grab a beer and let real fans hit the pit. It was at this time, nursing a Japanese lager and kicking back to Miss May I that I noticed the merch line. Whilst there were three different merch tents, the queues were running more than an hour from back to front. Each Knotfest has been plagued by a similar problem. Maybe the festival app could include merch click and collect?

If the first three bands had some stylistic similarities, things got weird for Health. They attracted plenty of curious onlookers and had some hardcore fans, but probably gave many a chance to head to the bar. The band featured several songs from RAT WARS, Including ‘CRACK METAL’. Singer Jake Duzsik admitted he doesn’t quite know how to cuss at the crowd but wanted us to know he’s happy to be here. The full-on industrial stomp of ‘DSM-V’ got more heads banging. 

As the sun grew hotter still, there were lots of Slaughter to Prevail camo bucket hats in the crowd. 

In Hearts Wake were the first Aussie band of the day and had the crowd fired up. Many raised their hand when asked if this was their first time seeing IHW and the streamlined four piece gave them a set to remember. Jamie Hails (Polaris) joined them for ‘Hellbringer’ and was followed by Ryan Neff (Miss May I) on ‘Earthwalker’. The new songs went over great, especially the bounce ‘GenDoom’, which included a pair of dancers. ‘Worldwide Suicide’ included the dancers and someone dressed as Paul from the novel/film Dune, who surfed the crowd on a foam mat. They finished with ‘Orphan’ which went HARD.

Hatebreed were one of the elder statesmen of the bill and Jamey Jasta showed why they are beloved by festival crowds around the world. Despite being billed as 25 Years of Perseverance, they played plenty of favourites from across their career, including beastly versions of ‘To The Threshold’, ‘Destroy Everything’, ‘Tear it Down’ and ‘Empty Promises’. They had two circlepits for most of the set but my highlight was a woman in her sixties who brought her adult son water in the pit. 

Enter Shikari had the first trumpet solo at Knotfest. The Aussie festival staples were only last here for Good Things Festival 2023 and despite not being my thing, the droves that turned out for them lapped up songs like 'Destabilised', 'The Jester' and the all-in clap session on 'Sorry You're Not A Winner'.

The Netherlands’ Within Temptation had the longest intro of the day. First time in Australia and they made a lasting impression with their powerful performance. Lots of hand clapping and good vibes as they opened with songs from 2023’s Bleed Out before delivering fan favourites like ‘Faster’, ‘The Reckoning’ and a tremendous version of ‘Supernova’. Hopefully they come back again soon for a full set. 

Slaughter to Prevail were probably the most hyped band of the day, their previous set at Good Things a few years ago leading to many STP masks among the festival goers. It was intense and relentless from the get go as they opened with ‘Bonebreker’. Someone got up on stage to hug Alex. On ‘Viking’ he did the pre-breakdown bridge vocal without a mic after asking for silence. Alex Terrible stopped a few times to express his gratitude to the crowd and his respect to bands they idolise like Hatebreed and Slipknot. With the heat becoming stifling, it became dangerous. One fan went down with a seizure and was out. Another went down and the band didn’t realise the X signs from most of the crowd were to stop the show and evacuate someone. The band eventually stopped and there was some debate between band and security as to how to get the fan out. Alex was great though and calmed the crowd so the professionals could get into the pit. They eventually left the stage for a few minutes.

They came back on and debuted a new song (‘Grizzly’) that had a bit more of a hardcore feel. Next up was ‘Behelit’ which Alex admitted he loved. ‘Demolisher’ was last and was appropriately titled as it was the final chance for fans to cause absolute mayhem. 

The festival’s lack of shaded areas was really highlighted by the collapses in the crowd during STP's set. Past Knotfest’s featured tents with wrestling or DJs, but without that, the only place to get shade was the medical tent by the stage and I can assure you that was full with people suffering overheating or dehydration. 

Polaris were almost a relief but brought a different energy. And pyro. They had lots of pyro. They whipped through ‘Nightmare’ and the crowd was bananas. ‘The Remedy’ was introduced by Jaime teaching the crowd a call and response. They’d been placed among the festival’s headliners and delivered a big stage show with extra LED screens and lights. There was a pretty good singalong for ‘With Regards’ while ‘Masochist’ was next level. As was ‘Overflow’. With the emotional songs out the way, the circlepits opened up for ‘Hypermania’, in which Jack Bergin from Void of Vision jumped on stage and helped Jaime thrash. 

There was a short drum solo into ‘Lucid’, which was a riot. They finished with ‘Inhumane’ and a tonne more pyro as circlepits broke out again and could not be contained. 

BABYMETAL. What a show. When Su-metal called for circles the crowd obliged. They added to the masks theme too with the Kami Band fully covered. Whilst there remains plenty of naysayers, they are way heavier live than they sound on record. Many were converted to worshiping the fox god as a result. Tom Morello appeared on screen for ‘METALI!!’ and Electric Callboy returned to Flemington (via screen) for a fun version of ‘RATATATA’. It was my first time seeing them and they didn’t disappoint with personal favs ‘KARATE’, ‘Megitsune’ and ‘PA PA YA!’ good for a bilingual singalong. ‘Gimme Chocolate!!’ went OFF. There was some flag choreography before more circlepits and a massive singalong for ‘Road of Resistance’. Bucket list band ticked off. 

A Day to Remember brought a different energy again with lots of singing along with the new songs, like ‘Feedback’ and ‘Make It Make Sense’ - both working well with older fan favs, lead by ‘The Downfall of Us All’. They went bang with confetti early. ‘2nd Sucks’ kept the deathcore kids happy. Jeremy McKinnon duetted with the crowd on ‘I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What are Made Of?' from Homesick. Someone dressed up as a sheep shot off a t-shirt gun from the stage. They literally had every gimmick in the book, plus the one they invented. McKinnon introduced crowd surfing on a crowd surfer by shouting out the local security guards. They launched into new track ‘LeBron’ as the sun set and people climbed on their friends who climbed on the crowd. They made the crowd pretty happy with tunes like ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘Have Faith In Me’. It didn’t do it for me, but I appreciated the slower pace at that stage of the day. The antics continued as they asked the crowd to do the Nutbush for ‘Make It Make Sense’. It was too packed though, so much line dancing. ‘Paranoia’ had great energy towards the end of the set. 

Nirvana’s ‘Come As You Are’ was busted out with a cum joke. They played ‘If It Means a Lot to You’ and declared it the softest song ever played before a Slipknot set. Closing with ‘All Signs Point to Lauderdale’ was a good call as the crew tossed toilet paper rolls into the crowd. Must have run out of streamers and confetti. 

I tell you what - if you wanna kill the crowd use ‘Dream Weaver’ as your pre taped music. Awful.

Pre-tape choices aside, Slipknot hit the stage and everyone forgot about the drama. The staging was simpler than 2023 as they didn’t use an LED background, preferring an old school Slipknot banner. Despite wearing their anniversary tour masks, they ripped into ‘(sic)’ and ‘People = Shit’, confirming our story that they weren’t playing the debut album in full. Instead this was a whole new set that included the debut live performance of fan favourite ‘Gematria (The Killing Name)’. The six-minute thrash fest has long been a fan request and it finally happened in Melbourne. Watch it here.

They took the now traditional breaks every two songs or so, with Sid and (Not) Craig keeping the dark mood going as the band got ready for the next bit. We got plenty of songs from the self-titled album with ‘Wait and Bleed’ leading into ‘No Life’. They played something off each album, including ‘Yen’ for the first time down under, 'The Devil In I' made its return also for the first time since 2016 and of course ‘Duality’ was epic. Notably missing was the enigmatic Clown who - along with his son Simon (Vended's drummer) -were absent due to a family emergency, but that didn't stop fans collectively losing their minds without them. Our thoughts are with the Crahan family during this time.

The encore was a trio of old songs, with the big surprise being that they skipped the ‘sit down / jump the fuck up’ part in ‘Spit It Out’. ‘Surfacing’ was a false finish as they stayed on stage for an epic and gloomy version of ‘Scissors’. It closed the set when I first saw them just over 25 years ago. It was anticlimactic then and equally so now. I’d probably prefer they do it to start the encore then finish with ‘Surfacing’. 

During ‘Psychosocial’ I closed my eyes whilst being crushed by warm bodies near the barricade and realised - these are my people. It doesn’t matter whether you like every band on the bill. You buy a ticket to come and celebrate our metal community. That’s what Knotfest is really about. 

But more shade would be nice. 

Review by KJ Draven (Instagram and Threads)

Photo Gallery by Clinton Hatfield. Insta: @ampd.agency. Please credit Wall of Sound and Clinton Hatfield if you repost photos.