Not only was this happy reunion with The Burning our first real show at Copenhell (we had seen a snippet of Artillery moments before), but they were also one of the very few Danish acts we visited during the festival (the others being Vanir and, again, Artillery).

The Burning was playing the Hades stage, and even though this was the smaller one of the two, vocalist Johnny Haven had this to say about it; ”This is the largest stage we’ve ever played, and this is the longest microphone cable I’ve ever had!”
Well, we could see that he hadn’t exactly had time to acclimate to it yet, as he was constantly getting it snagged in the one thing or the other; the stage-crew man had his hands full I can tell you! Not only by this, but Haven seemed to have a special resentment for the microphone stand belonging to new bassist Tobias Nefer; at least he was constantly pushing and kicking it down!
Still, it was all done with a gleam of humour in his (Haven) eye, and if there’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about this band, it is the fact that they don’t seem to take things too seriously and always leave room for a joke or two.

Still, it was the metal which was going to kick people’s asses, and kick asses it did.
The Burning may not have had the longest time to play in the world, but they were fully prepared to make the most of it, and the Danish audience seemed to hail them or their efforts. Not surprisingly really, as The Burning’s main power have always been their live performances, and this day was no exception.
In the beginning, the crowd did seem a bit heavy to manoeuvre with, probably because many of them were only now arriving at the place of the festival, but it only took a few Jutlandish groove metal tunes to get people in the right mood, and soon enough there was moshing and headbanging across the frontline.
Haven wanted to share his appreciation of this by announcing that he had one piece of good news, and piece of bad news; the good news was that the band was really, really happy to be here, and the bad news was that they had come because Bullet For My Valentine had had to cancel, what with all of the band members coming down with a serious case of AIDS in their eyes (well, that’s what he said), and later on he promised that he’d spend the rest f the festival drinking under wicker man out on the grounds so if anyone felt like coming over for a chat, they would be able to find him there. I never actually saw him below the wicker man, but I did see him wander around the festival area for the rest of the weekend, so if anyone wanted anything they had plenty of opportunity to get a hold of him…

Personally, I feel The Burning work better at a smaller club stage, where you get a more in-your-face experience, but this was certainly a good enough way to kick off the festival, and paved the way for the heaviest weekend Copenhagen would see this year.