The Anvil
Greenhorn got the ball rolling with a solid set. Crowd favourites Witches Bridle and Enemies are aired but the band seemed a little run-down and didn’t give it their usual 100%. But with the quality songs they have at their disposal the crowd didn’t seem to notice much.
Southampton’s Hummune got stuck in and their grungy stoner style goes down particularly well with the audience. Especially when frontman Stuart flings free CDs out to them.
IN THE HILLS crush the assembled with bastard sized riffs. They also aired a couple of new tracks that sounded absolutely immense! Stellar performance by the band, as always.
Onto the main support, Inter Arma hail from Western Virginia and play a concoction of Progressive Doom, laced with sludgy overtones. The drummer is superb, veering from playing slow tempo beats to full-on tribal rhythms. The guitars crash in and out with abandon and pulverise the crowd. The singer emerged himself into the music and swam the rhythms like an Olympic athlete. He writhed, jumped and poured every emotion into the lyrics like a man possessed. Brilliant band!
On to the headliners and Virginian Doom/Stoners Windhand bring some big riffs to the table. To tell the truth I like my Doom to have clean vocals and female fronted bands of the genre really float my boat, so I was looking forward to Windhand and the powerful vocal delivery of Dorthia Cottrell. I wasn’t disappointed as they cranked up the volume and let loose with a barrage of solid songs from the school of Black Sabbath. Powerful bass lines and rampant drumming overlaid with building-flattening guitars, guaranteed a bloody sore neck the next morning. Excellent stuff from the USA, played to a very appreciative audience in the UK.
Links
https://www.facebook.com/WindhandVA
https://www.facebook.com/INTERARMA
http://www.hummuneband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/inthehillsuk
https://www.facebook.com/GreenHornUK
Words and Pics: Dan O’Gara
