Rolling into Manchester after an early start and a moderate drive down, I park up on the outskirts of this great northern city for my inaugural Damnation Festival. Over the years this has been a festival that I have wanted to attend but somehow, it has always escaped me. This year, no more! After collecting my accreditation, I have a quick wander around to get my bearings on this crisp November morning. First impressions are very good. Outside is a large area where all the food vans are, alongside a large bar and merch area, lots of benches and a covered seating area for when the inevitable British winter weather arrives. For now, the weather holds. Inside is split into three stages: the cavernous main stage area (the Pins and Knuckles stage on Saturday), a large second stage (Holy Goat Brewing) and the smaller third stage (Eyesore Merch), with lots of walkways between areas so everyone isn’t funnelled down the same channels. Bearings sorted, I grab a quick bite to eat before the festivities start.
I decided to start my day off with some heavy, sludge driven Yorkshire doom in the form of Hundred Year Old Man. Considering this is the opening band on the third stage, the place is rammed for 12pm. They blend the aforementioned doom and sludge with atmospheric melodies, slow ambient passages and emotive backing vocals, which all combine to provide an almost ethereal contrast, while heavy undertones bring a bleakness to their music. The constant building rhythm that is incorporated into their song structures keeps you hooked, engaged, wanting to follow their sonic journey.
For the first foray onto the Pins and Knuckles stage, we have Holy Fawn, who combine a heavy shoegaze style with crushing guitars and drums, creating layers of melody and distortion. Vocalist Ryan Osterman has a fragility to his vocals, an almost pained delivery during the harmonies. A solid start from the Arizona crew.
Returning after an 18-year hiatus, Londoners Gorerotted are back to lay waste to the Holy Goat Brewing stage. There seems to be a lot of hype about this set, with lots of people leaving the main stage early to secure a good place. Gorerotted take to the stage and it quickly emerges that these guys are not taking any prisoners. Pummelling the audience with a blend of old school death metal and grindcore, drummer Jon ‘Junky Jon’ Rushforth drives the band with thundering blast beats. The dual vocals of Ben ‘Goreskin’ McCrow and bassist Matthew Trudgill, with low end growls (McCrow) and high screams (Trudgill), provide nice layering and contrasting structure. There is a technical ferocity to the music, all the while keeping the classic low end guitar sound synonymous with classic death metal. It’s early in the day, but I feel this will take some beating.
I think I spoke too soon, as the next band on the Eyesore Merch stage has just done that! German post-metal quartet Coltaine have just left me in awe. Vocalist Julia Frasch graces the stage, hood up, alone, holding a set of bells. Frasch starts manipulating the bells, creating a soft tinkling, while her vocal mix of singing and chanting creates a brooding, building atmosphere. The other musicians start to contribute to the opening melody with building reverb and drone stylings. Frasch unleashes a growl that cuts through the harmonious sounds. This layering of dynamic contrast is fantastic, each part seamlessly intertwined. The raw power of Amin Bouzeghaia behind the drums and bassist Benedikt Berg punch through, with the swirling guitar of Moritz Berg overlaid. All this combines with the melancholy yet powerful vocals to create a majestic soundscape that transports you to another world. Heavy favourite for best new band of the weekend.
Eyehategod take to the Pins and Knuckles stage as the day draws into the afternoon. There is an anticipatory buzz from the crowd as the NOLA sludge pioneers drive into their set. Combining doom styles with hardcore punk and southern blues inspiration gives Eyehategod a primitive and punishing atmosphere. The nihilistic undertones to the music and lyrics can be felt in the vocals and delivery of Mike Williams, who draws on personal experiences to really drive home the intensity. Anchored by Jimmy Bowers’ thick bluesy guitar sound, the band deliver an uncompromising set of the finest southern sludge.
I find myself back at the Holy Goat Brewing stage for Swedish outfit Dödsrit. A heavy melodic brand of black metal infused with hardcore punk gives us slabs of aggressive, intense passages mixed in with melodic sections, not too dissimilar from the melodeath of their fellow Swedes in Gothenburg.
The way Damnation is set out, when no one is playing the main stage, the other two stages play. Often, you must make a choice if you want to catch whole sets. Playing on the Eyesore Merch stage at the same time as Dödsrit was Fange, a band who had piqued my interest. Fange were an interesting mix of heavy electro and synth elements smashed together with an extreme metal underbelly. All members were fully invested in their music, pouring all their emotion into this performance. After a couple of songs, I went back to watch the closing song of Dödsrit’s set.
Another sludge pioneer has just taken to the main stage. Crowbar are a highly loved and respected band on Saturday’s bill, and it shows from the amount of Crowbar merch around and how busy the main hall is. Always a good live show, Crowbar keep up that reputation this afternoon. The iconic sound is driven by the slow, heavy guitar work of Kirk Windstein and Matt Brunson, which grinds along like massive stone slabs. Supported by the backbone of Pat Bruders on bass and Tommy Buckley on drums, and mixed with Kirk’s fantastically gravelly vocals that just fit so well, it provides a truly monumental sound.
The pace doesn’t let up as afternoon slowly gives way to evening. Danish deathcore brutes Cabal are next up on the Holy Goat Brewing stage. I had previously heard some good things about this band without knowing too much about them, so I was excited to see what the hype was about. The hype didn’t disappoint. To call them a deathcore band doesn’t really do them justice. Yes, the deathcore elements are there, big breakdowns, the speed and aggression, but there are also other elements mixed in. Electronic elements give a bounce and fun to the sheer bludgeoning wall of sound these Danes create, while the hardcore elements bring a raw intensity and aggression. I was expecting the stage to be more packed out than it was, but the people there did get one hell of a show.
Fellow Danes John Cxnner are now on the Eyesore Merch stage. While there are plenty of bands fusing electronic and industrial elements into metal this weekend, John Cxnner are one of the few to do it the other way, infusing metal elements into their electro and industrial music. Gone are any ‘traditional’ instruments, just synths and samplers. Brothers Ketil and Rasmus G. Sejersen create more of a rave atmosphere, with heavy techno balanced with the intensity of extreme metal. Guest vocalists join the brothers on stage, including Selma Bahner (Ferrel Nature), Kim Song Sternkopf (Møl) and Andreas Bjulver (Cabal), to complete the live show.
The term legends gets thrown around a lot and has lost its sense of grandeur. However, in the history of British extreme metal, it is perfectly fitting to call tonight’s next band, Carcass, just that: legends. Over the previous years Carcass have been absolutely flying (we always joked that after Jeff Walker cut his hair Carcass have been unstoppable), and tonight is no different. Playing music from nearly every album, Jeff Walker and company fly through their 55-minute slot, with classics ‘Carnal Forge’, ‘Death Certificate’ and ‘Heartwork’ leaving the crowd wanting more. This was classic gruesome death metal at its very best.
Appearing on the Eyesore Merch stage is a band that I had circled ever since they were announced and one band that I would have been gutted to miss. Møl were a band I stumbled across a few years back and one that really opened my eyes to post-metal and blackgaze, so to see them live for the first time is magical. The crowd is wild, packed into the long narrow room of this third stage, full of energy and passion which the band is feeding off. Møl manage to capture that perfect blend of soaring melody and crushing intensity, with vocalist Kim Song Sternkopf swirling, twirling and dancing around the stage, getting lost in his music, only to snap round into intense vocal screams and growls. His energy is infectious, crowd surfing while still hitting his vocals perfectly. This performance cements to me that I need to see them live again.
Tonight’s main stage headliners, Cult of Luna, take to the stage shrouded in so much smoke it looks like the building could be on fire. Backlit by swathes of bright white light that silhouette the band, the foreboding atmosphere builds during the intro of ‘The Shadow of Your Shadow’. The band continue seamlessly into ‘I: The Weapon’, with the crushing weight of the music lingering heavily over the audience. This is a band who I am aware of, but I haven’t listened to much of their music. Even so, I can’t help but feel in awe of the whole show. There is not one thing I can point out to tell you why this is a great set; it is a mix of everything, the emotional weight of the songs, the power and intensity, the stage presence, the lack of interaction from the band focusing solely on the music. The whole hour is taken up by only seven songs, but it equally feels like one continuous piece of music. ‘Cold Burn’ and ‘In Awe Of’ are two huge songs that close out the set in uncompromising style.
On to the last bands of the night. The Berzerker and Pelican are both playing at the same time, so I split my time between the two. There is a lot of hype around The Berzerker, playing live for the first time since 2009. This is a tour de force of noise, an assault on the senses. Electro-tinged death metal is the call late this Saturday night. Luke Kenny delivers the vocals with machine gun precision, while the famous speed of the drums reverberates through ear drums. Over to the Eyesore Merch stage for the last time to catch Pelican. Normally I am not a fan of instrumental bands, but after stumbling across them a few years back at Hellfest, I will always make an exception for Pelican. The rumbling double bass with a punchy snare cuts through the low end dirty guitar tone perfectly, while the stoner elements round everything off into a pleasurable way to finish the night.
Sunday
Another day, another Damnation day. The foggy morning is the perfect backdrop for day two, and maybe a metaphor for some people’s heads after overindulging on Saturday night.
Kicking things off on the Cult Never Dies stage are Swamp Coffin, who bring a bleak, doomy sludge sound perfectly fitting the weather outside. Although they have a very thick sound synonymous with sludge metal, the guitar of Jon Rhodes, while heavy, also has a clear sound to it, cutting through the rumbling low tones generated by the rest of the band. A simmering hostility emanates from Rhodes as he growls out the gritty lyrics. Finishing the set with the slowest wall of death shows that these Rotherham lads can have a bit of fun amid the grimness.
Progressive powerhouse Hippotraktor are up on the main stage, now the Lou’s Brew stage for Sunday. Taking progressive metal’s mainstays of tight technicality and polyrhythms and mixing them with the heavy, emotionally drenched elements of post-metal creates an often furious mix of technical sophistication, crushing breakdowns and soaring atmospheres, all guided by vocalist Stefan de Graef’s clean verses and brutal growls.
“We are a miserable band from a miserable town,” barks Jim Hodge, Mastiff’s vocalist. While they believe they are a miserable band, I bloody love them! Mastiff incorporate multiple styles of aggressive music into their sound. Taking inspiration from sludge, grindcore, power violence and death metal means that these miserable Hullensians are a big blend of all things nasty. This melting pot of sounds means that each song has a different feel to it; some feel like straight up hardcore numbers while others are straight out of the swamps of Louisiana. ‘Decimated Graves’ hits like a sledgehammer to the head, with a death metal style chug from the guitars of James Andrew Lee and Phill Johnson. Miserable? Maybe. Bloody good? You bet!
Ultha seem like a nice, softly spoken group of people when addressing the crowd before their set, but when the lights go down and the music starts, they turn into possessed animals. Bathed in a red glow with smoke enveloping the band, the stage is set for an eerie atmosphere to build. They play a style of black metal that lends itself to longer compositions and more structures of melody and emotion, which differentiates it from the more traditional style. Ultha bring more pain and melancholy into their lyrics which, when combined with the melodic passages, creates meaningful layers and depth to the sonic onslaught.
The next band to play the Cult Never Dies stage are longstanding thrashers Medulla Nocte. Entering the stage very unassuming, with minimal stage props or decorations, the Herefordshire lot blast into their set with a crazed fury found in the early days of hardcore punk. Vocalist Paul Catton races around the stage spitting out lyrics, pissed off about the issues faced in society; you can feel the venom in his delivery. The crossover thrash style has a satisfying underlying groove, great for headbanging. The mosh pit certainly agrees.
If the party isn’t already underway, it sure will be with Benediction coming up. Ripping into the classic stylings of old school death metal, Benediction also throw in a good helping of groove, very similar to death’n’roll. The crowd is in full force right now, waves of bodies coming over the top keeping security busy as the big mosh pit continues to churn. For a band who have been going for over 35 years, the sound is phenomenal, with each member locked in, rumbling their way through this blistering set. You can tell this is a band who love what they do, huge smiles all around as the crowd continues to pulsate.
This next band is the biggest draw for me and the one I cannot wait for. Walls of Jericho are about to tear this place apart. Exploding onto the stage, this five piece from Detroit have their foot on your throat and are not going to take it off for the next 55 minutes. Power and aggression are the name of the game, with ‘A Trigger Full of Promises’ going off like a bomb. Candace Kucsulain prowls the stage barking out lyrics reminiscent of the hardcore style they take influence from. Kucsulain has a vice grip on the crowd, controlling them any way she wishes. It’s her world right now and we are just living in it.
The rest of the band play with just as much intensity, from the bludgeoning riffs of Bobby VaLeu and Kyle Gailey to the pulverising beats of Dustin Schoenhofer on drums. This is a behemoth of a live band and needs to be experienced.
After a couple of high speed, high energy bands, we bring it back down with German black metal band Groza. Ominously entering the stage, faces shrouded by black hoods, the four members take their places before launching into their own take on the genre. Mixing traditional black metal fundamentals with more modern atmospheric elements, the Bavarian quartet fuse emotionally charged melodies with crushing black metal riffs, weaving a suffocating web of despair and aggression.
Tom G. Warrior. A name revered in the extreme metal scene, he brings Triptykon to the Lou’s Brew stage. Despite it being billed as a Triptykon set, you could basically call it a Celtic Frost set, as most of the setlist consists of songs from Warrior’s previous bands. ‘Circle of the Tyrants’ is a menacing jump into the back catalogue, with Warrior’s signature raspy growl snarling out the lyrics. ‘Necromantical Screams’ showcases the chugging doom of Warrior’s signature Giger guitar. ‘Demon Pact’, one of the few Triptykon songs in the set, begins with the primal drums of Hannes Grossmann mixed with industrial stylings to create a slow, ominous atmosphere. I can never tell when Warrior addresses the crowd if he is being sincere or sarcastic, which makes for some amusing interactions; he even tries to stifle a smirk as the crowd bark and heckle him.
Worm take to the Cult Never Dies stage… or at least I think they have, as from my vantage point all I can see is red light and smoke. Jokes aside, this aesthetic adds to the slow, crushing, murderous style of Worm’s amalgamation of extreme metal’s death, doom and black elements ringing out over the expectant audience. The heavy fuzz gives way to atmospheric passages where guttural growls transform into ear-splitting shrieks. Keyboards provide an unusual synth element and occult-like theatrics that would not be out of place 40 years ago.
Two risers adorn the back of the main stage, one with a traditional drum kit and the other with a range of electronic machines and some more percussion. Trying to explain to someone what Igorrr sounds like is very difficult, as there is no artist out there that sounds like them. Pushing the boundaries of what you feel is possible, the sheer number of different styles is overwhelming: electronic, blast beats, harpsichords, classical vocals and metal riffs, you name it, it’s probably there. You must give props to Gautier Serre for orchestrating it all, from the operatic vocals of Gerda Iguchi to the harsh vocals of JB Le Bail, whose costume and face paint give a haunting aura. Carefully composed by Serre, layering the different styles, nothing is off the table when it comes to Igorrr. This is a band you need to see to really experience.
The penultimate band on the Cult Never Dies stage this evening is power violence crew Weekend Nachos. Bringing one of the most intense sets of the weekend, vocalist John Hoffman spends the whole set on the barrier, telling the crowd he hates the space between the stage and the crowd, only taking respite for quick water breaks. Back on the rail, he barks out lyrics with a ferocity similar to grindcore. The rest of the band are no slouches on stage, throwing everything into this performance. This is organised chaos at its best, the crowd feeding off the band and the band feeding off the crowd like a perpetual mosh machine. Heavy monolithic riffs from Andy Nelson, combined with the hardcore punk style drumming of Brian Laude, drive the band along at such a breakneck speed that Weekend Nachos finish their set 10 minutes early. Everyone needs a quick breather after that.
The weather definitely got the memo for tonight’s headliners. A cold, dark night with fog enveloping the north of England is a perfect setting for Satyricon’s only UK date of the year. The buzz builds in the crowd and then erupts as Satyricon take to the stage and drive straight into ‘Midnight Serpent’. Satyr sings and snarls the lyrics rather than the usual screaming of the genre, which in turn gives the whole experience a darker and more brooding atmosphere while still providing huge grooves. ‘Black Crow on a Tombstone’ is a crowd favourite and receives a huge singalong. ‘The Pentagram Burns’ is a bubbling cauldron of assertive drumming from Frost, with the slow, decisive riffs pushing the song along. Utterly captivating, the whole machine rolls on with hypnotising precision, Satyr marching around the stage in full control. Finishing off with ‘K.I.N.G.’ is a fitting end to a brilliant headlining performance. Kings they are.
Candles adorn the Cult Never Dies stage while incense burns to provide a surreal visual and fragrance for the final show of the weekend. Wolves in the Throne Room create a brooding ambience before entering the stage to pummel the remaining diehards. Atmospheric black metal fills the room, precise and meticulously created, full of grand building passages. It feels like we have just stepped into an occultist ritual. Their sound, while big and brutal, is not as furious as I was expecting, offering a more measured and refined approach.
And that brings to a close my first Damnation Festival. A fantastic weekend, full of amazing bands, new discoveries and old favourites. Until next time, Damnation. Until next time.
