Doomsday Festival – Windhand + Beastwars + Summonus + Witchskull
3 October 2014
Hermann’s Bar, Sydney
Review by Derek J. Huckel
Review by Derek J. Huckel
With bands such as CHURCH OF MISERY and THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX being some of the past headliners of the Doomsday Festival, I was looking forward immensely to tonights leg of this annual tour.
WITCHSKULL, a Canberran three piece, opened the proceedings tonight and a mind blowing opener they were indeed. They were as if KADAVAR, MONSTER MAGNET and BLACK SABBATH had been blended together, then baked with a pinch or two of doom and feedback. These guys were only playing their second gig! Hailing from bands such as ARMOURED ANGEL and LOOKING GLASS and their time in them explains some of their agility on these chords and constructing such awesome tunes heard tonight. They closed with ‘The Vast Electric Dark’.
SUMMONUS kicked off with three killer new epic tracks, one called ‘The Journey’ clocked in at six minutes and lost no vitality throughout. Their gig hiatus hasn’t made them slouches at all, as evidenced on the Hermann’s Bar stage tonight.
Another newie was tried out tonight, four in total, and it was really good! These guys seem to have a stoner groove recipe they rework or build around which is always a winner. The mighty SUMMONUS, the only Sydney band playing tonight, played a few oldies too including a favourite called ‘Black Sun Dying’. They announced they are recording a new album and that they have a few shows before years end.
One of the two headliners BEASTWARS kicked off a little while later and the response from the sizeable throng now present was instant. The New Zealand bands near hypnotic sound along with the bearded Messianic-like singer Matt Hyde had the crowd in a whirling dervish state, nodding and swaying, for their entire set. Their brand of heavy stoner rock grooves just held you and wouldn’t let go, but you wanted to be in its grip. Some described them once as a marriage of KYUSS and THE CULT but I think they are much more than that now. Check out their album ‘Blood Becomes Fire’, in my top 2013 albums, which several slabs came from tonight. I think that if tonight was a battle, these guys might’ve won.
WINDHAND delivered their doom laden rock to an appreciative audience. The music’s intensity was crushing and the band a sight to witness! It was just head down hair out and the low tempo music was the prime objective with no banter. This Virginian (USA) five piece built layer upon layer of guitars and drums into this brick wall sound of rock/psychedelic/metal which became a sludge doom sound. Tunes here served up were largely off their 2013 LP ‘Soma’, they were ‘Orchard’, ‘Woodbine’, ‘Feral Bones’, ‘Forest Clouds’, ‘Winter Sun’, and ‘Cassock’ ended the great night.
No comments:
Post a Comment