2015 is set to be an amazing year full of great tours, new releases and a summer full of festivals but looking back on 2014, it wasn’t half bad was it? To console ourselves that another year is over we look back on 2014 to some of our favorite moments of the year.
For me personally, there were just too many fantastic moments; Blink 182’s headline set at Reading with the fantastic Macklemore and Ryan Lewis before them, Bring Me The Horizon slaying Wembley Arena and Bury Tomorrow releasing the defining album of their career and tearing down Kingston (literally!) at their album release shows.
Here are some more of the best rock moments of 2014 hand picked by our HTF team.
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Slam-Dunk Smashed It Out Of The Park Yet Again!
Every year I look at Slam-dunk Festival’s line up and wonder how they’re ever going to top it. Then this year, they only go all out and bring two of my personal favourite bands to headline, Chiodos and Bury Tomorrow, at the same time (silly Slam-dunk). They also joined Kids In Glass Houses, playing Smart Casual in full, and The All American Rejects; and these were just the headline acts.
This year for me was one of the BEST years of the festival with amazing performances from Decade, Rob Lynch, Marmozets and Letlive and I seriously do wonder how they’re going to beat that. After doing London and Wolverhampton in 2014, I might need to double it up again in 2015!
Rhian Westbury
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Credit: FacebookAnother Incredible Reading & Leeds Festival
Aside from seeing my favourite band in the whole world, Blink 182, headline the festival, a definite highlight for me was watching loads of great emerging talent across the weekend. Hozier in particular blew me away with his incredible live vocals that sounded absolutely flawless, even in the intimate Festival Republic tent with nowhere to hide. Wolf Alice and Circa Wavves were two other great bands that stood out for me, who both gave really energetic performances and above all, showed obvious passion for what they do. It would be amazing to see these acts grow throughout 2015 and perform on a bigger stage next year. I was also lucky enough to catch You Me At Six’s secret set ahead of their main stage appearance. Performing acoustically, it was brilliant to see such stripped back versions of their songs that I love, even more so because I missed their main set later on that day!
Claire Rollins
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Source: PromoIt’s without a doubt The 1975 have had an incredible year and one particular highlight, besides them playing hammered before Dolly Parton at Glastonbury obviously, must be their performance at this years Reading Festival. With a jam packed NME tent, it was a set that really left it’s mark and one that could potentially boost the band up to potential headline slots in the near future. When you remember they are still only on their debut album as well, it really highlights the bands potential and with them being able to deliver a set so heart-felt and professional at this stage, it’s something to be excited about. Let’s hope they can follow up on this success and we see bigger and better things from them in 2015!
Chris Hines
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Metallica Destroy Sonisphere Festival
They’re classed as one of the best live acts in the world, and this year they certainly proved it. Playing like they’re not a day over 20, Metallica bust out riff after riff like its was going out of fashion. With perfect weather, and a by request set that oozed all the fan favourites, there was no other band to watch than the metal legends showing they’re kings every single time.
Emma Younger
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Source: Official PromoNew York Brass Band at Y Not Festival
My music moment of the year would have to be wandering into a tent at Y Not Festival and seeing the New York Brass Band. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it sure wasn’t a brass band from York, who just so-happened to be new, playing a selection of pop covers – cue deafening sing-alongs of Never Gonna Give You Up and Get Lucky. It could have been so cheesy, but they had more than enough stage presence and charisma to pull it off. It was an experience that showed exactly why you should do some exploring during festival season.
Jamie Batty
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Source: PromoBrand New Touring The UK
Being a Brand New fan is hard, because waiting for them to announce tour dates is like waiting for rain in the desert. This year the band played on our side of the Atlantic and it was one of the most special musical experiences I’ve been a part of. There’s something very nostalgic, yet timeless about Brand New. I may have to wait until I’m nearing 30 before I get to see them again, but it’s comforting to know I probably will still love them just as much.
Santhi Weiss
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Source: Official PromoThe Rise Of Royal Blood
Need I say more? These two guys released the fastest selling rock debut in three years. Their success this year has been colossal and it’s just a nice reminder that no matter what people say, rock music will never really die, will it?
Santhi Weiss
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Source: FacebookWeezer Return To Form
Weezer have never gone away, it’s just for the last bunch of albums something has been missing. Thankfully in 2014 the band noticed too and this resulted in their best release since Pinkerton, Everything Will Be Alright In The End. A true return to form, it was a record full of amazing songs and, in ‘Back To the Shack’, a heartfelt apology to his fans from lead man Rivers Cuomo. Any true Weezer fan will be lying if the lyrics “Take me back, back to the shack, back to the strat with the lightning strat” didn’t give you goosebumps. We all knew what it meant. Weezer were back on top.
Michael Baird
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Credit: Official Facebook PageFaith No More Release New Material
I remember how crazy excited I got back in 2009 when Faith No More announced they were reforming to play Download. This though, was to be a reunion for pure nostalgia they said; nothing new will be getting released. Fast forward five years to May 2014 and Faith No More posted a picture of vocalist Mike Patton in the studio. Fast forward to November and the band announce a new album will be out in 2015 and then treat the world to their first new single in 17 years, the simply amazing track ‘Mother Fucker’ – Faith No More are back.
Michael Baird
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Bring Me The Horizon Change It Up – ‘Drown.’
Not only was this the best song of the year by a country mile but it was a complete departure from the modern metal the quintet are renowned for, much to the disgust of some ‘fans’. The star of the show though is the lyrics, which most people, unless you’re cheerful 24/7, can certainly relate to.
Antoine Omisore
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Source: Promo ImageArchitects Reach Their Full Potential
From losing themselves with 2011’s The Here And Now, to clawing back some dignity with Daybreaker a year later, the journey this Brighton 4-piece have been on hasn’t been easy.
But, after a successful tour in America the band unleashed their best album to date in Lost Forever // Lost Together and continued the momentum to annihilate venues up and down the UK.
Antoine Omisore
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Source: FightstarFightstar Are Back!
A couple of months ago, I would have slapped you for even considering this being a possibility. Charlie Simpson is having a stellar solo career and it looked like Fightstar were more or less packed away in a nice corner of the attic. Then the teasers started coming out through the band’s Facebook page, and then the countdown, all coming down to a one-off show at London’s Forum. The show was fantastic, and it was an incredible thing to see them all back together and obviously loving what they were doing. That’s not even the end of it, as early this coming year we also have a four date tour scheduled. Hopefully this is the start of their comeback and we also get some new music soon, but to be honest we’re all still just buzzing from that incredible show.
Callum Thomson
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Source: Jemma DoddHybrid Theory – In Full!
Linkin Park playing Hybrid Theory in full was a dream come true. Anyone who was into rock music towards the turn of the millennium were all over this album, and it showed how many people still hold it dear when the band headlined Download, playing the entire album, each track back-to-back. With it now being 14 years old, you sometimes forget the amount of hits that are on the album, ‘Papercut’, ‘One Step Closer’, ‘In The End’, we really could just reel every track off, but that would be pointless. The entire show was fantastic, and coupling that with hits from the rest of their discography just continued to prove what an incredible live act Linkin Park continue to be.
Callum Thomson
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Bury Tomorrow Raise The Bar
One October night in Camden epitomised just how far Bury Tomorrow have come. Not only did they headline the famous KOKO, they sold it out in advance, and then left it in tatters. It wasn’t the biggest show they have ever played, but it was a personal triumph. They have set the bar now, and we expect them to push on and conquer more of the UK’s larger venues this year.
Matt Borucki
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Source: Promo / Max SchwartzThe Reunion of Holland’s Destine
On the 22nd October, one of my favourite bands, Destine, announced that after two years of radio silence they were ready to release a new album. I had been so worried that another great band were going to disappear, and maybe even without a goodbye, that this was some of the best news I had heard in a long while. The album was instantly available for preorder through an Indie-GoGo crowd-funding campaign and on the 1st December, the day before the campaign was due to end funded or not, they reached their final goal. I could not be more excited to see what Destine’s third album will bring having absolutely loved the first two.
Jenna Young
