After another nice stroll along the Brighton seafront in the blazing sunshine (and ice cream number two of the weekend), I leant on the metal railings to enjoy some more beach volleyball. Hmm? What’s that you say? Oh yes, Day 2 of Hammerdown Festival, of course, sorry! So I tore myself away from watching Brighton’s ‘beautiful people’ to submit my soul to the Great Mother instead. This Worthing trio play complex doomy death metal and guitarist/singer Connor flips from clean vocals to witch-like shrieks at the drop of a chord. The second track they played started oddly, almost AOR(!) in style, before the death metal came crashing in with a shriek once more. Whilst the backing track was a bit too evident at times, I guess most bands do this nowadays, they played well enough and would be worth checking out further is doom is your thing, I am not ready to pledge my soul to the cult just yet though.
Luckily, South Walian punk-metallers Torchbearer were on hand to light the way out of the gloom with their fast and loud heavy rock and roll. First of all, I couldn’t help but notice bassist Mo Bashir’s glittering gold emblazoned jacket as he whirled his dredds around to the music. Mo was aided and abetted by drummer Sol Radley, while Dan Trigga lead the roars, backed up by Ollie Gould’s vocals and heavy guitar riffs and solos. This was one of my favourite acts so far, and their Every Time I Die-inspired battery of tracks pummelled their way into my head as a welcome wake-up call at this early hour. Elements of Cancer Bats and Motorhead shone through tracks such as “Vindication” and “The Warrior Spirit”. Their energy was infectious and when Ollie announced they would be at the merch stand after, I knew there was a pink tie-dye T (with their logo in true death metal font) with my name on it! Yes please.
10 Plagues certainly looked the part, with vocalist Hauron Kherty in full zombie mask and boiler suit (reminiscent of a certain well-known nu-metal band) and the other band members getting their Vended on, with various face-paints and a general look of disarray. Having mentioned those references, however, this Brighton quartet come at you a lot harder, smashing your brain (presumably to tenderise it ready for consumption) with high speed blackened thrash metal. Hauron prefers the growled approach to vocals and Jamie Holloway clearly loves a squealing guitar solo or two. Whilst 10 Plagues are technically very good, a couple of their songs seemed to run out of puff by the end (or became a bit of a mess), leaving Hauron staring at the audience in the same way they were staring back at him. When they did get into their groove though, they showed what a powerful act they could become and kicking the set off with a classic Pinhead intro, “We have such sights to show you”, was an entirely appropriate act of genius!
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Netherhall are an alternative progressive metal collective from Birmingham and I enjoyed their set so much I bought the CD (as they say). Lead singer, Matt Preston, describes their sound as “atmospheric prog rock” and who am I to argue with that? The guy can certainly sing (and I mean actually ‘sing’), almost dipping into Jimmy Somerville’s range on occasion. Songs like “The Needle” and “Process” may be a bit long and slow to get going but as they build towards their finale, they are serious pieces of mature metal music, executed with great skill (by Lewis, Tom and Jake) in a live environment. Put it this way, fans of Tool or (early) Lonely The Brave will find something to like in Netherhall.
We made our way back into the venue to catch the metalled-up pop punk of Lit Like Vegas, only to be greeted by a sea of black balloons swamping the moshpit (adorned with the band cypher obviously). This was a great idea and really added to the fun, kicking and punching them all around the venue. Maybe a bit too much fun though, as the band had to duck and dive as they bounced around, vocalist, James Sanger-Brown, getting pretty adept at batting them away at the last second. The rest of the band comprise Jack (drums), Josh (bass) and Tom (lead guitar) and they play high energy pop punk crammed full of guitar hooks and melodic choruses but with a few shots of harsh vocals and more metal flashes than most bands in this genre. This was an enjoyable show…and most definitely ‘lit’.
I have to admit that I missed the start of Arimea’s set but all four of them put on a confident display of alt metal, almost nu-metal at times, to an approving audience. Whitney Cooper was, perhaps, the most polite and well-spoken person gracing the stage this weekend and her singing style reminded me of Chloe from Skarlett Riot. All in all, Arimea were a pleasant but fairly predictable listen.
Brighton locals Bleed Again really lifted the roof off of Concorde2 this evening. I recognise the fact that they have been plying their trade in quality metalcore for over ten years now, as well as the fact that Oscar also plays drums with Great Mother, while Simon is also the demon guitarist in Seething Akira (see later). Frontman, James Dawson, knows how to work a crowd and the band generate a good number of circle pits (and a wall of death) in between the general head nodding of an appreciative crowd. Bleed Again have plenty of live shows under their belt and it shows in how tight they are as a unit, very professional. Jamie’s gruff vocals counterpoint Sam’s cleans to good effect, particularly on the more Killswitch Engage and Linkin Park-influenced numbers (“Cursed” immediately springs to mind). Overall, the meaty riffs and banging drums were nicely nuanced by the odd electronic flourish, resulting in a lot of sated punters.
I was excited to see Pompey-boys-made-good, Seething Akira, having witnessed them blow the Maid of Stone Festival apart on the previous weekend. The band clearly loves performing their brand of mashed up electronic beats, metal guitars and drums, forging a powerhouse of rave-infused metal, overlain by a mixture of metal roars, machine-gun raps and clean vocals. Kit and Charlie’s dual vocal attack intertwines brilliantly, unleashing the catchiest of choruses at just the right time for their rap/rock, nu metal and dance metal anthems. Both frontmen took a turn in the moshpit at some point in the set, getting in amongst it. To misquote the intro to “Kenneth Dopeland”, the Seething Akira sound is as much fun as the The Prodigy partying with Rage Against The Machine in a ‘bunch of hookers and cocaine…’* Other highlights were “Punishment Instructions” (‘Stop. Throw down. Raise your fingers up!’) and “Smile Thief”. Kit Conrad and Charlie Bowes are joined by Stu Radcliffe, Richard Ellis (sporting a lovely gold lame number), Simon Williams, and John Corney and their energetic interaction with the crowd resulted in a great, sweaty, bouncy evening.
(*No evidence of these were found on the premises.)
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South of Salem is an up-and-coming rock band hailing from Bournemouth and they seem to have been on an upward trajectory for some time now. Their fast-paced hard rock blends elements of Avenged Sevenfold, BFMV, Murderdolls and classic-era WASP. “A Cold Day in Hell”, “Pretty Little Nightmare” and “Left For Dead” are some of my particular favourites but having now listened to all of their material over the last few days, I am absolutely positive that they will be a massive band once they get noticed by the mainstream outlets. With riffs aplenty and handy little sing-back sections, for live situations, their music is infectiously catchy. Soaring guitar solos from Kodi and Fish accompany Joey Draper’s gruff delivery, overlying the steady hard bassline provided by James and Dee. Some people may question the appropriateness of having backing dancers dressed as cheerleaders on stage in 2024 but bring it on I say. They definitely added to the spectacle and the only gripe I have is that they only appeared for two of the songs and, even then, seemed to be hiding at the back in the dark. If a band has decided to have backing dancers, they should go for it. After all, Salem play ballsy metal and roll and this ain’t no kiddy’s birthday party.
InMe are a well-known, well established alternative rock band who have been making music (as InMe) for over 20 years now, so they have certainly earned the right to headline a festival such as Hammerdown. Having said that, I am not that aware of their material and so I came to this performance as a bit of a noob. According to t’internet they have dabbled in metal, soft rock, melodic rock (I’m not sure how that is different from soft rock) and hard rock over the years, releasing albums fairly intermittently but in a consistent manner. From my point of view, that was my impression of the band: consistent and competent but a bit bland, compared to the less well-known bands on the line-up preceding them.
Hammerdown Festival 2024 was nothing less than a triumph in my view and I can’t wait to see how it develops and which bands they get on board next year. The event itself was well organised and made good use of what the venue had to offer. There was a great selection of new and up-and-coming bands, both local and from farther afield, spread across several genres. You can’t please everyone all of the time, of course you can’t, but this keeps things interesting. There seems to be a lot of discussion at the moment about who the next big headliners will be at festivals like Download. I think this is the wrong approach completely. I would rather see the fat trimmed off of (expensive) headliner slots and the time and exposure being given over to more of the smaller bands, resulting in longer stage slots further down the bill, giving them the chance to play bigger stages in front of more people. Hammerdown was great in that respect too. Rock’n’roll on 2025!
