Depravation Fest 2024: Day 1

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Depravation Fest 2024: Day 1 That includes Raging Speedhorn, Divine Chaos And The Heretic Order

While you stay in a city the place not a lot occurs, you typically need to journey outdoors to see the bands you’re keen on. Happily for metallic followers in Swindon, we’re not far-off from London, Bristol or Cardiff, so it isn’t as a lot of an issue as for followers in say Grimsby or the Scottish Highlands. Nonetheless although, one desires of one thing particular taking place of their hometown and this previous weekend, that is precisely what occurred, because the crew behind Depravation Promotions put in a hell of a number of work to provide Swindon one thing to be happy with, Depravation Fest.

The primary version occured final 12 months as a someday occasion, however this 12 months it expanded throughout the entire weekend, together with Friday night, happening at a membership named Ranges, which has beforehand passed by such names as Degree 3, The Furnace and Underground and is now a drum and bass membership, although the brand new house owners have been gracious sufficient to permit the already booked metallic pageant to happen this 12 months.

As one may anticipate from a small pageant happening in a membership and the pub subsequent door, most of the bands performing this weekend both had a small however loyal fan base or have been full unknowns to the native viewers, however that is a part of the enjoyable, being uncovered to new bands. First to bat at this thrilling enterprise was Atarka, from Birmingham. Although not as busy as it might grow to be later within the night, the band nonetheless put in a hell of a shift to entertain those that had arrived early, treating them to their groovy model of loss of life metallic. Sadly, Atarka additionally needed to deal with some sound points, together with a number of suggestions and a microphone which broke, so it is somewhat arduous to guage their music, however they need to positively be counseled for working by means of the issues.

It is going to grow to be obvious when studying these experiences that for lots of the bands, there will not be an enormous quantity of element, and that is as a result of the typical set time was half an hour. Thirty minutes was all that was wanted for the subsequent band nevertheless, as Scotland based, Worcester primarily based technical loss of life metallic outfit Desecrator took to the stage. Regardless of having a couple of points with the sound themselves, their music actually shined throughout their set, providing attendees a intelligent, however catchy strategy to the style the place one might simply as simply mosh as stand again and respect the stellar musicianship on show. Frontman Mark Dubanowski, who began Desecrator as a solo undertaking in 2007, has a pure expertise for chatting away to the gang and it helps make the band all of the extra endearing. Positively search out this band when you’re a fan of technical loss of life metallic, or songs about video video games, as a result of they’ve actual expertise.

Following on from the loss of life metallic, we had one thing somewhat completely different within the form of Damaged Jaw, a band which was each bit as punk as they have been metallic, however extra importantly, 100% enjoyable. It took some within the crowd some time to grasp the place the vocalist was, earlier than they seen he was within the crowd and that set the tone for the remainder of their set actually, because the bassist arrange a mic stand on the dance flooring the place he might carry out with loads of consideration on him. Whereas this was occurring, the band handled such controversial topics as pineapple on pizza, as their vocalist sauntered behind the bar to ask for a drink, microphone nonetheless in hand. It was anarchy at its best and musically they provided a number of enjoyment too, which might little question be of curiosity to followers of such bands as The Exploited, Municipal Waste and maybe Psychostick.

A standard drawback amongst any pageant, massive or small, is that the set instances can change and so sadly, we have been solely capable of catch the final two songs of occult heavy metallic outfit The Heretic Order, fronted by former Breed 77 guitarist Danny Felice (AKA Lord Ragnar Wagner,) subsequent door in The Rolleston. The little I did see was extraordinary nevertheless, channeling the spirit of bands like Mercyful Destiny to placed on a watch catching present in restricted area, whereas the music instantly grabbed the listener by the ear and hooked them. Felice has a improbable stage presence and I want I might have seen extra, but when after solely two songs a band could make you search for the place they’re taking part in subsequent, then they’re positively doing one thing proper. I do not suppose I’ve ever been so fast to suggest a band.

Sadly, Edinburgh riff masters Canine Drained have been unable to make it to Swindon in time for his or her set and so subsequent to assert Ranges was Divine Chaos. This can be a band I would heard of fairly a bit, however by no means really seen or listened to myself, so I used to be very curious to search out out what they have been like. It seems… Actually bloody good! The Berkshire primarily based band, with a Swindon native on bass, combines loss of life and thrash metallic for a sound fairly harking back to the “Gathering” period Testomony, with out it feeling like a rip off for a second. Vocalist Jut Tabor is an absolute powerhouse and a pure metallic frontman, simply hyping up the gang with out fixed shouts of “How are we tonight?” It has been 4 years because the launch of their newest studio album, “The Means To Oblivion” however primarily based on their displaying this night, the subsequent one might be definitely worth the wait. This was a improbable set from a extremely expert group with monumental expertise. Undoubtedly among the finest underground metallic bands the South has to supply.

Lastly we come to Friday’s headliners, Raging Speedhorn. Having witnessed them a couple of months in the past at Desertfest, I knew that Swindon was in for a deal with and so it was that the Colby collective stormed the stage with a fierce vitality. A number of folks had travelled into city to see RSH and I am certain they agreed it was definitely worth the journey, as classics like “Fuck The Voodoo Man” and newer favourites akin to “Arduous To Kill” tore by means of the Wiltshire air. The energy of the band has all the time lied with their passionate performances and regardless of the place they’re, they all the time placed on a frenzied present, amping up the chaos and carnage as excessive as attainable, whereas followers broke out into mosh pits and set free all their frustrations in a constructive method. A Raging Speedhorn set by no means calms down and subsequently, neither did the gang, geed up by the sonic fireball earlier than them. It was one thing of a brief, sharp shock to the system, ending round ten o’clock however leaving followers battered and smiling. An ideal method to finish a very good introduction to the weekend.