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Leed Deathfest 2010, The Second Coming

Extreme Metal invasion of Leeds Uni.

See some photos from this festival

The Leeds Uni Deathfest, put on by the good people who brought you the Damnation Festival, was an event I was looking forward to with slightly mixed emotions. Would Negura Bunget be as good as I had hoped, would Fukpig disappoint and, more importantly, could I stand an entire day of 'Death Metal'...

Bad planning meant that I was late in arriving at Leeds, and as a result I missed 5 bands, namely IRG, Revokation, The Way Of Purity and Dawn of Chaos. Speaking to folk who were organised enough to make it on time, Dawn of Chaos were something special and I look forward to checking them out in the near future.

And so, on to my first band of the day, Volition, and what a pleasant surprise they were, if you can call incredible heavy riffs pleasant. It's a shame that they played to a comparatively spartan crowd, because Volition were so heavy they make Sabbath sound like Europe. Singer Dave Hodge supplied the inhuman growls while guitarists Mark and Jas provided massive plodding doom riffs. No widdly guitar solos from this band, they're way to heavy for that. Chatting very briefly to the guys after their short set it was clear that they were enjoying themselves every bit as much as the crowd.

Doom metal riff merchant

After the excellent set from Volition I thought that the level for the subsequent bands to reach had been set unexpectedly high unexpectedly early. I mean surely not every extreme / death / black / whatever metal band on this bill could be good, could they ? I needn't have worried. The first act I saw on the main stage, indeed filling it with their impressive 'Old Skool' death metal, were Infestation. This band have an amazing stage presence, more that matched by their ability to play their instruments and get the crowd jumping along with their extreme riffs. Their "Bow to None" EP is available via their MySpace page and it is well worth checking out.

Next up were Palehorse, who take audience participation to a new level with singer Nikolai spending most of the set in the crowd. Palehorse are an odd beast, two bass and no lead guitars. The noises switch from melodic to borderline lunatic and the twin-bass approach gives off a sound that makes your insides shake.

The new album "Soft as Butter, Hard as Ice" is out soon and should be an absolute stormer.

The consistently high quality of the lineup at this festival was continued on the main stage with Bristol "Death/Grinders" Amputated. I wasn't sure quite what to expect from this band, but with a debut album called "Gargling with Infected Semen" i didn't imagine it would be easy listening. As it turned out I need not have worried as they were not as extreme (I.E. unlistenable) as i thought they might be, in fact, they were really rather good...

Back to the second stage now, all this walking and jumping about keeps me fit if nothing else, for one of the undisputed highlights of the festival. Masked Brummie lunatics Fukpig kicked in the fun in a big way with their extreme Punk / Metal hybrid noise. Most of the bands thus far had not had much of a connection with the audience (that's not a criticism, it's part of what those bands are), but Fukpig were throwing a party and they wanted to make sure that everyone was invited and had a good time. This set heralded the first mental Pit and stage diving frenzy of the festival, and hats off to the security staff for letting the nutters get on with it. Fukpig are a superb live band, they clearly love what they do and make sure that the audience are part of the occasion. Don't let the name and the wrestling masks put you off, if you get a chance to see these guys live take it.

'Proper' death Metal arrived at the festival in the form of Italian mob Hour of Penance, and it brought the horns. Touring their excellent new album "Paradogma", Hour of Penance play fairly standard high tempo Death Metal, but with their own style. They're maybe not hugely original but I really liked them.

Next up on the second stage, all the way from Singapore, were Wormrot. The consensus was that this was another contender for the set of the festival, I didn't catch much of their set as I wanted to make sure I was down front and center for the next act on the main stage.

Romanian Black Metallers Negura Bunget have had an eventful history, to say the least. After making a name for themselves with a string of excellent albums, peaking with the brilliant Om in 2006, Guitarist Sol'Fau and multi-instrumentalist / vocalist Hupogrammos left the band. Founder member and drummer Negru put together a new band under the Negura Bunget name and took their distinctive sound into new shadowy areas of folk and traditional instruments.

Corb : Black Folkin Metal

Right, history lesson over, what about Leeds in 2010. The first sign that Negura Bunget 2010 style are coming on stage soon is the arrival of lots of traditional instruments that you wouldn't normally associate with a Death Metal festival. Glockenspiels, 6ft long hunting horns and all manner of bizarre folk percussion and woodwind instruments are set up on stage. The band then come on and...... Blow you away with a blast of pure black metal, simple but effective. So there you have it, they're a black metal band, makes sense, this is a Death Metal festival.

Well, no, Negru isn't that predictable. The second track in tonight's set is the haunting "Paminit" from the new Virstele Pamintului (translates as Ages of the Earth) album. Melodic hunting horns, rustic percussion and aGeru Pamantului on the Romanian folk equivalent of the Pan Pipes. And they play it, all of it. And the grown up's love it. And the kiddies look bemused. Brilliant. And the rest of the set continues in that vein. One minute full on headbanging Black Metal, the next the guitars are taken off and they're all playing traditional folk instruments.

Negru : Drummer and Genius

Were Negura Bunget the best live band I've ever seen. Well obviously only time and hindsight will tell. But by god it's going to be close. If you don't like Negura Bunget, you don't deserve ears.

After the Romanians finished I went for a quiet sit down and a drink. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake as I missed a big chunk of Abgott's set. You know when you walk into a room just in time to hear the tail end of a killer cover version of Holy Wars... The Punishment Due (Making this Dethfest ;) that you may have missed something special. Abgott are another band added to my 'must see again' list.

Now the moment a lot of people had been waiting for, the incredible New York death metallers Immolation. I must confess that they's always run a bit hot and cold with me. They just seemed to be lacking, i dunno, something. Then they released "Majesty and Decay".

I can not overstate how surprised I was by this album, nothing the Yonkers band had done before prepared the way for this masterpiece, and in their natural setting of a decent venue with a receptive crowd Immolation tore the place apart. Highlights, there were many. Majesty and Decay live is just on a different level and following it with 2007's Den of Thieves gave the crowd exactly what they wanted. The set was best summed up by the blinding version of Swarm of Terror being followed by the, erm, majestic A Glorious Epoch. This is a band who has grown and developed and ae surely bound for the next level.

Closing the second stage were Ramesses. Their unique style of riff laden, almost experimental Metal was very well received. They have been on the go since 2003 and have built up a fanatical following, and on the strength of their set here is was easy to see why. It was unfortunate that all the technical gremlins seemed to converge on this set but Ramesses battled through and impressed an admittedly partisan crowd. Here were another band I was only peripherally aware of before tonight, but definitely want to hear more of and they are well worth checking out again.

Deathfest 2010 drew to a close with the Mexican Death Metal supergroup Brujeria. Their arrival on stage sent the crowd mental, and a great time was had by..... most.

Unfortunately some poor chap had obviously got about half way through stage diving for dummies. Now to be fair it's a few years since i've done it but I'm pretty sure you have to make sure that either a) the crowd is so densely packed you'll land on people or b) You have mates you can trust to catch you. Unfortunately for this poor bugger neither of these conditions were met and they face-planted so severely that the gig was stopped so they could be attended to. No idea how it ended up but I hope they're OK.

So that was that. Number of bad bands seen, none, nada, zip. Nobody ducked below Good, with Fukpig, Volition and Hour of Pennance making it into 'Great' comfortably. That left Immolation officially categorized as Brilliant and Negura Bunget somewhere beyond that. If only all the festivals could manage that sort of average. I'm not a mental extreme metal fan but here, in this place at this time, it all just worked and I had a brilliant day. The organization, lineup, security, venue, in fact everything about Deathfest 2010 was absolutely first rate. If you can go next year you should. Who knows, if you don't like extreme metal before you go in, you may like it a lot more when you come out. See you there next year......

Check out some of my photos of some of the bands. I'm no photographer, but they may be interesting.

Dizzy