So, were back home from Germany now. Needed to catch up on sleep after the whole exhausting week... As for the HAMMER OF DOOM festival itself, well, we went there mostly because we had new releases to sell, distribute and send promos of - other than that, to see 4 bands: SAINT VITUS, TROUBLE, EPITAPH and DOOMOCRACY - and these were definitely the highlights of the festival for us. You always have higher expectations when it comes to legends, so in the end the band we enjoyed most was not any of the headliners but Epitaph - Doom from Italy... what an amazing concert! We saw them already at Play It Doom in February this year (and liked them a lot), so we knew what to expect, but this show was even better! Musically its awesome epic doom deeply rooted in Italian tradition, but visually it was also very special and entertaining: the vocalist Emiliano was quite an actor, behaving like a lunatic - so naturally that you could think its the way he is indeed if you didnt talk to him offstage. ;) They also had some cool stage props and two mourners which all added to the great atmosphere of the show. Doomocracy from Greece are a really great newcomer playing epic doom metal in the vein of SOLITUDE AETURNUS - especially the vocalist sounds as if he swallowed Robert Lowe! Fantastic vocals and overall a very good performance. A band to keep an eye on in the future. We wish there were more bands like this one at Hammer of Doom (that is: doom and metal). Now the headliners (not talking about Kadavar, because for us it was Trouble... cant understand why a young German rock band played after the legends and one of the founders of the doom metal genre). So... we didnt have too high expectations regarding TROUBLE, because its just not the same without Eric Wagner. But we have to admit they played a really solid show (musically it was expected) and their new vocalist (Kyle Thomas) did a great job too. He sounded very much like Eric in most of the songs. But in spite of that, some magic was missing. It was 100 times better than when they played with Kory Clarke, but not as amazing as THE SKULL performing Trouble songs. And the Saturday night headliner: SAINT VITUS. I think every fan of this band already knows what happened a week ago in Norway but if not, a long story short: Wino was detained for possession of illegal substances and deported back to USA. So they continued to tour without him, and with Dave Chandler taking most of the vocal duties. So of course it couldnt be as great as with the right vocalist (though still Scott Reagers is our favourite Vitus vocalist) but they did what they could (and kudos for them for not cancelling the rest of the tour!), and it was an enjoyable show after all. Apart from Dave, their drummer sung two songs, and they had Gerrit (Sacred Steel, Dawn of Winter, Angel of Damnation, Battleroar...) doing 2 other songs and also John Perez (Solitude Aeturnus - and their tour manager) helping on a few choruses. So it was definitely a different and unique show and were glad we had a chance to see it. As for the rest of the bands, in order of performance... I could sum it up in one sentence: not really our cup of tea. And this refers mostly to all the female-fronted neo-hippie bands, so the kind of stuff that is most trendy in the recent years. To each their own, and its understandable that the organizers need to sell as many tickets as possible, but personally we wish there were more actual doom metal (traditional doom, epic doom and some death/doom) bands at Hammer of Doom. We arrived late on Friday (just when TROUBLE started playing), so we missed the first 3 bands (WOLFSPIRIT, REINO ERMITANO and JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES), so actually we didnt miss anything (well, at least we like the music of Reino Ermitano, but not the vocals - we also saw them at Malta Doom Metal fest). Friday night headliner, retro hard rock (with some doom elements) band from Berlin, KADAVAR, became very popular in the last couple of years - perfectly stylized as an early 70s band: from their fathers (or grandfathers? ;) or maybe just flea-market) hippie clothes, 70s style beards, through meticulously stylized flyers and photos (oh, the digital era wondrous photo filters - one click and your photos look so retro!) to really nice and warm matching sound (that is at least a positive thing). Music? Well, exactly whats expected: kind of a compilation of a few 70s bands, some better and some worse songs. We liked the ones which were closest to Black Sabbath of course. One thing worth mentioning: the drummer was quite an animal (yeah, I could picture the Muppets Animal as him or the other way round) - always in the spotlight, like a frontman, and really fun to watch - it was like he was running all the time. So, a solid retro band (not better than GRAVEYARD or ORCHID though), just... how honest is this? Whatever, a lot people enjoy this, so good for them. Saturday opener, WUCAN, was another of the neo-hippie female-fronted bands, this one with flute as an additional instrument, which brought to mind Jethro Tull - even though not really the style we are into, I have to admit they have a very talented vocalist. MIST - we already saw them at Malta Doom Metal fest. Well, stylistically its the kind of music we dig (traditional/epic doom metal), but they were rather bad as musicians and the vocalist wasnt good either. And thats not just my (predictable) opinion - Simone was even more harsh this time. A band that may become good in the future, but for now in our opinion theyre riding on the gimmick thing (all-female young band). MOUNT SALEM... Yes, yet another female-fronted retro 70s rock/blues band, this one with keyboards. Lord have mercy... Next! HAMFERD from Faroe Islands were a nice change: solid death/doom, with both growling and clean vocals quite appealing. The one not appealing thing about them (for me at least) was the image (short haired guys in suits... so NOT metal!), but if they want to be original... whatever. The music was good. RUINS OF BEVERAST from Germany is a solo project of a guy who was in a black metal band in the past, and it shows: definitely more black than doom. Its become very hyped recently, so we wanted to know what all the fuss is about, and we gave it a few tries, but no way, we couldnt get into it at all. However live (with a backing band) the impression was better - a bit less black metal. Still, not our cup of tea. AVATARIUM... The new band of Leif Edling without ...Leif Edling (at least live... what a pity). Well, surely you cant say anything bad about his songwriting and ultra-heavy riffs, but we have the impression not all songs were written by him. For example the second song they played (All I Want), a new single, was really pop-ish. Not surprisingly, the (female) vocalist looked also more like a pop-star. Solid musicianship and performance by the other band members, but were not convinced to this stuff at all, and yes, the vocalist (even though quite talented) is the main reason. ORANGE GOBLIN, one of the oldest and most known stoner bands... Were not fans of this style, but still we like Time Travelling Blues album quite a lot, so we enjoyed some of the songs they played (like Blue Snow). A very professional performance, as expected from this experienced band. All in all, this billing was the weakest HOD billing for us - weaker than of the editions we missed (mostly for this reason), but its all a matter of taste of course. Still a perfectly organized festival, with great stage, sound and lights. We just hope there will be more doom metal at Hammer of Doom next year!
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 22:14:13 +0000
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