Damnation Festival 2011 Review

Damnation 2011 Review By James Parker 

So travelling all the way up to Leeds isn’t the briefest journey, but when what’s awaiting you is a collection of some of the most individually banging metal acts from the international scene (lots of whom are from the UK, refreshingly), it’s worth every mile. This festival has grown and blossomed to the point that it’s arguably the finest underground heavy metal festival the UK has to offer.

Over three stages, the very strong line up makes for pretty tricky choices over the day if like me you like a really wide range of stuff, and this meant I had to miss possible highlights like Ulver, Grand Magus, Evile, God is An Astronaut. After a brilliant and varied day I came away mentally battered but very satisfied I’d made the right choices. Even the absence of the brilliant death legends Decapitated (due to their plane landing on its belly in Poland, with thankfully no more than a bit of mental trauma sustained) couldn’t stop this being a major highlight of 2011. So, let the selected carnage begin…

We briefly managed to squeeze into the tiny Zero Tolerance (magazine) stage to catch a fleeting glimpse of the great ‘Edwardian black metal’ of A Forest of Stars. They’d dressed up a bit for the occasion, though I imagine they don’t ever grace a stage without at least a waistcoat or two. Very good, atmospheric without being poncey, and not the last time a violin would be employed today, but all too brief, left me wanting more.

Then over to the much more ‘metal’ environs of the Terrorizer stage to catch the tough guy turned cuddly dad Paul Catten (his little boy was stage side in ear defenders) running through some old Medulla Nocte hardcore ‘classics.’ OK not enough people heard them back in the 90s, including me, but they were a banging UK hardcore experience, and many here are very touched to hear them again. He was on good form, shrieking in a constipated but energised fashion and doing his patented ‘heroin chav’ stare out to the approving crowd. The sound mix was so muddy though that the engineer was possibly still nursing a hangover and couldn’t cope with the idea of any treble. All things considered, nice one Paul.

One of the most ‘eclectic’ and firmly non-conformist bands to play the festival, Norway’s ‘blackjazz’ troubadours, Shining (not that other irritating look-at-me self-harm endorsing Shining), then proceeding to open a few minds and leave many new fans. This lot unashamedly meld squealing saxophone and frankly suspect-sounding Eurovision keyboards together with post-hardcore styled rock and black metal-esque vocals, and while that sounds appalling on paper, they do it with such style and conviction that it’s an enthralling result. Their menu may be a little rich for many tastes, but they’ve got something special.

Ventured to the big Jagermeister stage to sample the frankly silly but enjoyable ‘battle metal’ of Turisas. With clicky bass drum, fiddly fiddle and sing along vocals, it was pretty much the lightest dish on offer today, to stretch the food metaphors further, but a very nice palate-cleanser to ready us for something completely different on this smorgasbord of a day. A nightmarish vision of red light, dry ice and horned skulls, the Terrorized stage awaited Dragged into Sunlight, who dragged (sorry) their intro out beyond all comprehension, but just about kept the tension (thanks to Decapitated’s no-show!). And these hooded scouse rascals then proceeded to absolutely flatten the packed audience with brutal, genuinely disturbing screes of disgusted black, but riffy sludge, and genuinely incredible, raw vocals. They would have no idea (and probably care even less) of the effect they were having, choosing to face the back of the stage until, in the end somewhat inevitably, the singer turning to face the audience in the last song. Probably the most powerful set of the day, but sadly the ‘we mustn’t face the audience, it’s not what we do’ schtick made speculating on their egos more of a focus than it should have been. When this happens and it’s at the expense of the phenomenal music, it has to be counterproductive, but luckily this band is so devastating it’s almost rendered irrelevant.

Feeling slightly broken after being Dragged Into Sunlight (dragged into a pit of despair yet somehow smiling as a result more like), we ventured out to the comparatively perky black metal of Altar of Plagues. They struggled with a guitar amp, which broke the very affecting mood they created, but aside from that it was a brilliant, no frills show (bar one or two reverential kneeling moments, and playing of some esoteric mini percussion). Special mention to the fantastic, desolate vocals.

The evening then began to turn a slightly hazier colour (slightly Newcastle Brown) and negotiating the labyrinthine architecture of the university union became more and more disorientating. But we managed somehow to hear that Godflesh was playing the main stage. I think people in Sheffield could probably have heard a few notes, so loud were the twosome. Justin Broadrick’s guitar was superbly dissonant, and yet its dissonant harmonics-strewn avant-garde ness almost now sounds slightly, whisper it, ‘familiar.’ This stuff was genuinely avant garde when it came out in the late 80s, but now, despite its still thrilling, relentless impact, it almost sounds cosy, which is odd. Broadrick himself seemed a bit out of sorts, with even this jetplane-landing sound unable to keep him from chucking his guitar down at the end of the set. Green’s bass also emitted one of the most colossally satisfying thuds I’ve witnessed, in that department, but when the highlight of a set is Broadrick’s guitar’s dying screams at the very end, it’s hard to work out if you’ve really enjoyed the gig.

Then to a fantastic counterpoint with the industrial-made-flesh Brummies, anarcho-punks Doom, who played an absolutely great, uplifting set, with obvious highlights like ‘Police Bastard’ making everyone smile, and think how cool this band still is, 20 years after their heyday. Almost made you want to start a riot, but actually made you jump around like a fool in reality, these days protests being mainly for London tourists it seems.

Then came the Great Divide, where, it was written, that all black metal fans would make the pilgrimage to worship at the altar of (the much mellower these days) Ulver, who thanks to Decapitated’s absence, clashed directly with one man metal Wizard of Oz, Devin Townsend. I opted for the latter, having developed something of an obsession with his goofy, yet warm songs, and a particular album about an intergalactic glove puppet alien invading the Earth for its black coffee supplies. I have little shame about this. So with a slightly woozy gait I approached the Devin-loving throng, slightly late to witness Ziltoid the Omniscient (said puppet, actually of course a genuine alien, at least in Dev’s mind, delivering a stupidly, brilliantly silly stock video intro), but still in time for a scorching set. Including grandiose, heartfelt, corny, moving, wildly, raging, wimpy and unashamedly metal songs, including two monsters (By Your Command and Colour Your World) from ‘Ziltoid,’ this was the perfect end to any festival, anywhere.

Some of the puppet-waving audience, and the ‘young, dumb and full of come-and-punch-me’ moshers began to get on my tits slightly, but the set itself and Devin’s obvious joy at bringing this nonsense to people was all-conquering. Rarely do people manage to embrace the sense of humour in metal without rendering it toothless, and he’s a rare example. Far too talented for one body, but doesn’t let it show, ie he genuinely appears to be doing this for the fun of it. He has been on an incredible trajectory from hired Steve Vai band yodeller to near-insane creative power station, fired up to create mountain-toppling metal by the horrors of the music business, and he’s still seemingly incapable of being stopped. Now he’s closing the best metal festival in the UK in utter style, simultaneously the least cool and coolest man with a guitar on the planet. We have Steve Vai to thank for this, who would have thought it?

Phew…

Possibly the best thing about this festival (as well as it’s amazingly low ticket price) is it is an embodiment of the fantastic range of styles that are possible within the heavy genre, showing in turn that is currently in a very healthy state. If 2012’s line up is anywhere near as good, I heartily recommend you make the trip.