As we arrive in baking sunshine to the sound of thousands of heavy metal nutters warming up their collective beer bellies, you get feeling that this is going to be one great weekend. From the people behind Hard Rock Hell and Metal hammer, comes Hammerfest, a party for all who unite behind the banner of metal and Stella Artois.

The venue is packed at this sold out event, Hammerfall really know how to play to these festival crowds. Warming them up with many a fistpumping sing-alongs. Playing songs from their latest album - "No Sacrifice, No Victory', they go out with an accomplished bang as they close the set with the classic 'Hearts on Fire', these guys turned it up to 11!

Next up on the Hammer Hounds stage are The Rotted Previously known as Gorerotted, these boys still love to grind to the extreme - "Theres a party in my mouth and everyones been sick!" slurs singer Ben McCrow, playing to the party crowd we have here tonight.

Following The Rotted are Earache’s youngest thrash darlings, Mutant. New bass player Jon Kushner providing some skin shredding low end that helps to get the circle pits flowing nicely. What these boys lack in originality they more than make up for in youthful energy. Label mates Evile are up next. Bringing the thrash up another level, these boys from Huddersfield really are stepping up their game, proving themselves on top of the retro thrash fad. Delivering a tight and rowdy set that goes down a treat with the crowd, so well in fact, it surprises the band themselves. They deserve it!

Over on the main stage is Paradise lost. The ex-doomsters start with sound problems and seem to bring down the tempo to struggle to retain the mood following the retro-thrash and power metal from before, but still manage to receive a decent reception.

On the Hammer Hounds stage Lethargy capture a few stragglers who aren't keen for Opeth and prove that being last minute additions to the stage after Warpath dropped out they can still rock a crowd with their catchy hard rock.

Opeth are a very strange band, perhaps a little too thought-provoking and progressive for the average stella-fuelled metalhead here tonight; but prove many wrong by playing a superb set that might've shocked some people - "one of our fans tried to headbang to this next song, but fell over" singer Mikael Åkerfeldt recalls before going into another space-bending time signature. Chilling out the crowd before closing off the first night is a great way to bring the first nights proceedings to a close.

As most people leave after Opeth's set, a few remain to watch Annotations Of An Autopsy - "We have no nice parts" bellows vocalist Steve Regan. Agreed! The boys try to keep the crowd going into the early hours but come off as rude and obnoxious, leaving most of the crowds here tonight to stagger to their chalets for a night of messy parties, campfire sing-alongs and to prepare for tomorrow’s festivities.