It’s Saturday morning, the last day, excitement, and mixed feeling that it’s almost over fill me, but no time to ponder because it’s band time. My first band is the heavy metal band Defects and just wow… it’s 11am and they are on full form, with energy, brutality and a few songs in they open up a circle pit. It’s rude not to, so I join in, nothing like a good pit to start your day off as you mean to go on; Defects and the crowd deliver.
Read MoreFriday morning it’s sunny, warm, and humid. Refreshed from yesterday, I plan my day, my first band of the day is a London-based band Chapter and Verse. A good size crowd has formed and off we go. A few line-up changes since I saw them last, but the lead singer’s voice is still as good and unique as I remember. It’s difficult to place them, they are rock but an odd mix of a lot of different sounds and it works.
Read MoreAfter almost three years, many rounds of crowdfunding and a few community grants that kept it all going behind the scenes, it is great to finally be back at 2000trees. This medium-sized festival has five main stages, plus more pop up and busking stages than you can shake a stick at. After all this time you would think I would be out the door waiting at the gates, but in typical fashion I am running late. First impressions is that the security is very relaxed. You are no more than 3-5 minutes’ walk from camping where you can set up without getting your wristbands, but I dutifully collect my wristband and the included merch bundle before setting up.
Read MoreAfter a stellar end to it’s first day, Mangata Festival kept up the momentum on the main stage with Mortal No More. I had it mentioned to me by a couple of friends prior to their set that Mortal No More are definitely a band worth checking out, and they were absolutely right. Mortal No More offered a mixture of Nu Metal, Alternative and Post Hardcore and comparisons can be made to SOiL, Deftones, Limp Bizkit and even a little dose of Tool to boot. The standout moment for me however had to be their performance of the song ‘Bleed’.
Read MoreFor myself, and many others, Nottingham is considered the beating heart of the UK Metal Scene. Situated a mere stone’s throw away from the hallowed ground that is Donington Park, home of the Monsters of Rock & Download Festivals, it can be considered as no surprise that there is such a rich passion for all things heavy metal in this part of the world. This is evident by the absolute abundance of new talent rising the ranks of the East Midlands metal scene, every Friday and Saturday night the best in new talent can be found playing at the Tap N Tumbler or The Sal, two of Nottingham’s finest Metal Institutions. For me, the line-up that Mangata Festival presents is a love letter to this East Midlands metal scene
Read More3rd day, and my 3rd drive-in, but as I'm only driving in from Bury so there's no drama. I arrive, park, flash the pass and get my camera out just in time to see We Three Kings, who open up Sunday morning on the outdoor stage. They are a Manchester-based trio that delivers (and delivers really well) no-messin' rock n roll.
Read MoreDay two starts early (well, earlier than Friday), and has 13 bands plying their wares today. It opens with relative newcomers Unknown Refuge and they instantly get the crowd to wake up or at least look up from their first pints of the day. If this Bolton-based band of youngsters are anything to go by, we are in for a belter of a day today. These very talented guys not only wrote, recorded, mixed, produced and released their debut album (“From the Darkness”) during lockdown, but they also built their own practice and recording facilities.
Read MoreWow. These festivals are coming thick and fast now. After working a non-rock/metal festival last weekend (followed by a failed attempt to get to a christening on Sunday and a two-day wedding), I find myself awake mid-morning Friday with a full weekend of SOSFest at Whittles and Tokyo in Oldham to look forward to.
Read MoreIt’s the final morning of the festival, but our day will still be filled with interviews, japes and even more tech-metal. It’s an early start today to make sure we don’t miss one of the bands we’ve been most eagerly awaiting, Arcaeon. Having reviewed these guys at a basement venue in Liverpool, I’m looking forward to seeing them flex their musical muscles on a much bigger stage. They don’t disappoint, with their glorious mix of djenty tech-metal.
Read MoreSore heads for the journey onsite the second full morning of the festival. Damn you Strawberry Daquiris, why did I ever know you! Despite everyone partying hard on the Friday, the awesome breakfast pizzas and plentiful coffee supplies get everyone perked up and ready for more tech-metal…and drinking this warm Saturday. We walk in to be met by the ever excellent Krysthla, who could easily be mistaken for being a Scandinavian juggernaut with flowing hair and ferocious energy.
Read MoreWe wake up early and make our way onsite as Johann joins us to take photos of the weekend and film my interviews. Everyone we meet seems fresh and eager to attack the day, hungry for more excellent tech-metal. For our Dark Overord there’s no easing in here, as once he’s grabbed his photo pit pass he’s thrust into the fray to cover Greylotus. The fun daytime TV show intro shows how cheeky these guys are, but belies how heavy and serious their music is.
Read MoreUK Tech-Fest is more than a festival – it’s a family and a community. It genuinely feels like returning home when you enter through the box office and get your wristband put on. It’s a festival that genuinely creates a feeling of welcoming, inclusion, passion and dedication. Add to that lashings of technically impressive progressive metal, infectious on-stage performers, enough merch to sink a battleship and plenty of booze, and you’ve got what is now my favourite festival. First seen in 2012 (and at Newark Showground since 2014), the not-for-profit festival has only been possible thanks to the tireless devotion of founder Simon Garrod and his annually returning group of volunteers.
Read MoreNot only have we given you our Stewart's thoroughly subjective view of the weekend (iron maiden fans for £20 you can happily have his home address), we can now give you a bonus additional sunday retrospective. You see our Alex was there too and this is what he thought:
Read MoreWell, that's went blooming quick. No sooner has it all started than the final day is upon us. But it is all good. The sun is still shining, there are still some alcoholic beverages available to purchase (it's cider but any port in a storm) and we have a brace of bands to watch. The first port of call is Bristolian symphonic metallers Control The Storm. Given the price of fuel these days they must have blown their appearance fee in the first track as there is an awful lot of pyro present.
Read MoreIt's Saturday morning, the sun is shining and the shuttle buses are shuttling. In fact, I have got very little to moan about, so let's go straight into the bands. Our day starts with Californian natives Dirty Honey who are playing their first show on the shores. Their retro-fuelled sound brings to mind The Black Crowes’ electrifying opening set on these very grounds thirty-one years ago. They share the ability to feel simultaneously authentic but also thoroughly modern. They have taken a much-trodden route and made it very much their own.
Read MoreIt's been three long years (whilst it was awesome Diddy Download doesn't count) but here we are reunited on the hollow grounds of Donington Park. The first point to make is how normal it feels. There is something weird about entering those gates and automatically you know where everything is. Dogtooth is over there, second stage is over there and the bars are there, there and there. The layout of the Download festival is so ingrained in our psyche that it actually didn't feel that I left in 2019. My soul's been here all the time hanging round that space where the dog should be just waiting for my body to return.
Read MoreUnfortunately, what I thought was a Sunday morning hangover turned out o be a bit more than that, and I missed a handful of bands at the start of the day as I struggle to surface on day 4. I’m not sure what the festival equivalent of Dheli belly is, let’s just say it’s the opposite of a rock block and leave it there. Anyhow, I wasn’t my usual sparkly self on Sunday and quite a bit of the day managed to pass me by. Johann was out and about with the camera though, so we have some decent galleries of the bands that I didn’t see even if there are no words for them.
Read MoreSaturday dawn is fresh and bright and today’s openers were Rxptors, metalcore times Maiden so you kind of got two for the price of one. Proper heavy if you like that sort of thing but it wasn't really for me.
Men In Black were also thrashy as anything but had hipster beards and side shaves. Competent, but again not really my thing.
Read MoreI realise as I am going about my morning ablutions that looking at the schedule there is no way I am going to be able to catch every band over the next 3 days. It’s already a late start for me (because bacon) so I decide to just roll with it and see as much as I can. Those I’ve missed, I will try to catch you elsewhere later in the year.
The first victims of the Bacon Incident are Steal The City, who sounded okay from the campervan! So the first band of the day for me was Twister. They play melodic hard rock and are from the north east.
Read MoreWhat have you missed most during what we are now thinking of the Lockdown Years? When you were sitting at home, doing your duty to your fellow man, where did you really want to be? For me it was this. Call Of The Wild entered our lives in a blaze of glory in 2019, and although small it was so well=organised that I was waiting eagerly for the following years where it would grow exponentially. And then? Boom. The world stopped. Festivals got postponed, rolled over. The brave people at Call of the Wild tried their best for us, we thought we might be able to get back here last October but sadly it wasn’t to be. So as I pull my (t)rusty campervan onto the site this weekend it seems impossible that it’s been 3 long years since the last one. 3. Long. Years.
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