'KIN HELL FEST
THE WELL LEEDS - 19/11/11
KIN HELL FEST
Paul at RawNerve has championed the extreme metal scene in and around Leeds and the North for years now and has been organising this monumental all dayer for some time now with forum postings going back to the summer advertising it. It appears his promotion and marketing activities worked a treat with the venue buzzing with punters all expecting high calibre extreme metal from various areas of its gloriously auditory colourful spectrum.
Before I start I might add that I went to this gig with a medical contraption attached to my face comprising of a rather bright blue wire sticking out of my nose and rigged up to a battery pack, I probably looked like Frankenstein’s nephew, especially with the looks I got. I did miss the opening couple of bands (local lads Decayed Messiah and Liverpool band Ninkharsag; the latter of which I really wanted to catch as they were the only black metal on the bill) due to the very early start and arrived in the middle of Colonel Blast’s set who was doing a solid job of cracking out death metal UK style. The band has just released the five-way “Split Roast” and since the last time I saw CB the playing has increased tremendously, with good song writing balanced against blast and melody well enough to keep the heads nodding.
London’s Oblivionized was up next as the guitar power was notched up a tad, though I did find the sound quiet on the guitar front most of the day. Slam death has captured the hearts of many young death metallers, (and old ones like me too), as it uses drum, bass and down-tuned guitar riffage to create a thunderous barrage that is catchy in a simple but very effective manner. The drummer deserves special mention for his stroboscopic speed, his hand blast is one of the fastest I’ve seen, as was his double kick. I know many true deathsters deplore this sub-genre but I enjoy it for what it is, just like the people in the audience. It’s not taken too seriously but is heavy enough to remove wax from your fetid lug holes with bass waves equivalent to a bulldozer going through your head.
Now here comes a moan, I’ve been to countless all day events over the last 20 years or so and whilst I appreciate that bands travel, and things can happen on route but keeping to the allocated slots is critical especially when you have 13 bands playing during the day. Five minutes over for each band culminates in the latter bands going on stage up to an hour late, which for some may seem picky but for me and anyone on public transport it is a real pain. As it was Oblivionized was late on through whatever reasons that happened before hand making stage times bloody pointless really.
Anyway grind and death outfit The Atrocity Exhibit was up next and listening to the sound check I thought this was going to be an onslaught of feral violence. The guitar sound had a crust punk edge to it, as like before the guitar volume seemed low to me and not mixed well in the PA. I thoroughly enjoyed the jackhammer riffing that was chaotically sadistic as it was enthrallingly infectious, just wish the riffs were louder that’s all; is it too much to ask. Bass wise the sound was colossal which obviously dampened the guitar’s impact on the performance, not that you know it judging by the nutters in the pit. It’s always nice to see the youngsters having such jolly good spirited violence don’t you think?
Foetal Juice was due next and I’ve seen the bands slamming death a couple of times before and enjoyed their tongue in cheek ridiculous song titles similar to that of Amputated and their ilk. I’m not quite sure whether these Mancunians offered anything that Oblivionized didn’t do an hour earlier but for some reason they seemed far more bouncy and a bit more into it which is not to say the Londoners weren’t, just my preference on the day. This whole day was dedicated to extreme metal generally as the next band was the total opposite to Foetal Juice in terms of speed.
Local sludge demons Wizard’s Beard used every decibel of the venue PA bass capability to inundate the punters with a crushing bass sound set to debut Sabbath riffs. Speed was rarely on the agenda though the sporadic injections of mid pace worked well enough to grab the listener out of the sticky riff and bass syrup. I stood back and closed my eyes and listened to the bands aftershock of bass and in my mind I was listening purely to Sabbath but with a five fold increase in bass. I’m not entirely sure I enjoyed the band enough to check them out on record or live again but people enjoyed them and you can’t fault that I guess.
Organiser Paul’s band was up next in the form of Diascorium. Paul’s previous band Reth was mathgrind generally and this latest offering sits somewhere in that realm though with added blackness on the riffing stakes. A couple of the guys also play in Revokation and A Forest of Stars. Bond was a veritable riff frenzy on guitar and showcased his talent for knocking out a thousand riffs and leads in the blink of eye it seemed. I actually enjoyed Diascorium’s performance more than the last time I checked the band out, the band seemed gelled, relaxed and out to draw aural blood. It is true that after a set of whirling math or jazz grind recalling songs is not easy unless you are some sort of autistic savant that can decipher the tornado riff approach. Appreciation by the crowd was excellent as some guy jumped on stage and linked up with the singer and proceeded to head butt him (by accident of course) during a blackened riff maelstrom. The singer duly thanked the guy for this wonderful gift at the end of the song as he dropped back into crowd. With so much sense knocked into/out (delete as you feel) the band went from strength to strength as songs from the “Split Roast” were played, though I can’t quite recall which.
One look at the bill and it was noticeable that this bill was extreme except for one band, namely the next band Skull Branded Pirates. Now I’m all for fun in metal and can tolerate the skullduggery of pirate metal and the jiggery of folk metal but SBP was completely lost on me and came across as a parody and why people don’t take metal seriously on the outside of the scene. Yes we can poke fun at ourselves but SBP just made me cringe with cheesy lyric lines, costumes etc. In all honesty it was like watching Spongebob Squarepants set to metal, not my flagon of ale I’m afraid.
Having SBP between two acts of utter annihilating bedlam was either a masterstroke or plain gig suicide as grinders The Afternoon Gentlemen took to the stage to relative adulation. One thing is for certain, TAG are fucking manic. With safety in mind I retreated to near the back and a good job I did too as from the moment of the first riff the pit erupted. It is safe to say that the pit was one of the most vicious I’ve seen this year as every 6 foot plus geezer arrived to spin and knock the living crap out of anyone in firing distance. TAG play cacophonous grind with lots of old Napalm on the riffs and Nasum on the actual speed and style of the drumming and bass. Most grind has huge elements of punk and here was no different with crust punk played at the speed of light (whatever that figure seems to be now), with people being thrown around like confetti. I saw a few people cringe as pit people hit the floor only to jump back up again and get more of the same all the while TAG bombarded the audience with one ambush after another. You should check this band out people.
I did a bit of research on Khuda before going to the gig as their name intrigued me. The band’s name apparently derives from a Persian/Pashto word for guide and has come to mean Lord or God in more recent times. Also Khuda the band plays instrumental metal using only guitar and drums to create it. Like a lot of today’s shoegaze or instrumental outfits like Long Distance Calling, Alcest, Pelican, etc Khuda’s ethos is entirely on delivering songs that play to your sense of rhythm. Also Khuda obviously don’t know what a stage is for as the two guys set up their gear in the middle of the pit area, placed the guitar amp and speaker at the back of the drums and didn’t use the venue system at all it appeared. It has to be said the drummer Steve Myles was astonishingly good. His ability to build the songs with sweeping fills complimented the guitar work exceptionally well which veered from tuneful soliloquies to all out riff explosions which at times seemed slightly off beat from the drums which may have been intentional such was the bands unique approach. I really liked the way the songs weaved in and out of drum fills and riffs with such ease that the whole set could have been one long song. A band I will be checking out.
I actually missed out on Astrohenge as food was either desired/required/forced (I’m not quite sure which yet) and is damn unusual for me at gigs as those that know me will attest to. I returned after so called nourishment to hear the reverberating doom tones of Astrohenge and it appeared that the bands almost funeral doom music was making people move slower than normal, especially after the band finished their set, probably my imagination though.
It has been quite a while since I saw Manchester’s Ingested (over 18 months), and at the time it was obvious the band was honing a niche for themselves in the slam death scene and with two albums now released they are going from strength to strength and can probably be said as one of the pioneers of the slam death scene even when they were called Age Of Suffering before changing names. Their guitar sound is monstrous live and yes down tuning is the order of the day and alongside the other brutal acts of the day Ingested was very much looked forward to, especially with a headlining performance to finish this day off which by now was running about 45-50 minutes late. A soundtrack to open the set was fitting, and was only the second one used on the day and led into “Crowning the Abomination”. I was surprised by the lack of pit movement at first and put it down to fatigue as the singer promptly asked the people to take the place apart; Jay has a terrifying grimacing psychopathic face when he spits out instructions. Gurgling song announcements as ever are damn difficult to decipher but the band put on a bruising show with a better sound than most as at least the guitar sound was much further up in the mix so you could hear the crunching slams in “22” fully. I wouldn’t say the performance was the bands best but like all bands who have been gigging a while they pulled off the show which albeit only 35 minutes long was enough to satisfy the audience to get into pit mode and kick the crap out of each other. I, like quite a few, were awaiting the song “Skinned And Fucked” which is almost a signature tune to slamming death metal with a distinctive opening riff and juggernaut drum devastation. As with all slam death bands the hand waving and almost self parodying dance style showed a creativity that was boundless with people doing some very strange movements with their hands (no not that kind ye dirty git) and arms. No sooner had the band got going than they decided to bugger off which seemed premature and well short of their allocated time but lateness prevailed and the bands return to Leeds was triumphant and very readily accepted, as I was pleased to see them again.
As a day this was wholly satisfying with a huge range of acts covering virtually every aspect of extreme metal you could ever want to hear and I’m certain that some fans will now investigate some styles they may not have considered before. It was well attended and most people seemed genuinely glad to get such a varied bill locally, though I do know some people had travelled quite a way for the day. ‘Kin damn fine day of metal and grind. When’s the next one?
Review Martin Harris Photos Adrian Wheeler
ATROCITY EXHIBIT
DIASCORIUM
INGESTED
KHUDA
OBLIVIONIZED
SKULL BRANDED PIRATES
THE AFTERNOON GENTLEMEN
WIZARD'S BEARD
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