DAMNATION FESTIVAL
Written by Sherry
Friday, 20 October 2006
Jilly's Rockworld, Manchester
15 th October 2006
And so it was that we found ourselves once again, on a miserable autumn day weaving our way down the M62, on our way to Damnation.
This is only the second year of this festival, run by fans, for fans and the thoughts running through my mind as we travelled, were whether it would be as good as it was last year, and also whether the organisers would be able to top the success that they had in their inaugural year.
I had nothing to worry about.
On paper, it was a stonking line up, with some good bands, some old friends, and some bands that I hadn’t seen live before. So it was with eager anticipation that we ventured onward into Manchester.
From the outside, Jilly’s Rockworld doesn’t look much; certainly the small shop frontage belies the size of the place from the exterior. And to be honest it doesn’t look much from the inside either. Dimly lit and sweaty, but somehow it just seems to fit with the underground nature of this festival.
A few minor delays had meant that the doors opened a little late, but as we made our way up the stairs to the Jagermeister stage we could hear the last remnants of Evile ‘s sound check.
As Evile are good friends of the British Metal team, we wanted to get a spot on the front row for their set, so that meant sacrificing the chance to catch Speed Theory live (sorry guys!) but I hope to remedy that soon when they join the American Headcharge / Panic cell tour for a few dates.
A few eager early birds had begun to assemble at the front of the stage, so that by the time Evile started their set, there was quite a healthy, sizeable crowd gathered, and they weren’t disappointed. Fresh from their trip to Nottingham the day before to sign a deal with Earache records, Evile lived up to their reputation as a superb live band, and a good choice to open this stage. They delivered a blistering set of thrash metal worthy of bands twice their age and with twice the experience.
Ol Drake appeared on stage wearing a top hat and monocle, much to the joy of, and in deference to the Damnation forum members in the audience.
Though it wasn’t without its problems, Ben the drummer putting through his snare skin during the first song, Evile proved that they were indeed well worth the hype and worthy openers to the main stage.
Their set list included the incredible Enter the Grave, Death Sentence and we were treated to the first pit of the day during We Who Are About to Die (my personal favourite.) During the hard n heavy Thrasher total mayhem broke out as Evile increased the pace and the crowd responded in kind.
Their tight performance offered, speedy old-school style thrash metal. Not compromising individual performance one bit for their incredible talent to work well together as a whole.
The intense power of their songs, combining heavy riffs, fast technical guitar work, from both the Drake brothers, and a HUGE meaty bass and drum section provided by Ben Carter and Mike Alexander.
Evile finished the set with Killer from The Deep, a firm favourite among fans in the live set.
By the time Evile had finished and KingSize Blues took to the stage there was an excited buzz in the air, and the room was packed.
I had somehow managed to miss KingSize Blues when they played Bloodstock so it was with interest that I perked up my ears as announcer Phil Hull (who did a cracking job all day) introduced them as a supercharged, booze-fuelled, weed-injected, whore-stained brand of Bastard Heavy Metal.
They did suffer with some problems with sound though, and for the whole of the first song the guitars were way too loud and drowned out the vocals totally. This was soon sorted though, and we were treated to an impressive, high -energy set delivered in a very professional way. What was particularly notable, as I didn’t know any of their material, was the aggression of Tom Hennessey’s vocals and the talent of the twin lead guitarists. The Damnation crowd gave KingSize Blues an enthusiastic reception.
In the interest of giving a balanced review, we decided to make our way downstairs after KingSize Blues, and go and see who was on the Terrorizer stage. By this time, the stage delays had begun to snowball and increase (as they tend to do at these kind of shows) so we really had no idea who should have been on at this point.
In the end, we battled our way through the heaving crowd, and I mean heaving!! just in time to hear a short blast of Mistress from the back of the room. There was no way that we were going to be able to get any closer and to be honest the sound was so bad at the back that we could only manage about ten seconds of the messy noise that was the sound, before we headed straight back upstairs to the sanity(?) of the Jagermeister stage.
And Im sorry to say that it remained like that for the rest of the day. So packed was it downstairs that it was impossible for us to be able to see or hear any of the bands clearly, so my apologies go out to the rest of the bands who appeared on that stage. I couldn’t see or hear any of you …
Back on the main stage it was the turn of Head On to submit them selves to the Damnation crowd, and it wasn’t long before heads were nodding in approval. I was thoroughly impressed with them last time I saw them live at Camden underworld, but I have to say for me they were one of the bands of the day. Man mountain frontman Mark Logan looks like a cross between an all in wrestler and a redneck bushwhacker, he is so huge, and he has the crowd eating out of his hands. He says bang your heads and that is exactly what the crowd do. Every last one of them.
Boy, is Head On loud and heavy! They treated the crowd to a stunning performance of their brand of heavy metal and to see everyone in the room simultaneously head banging was one of the highlights of the day. They finished the set with the infamous Here comes the Hammer. During which the aforesaid Mr Logan produces the biggest f**cking mallet I have ever seen, and pulverised a video player to pieces as a finale. Ace show!!
Murder One was next up in a set that was marred for me by problems with the sound. There were little or no vocals at all for the first two songs, with one of the singers getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of working microphone. The left hand side of the PA seemed to be popping intermittently throughout the set, with the drums fading in and out constantly. This having been said, the majority of the crowd were having far too good a time to notice such trivialities, but it annoyed the hell out of me.
Alternating between screaming and growly vocals of John Loughlin (from Raging Speedhorn) and Paul Catton, Murder One delivered a frenetic, fast paced set that leaves the crowd baying for more
Taking their rightful place next, high and mighty upon the stage in front of a crowd buzzing with anticipation were Biomechanical. With high expectations from all that took to the front of the stage to watch (and judging by the turnout, half of the huge, heavily studded, leather clad metallers of Manchester had heard of the bands highly acclaimed live performance), the band walked out to a raging reception. Opening their set with ‘the Awakening’, taken from their debut album ‘Eight Moons’, it became clear by the first 10 seconds that all was not right.
The sound, once again, not matching up to the high standard hoped and expected for an event of this calibre. The inability to hear vocalist Jon Kay’s screaming voice over the inaudible scramble that was the instrumental section brought down the hopes somewhat of the hundreds that turned out for this set.
But, all is not lost! Able to rectify most of these mistakes during the bands song 2nd song, (a personal favourite) ‘Empires of the worlds’, the sound quality was brought up for the remainder of Biomechanical’s set.
To be quite honest, within the first 30 seconds of ‘Assaulter’, the bands third helping of metal, it became clear that all of these faults had completely gone out of the minds of the fans, who thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent performance that we were treated to on the night. It is clear why this band is so popular, and is making their name well heard within the British, and indeed European metal circuit.
The incredible skills of all of these musicians, showcased to perfection within a band that is a brilliant mix of thrash, power, elements of death and with that twist of progressive metal, making their own unique brand of metal of which no other band can boast, and certainly not to this high standard.
In addition to their live sound, with Biomechanical the experience is worth just as much. You will be treated to an all-energetic performance, the whole band truly showing their passions and talents up on the stage. They are LOUD, and they will knock you on your metal-loving arse at a drumbeats notice.
Next to take to the Jagermeister stage were Skindred. If someone had told me this time last year that there would be a band playing at Damnation Festival; that they would get an entire several-hundred strong pure metal crowd to bounce up and down to samples of drum-and bass beats, and that they would get them dancing along to vocals that come close to that of an aggravated death metal/Bob Marley love child…I would have told them to go piss off.
But this is exactly what Skindred had to offer. Having become recently familiar with the bands work, I was very intrigued to see them playing at such a strongly metal-oriented festival. However, with a completely unique-sound, mixing all of fast and heavy metal, with combinations of hip-hop and reggae, I was delighted in a way and couldn’t wait to see what the ‘ragga-punk’ band had to offer.
Already being very surprised at the turnout for the band, and having encountered charismatic front man Benji Webbe earlier on in the night, it was a moment I couldn’t wait for. Taking to the stage and breaking into the title track of the latest album, ‘Babylon’, the crowd reaction was huge. Entertaining this insatiable crowd is a large order and this band truly delivered. Front man Benji is the central part of this unique-sound, able to vary his vocal range to match any style of music.
He was fantastic on the night and took this crowd into the palm of his hand and got them laughing, bouncing around, dancing and in many cases, pure head banging.
A truly brilliant performance, highlights of which would have to be the hit single ‘Nobody’, its heavy metal beats and ability to excite the crowd into a funky, bouncy, metal stupor; the tight performance by all of the band members, and their ability to make this band equally about the music: varying between steady rock and metal beats to fast drum and bass, and the unique guitar sound of MikeyDemus which adds character to the entire set.
A fantastic time was had by all there to watch (again, a brilliant turnout), and it was clear that the performance given was to the highest of this bands abilities. Top performance.
Headliners on the bill tonight were well-renowned and hugely popular Swedish metal Gods, The Haunted. Having noticed a large number of ‘The Haunted’ t-shirts lurking about throughout the night, I had no doubt that this band would not be suffering from any problems with turnout!
It turned out to be just so, packing the room tight, almost every metaller in the building eagerly awaiting this performance. With the sound quality by this time being improved, and the atmosphere building to a climax you could just tell it was going to be explosive.
I thought that Skindred were going to be a hard act to follow, but Peter Dolving and crew proved more than worthy of stepping up to the plate.
Tonight’s set list included all the crowd favourites- Bury Your Dead, 99, No Compromise, DOA and The Medication with many more. Contemporary thrash with that enviable mix of enough of the old and the new to make it interesting and varied, and delivered with enough attitude to slay a carthorse.
Dolving is a great front man, leaning into the audience and flitting from intense screams to a softer vocal melody with barely a murmur.
"99” offers a brief respite from the onslaught, being a bit more moderately paced and menacing but without relinquishing the momentum of the set, which has plenty of energy.
So if they’re not beating you over the head with their heaviness, they’re amazing you with their devastating riffs and dementing you with their complex rhythms.
The Haunted prove their worth in an hour so or of mind numbing heaviness that leaves the crowd satisfied, exhausted, yearning for more and wondering how the hell the organisers are going to be able to top this one !!.
Sherry and Danny
British Metal UK
http://www.britishmetal.co.uk/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=802&Itemid=61
Written by Sherry
Friday, 20 October 2006
Jilly's Rockworld, Manchester
15 th October 2006
And so it was that we found ourselves once again, on a miserable autumn day weaving our way down the M62, on our way to Damnation.
This is only the second year of this festival, run by fans, for fans and the thoughts running through my mind as we travelled, were whether it would be as good as it was last year, and also whether the organisers would be able to top the success that they had in their inaugural year.
I had nothing to worry about.
On paper, it was a stonking line up, with some good bands, some old friends, and some bands that I hadn’t seen live before. So it was with eager anticipation that we ventured onward into Manchester.
From the outside, Jilly’s Rockworld doesn’t look much; certainly the small shop frontage belies the size of the place from the exterior. And to be honest it doesn’t look much from the inside either. Dimly lit and sweaty, but somehow it just seems to fit with the underground nature of this festival.
A few minor delays had meant that the doors opened a little late, but as we made our way up the stairs to the Jagermeister stage we could hear the last remnants of Evile ‘s sound check.
As Evile are good friends of the British Metal team, we wanted to get a spot on the front row for their set, so that meant sacrificing the chance to catch Speed Theory live (sorry guys!) but I hope to remedy that soon when they join the American Headcharge / Panic cell tour for a few dates.
A few eager early birds had begun to assemble at the front of the stage, so that by the time Evile started their set, there was quite a healthy, sizeable crowd gathered, and they weren’t disappointed. Fresh from their trip to Nottingham the day before to sign a deal with Earache records, Evile lived up to their reputation as a superb live band, and a good choice to open this stage. They delivered a blistering set of thrash metal worthy of bands twice their age and with twice the experience.
Ol Drake appeared on stage wearing a top hat and monocle, much to the joy of, and in deference to the Damnation forum members in the audience.
Though it wasn’t without its problems, Ben the drummer putting through his snare skin during the first song, Evile proved that they were indeed well worth the hype and worthy openers to the main stage.
Their set list included the incredible Enter the Grave, Death Sentence and we were treated to the first pit of the day during We Who Are About to Die (my personal favourite.) During the hard n heavy Thrasher total mayhem broke out as Evile increased the pace and the crowd responded in kind.
Their tight performance offered, speedy old-school style thrash metal. Not compromising individual performance one bit for their incredible talent to work well together as a whole.
The intense power of their songs, combining heavy riffs, fast technical guitar work, from both the Drake brothers, and a HUGE meaty bass and drum section provided by Ben Carter and Mike Alexander.
Evile finished the set with Killer from The Deep, a firm favourite among fans in the live set.
By the time Evile had finished and KingSize Blues took to the stage there was an excited buzz in the air, and the room was packed.
I had somehow managed to miss KingSize Blues when they played Bloodstock so it was with interest that I perked up my ears as announcer Phil Hull (who did a cracking job all day) introduced them as a supercharged, booze-fuelled, weed-injected, whore-stained brand of Bastard Heavy Metal.
They did suffer with some problems with sound though, and for the whole of the first song the guitars were way too loud and drowned out the vocals totally. This was soon sorted though, and we were treated to an impressive, high -energy set delivered in a very professional way. What was particularly notable, as I didn’t know any of their material, was the aggression of Tom Hennessey’s vocals and the talent of the twin lead guitarists. The Damnation crowd gave KingSize Blues an enthusiastic reception.
In the interest of giving a balanced review, we decided to make our way downstairs after KingSize Blues, and go and see who was on the Terrorizer stage. By this time, the stage delays had begun to snowball and increase (as they tend to do at these kind of shows) so we really had no idea who should have been on at this point.
In the end, we battled our way through the heaving crowd, and I mean heaving!! just in time to hear a short blast of Mistress from the back of the room. There was no way that we were going to be able to get any closer and to be honest the sound was so bad at the back that we could only manage about ten seconds of the messy noise that was the sound, before we headed straight back upstairs to the sanity(?) of the Jagermeister stage.
And Im sorry to say that it remained like that for the rest of the day. So packed was it downstairs that it was impossible for us to be able to see or hear any of the bands clearly, so my apologies go out to the rest of the bands who appeared on that stage. I couldn’t see or hear any of you …
Back on the main stage it was the turn of Head On to submit them selves to the Damnation crowd, and it wasn’t long before heads were nodding in approval. I was thoroughly impressed with them last time I saw them live at Camden underworld, but I have to say for me they were one of the bands of the day. Man mountain frontman Mark Logan looks like a cross between an all in wrestler and a redneck bushwhacker, he is so huge, and he has the crowd eating out of his hands. He says bang your heads and that is exactly what the crowd do. Every last one of them.
Boy, is Head On loud and heavy! They treated the crowd to a stunning performance of their brand of heavy metal and to see everyone in the room simultaneously head banging was one of the highlights of the day. They finished the set with the infamous Here comes the Hammer. During which the aforesaid Mr Logan produces the biggest f**cking mallet I have ever seen, and pulverised a video player to pieces as a finale. Ace show!!
Murder One was next up in a set that was marred for me by problems with the sound. There were little or no vocals at all for the first two songs, with one of the singers getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of working microphone. The left hand side of the PA seemed to be popping intermittently throughout the set, with the drums fading in and out constantly. This having been said, the majority of the crowd were having far too good a time to notice such trivialities, but it annoyed the hell out of me.
Alternating between screaming and growly vocals of John Loughlin (from Raging Speedhorn) and Paul Catton, Murder One delivered a frenetic, fast paced set that leaves the crowd baying for more
Taking their rightful place next, high and mighty upon the stage in front of a crowd buzzing with anticipation were Biomechanical. With high expectations from all that took to the front of the stage to watch (and judging by the turnout, half of the huge, heavily studded, leather clad metallers of Manchester had heard of the bands highly acclaimed live performance), the band walked out to a raging reception. Opening their set with ‘the Awakening’, taken from their debut album ‘Eight Moons’, it became clear by the first 10 seconds that all was not right.
The sound, once again, not matching up to the high standard hoped and expected for an event of this calibre. The inability to hear vocalist Jon Kay’s screaming voice over the inaudible scramble that was the instrumental section brought down the hopes somewhat of the hundreds that turned out for this set.
But, all is not lost! Able to rectify most of these mistakes during the bands song 2nd song, (a personal favourite) ‘Empires of the worlds’, the sound quality was brought up for the remainder of Biomechanical’s set.
To be quite honest, within the first 30 seconds of ‘Assaulter’, the bands third helping of metal, it became clear that all of these faults had completely gone out of the minds of the fans, who thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent performance that we were treated to on the night. It is clear why this band is so popular, and is making their name well heard within the British, and indeed European metal circuit.
The incredible skills of all of these musicians, showcased to perfection within a band that is a brilliant mix of thrash, power, elements of death and with that twist of progressive metal, making their own unique brand of metal of which no other band can boast, and certainly not to this high standard.
In addition to their live sound, with Biomechanical the experience is worth just as much. You will be treated to an all-energetic performance, the whole band truly showing their passions and talents up on the stage. They are LOUD, and they will knock you on your metal-loving arse at a drumbeats notice.
Next to take to the Jagermeister stage were Skindred. If someone had told me this time last year that there would be a band playing at Damnation Festival; that they would get an entire several-hundred strong pure metal crowd to bounce up and down to samples of drum-and bass beats, and that they would get them dancing along to vocals that come close to that of an aggravated death metal/Bob Marley love child…I would have told them to go piss off.
But this is exactly what Skindred had to offer. Having become recently familiar with the bands work, I was very intrigued to see them playing at such a strongly metal-oriented festival. However, with a completely unique-sound, mixing all of fast and heavy metal, with combinations of hip-hop and reggae, I was delighted in a way and couldn’t wait to see what the ‘ragga-punk’ band had to offer.
Already being very surprised at the turnout for the band, and having encountered charismatic front man Benji Webbe earlier on in the night, it was a moment I couldn’t wait for. Taking to the stage and breaking into the title track of the latest album, ‘Babylon’, the crowd reaction was huge. Entertaining this insatiable crowd is a large order and this band truly delivered. Front man Benji is the central part of this unique-sound, able to vary his vocal range to match any style of music.
He was fantastic on the night and took this crowd into the palm of his hand and got them laughing, bouncing around, dancing and in many cases, pure head banging.
A truly brilliant performance, highlights of which would have to be the hit single ‘Nobody’, its heavy metal beats and ability to excite the crowd into a funky, bouncy, metal stupor; the tight performance by all of the band members, and their ability to make this band equally about the music: varying between steady rock and metal beats to fast drum and bass, and the unique guitar sound of MikeyDemus which adds character to the entire set.
A fantastic time was had by all there to watch (again, a brilliant turnout), and it was clear that the performance given was to the highest of this bands abilities. Top performance.
Headliners on the bill tonight were well-renowned and hugely popular Swedish metal Gods, The Haunted. Having noticed a large number of ‘The Haunted’ t-shirts lurking about throughout the night, I had no doubt that this band would not be suffering from any problems with turnout!
It turned out to be just so, packing the room tight, almost every metaller in the building eagerly awaiting this performance. With the sound quality by this time being improved, and the atmosphere building to a climax you could just tell it was going to be explosive.
I thought that Skindred were going to be a hard act to follow, but Peter Dolving and crew proved more than worthy of stepping up to the plate.
Tonight’s set list included all the crowd favourites- Bury Your Dead, 99, No Compromise, DOA and The Medication with many more. Contemporary thrash with that enviable mix of enough of the old and the new to make it interesting and varied, and delivered with enough attitude to slay a carthorse.
Dolving is a great front man, leaning into the audience and flitting from intense screams to a softer vocal melody with barely a murmur.
"99” offers a brief respite from the onslaught, being a bit more moderately paced and menacing but without relinquishing the momentum of the set, which has plenty of energy.
So if they’re not beating you over the head with their heaviness, they’re amazing you with their devastating riffs and dementing you with their complex rhythms.
The Haunted prove their worth in an hour so or of mind numbing heaviness that leaves the crowd satisfied, exhausted, yearning for more and wondering how the hell the organisers are going to be able to top this one !!.
Sherry and Danny
British Metal UK
http://www.britishmetal.co.uk/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=802&Itemid=61
