Damnation Festival
By: Sander van den Driesche
Each year after all the major festivals already look like a thing in the far past, there’s still Damnation to look forward too, this year taking place on November 7th in Leeds. Last year was Damnation’s tenth anniversary and my first ever visit to Leeds, which impressed me so much I’m going back again this year.
This year’s line-up is arguably even more impressive than last year’s, which focused predominantly on Cannibal Corpse and Bolt Thrower’s headline shows. This year’s headliners are perhaps of a less legendary status, but At The Gates (Jägermeister Stage) and 40 Watt Sun (Electric Amphetamine Stage) will hopefully be able to step in the same shoes and put on headliner worthy performances that people will talk about for many months to come.
Headlining the Terrorizer Stage and Eyesore Merch Stage (last year’s PHD Stage) will be Primordial and Mono, respectively. Mono will be on tour with The Ocean (who play the Jägermeister Stage earlier in the day) to promote their new split release Transcendental, and it’s great to see both bands include a visit to Leeds on their tour as well. Mono will be a worthy headliner and it’s great to see more post-rock bands on this year’s line-up again, as it was missed a bit from last year’s edition. Besides Mono post-rock fans will be excited (but at the same time quite sad) to see one of the last Maybeshewill shows ever as the band has announced its retirement. Completing this genre are Eyesore Merch Stage openers Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster followed by Talons. Primordial will bring the metal to the Terrorizer stage at the same time Mono will bring their crescendos and based on their recent UK tour Primordial will be one of the ones to watch for the heavy metal fans.
Personally I’m mostly looking forward to the Belgium invasion, as the Church of Ra circus will land in Leeds for the day. Amenra make a much-deserved return to University Union, after their very impressive headline set they played in 2012. I’m pretty sure Amenra’s set will be in extreme high demand with Amenra’s ever-growing popularity, though the booking of Dutch death metal legends Asphyx on the Terrorizer Stage at the same time might provide a decent balance, especially taking Martin van Drunen’s infamous stage presence into account. Completing the Church of Ra bands are blackened hardcore band Oathbreaker (Jägermeister Stage) and relative newcomers Wiegedood. The latter has members of Rise and Fall, Hessian, Oathbreaker and Amenra and their debut album De Doden Hebben Het Goed is one of this year’s most exciting contemporary black metal releases. Their 30 minutes set early in the day on the Jägermeister Stage will be one of the most anticipated sets of this year’s festival.
Damnation Festival has always provided the opportunity for up and coming bands to play, giving them great exposure resulting usually in a bunch of new fans. It’s up to death metallers The King is Blind to open the Jägermeister Stage. Earlier this year they played Temples Festival and last year Bloodstock Open Air and with their recent tour supporting Voices and Winterfylleth they will no doubt be great openers. Hopefully they’ll get the support they deserve. After The King is Blind’s set, fans of slow, punishing doom can run to the Electric Amphetamine Stage for Undersmile’s opening set. Undersmile’s Anhedonia release (released on Jon of Conan’s Black Bow Records) is one of this year’s more interesting doom releases and I’m looking forward bringing their characteristic sound to the Electric Amphetamine Stage. Following Undersmile’s doom will be the doomy psychedelic noises by OHHMS, who also played Temples Festival this year. OHHMS have been making a bit of a reputation as a not to be missed live band, so after Wiegedood’s atmospheric pummelling you can run back to the Electric Amphetamine Stage for some mind-blowing heavy psych. Finishing the talented “local” band pool are Sea Bastard and Ghold. I saw Sea Bastard earlier this year when they played in Edinburgh supporting Primitive Man and they were crushingly good. They’ll have some competition from Oathbreaker, but I’m sure plenty people will stick around to give their ears a punishment. Similarly to Ghold, who released a great full-length album, Of Ruin, on Ritual Productions and a split LP with Dead Existence this year, and I’m looking forward seeing their cosmic doomy sludge on the Electric Amphetamine Stage.
One of the first acts announced for this year’s Damnation was High On Fire, who will no doubt attract a huge enthusiastic crowd. Seeing the Master of the Riff Matt Pike in action is always a pleasure, not to forget Des Kensel’s intense drumming. The Jägermeister Stage will be waiting excitedly for their return on UK shores and they will play lots of songs from new album Luminiferous, hopefully combined with older classics. I’m really hoping for some older material from The Art of Self Defense, which is one of my favourite High On Fire records. High On Fire play the Jägermeister Stage after Sólstafir’s return to Leeds. Last year Sólstafir played one of the best sets of Damnation on the PHD Stage, and they were so popular that I only managed to get into the venue after they finished playing their first 3 songs. They were absolutely brilliant, making grown bearded men cry and seeing them play on the much bigger Jägermeister Stage will be very interesting. Hopefully they can pull it off.
Other very worthwhile mentions are Altar Of Plagues, who have now announced their retirement a couple of times and were a bit of a surprise to me when they were announced. To be able to witness their aural assault on the Eyesore Merch Stage will be nothing but spectacular. Doomster The Wounded Kings have the difficult task playing at the same time as High On Fire is on and I’m expecting most people to try and see Pike et al., though there will be plenty of true doom fans left to go to the Electric Amphetamine Stage for their set, or even stick around there after fellow doom metallers Witchsorrow finished their set. Completing this year’s line-up are Voices, who will probably bring the most technical black/death metal of the festival, Vreid, playing an interesting mix of blackened rock ‘n roll, Savage Messiah’s thrashy power metal, Keep of Kalessin’s melodic blackened death metal and Crown, who were very impressive supporting Agalloch recently with their blend of heavy industrial tinted metal.
Interestingly the Damnation organisers decided to sell 1000 tickets less this year after complaints last year where there was a lot of congestion in the small Leeds University union’s corridors and people missing performances because of this. There are still tickets on sale, but the question is for how much longer? £36 to see all these bands is an absolute bargain and it will no doubt sell out soon. Oh and last year I stupidly forgot to eat an infamous and legendary Deli Kate ‘Damnation Burger’, and I’ll make sure not to do the same this year!
