Returning to the scene of victory, the second edition of Temples Festival is less than one week away to roaring through Bristol Motion once again. After the (not so) surprise triumph (https://www.echoesanddust.com/2014/05/live-temples-festival-motion-bristol-2nd-3rd-and-4th-may-2014/) of last year, festival version 2.015 version has a lot to live up to and judging by another ridiculously stella and divergent line-up of all things heavy resulting in ‘SOLD OUT’ notifications appearing way back in February suggests that should be a piece of cake!
Returning to same venue this year kicks things with a Thursday night pre-show serving up And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead and Bossk promising to “allow each act as much time as possible to curate their individual sets without restriction”… I’m very much looking forward to see what Bossk offer up outside the standard (and brilliant) 30 minute festival performances I have so far managed to experience.
*At the time of writing tickets are still available for the pre- show*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQTLOAMVycE
Friday is day one proper of the festival and is certain to hit the ground running with a fast ‘n’ furious cocktail of grind and hardcore culminating in an unholy triumative of Nails, Trap Them and Converge!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efioLa0JDcY
Also appearing amongst the chaos on Friday as well as Saturday are Pig Destroyer playing two very different sets by all accounts, will be interesting to see what they conjure up and also if they can retrieve any good will they lost from there somewhat disastrous Damnation Festival performance back in 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6dycCqqZS0
One of the biggest changes undertaken to the format by the (heroic) organisers is the addition of a third stage (which I assume will be in the third room next to the second stage but don’t quote me on that) which on Friday nicely juxtaposes the carnage on stages one and two with a cavalcade of sludge based RIFFAGE featuring Slabdragger, Weadeater and topped out by Bongzilla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqGOy6YapVw
Although this will undoubtingly cause mind blowing clashes Temples have promised their utmost to avoid as many ‘like for like’ conflicts as possible…
The Saturday is a much harder beast to pin down but no less magnificent covering all bases from the drone assault of headliners Sunn O))) to the (relatively) cheerful stoner rock of Torche via the blackened death of Bolzer as well as a rare outing from Australian extreme metal act Portal, Yet this is literally only the peak of the monolithic iceberg of a line up…. although personal highlight for me will the mighty Tryptikon crushing all before them on the second stage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmyWeOvF_Sg
A shout out also goes to Brighton grind/punk act War Wolf who are sadly playing one of their final shows at Temples before calling it quits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE9WoMFL3hs
Sunday is another gloriously varied beast and although headlined by Earth it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see any number of the undercard to steal the show completely and my money is on French doom mongers Monarch still fresh from there triumphant set at Damnation 2014 to delight and terrify those in attendance in equal measure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkrmWQej1n0
Fellow French post metal act A Year of No Light, The no-nonsense heavy metal of Goatwhore and even then local boys of prog metal troupe Anta will be just a handful of the bands happily providing stiff competition for this honour. Interestingly there is actually one band who on paper seem out of place even amongst the disparate nature of the line-up and that is progressive metal core outfit Between The Buried And Me but with several superb albums under the belt and a rising reputation as strong live act are sure to take their second stage headline slot by storm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRbnY8EK4Ew
Let’s Roll!
