Over the years, this one day event has seen some of the biggest names in extreme metal perform at this venue and over time, it has become one of the year’s best events for death, black and doom metal as well as other individual music types that have helped to forge this event into one of the UK’s most exciting of the year.
Tonight we see some of the genres veteran bands bring their full force to tonight’s sold out show with the help of such names as Vallenfyre, Myrkur, Dying Fetus, Sodom, Paradise Lost and of course Bloodbath as well as many more.
Tonight is one for the books folks as we enter the gates to Damnation Festival 2017.
As my day starts off, I find that the venue has taken some changes and has indeed left most of today’s fans confused, but this also gives us a new landscape to work with.
Pallbearer
I start my day of bands with the intense Pallbearer; a band that delivers masses of riffs that carry hard and fast through a doom-ridden stage prepared for the mass of this intense and heavy band. Pallbearer is a band that brings together traditional grooves and tones that when played live, exhibit signs of old school doom which have been altered to create the Pallbearer tone that has become renowned.
Vallenfyre
Vallenfyre; one of today’s most anticipated bands. As always, we see the band bring a hard and heavy force to the events’ Terrorizer stage, bringing chaos and more fierce force for your buck. Showcasing a brutal set of classics and new material, we see the band slaughter the crowd with strength and force beyond anything else. Vallenfyre show today’s audience just what they have and so much more by delivering a set that punishes.
Myrkur
Visually excellent and a sound that truly marks what modern music represents. Showing a sonically intense but beautiful tone, we see a band that takes to the stage with a hark of many coming to see a band that represents a modern take on dark atmospheric sound that takes you by the mind and ejects you from your physical self.
For my first time seeing this act live, I feel that they deliver a fully visual set of material that sets the mind through a calm and chaotic sense of control that honestly brings out a purely brilliant set of songs.
Warning
After years apart, the band brings it’s triumphant return with a set that demonstrated that time has not defeated them and has, in fact, made them stronger. Through the band’s set we see a vibrant energy coming off of them. They show a groove that has united these former bandmates together to create something that will never been forgotten by tonight’s gathering of loyal and dedicated fans.
Nails
A first time for me to see this band perform live and certainly an experience that I will surely never forget. Focusing on a raw and extreme tone, Nails show off a balance of aggressive force that compared to most of the days’ bands, stands on its own. Playing in front of a very packed room it goes to show that this band is certainly a crowd favourite and one to see again.
What makes this band stand apart from the rest of today’s onslaught of extreme and groove-based bands is that they give off something unique to many who harness the force of traditional death metal while also making sure to make a new stand with this sound and much more.
Paradise Lost
Bringing in the old school English doom force is none other than Paradise Lost; a band that has over the years made their mark with an iconic, sensational creativity, mixing the tone of doom with that of a slow and tense death metal that creates a force to be reckoned with.
Playing to a room packed with old and new fans, we see the band performing old and new material from their recently released album Medusa which has already garnered fans in an excitement, drawing in a new flock of loyal followers to this band’s ever-growing legacy.
Sodom
Thrash metal legends and pioneers of the Teutonic sound, we see the mighty Sodom take centre stage with an arsenal of new and classic material showcasing the best of this bands intense and brutal style of fast and precise riff and drum patterns.
This band has always been one to see when given the chance and has already shown the loyalty the band have to their dedicated gathering of soldiers ready for battle and always on the mark. Tonight, we see chaos unfold as the legends of thrash take on the Leeds-based crowd and set war upon the stage. Truly a show that marks everything we love about this band and so much more.
Bloodbath
Closing the night we head towards a force of pure aggression and brutal mastery; Sweden’s own Bloodbath. Since bringing in Paradise Lost frontman Nick Holmes, we have seen an evolution take place in the Bloodbath camp by bringing new and exciting elements to their catalogue of extremity and decay.
Tonight’s show is hot, neck-breaking and, if not anything else, pure on-point death metal the way we want to hear it. The future is brighter for the band than anything else and with this being said, who knows what the future may hold for these Lords of Gore.
