INFERNAL DAMNATION FESTIVAL
LONDON UNDERWORLD 17/05/08
Outgrowing former home The Purple Turtle the yearly Infernal Damnation Festival moves up the road to the Underworld. This is always an interesting event and this year the line up has many bands I personally had wanted to see for a while as well as a few familiar faces for good measure. Been some time since I have tackled a 9 band bill and with fellow scribes and drinking partners AWOL on the day I wondered if I would for once get through the task at hand, drinking a sensible beer per band rather than bucking to peer pressure and being an unintelligible mess by the end of the night. First up getting there was a mission in itself with the FA cup being played on my route so I was rather relieved to make it down in time for the first band and beer of the day.
Someone has to play first, and it was Eastern Front who I had encountered via Myspace and been immediately interested in. Bathed in sharp spotlights and covered in spikes and inventive corpse paint this lot struck all the right notes aesthetically, luckily so did their music, kicking off 8 hours of metal mayhem. A war fuelled intro flew into an all guns blazing assault. There were sandbags round the drum kit and barbed wire round the microphone stand. Nothing new as far as mentioning the war is concerned perhaps but Eastern Front? Was this some sort of Communist Black Metal? I checked later and was assured not but there was a burst of sampled violin that did remind of a Russian lament at one point. Numbers like ‘Unleash The Panzer’ proved that it was far from all quiet on the Eastern Front and with singer Metzeger’s hellacious elongated roaring and hedge-trimming guitar scythe, there was plenty here to impress.
www.myspace.com/easternfront
Funeral Throne a name with a ring to it, let’s face it it’s much more regal than Cremation Chair too. Replacing Worms Of Sabnock who had cancelled they instantly struck as a necrotic and ghastly affair. The harsh and hateful assault from this E Midlands trio was built around a deadly salvo of blastbeats and the up-front performance of a pair of very photogenic musician/singers cited on their homepage as simply S & M (rather apt that).With a debut album ‘Nihil Sine Diabolvs’ out recently, what we heard were no doubt highlights that showed plenty of promise. Although displaying a barbarous mindset ‘Curse Of Insomnolence’ was certainly harsh and feudal but behind this displayed an underlying groove, taking it above a simple exercise in extremity. Long convoluted passages allowed it to breathe with guitars strimming away like flies feasting on the flesh of the dead. The snappy ‘Black Revelations Of A Victorious Apocalypse’ put the nail in the coffin and despite never having heard of this lot before I found plenty of promise from this sculpted seat of bones.
www.myspace.com/nfbm
This was I believe the first show ever down South from Sunderland group Wodensthrone, a band who have had plenty of good press and I was yet to sample. No screwing around here, vocalist Brunwulf uttered the word “ready” at his comrades and they flew into things with a rabid heathen cleave. Most of the band had a single blue line running over the right eye and sported their battle scar which stood out from their otherwise unassuming demeanour. Musically they were anything but and despite a keyboard flow adding a certain entrancement they were angry, dynamic and thunderous with a squawking scream boring down on you from the vocal assault. There was plenty of depth and atmosphere and at times I was reminded of the might and majesty of the Ukranian hordes such as Hate Forest, Astrofaes and Thunderkraft. The audience was lapping this up with furious head-banging at the front for numbers such as ‘The Scouring’. Powerful new material from an album to be recorded towards the end of the year was also aired and my first encounter with this lot was certainly a memorable one. Some clean chanting towards the end added depth and dimension from a set bristling with pagan glory.
www.myspace.com/wodensthrone
At times it was evident that people were down for particular bands, none so more than in Necro Ritual’s case, the joint was really jumping. Having crawled well and truly out of kindergarten class and kicked and screamed their way to high school, this lot are now established and are taken far more seriously as they have ever advanced higher up bills in the UK. By second number ‘Pagan Might’ they had this crowd in the grip of their spiked gauntlet and did not even need to squeeze to put the pressure on. They are also looking much more comfortable (and visually grave laden) on stage now and I honestly think it is time they made a step to play a bit further afield in Europe. Hell all they need is a band member to learn the ancient skill of fire-breathing and they may even give the likes of 1349 a run for their money. As far as the naysayers are concerned (and I was one at the early stage) you only had to see the reaction they got to a storming rendition of Venom’s Countess Bathory. New song sounded pretty good too. Do feel sorry for the drummer though, he did a good job with his paint and nobody could see it.
www.myspace.com/necroritualband
I have always had high regard for Irelands For Ruin John Murphy’s band have sent us many high quality releases and it was disappointing to see that a good half the audience had departed to the bar and streets of Camden when they came on stage. I guess they are pretty obscure to these shores and perhaps their epic and doom laden approach was one that was going to be wasted. There were rampant weeping guitars drenching their sorrow on opener ‘December’ and there were also plenty of deathly rampant thrash workouts adding to the scope and maturity of the song-craft here. Apart from a couple of ladies going mad at the front, the audience atmosphere was at an all time low and I have to admit that by the third song or so I was finding a lack of dynamism coming off stage in return and there was certainly a spark missing here. Others mentioned that the drumming really lacked variation and confidence in particular and by last number ‘Another Breed’ I was not upset to see them leave the stage giving us an hour long break to re-energise ourselves.
www.myspace.com/forruinband
After Camden market curry and a local God bother informing me that judgement day was coming and in my case quickly, I was relieved to go back for the second half. I also hope the lump of red hot cauliflower I got him in the back of the head with left a mark.
Ooh Matron were on next and if you ever wondered what happened to the singer from Liquefied Skeleton (thought not) here’s the answer. Wearing hospital scrubs and claret (and one member excellent zombie make up) they trooped on looking like they were up for some clichéd comedy metal and to be fair that was pretty much what we got. Musically the first song reanimated a mix to me sounding like a scalpel fight in the operating theatre between Debauchery and Bloodduster and as James Bonegrinder Griffiths got in his stride you could easily have thrown a Cannibals corpse into the equation. A bit like a Fulci epic this had about as much in the way of brains as the movies main stars. The keyboard player was most amusing, at times thinking he was Joss Silver and when not playing he spent the set dancing around like a loon. Suggestion, replace by topless lass in latex nurses uniform please. ‘Blood Of Knights’ although sounding like it was thrashing a very dead thing did so in an enjoyable fashion even if one cannot really take this lot with grave sincerity it is obvious that they have the scope to go far, pure Medicore, now nurse, where’s the bedpan I shat myself?
www.myspace.com/thedemonicsanatorium
A much more serious proposition is the ancient sorrowful sound of Fen. This is another band I seriously wanted to see as they have supported the likes of Negura Bunget and Agalloch and are signed to Code 666 a label I have plenty of respect for. The riffing overwhelmed from the offset, flowing out the speakers in a spatial and organic sounding miasma. Vocals seemed almost incidental although added to the textures of the music as this mood inducing kaleidoscope wound its way amongst us. Melodic passages suddenly burst with energy having the audience either head-banging in fervour or rooted to the spot. The musical ambience was well and truly interconnected with the more vigorous movements. I expected to find myself shoe-gazing to this but found I was lifted as it grabbed and soared like an eagle flying over snowy peaks. There was a grandiosity that was compelling and some brief Viking croons and shimmers reminded slightly of Isa era Enslaved here. ‘Witness The Passing Of Aeons’ completed this musical page turner that left me well and truly hungering for more.
www.myspace.com/fenband
Who the hell are Algaion was the question on most people’s lips? I had them completely confused with someone else and was as clueless as many but was thankfully filled in by the knowledgeable wisdom of Arcane’s Paul C. This lot were a blast from the Swedish past and had actually disbanded 9 years ago and were now on the reunion trail. It is only now looking on their Myspace that I recognise the group’s logo and on the night again they were playing to a rather empty venue due to the fact that many were outside smoking rather than watching the band. Algaion looked nervous as hell as they went about things. It was evident they were Swedish due to the classical sounding rifferama and doggish vocal bite from Mårten Björkman. Perhaps it was nerves but they had absolutely zero stage presence, kind of surprising as I later found out that a couple of the group are also in Corporation 187. Musically to my ears they were fast, furious but ultimately flat. This was the sort of sound that has spawned a million imitators and it’s a stale trend today. Having said that confidence grew and everything was getting more persuasive, people were now finally coming in to watch and just as I wrote these words they finished, doh! This was a really short set but perhaps as they get used to playing again they may well be back, I certainly would not write them off yet.
www.myspace.com/algaion
So onto the night’s headliners Skyforger who had a good hour long set. In fact I managed to take a photo of the set list before they started and saw 12 numbers listed although unfortunately in their mother tongue making interpretation somewhat difficult. The air was both drunken and expectant, the street outside now empty as everyone was rammed in for this set. Voices were crying out from the crowd and many were not English.
‘Northern Swords’ were brandished and it was quickly evident that the Latvians were not at full compliment as they were when they last played here. I was informed that tonight was going to be more of a ‘metal’ set than one focusing on the folk elements which explained this, although I was amused that some of the vocal chanting reminded of fishermen celebrating their catch. The jubilant furrow of Perkonkalve / Thunderforge, whipped up the audience in a dervish of frenzied action. I recognised that one.
In the pit I saw fists hitting heads but no blows were returned, although this looked violent as hell it was also friendly. A couple of bald blokes who looked like veritable bulls were in the thick of it and it was obvious they were massive fans singing along to every song and even at times attempting to get on stage and join in. Watching this spectacular spectacle it did kind of rile me that bands such as Turisas, Korpiklaani et al (as much as I like them) are getting so much press attention whilst the real deal in front of me go relatively ignored. Tumsa Un Sala / In Darkness And Frost was probably the number I most wanted to hear and was not disappointed in the slightest when it cut its wild jig out the speakers. The only bad thing was that the band had to adhere to curfew as the venue had a crap club on. They were beaming and happy barbarians and looked like they would have played all night given the chance.
www.myspace.com/skyforgerofficial
Another great metal festival, horns held high to arcane promotions for putting it on.
www.myspace.com/arcanepromotions
Pete Woods
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