There's not much better than standing with your friends, enjoying a cold one and watching some of the world's best rock and metal bands bring their A game live on stage - except maybe doing all that with the blaze of the sun on your back.

More than 25,000 rock revellers basked in the glorious Greek sunshine today as Iron Maiden, Slipknot, Mastodon, Rotting Christ, Moonspell - and a host of others - as Sonisphere's world famous touring festival arrived in Athens.

It was the third pit stop on Sonisphere's metal marathon and Greek rock fans were treated to a historic occasion when Slipknot hit the stage together for the first time since Paul Gray's tragic passing last year.

For many it was a sight they feared they would never see but when frontman Corey Taylor led the band onto the Apollo Stage, and back into the limelight, the ground shook with what it seemed like all 25,000 inside the Terra Vibe Park just outside Athens showing their appreciation in perfect timing.
The Iowa metallers were welcomed back warmly with Taylor taking time out to thank the crowd and also paid tribute to his brother upstairs in Gray who died in May of last year.

Iron Maiden brought the curtain down on the second Greek Sonisphere with an energy sapping two hour display where the rock legends unleashed their arsenal of monster hits in machine gun style.
The gates swung open just after 11am and just in time for the early birds to catch the first band of the day with the appropriately named Total Riot.

With the well documented troubles and riots a few miles down the road in the city centre, the hometown heroes were flying the flag for Athens and were handed the baton for the first run of the day.

Next onto the Saturn Stage were Need before Virus infected the hearing of the ever-swelling crowd who braved the midday sun. The Apollo Stage opened for business immediately after Virus' stint with Nightfall tasked with setting the benchmark for what was to be a historic evening.

Moonspell followed quickly afterwards bringing their own slice of Mediterranean goth rock to the table before the pace quickened, if that was possible, when Gojira unleashed their potent cocktail of progressive metal to the Saturn Stage.

Back to the Apollo, and Mastodon, who earlier that day confirmed a quartet of brand new song titles from their forthcoming new album including the bizarrely titled "The Octopus Has No Friends', stepped into the sunshine.

The Saturn Stage ended just as it had begun with a home country band strutting their stuff on stage as Rotting Christ brought the curtain down. Shrugging off the infamous controversy over their name they blasted out an hour of black metal to darken the heart and bleed the ears of even the most hardened metaller.

Performing next was the band on everyone's lips, and in everybody's hearts, as Slipknot made their much anticipated live return but without bassist Paul Gray. In his place they handed four-string duties to long-time friend and original member Donnie Steele who played the part but stood behind the curtain with Gray's costume, mask and guitar symbolically remaining on stage with his band mates.
Slipknot have been sorely missed but despite having not played live together in over a year the band didn't miss a note - much to the delight of the Athens crowd.

The final band in action at Sonisphere Greece was the mighty Maiden who locked, loaded and fired out a killer set which included traditional favourites "Two Minutes To Midnight', "Number of the Beast' and crowd sing-a-long favourite "Fear of the Dark.'

After opening with "Final Frontier' there was no let up from the Rock Gods who were so loud they must have woken their Zeus and his Godly pals from their Mount Olympus slumber.

Sonisphere Festival boss Stuart Galbraith hailed the event a tremendous success and insisted it is days like this which underline the benefits of a touring festival. He said: "It's been a great day and this is a gorgeous site and it's the second time we've been here.

"I'm glad that we've done a touring festival although there is no doubt coming into some countries is more difficult than others. Waking up a couple of days ago to read about riots in Athens meant we had to check a few things.

"Some of the countries are very economically depressed at the moment which makes it difficult and we've unfortunately had to cancel Sofia as the Bulgarian economy is just so flat just now.

"I don't think we ever considered cancelling Greece as the audience here are very ardent, the site is fantastic and we have a great local partner who has done a great job."

by Eric Mackinnon, Rock AAA