Damnation Festival is at the end of the day a labour of love by a couple of fan boys who felt their distinct tastes in Metal were not be catered for elsewhere. Over the last sixteen years it has morphed, moved and grown, but it has never ever lost its deep-seeded independence. It is that independent spirit that has so connected it with its immensely loyal fanbase, to the point that the festival sold out in March this year, over nine months before the actual show. Damnation is not a corporate money-making exercise, it may now have a capacity of three thousand (soon to be nearer six) and command a headliner of Carcass’s stature, but it is still very much that labour of love for the organisers.
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We ended our Damnation 2019 review by stating that we were already counting down the 365 days till the next one. Well, we got that spectacularly wrong, didn’t we? Damnation 2021 has been a long-time coming and has faced many hurdles during its elongated gestation period. But here we are back together once more at Leeds University Students Union.
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John Peel used to describe The Fall as always different, always the same. I'm going to appropriate the phrase to illustrate how I feel about Damnation Festival. There is a wonderful familiarity about the place. After seven years, Leeds University Union feels like a home from home and every nock and cranny is filled with memories. As I enter, it does feel like only yesterday that I was last ...
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Rockwich Saturday is a bit of a strange beast. Technically Rockwich was (is?) a one-day festival, The first one was part of a town-wide initiative and was intended to be very much a one-off event. But organisers Promethius Promotions had other ideas and having secured themselves a venue they set about organising a few years of what have turned into killer line-ups. This meant that, as word got ...
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Day 3 starts with a stonking set from Atlas. I reviewed them at some length fairly recently so I won’t bore on about them too much. Suffice to say they were just as good as last time, Craig still has a fabulous voice, I still think they would be improved with more backing vocals and I enjoyed them very much. My friend said that although their songs are good they have not yet written their That Song, and I kind of agree.
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Another mad dash up the motorway for me, and much to my delight I managed to catch all bar the first song of openers Hell’s Gazelles. They are a young band from Oxfordshire who play traditional metal – big riffs and soaring vocals abound. There’s been a line-up change since I saw them last but stalwarts Nate (guitar) and Cole (vocal) are still holding the whole thing together nicely.
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This year sees the 12th edition of Manchester’s SOS (School’s Out for Summer) Festival, and it will be the 5th one I have attended. The festival was originally envisioned by Lynne Hampson from Rocksector Records to be a family-friendly indoor gig. It continues on that basis to the present day, providing a platform for local bands whilst also adding some national and international acts into the mix.
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