I awoke on the Saturday morning to the brattish sounds of Swedish babes Crucified Barbara who are more than welcome to wake me up in my tent at any time (having observed the band throughout the day, (they were most definitely the most pleasing thing on the eye all weekend).

Rowland ordered me out of my tent, so there was no time to sleep off the previous day's hangover. Mainly because he wanted to get Whiplashed.

They say only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, well it was the case of mad thrashers and Englishmen going out in the midday sun today as the only hangover cure on offer was a prime slice of legendary New Jersey thrash merchants Whiplash. They may remain one of the more obscure bands from the original wave of thrash, but in 'Power And Pain' and 'Ticket To Mayhem', Whiplash left behind two of the finest thrash/speed metal albums of that era. The entire set was made up of material from those two albums and despite a few technical hitches at the start of the set, Tony Portaro lead his band through a rip roaring half hour packed with classics such as 'Warmonger', 'The Burning Of Atlanta' and 'Power Thrashing Death'. A healthy, if not huge audience turned out for them and sadly 'Nailed To the Cross' has to be cut from the set, but the thrash connoisseurs who did turn out got a real treat. Whiplash rarely plays on this side of the Atlantic, and even though some much bigger thrash guns were to turn out on this stage later today, this was one of the thrash highlights of the weekend.

I do love a bit of proper NWOBHM at a festival and I do love a bit of Angel Witch. I think it's fair to say that Kevin Heybourne has now got himself the finest line up the band has ever had, with Bill Steer on guitar and power house drummer Andrew Prestidge beefing up the sound the old classics from their debut now have a whole new freshness about them. Great metal tunes not to be taken seriously but enough to scare your grandma, 'White Witch', 'Angel Of Death', 'Baphomet' and the anthem 'Angel Witch' had my metal horns deservedly raised in the air. This is what all heavy metal should sound like. Time for my first beer of the day. Normal service has been resumed.

HammerFall were on at 2pm and really this is the slot where they belong. The band did fly the metal flag high during years when everyone was trying to grow a goatee and for that they have to be applauded.  'Last Man Standing' and 'Hearts On Fire' are bona fide modern day classics but I still can't warm to humourless singer Joacim Cans who sounds like he has just inhaled a helium balloon before going on stage.

It was a case of "c'est la vie" for The Haunted who missed their main stage appearance by being stranded on a ferry somewhere. The band did get to play later on in the night in one of the marquees but reportedly had faces like a wet weekend in Paris...... Sacre bleu.

Now if it's classic songs you need then look no further than UFO who were onstage in the scorching sun. 'Venus' from the underrated 'Walk On Water' made a welcome return to the set, but it was the classics 'Only You Can Rock Me' 'Too Hot To Handle', 'Love To Love', 'Rock Bottom' and 'Doctor Doctor' that set the day up nicely. Singer Phil Mogg was making a voulez-fool of himself doing his best Englishman abroad humour, full of double entendres. ''I don't know much French, but I do know German...well I know Germany invaded Poland'' was just one of many faux-pas statements from Mogg. Later on he was telling Hellfest about his ten inch manhood telling some young girl down the front how cute she looked whilst telling her boyfriend to keep an eye on her, now that's what I want from a frontman.

By the time Municipal Waste hit the Main Stage 2, the crowd seemed to have doubled in size as Virginia's finest thrash pranksters decided to give us a lesson in the art of partying. Waste classics such as 'Terror Shark', 'Headbanger Face Rip' and 'Sadistic Magician' all went down a storm, as did the newer material like 'Wolves Of Chernobyl'. Such was the size of the crowd for this performance, that an aborted attempt to organise a circle pit at the front forced Tony Foresta to urge the crowd to "pogo for Satan" instead as they launch into 'The Thrashing Of The Christ'. Always great fun, Municipal Waste's fusion of hardcore and thrash left Hellfest well and truly wasted, and closing track 'Born To Party' pretty much sums this great band up.

Then it was time for some more classic rock and this time from Thin Lizzy. The band has another new guitarist in Richard Fortus, taking the place of Vivian Campbell, and whilst Ricky Warwick by no means has the pizzazz or the Parisienne walk of Phil Lynott he can certainly do the songs themselves some justice. Regardless of opinions of a Thin Lizzy with or without Lynott, it is a positive thing that younger fans can get to hear the music of this great band and it is always a welcome to have the boys back in town.

There's obviously plenty of talk at the moment in thrash circles as the 'big four' are about to descend on Sonisphere, but today thrash heads have the honour of witnessing the 'big 3' in the shape of the three finest Germans thrash merchants - Destruction, Sodom and Kreator- hitting the Main Stage 2 in succession. Destruction's 45 minute set got a great reception as they ripped though the likes of 'Mad Butcher', 'Hate Is My Fuel', 'Thrash Till Death' and of course the early Destruction classic 'Bestial Invasion'. Schmier made reference to the three teutonic thrash titans appearing back to back today and called for a similar package of the three to team up for future shows, and who could argue with that?

Sodom also got a huge welcome as they launched into 'In War and Pieces', and it's clear that for many, this is the one band of the three that people are particularly there to see. The pure thrash mayhem of 'Outbreak Of Evil' whipped the crowd up into a frenzy and 'The Saw Is The Law' and 'M-16' sounded equally as powerful. Sodom are probably still best known for their classic third album 'Agent Orange', and it's a superbly vicious version of that album's title track that hit the spot as much as anything in their set today. During its intro, Angelripper reminded the crowd that it was released the same year as the fall of the Berlin wall, and cheekily whistled the 'Wind Of Change' tune, noting of course that the Scorpions were up on the main stage a little later. Ironically, the Scorps didn't perform 'Wind Of Change' (sorry for stealing your thunder Mark), so Sodom have the dubious pleasure of being the only band to whistle that tune today! The set closed in superb style with one for the old schoolers - a truly intense 'Blasphemer' which goes right back to the first album in '84 before they signed off with the anthemic 'Remember the Fallen'. Sodom delivered a great set tonight and certainly delivered a challenge for Kreator to top it.

Black Label Society, Hmmmmm.... I know they are popular but I just don't get it. Zakk Wylde has earned himself godlike status from his time with Ozzy but I find everything about him so fake. Okay he is a great shredder, but his band is chock full of testosterone mixed with weak beer and what's that about the jackets with their logo copying the one worn by Hell's Angels?  If this had been Donington back in 1980 the band would've been bottled to death. Au contraire the band did have some moments but an overdrawn ten-minute wankfest guitar solo from Wylde had me heading for the bar.

As the hordes of day-trippers filtered into the arena for the Scorpions set, it was another legendary bunch of teutonic titans, Kreator that greeted them as darkness descended in more ways than one. Having taken a few wrong turns in the 90's, Kreator are back to what they do best - brutal thrash metal. It's two tracks from the last album that opened the set tonight in the shape of 'Hordes Of Chaos' and 'Warcurse', by which time the mosh pits had exploded into life. The set was a nice mixture of more recent material and old, brutal classics like 'Endless Pain' and 'Pleasure To Kill'. Mille Petrozza seemed pretty intent on encouraging the circle pits during the likes of 'Terrible Certainty' and 'Reconquering the Throne', and the crowd duly obliged. I found it a bit disappointing that Kreator only found time for the title track from such a classic album as 'Pleasure To Kill', and how they could miss out 'Ripping Corpse' or 'Death is Your Saviour' is beyond me, but the set was tight and powerful and they went down a storm so who am I to argue? At least we got a dastardly double dose of the first album in the shape of 'Flag Of Hate' and 'Tormentor' to finish things off. A great set, but for me Sodom just topped them. The package of these 'three kings' of teutonic thrash certainly worked and it would be great to see this back in the UK next year.

Saying au revoir to the world are the Scorpions who put on a glitzy show. Da Scorps have all the best choreographed moves and used up every inch of the stage as a result. The set was made up largely by tunes from 'Animal Magnetism' onwards including three numbers from their latest album 'Sting In The Tail'. Highlights included a stomping 'The Zoo' and 'Loving You Sunday Morning' which kept the purists happy. Rudolf Schenker was highly animated throwing all the right shapes and Klaus Meine's unique voice was as flawless as ever. Being a metal fest the band opted not to play the whistling 'Winds Of Change' (damn you Rowland) but that didn't stop them from putting in a few ballads including 'Holiday' and 'Still Loving You' and the day was won with the stadium fillers 'Big City Nights' and 'Rock You Like A Hurricane'. The Scorpions have certainly lost none of their deadly sting.

Leaving the stage what followed Da Scorps performance was one of the best explosive firework displays that I've ever seen lighting up the midnight sky for a good fifteen minutes. One firework went off in a horizontal direction straight into the VIP area that had some bad boys running wild.

After a long hard day of over 14 hours of live music and drinking I had had enough. I had even drunk myself sober and just had a glass of coke for my final drink (Yes, you have read that right.). So I went back to the tent to dream about some of those camel toes that had woken me up earlier in the day whilst Jimmy went off to see some Coroner.

After a storming Scorpions set it was left to recently re-formed Swiss progressive thrash legends Coroner to round things off in the main arena. Despite hitting the stage at 1 in the morning, a sizable crowd had gathered for the much-anticipated first appearance in fifteen years for this much-respected band. Thrash fans really have had a feast today, and Coroner's technical "thinking man's thrash" was the perfect way to round things off. The set featured tracks drawn from all five of Coroner's original albums, and right from the stunning opener 'Golden Cashmir Sleeper Pt 1', they delivered a superbly tight and technically brilliant set to mesmerise those still standing. The likes of 'Masked Jackal', 'Metamorphosis' and 'Semtex Revolution' all still hit the spot and they even went back to the first track on their first album, 'Reborn Through Hate' as a well-deserved encore. A lot of thrash connoisseurs were really looking forward to the return of this band at Hellfest, and they weren't disappointed. They make another appearance at this year's Bloodstock, and what they do, if anything, beyond that is unclear as yet but it was a great set to witness.

And so my friends to sleep (in our tents), perchance to dream (not necessarily of camel toes), and day 3 of Hellfest still lies ahead of us.