A quick stab followed by a harmonised vocal part ending in a long "woah", with the pitch changing in key with one another, is how The Social Club open up the Saturday of Hevy. It sounds good when their music stops abruptly and they all sing together off mic before the drums kick back in. They lead the audience in a warm up stretch that more festival warm up acts could well use as it encourages people to move forward and get involved. Another great call is the free toast they give away at the front complete with a selection of spreads. The keyboard is played with, and danced around like a showman for the enjoyment of an audience which includes ice cream eaters and a cowboy with a tiger tail! The keys add a light touch, and that's what The Social club are to Hevy: a light touch. So it is ill advised when they try a heavy cover as it does not sound heavy. I know they were trying to please but it wont buy them any new fans pretending to be something they are not, especially with the high calibre of heavy acts on the bill. They should stick to what they are best at: singing pretty. There is one especially nice sounding part of their show when three of them sing in the round. (8/13)

Five piece Belgian outfit Campus initially suffer from a muddy sound that clears up as their set progresses. Singer Rik Geeraerts stomps around issuing throaty screams whilst Guitarists Tijs Mondelaers and Nick Rondou bounce on their toes ready for action. Sadly the onstage energy is in no way matched by the audience. They hit their stride with a straight strummed guitar tune in which the drums collect the bass hook and then smack you with some deft fills before a drop out ending that leaves us with a marching snare. New music video Empathy gets a run out and, whilst it appears that Campus are playing to an all new audience and therefore all their material is new to them, it is in actual fact their latest work which stands out as their strongest. This fact stands them in good stead along with the sincere thanks they give to all for coming to support a foreign band when the UK scene is so strong. For this they receive a warm round of applause before they close out with Geeraerts crouched down in the pit singing "we fight, we die, we live to survive. We fight, we die, help us find our path". You are on the right path campus, keep going. (8/13)

Whilst Campus were playing one side of the main tent over on the other mainstage Crocus have been stretching in preparation for what is to be their final show. They have already gathered a considerable midday crowd by the time they kick off, perhaps in part due to this being a farewell show. With roaring guitar met by crashing drums they are just as intense to listen to live as they are on their album Our Memories Dress Me In A Dead Lust. The singer wide-eyed screams at the audience before starting one song properly screaming down his microphone as the tempo goes supersonic. At some points they have two vocalists. This allows one to get in with the unsuspecting public while the other takes charge of vocal duties. This is up until one of them takes over the drums, masterfully rolling around the kit I might add, for the remainder of their set. At this point the guitarist takes up backing, looking like a rabid rabbit, as moaning poltergeist sounds unwind from his guitar. A twiddly bassline then ties you up in knots before it is expounded by a barbarous riff followed with clean picked guitar punctuated by bass shanks. Given the open invitation in their 'R.I.P. announcement' it should not have come as so much of a surprise when not one, nor two but three extra vocalists rush the stage near the end, assisting with the funeral of these mighty songs. (9/13)

The Safety Fire ask us "are you guys ready to get finger banged by five guys in Hawaiian shirts?" and judging by the warm response I suppose that we are. While their dress sense seems displaced their stage dressing most certainly does not. The artwork for recent album Grind The Ocean actually compliments the Hevy Music Festival artwork covering the PA stacks. The Safety Fire perform Dragonforce style guitar solos before administering brutal breakdowns with downward bass slides walloping you in the ribs. The clean vocals are welcomed and offer Hevy goers some respite and clarity but are unfortunately somewhat lost in the mix. When they go hardcore they do so with aggression, power and a cheeky sense of fun. A chilled out groove alongside the guitarist ice skating about the stage playing a thrash riff later on demonstrates their depth- they are more than some of their hardcore counterparts that feature in this years line up. Their technical guitar licks are akin to Protest The Hero just listen to DMB(FDP) to find out. The best part of this set has to the aptly named Huge Hammers, sure to leave us all with ringing in our ears for hours. (9/13)

Martyr Defiled's metal riffs inspire a lot of hardcore dancing. But dance is not the only way to express yourself to such punishing music. Bassist Lee Cook grits his teeth, guitarist David Trees spouts water out his mouth like wrestler HHH, and singer Matthew Jones body is highly expressive. He holds his limbs straight for a wide variety of gestures aimed towards to us. It comes as a shock that this is the first time Martyr Defiled have ever performed on a stage of this size. By the time that they unleash Flawless they have achieved a mass of people rocking out at the barrier at the front and a pit to boot. The riffs ripped from Joe Blackburn sound like a whirlwind. There is minimal relief in terms of the music they play, so for someone wishing for a bit of respite or a letup from the barrage of death metal it does become monotonous. (4/13)

It is apparent by the increase in numbers that people have woken up especially to see Feed The Rhino, and man do they bring the throttle! Once a long D'n'B intro has finished they all riff together like a charging predator before guitarist Sam pulls on the reins, then they are all back playing the same riff together before the other guitarist James musically soars over the top of them. Massive riffs and headbanging along to said massive riffs seems to be their thing. Even drummer Chris rolls his head around to make windmills with his hair. The Butchers is introduced by a concrete wall of feedback before guitars are swung about all over the place. When the vocalist Lee invites people to come sing down the microphone if they know the words it causes a harvest of crowd surfers. He then gets in the pit opens it up and starts everybody clapping along to the music before getting the hell out of there before the eventual thunderous drop. (8/13)

Devil Sold His Soul put simply are the heaviest band yet. I am immediately struck by the power and volume, they sound so fucking big it is IN-CRE-DIB-LE. Their music is quick to grab you by the heart despite it being at such an extreme head-banging level of heavy; when they chug it is as if an army of elephants comes with them; the toms sound huge and booming; the music attacking and guttural. Whilst this extreme level of aural attack might normally obstruct the listener from feeling anything besides antagonistic Devil Sold His Soul manage to move you on an emotional level in other alternate ways. They carve a victorious, epic soaring sound through the air. When playing the slow-heavy parts they do nods which rock their whole bodies back and forth and it's hard not to go along with them such is the supreme potency of their cathartic music. Whilst during the quieter moments you are left unnerved with an uneasy sense that something is in the water. When vocalist Ed Gibbs sings in An Ocean of Lights from 2010's Blessed & Cursed it is anthemic. (13/13)

Pianos Become The Teeth open with a slowly built wall of sound like post-rock stalwarts Explosions In The Sky. Emerging out of this comes clean chords sounding helpless with desperately hollow sounding drums "thud-thud thud"ing, which is how they let it build. The singing only slightly straying into anguished screams. Despite this long opening passage from Pianos Become The Teeth being both slow and barely distorted it IS HEAVY. Which proves that heavy does not necessarily mean fast de-tuned chugging plus screaming, a lesson that a lot of the bands on the Hevy bill might benefit from learning. That is not to say that PBTT do not utilise speed as well as tortoiselike tempos. David Haik positively explodes with a flourish all over his kit. By the end of second song Filial they had built it up so high it reached peaks of the Himalayas, there is beauty in all the noise they shape throughout their set. Haik doesn't just hit his drums he plays them, guitarists Mike York and Chad McDonald hew mountains from the sonance they produce. Singer Kyle Durfey pulls on his t-shirt throughout the performance just as his vocals pull on your heart strings. The music is steeped in emotion and it is genuinely affecting. After they finish you hear murmurs of "amazing". (13/13)

Rolo Tomassi trial a few new numbers in their mainstage set today including the opening number which starts with a repetitive leading line on synth that gathers for an age and a half before they escape into punk abandon. Their sometimes circus sounding songs often lead you to question where it is they are heading, the answer is of course almost always into the arms of an eruption! Eva Spence's scream is as powerful as ever and her small frame (today dressed a bit like a ladybird) contorts as she throws herself around. New guitarist Chris Cayford stands out of her way at the side of the stage. He looks extremely young which makes his selection seem odd what with Rolo Tomassi expressing annoyance that people still treat them like they are the same age as when the band first came to prominence. Perhaps they are cursed with eternal youth? They play two songs from debut album Hysterics, oddball Oh, Hello Ghost and the gloriously unhinged I Love Turbulence, both of which bring pits into existence from nowhere. Their music is at times like walking down a chamber full of twisted mirrors and at others more like gliding over a calm ocean, but it is never too long before this imaginary ocean sees blustery waves, pirate ships and spacecrafts. The new songs are hard to take in, but what do you expect from a spazzy math band? They slow things down with Kasia managing to take me away to a tree filled fantasia before launching into Party Wounds which earns their biggest response. (10/13)

Everybody knows and loves Set Your Goals - the Californian six piece outfit with the big and the small frontman. By having gone around the block so many many times they have earned the response they receive with much pointing at the band and singing along. Their brand of uplifting punk rock with a slight lick of hardcore just makes you wanna get up 'n jump. Jumping predictably happens a lot throughout the course of their set but what you don't see every day is a man riding a dolphin above a sweaty hoard of Set Your Goals enthusiasts! They get a big round of applause at the end of their set from a loyal following which is very deserved of a band who still play with such unbounded exuberance whenever they play. (9/13)

This Is Hell tear buildings down with a set of breakneck speed thrash. They play at one speed only: super fast. The vocals are either shouted or shouted. The songs feature ridiculous solos with pinched harmonics and on more than one occasion ridiculous drum fills that see Mike Sciulara rise from his stool before crashing down on his cymbals and continuing at a frightful pace. Muscular guitarist Rick Jimenez with his bandanna on would not look out of place in a ill-fated Schwarzenegger led commando team. The reach of his gymnastic high kicks confirm that he is indeed Stretch Armstrong's bastard child. The Long Island based NYHC act inspire a cache of dancing which looks like skanking but with kicking and punching thrown in there. They fail to ignite a push up circle pit so they try again, this time with Vocalist and founding member Travis Reilly enlisting the help of The Chariot's guitarist Stevis Harrison to go down with him in the pit and start a mass exercise session surrounded by a swarm of moving legs. They play one of the most high octane sets of the weekend which comes to a conclusion when Reilly hurls his mic across into the crowd from the stage allowing the fans to fight over who gets to finish off. (8/13)

"Municipal Waste is gonna fuck you up" is the chant that precludes a one dimensional set of fast thrash metal songs about getting fucked up. There is no denying the popularity of Municipal Waste and their vulgar guitarings (which frustratingly use the same tone and effect throughout) as there is pitting from the start through to the end. The Thrashing Of The Christ - a song about kicking Jesus Christ in the face gets cheers from the crowd. As does a high falsetto "ahhhhhhhh!" from bassist 'Landphil' over and above the high volume at which they play! Playing a host of songs from 2008's The Art Of Partying there is no doubt that they aspire to nothing more than being a party drinkin' band and with Beer Pressure they possess a fun song for people to shout the words along to. The 24 seconds of Black Ice is enough time to construct a thrash wall of death, and the 1 second song about politics proves amusing. Almost as much as the posing from the bassist guitarist and singer bunched together in the middle of the stage 'rock n roll' posturing. As The Bangover is dedicated to all the headbangers out there the sheer amount of bodies on the floor losing their shit is truly astounding. (7/13)

As the sunlight fades the light show on the stage begins to have more impact, not that this is needed because Norma Jean need no gimmicks to excite the crowd despite the odd request of having a tiger brought to them on stage. A man supporting himself by a crutch is witnessed pitting amongst the chaos the music carves. Norma Jean are awesome throwing their guitars and everything they have into a crushing performance tonight at what is their first ever Hevy. They are technical, but not to the extent where it alienates newcomers. They can do heavy both fast and slow. Cory Brandan Putman has a powerhouse scream that is something to behold. Even amongst the fine company they share on the Hevy bill the power of his vocals stand out as forceful in the extreme. Memphis will Be Laid to Waste taken from debut album Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child unites the crowd shouting the words back at an empowered Norma Jean. (12/13)

GlassJaw are something of an unknown quantity these days with mixed reviews from recent UK shows. So it is with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension that I look forward to their show tonight. With unconfirmed rumours that we are to be treated to Worship and Tribute in its entirety (they were confirmed to do this at Sonisphere this year until it got cancelled). It initially seems like this is what we are going to get as guitarist Justin Beck rips into Tip Your Bartender which is followed by Mu Empire. But rather than continuing with Worship and Tribute they then flip it up with Stars and (You Think You're) John Fucking Lennon from recent EP Our Color Green. I cannot say that I was disappointed by this because these songs are perhaps their heaviest and most abrasive to date. The diminutive drumbeat played in the intro of (You Think You're) John Fucking Lennon repeating allowing tune-ups before you get bowled over by the power of GJ at its loudest and most terrifying. Of course they play Ape Dos Mil which predictably gets the loudest crowd sing-along of the weekend. This in some way masks the fact it is played on the one guitar rather than two. The precise sexy grove-based bass talents of Manny Carrero are displayed best on The Gillette Cavalcade Of Sports and although he and Beck play flawlessly, they stay cocooned behind their feedback monitors away from the front of the stage leaving it up to Daryl Palumbo to use all the space. Their lack of movement is what is being picked up on with the criticism they have received that when they play live it is more like witnessing a rehearsal than a performance. However further criticisms that they are not 'into' the music or bothered about GlassJaw any more seems unfounded based on tonight's showing. It is clear that Manny is keen to play on despite the technical difficulties that delay and ultimately cut short their set. Which leaves people hanging around confused after the only song aired off Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence Siberian Kiss gets a rapturous response. The number of songs they get to play is not conducive to a headlining set, but GlassJaw cannot be blamed for this. (12/13)

With a spandex clad ladysinger, guitars galore, beers flowing and smiles all around is how Andrew W.K. Closes out the Saturday night. The songs are dumb, but people know what to expect from a set that features songs from the world famous album I Get Wet. So everybody jumps aboard to have a good time and of course party. Party Hard is played very early on, complete with tinkling piano played by Andrew himself, and you would be forgiven for thinking where can he go from there? But he has a whole arsenal of songs with the word 'party' in them for the drunken rabble to rock out to. And rock out they do, it's a raucous atmosphere underneath the tent tonight. Highlight She Is Beautiful is dedicated to all the women, while most of the other songs are just a celebration of simply being alive. Before the end everyone is having a good time, even those who were standing with their arms crossed seem to now be enjoying themselves. It would appear that the Andrew W.K. party spirit is infectious. Like a handful of bands before them today they are mercilessly cut off but the lack of a PA system does not stop them finish in (volume impaired) style. It is clear they are unhappy with ending things there and wish to carry on. This starts a debacle that lasts too long, with guitarist Erik Payne enticing the crowds chants of "party" and then later "fuck you hevy". Before coming back out alone in defiance of the authorities turning on his stack and rocking out some metal riffs to which the crowd clap along with. (9/13)