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Five new additions announced for Damnation Festival

Posted in News with tags Ahab, Atlantis, Bast, Bolt Thrower, Cannibal Corpse, damnation festival, H A R K, Raging Speedhorn, Saint Vitus, Solstafir on 25th June 2014 by Nico Solheim-Davidson, the North Sea Poet

Germanic titans of doom Ahab and Icelandic progressive metal unit Solstafir are amongst the latest names to be added to the tenth edition of Damnation, which already is boasting the likes of Bolt Thrower, Saint Vitus and Cannibal Corpse.

The headline set will be an exclusive UK performance by Ahab and the first the band have played outside London, while Solstafir arrive in for their debut UK festival show in support of their stunning new album Otta.

They will be joined at Leeds University Union on Saturday, November 1, by Welsh heavy-rock trio H A R K, Dutch post-metallers Atlantis and London’s blackened doom three piece Bast. Ahab said:

We’re delighted to celebrate our 10-year anniversary with the only Ahab UK Show 2014 at Damnation Festival. Headlining the doom stage is an honour and a great birthday present for us!

Solstafir revealed they are "stoked" to be part of Damnation’s tenth anniversary show:

We picked Damnation Festival for our debut UK festival performance, after countless offers from other UK festival promoters, so what better way to celebrate Damnation’s 10th anniversary than joining us in Leeds? And you even get to see Bolt Thrower. We’re stoked!

JimBob of H A R K added:

Damnation has to be one the UK’s best festivals, so we’re over the moon to be added to such a great lineup. We’ve been taking Crystalline out all across Europe since its release, and can’t wait to show the amazing Damnation crowd what we’ve got. This will be a great day.

And Glison Hetinga of Atlantis said:

Playing Damnation Festival is something that we as a band always wanted to do. So being invited for this year’s edition is an great honour.

Bast are also looking forward to playing Leeds for the first time. The band said:

As patrons and fans of Damnation in previous years, it’s with particular honour and excitement that our inaugural performance in Leeds be at the festival’s 10th anniversary – being part of a line-up that’s already promising to be one of the most memorable in recent times.

With ticket sales going at a rate not witnessed since 2008, Damnation Festival’s tenth anniversary promises to be an event to remember. Tickets for Damnation Festival are priced £36 and on sale NOW from Damnation’s official website and Facebook page and Leeds Tickets.

Doom legends Saint Vitus confirmed to celebrate 35th anniversary at Damnation

Posted in News with tags Bolt Thrower, Born Too Late, Damnation, damnation festival, Leeds, leeds university, Raging Speedhorn, Saint Vitus, SaintVitus on 27th March 2014 by Nico Solheim-Davidson, the North Sea Poet

This year, 1st November will be a very special date as it’s the 10th anniversary of the UK’s darkest festival Damnation which brings us onto the second reason why it will be such a special date. The legendary doom metallers Saint Vitus have been confirmed to not only celebrate their 35th anniversay at Damnation Festival in Leeds, but they’ll also be playing their entire album Born Too Late in full.

The Los Angeles-based doom quartet will air the seminal album with other classic tracks on the Jagermeister stage at Leeds University on 1st November, later this year. Saint Vitus join headliners Bolt Thrower and the recently reformed sludge unit Raging Speedhorn on the bill with another 24 bands to be confirmed across four differing stages. Saint Vitus’ guitarist Dave Chandler said:

We are very excited to be performing at the Damnation Festival for the first time and it’s even cooler because we are doing it on our 35th Anniversary tour. Two very kick ass things.

Festival director Gavin McInally added:

Saint Vitus playing Born Too Late, Bolt Thrower playing their only UK show, Raging Speedhorn back with the original singers to play tracks from their two best albums and record ticket sales with only a fraction of the bill announced… To say our 10th birthday bash preparations are coming along nicely would be a massive understatement!

And with one of the planet’s biggest death metal bands and another 23 acts to announce, I think it’s safe to say that Damnation Festival 2014 will not only be the best line-up of the year, but overshadow our previous efforts too.

With the continued support of the fans, we’re going to sell this year out and mark our tenth Damnation in style.

Tickets are available from the following locations for a mere £36 which is an absolute bargain:

http://damnationfestival.co.uk
http://facebook.com/damnationfestival
http://leedstickets.com

Saint Vitus online:

http://saintvitusband.com
http://facebook.com/saintvitusofficial

Saint Vitus – Lillie: F65

Posted in Review with tags Black Sabbath, Doom metal, Saint Vitus, Scott Weinrich, Season of Mist on 9th September 2012 by Paul

Saint Vitus
Lillie: F-65
Released April 27^th 2012
Doom Metal
Released via Season of Mist

California Doom legends “Saint Vitus” are back after a long hiatus, with their first album since 1995’s “Die Healing”, “Lillie: F-65” seeing the return of vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich, who joins founding members Mark Chandler and Dave Adams to produce a record that includes a total of three of the band’s classic eighties line-up. Good news for any fan. It’s a shame that long time drummer Armando Acosta sadly died of a brain tumor in 2010, otherwise I’m sure we’d be seeing the whole band together again. Fortunately for the others, it’s as if they had never been away.

The album begins with “Let Them Fall” – a textbook Saint Vitus song, and “The Bleeding Ground” which rightfully speeds things up with a good old bluesy solo. As soon as the distortion drenched guitar tone kicks in, you’re transported back to the eighties. “Vertigo” however, is an unexpected strange little atmospheric instrumental, a half-time slowdown that comes out of leftfield. The band is not entirely resting on their laurels with this gloomy instrumental. The remaining three songs are all enjoyably solid slabs of old school Doom Metal. “Dependence” is perhaps the standout track and opens with an eerie acoustic intro which opens into a predictably depressing song – the slowest on the album, and the band round off the record with a disturbing psychedelic instrumental “Withdrawal” that I think runs for just a minute too long.

With the laid back, droning pace of Saint Vitus’ signature style and catchy riffs, the band makes it seem easy. The album is short (just over half an hour), but after waiting 17 years for this release, I think the band can be forgiven, especially as some of the band’s best work such as “Born Again”. “Hallows Victim” and their self-titled debut also finish up around the 34 minute mark. This is not a band in their prime producing an innovative work of art, but rather a more or less direct continuation of an otherwise winning formula. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

This album features two things that have been (with the exception of a few niche genres) sorely missing from the Metal world since the beginning of the 80s: The first being blues influence, and the second being a sense of fun. This album is set squarely in the Black Sabbath style of early, featuring bluesy-rock guitar based metal that is equal parts Doom, Traditional and Stoner Metal. Yes – this is Doom Metal, and the lyrics feature the usual doom and gloom that is expected (the albums strange title is named after a depressant), but in a genre that has been dominated by 30 minute Atmospheric Funeral Doom songs for the past decade, this is a breath of fresh air. Band’s such as Ghost, Witchcraft and Orchid have been spearheading a retro/stoner/doom movement in recent years, but old legends Saint Vitus show them how it’s done. As nice at it is to listen to new bands inspired by the late 70s and early 80s Doom and Heavy Metal sound, it’s even better to hear the return of one of the genres great pioneers. If you were expecting some kind of shift towards modern sounding Metal music – perhaps cleaner sounding guitar tones or the more guttural, Death Metal influenced vocals that have leaked into just about every genre of metal in the past decade, then look elsewhere. This is a band returning the vintage Heavy Metal music that they helped to create, and the world of Metal in 2012 is better for it.

3.7/5

Paul Gibbins