It would seem Metalfest was intent on dishing up all our favourites for the festival on the first day.
Well, maybe not all, but going from Moonspell straight to (for us at least) Hypocrisy was certainly a dream come true for parts of the Metalmoments staff.

The rain was coming down harder now and yet the audience had grown quite a bit from the earlier bands we had seen, which only goes to show that Hypocrisy had a dedicated following here in East Germany (just as in other places I’m sure).
The show itself started like so many before it, with the familiar keyboard beginning of Fractured Millennium rolling out of the speakers as the band got into position to loud cheers from the audience. After this it was a no frills ride as they went quickly from song to song in the beginning, picking up the pace even more in Valley Of The Damned which was the second song, and then keeping it up there for the most of the day, hence it felt a bit odd when Peter Tägtgren at one point stopped to ask if we needed some more fast songs; honestly, that was all we had gotten so far! Towards the end they promised to bring it down a bit though, but I seriously believe we have very different opinions on what a “slow” song is like, as the song Tägtgren was referring to was Eraser...
After this it was off the stage, and then on again for The Final Chapter, Warpath and finally Roswell 47, so as you can see it was a standard best of setlist we were given, with, to my big dismay, the exclusion of the Apocalypse / The Fourth Dimension medley which they otherwise have been doing for a while now.

It wasn’t so much about the set though, it was about the energy they brought to the show. And this might just be little old drunken me speaking here, but damn it as I am the writer here you will sit down and listen, and you will listen to me telling you that Hypocrisy had a great stage-presence here at Metalfest.
What they did exactly, in terms of movement and such, might not have been anything out of the ordinary, but then again, in how many ways can you renew a death metal show? No, what counted here was the feeling you got from them, the feeling of them really putting their heart into the performance, and that they weren’t just going through the movements. Here was something the crowd could really connect to, and even though it was hard to see much action going on apart from the mandatory front headbangers, the shouts and applause between songs showed us that the Germans were very appreciative of what they were getting.

All good things must come to an end though, and after posing for a farewell photo (guess who took it), Hypocrisy were quickly off and the crew getting ready for the next concert.
We who had seen the show though, were still high for a long time because of what we had seen, and throughout the evening, yes even the festival, the subject matter often went back to this particular concert. It can come as no surprise after this that Hypocrisy was definitely the highlight of the day, and one of the absolute top of the entire weekend.

Setlist:

Fractured Millennium
Valley Of The Damned
Adjusting The Sun
Fire In The Sky
Killing Art
Pleasure Of Molestation / Osculum Obscenum / Penetralia
A Coming Race
Weed Out The Weak
Eraser
The Final Chapter
Warpath
Roswell 47