Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln.
Words By Smudge Images By Paul McWilliams
I entered the site later than I had hoped and caught the second half of These Wicked Jackals who were busy obliterating the crowds hangover with a rabid version of ‘Nutbush City Limits’ as well as a couple of new numbers including ‘You Want It’ which went down really well plus they had a phenomenal guitarist who wrung the hell out of his Flying ‘V’. I later discovered that he is Greek and is currently working as a chef in Surrey! Over on the adjacent stage came White Raven Down who pummelled us with a ton of heavy riffs and grooves.
Next were Star Circus who appeared to be a man down for reasons I won’t go in to, but they overcame their lack of numbers and got us going with some fine heavy melodic metal. There are times when you seriously need some traditional fist pumping horn throwing metal so you can bang your head and that’s exactly what Dead Demons served up on the Trailblazer stage.
The tent was rammed, and singer Mark Hale took total control and had the crowd in the palm of his hand. With righteously heavy songs like ‘Outlaw’, ‘Dead Man Walking’ and ‘Overload’ the crowd took to the band even more once Hale brought his cute as a button four-year-old daughter Maddie up on stage to help with the vocals. They’re a sentimental bunch. After Dead Demons I just about managed to catch the final strains if Haxan tearing up the main stage with their hybrid pop/punk/metal.
Time for tea so Sam Millar was forfeited and by the sound of his sound check I didn’t miss much.
Confess from Sweden graced the Kilmister stage – four heavily tattooed Vikings with long blonde hair. I thought it would be a glamfest, oh no! Confess brought a bit of glam attitude but they also brought a shed load of metal riffs, tons of catchy melodies and boundless energy especially on ‘Pay Before I Go’,
‘Stand Your Ground’, ‘We Are The Rats’ and a rousing version of Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’. I’ve said it before that I’m not a fan of the glam/sleaze thing and Wrathchild did nothing to convince me otherwise but some of the crowd seemed to be re-living their youth and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. From the ridiculous to the sublime as
Bad Touch were a breath of fresh air with their southern fried heavy rock. ‘Good On Me (Jean Song)’ was brought out early then they eased their way through ‘I Get High’, ‘See It To Believe It’ and a cover of Alanis Morristette’s ‘Hand In My Pocket’ and of course ‘99%’. Bad Touch brought some summer sunshine even though it was raining.
Speaking to people about who they were looking forward to see, it was obvious that South Of Salem were the ones they were excited about. With good reason too. They aired newer tracks like ‘Static’, ‘Hellbound Heart’ and ‘Villain’ which sounded huge along with ‘old’ favourites ‘Pretty Little Nightmare’ and the immense ‘Cold Day In Hell’. Singer Joey Draper is becoming the consummate frontman and had the crowd in his hand from the start.
The way things are going this loot will be the next headliners! Speaking of which – Lost Society gave us everything. Loads of pyro and lights plus an intense performance of world class modern metal. I had always considered them an old school thrash band, but they’ve developed into a very different beast. They now use EDM tracks which really boosts the sound – they’re still very thrashy but with elements of nu-metal, groove metal and metalcore. They’ve got the songs too like ‘More Like A Beast Than An Animal’, ‘Non-Believer’ and ‘Riot’. I’m not too familiar with their songs but boy did they deliver especially on a phenomenal instrumental which careered into a metal thrashing beast of a track that wasn’t introduced. I’ll be honest
– I was absolutely shattered so I took my leave as singer/guitarist Sami Elbanna was introducing the huge ballad ‘Suffocation’. Make no mistake I will be seeing Lost Society again at the earliest opportunity.
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