The UK’s annual Damnation Festival has become one of the country’s most prestigious extreme metal gatherings, drawing in attendees from across the nation to enjoy a day of some of the most absurdly and beautifully filthy music imaginable. Now in its twelfth year and having hosted bands such as Kreator, Napalm Death, At the Gates and The Dillinger Escape Plan in its previous incarnations, Damnation Festival 2017 features main headliners Bloodbath and Sodom alongside a plethora of other acts across the entire spectrum of extreme music.
The American progressive doom band Pallbearer kicked things off on the festival’s main stage, the Jager stage, with a performance that unfortunately had to be cut short due to a fire alarm drill evacuation within that part of the building. Before this happened, however, Pallbearer launched through their songs “Worlds Apart”, “Thorns”, and “Dancing in Madness”, before the track “Foreigner” was interrupted by the fire alarm causing their set to be cut short.
Vallenfyre was the second band I saw, over on the festival’s appropriately named Terrorizer stage – just putting this out there now: I bounced between the Jager and Terrorizer stages the entire day, so I unfortunately missed all of the bands on the other two stages. Vallenfyre pulled a solid crowd, as did every other band I saw who performed on the Terrorizer stage. The crowd took a little while to get going but once they did it was non-stop until the end of their performance. Gregor Mackintosh is one of the most entertaining frontmen in extreme music right now, and all the Vallenfyre hits you’d expect were there making for a genuinely fun show.
A quick walk back to the Jager stage was in order so that I could witness Myrkur. I reviewed the group’s new album Mareridt earlier in the year, and found it to be one of the most interesting listens of an album I had heard in a while. Unfortunately, those songs did fail somewhat to translate live to a festival environment – especially on a main stage in a big room – and it did feel quite underwhelming. Beyond Creation clashed with Myrkur, and it felt like more people went to watch the former band than the latter, but Myrkur was definitely one of the down points of the whole day for me.
Time for a trip deep into hell with Dragged into Sunlight – everyone’s favourite Liverpool-based mash-up of grind, satanic black metal, and pulsating doom elements. By far one of the best sets I saw all day, with Dragged into Sunlight immersed in almost total darkness blasting out music of such nightmarish extremity that everybody in that room was forced to pay attention. A recent run of shows supporting Mayhem should bring Dragged into Sunlight some more deserved attention, but if you enjoy the darker side of things definitely check this band out.
And finally, Nails are here! After a cancelled EU tour at the end of last year of which their planned Damnation 2016 performance was included, Nails return to perform. The Terrorizer stage was completely rammed for Nails, and it was great to see a band that uncompromisingly heavy play to such a ravenous audience. “You Will Never Be One Of Us” coming in as the second song was something to behold, and the GBH cover to bring things to an end was just as fantastic. Nails are right at the top of the pile when it comes to the hardcore resurgence of late, alongside Code Orange, Cursed Earth, and various other bands, and you need to see them live. Nails also had by far the most violent crowd of the whole day. Good god.
Dying Fetus followed on the Terrorizer stage, delivering a non-stop series of slabs of incredibly brutal technical death metal to one of the most applauding audiences I saw all day. Fetus are such a home-run booking for this sort of festival that it was no surprise when it came to how warmly they were received by those who had gathered to see them perform. The new material from ‘Wrong One to Fuck With’ sounds great live, as does their classic songs from their multi-decade long existence. Dying Fetus rules.
Drawing to the end of Damnation Festival 2017 now, with a performance by the mighty Sodom. One of heavier metal’s finest European exports, Sodom were one of the best bands I saw across the entire day, but subpar sound to begin with definitely let them down. However things were soon sorted out and “Agent Orange” of course was the highlight of the set. They’re not my favourite of the teutonic big 4, but they are definitely something to behold as a live band. Setlist wise all the big songs you’d expect were there: the aforementioned “Agent Orange”, “Napalm in the Morning”, and “Outbreak of Evil”, while also performing various other material from across their discography.
American grindcore titans Agoraphobic Nosebleed closed the festival’s Terrorizer stage for the day, once again making sure that this venue pulled a more than pleasing attendance to be growled at for an hour. Jay Randall and Kat Katz are one of the best dual-vocal setups in extreme music that I can think of, and not just them but the entire band was absolutely relentless from start to finish. If you’re big on grindcore and deathgrind, you should know this band already, but if you don’t I cannot recommend them enough. They should be exactly what you’re looking for.
A reminder that some of us, the people in that room, would be going straight into hell meant that Bloodbath had arrived, and were the last band I saw on the day itself. Along with Sodom, Bloodbath provided Damnation’s audience with a headline set that touched upon all of their critically acclaimed material from over the years: “So You Die”, “Cancer of the Soul”, “Mental Abortion”, “Mock the Cross”, before ending on a one-song encore of “Eaten”. Bloodbath was a suitably appropriate end to a brilliant day at another brilliant Damnation Festival.
Since its inception all those years ago, Damnation Festival has blossomed into one of the UK’s most exciting, anticipated and vital events in extreme music. If you live in the UK and dig the heaviest music imaginable, you must attend. It’s become a solidified part of my year and an absolutely fantastic day out. Try it for yourself.