Damnation Festival 2012 Preview - Part 2 - Music Reviews, Interviews & News

Electric Wizard

Dorset stoner four piece Electric Wizard close the main stage at this edition of the Damnation Festival and anyone who choose to watch these over fellow headliners Pig Destroyer will be seeing one of the finest stoner / doom bands in the scene at the peak of their powers.

Electric Wizard‘s most recent album “Black Masses” has been a high point in a career full of strong albums and spectacular live shows and this will be another show not to miss.After a day which will feature a lot of insanely fast and brutal performances, a nice chilled out headliner will no doubt mark this years edition of Damnation Festival as one of the best yet.

Hawk Eyes

After opening the show last year on the far flung third stage, hometown band Hawk Eyes (Jägermeister Stage, 2.45pm) have been given the honour of opening the main stage this year and judging by last years efforts and the reports from recent gigs, their raucous noise should draw a big and enthusiastic crowd. Shortly to go on our with Therapy?, their stock appears to be rising every time I hear about them. These could very easily end up blowing a couple of the bigger acts offstage.

Primordial (Jägermiester Stage 6.50pm) will, in my opinion, be one of the standout sets of the day. 2011’s “Redemption At The Puritans Hand” album was acclaimed by many as one of the best albums of last year and with similarly glowing reports of their tour earlier this year, this opportunity to see one of the bands rare appearances in the North of England should not be missed. With a stage presence as string as the back catalogue they have from their twenty year career, each show always ends up as being something a little bit special.

Maybeshewill

Leicester’s instrumental post-rockers Maybeshewill (Eyesore stage, 7.55pm) will be on hand to provide a somewhat lighter alternative to the surrounding noise merchants. These guys seem to be constantly touring which has seen them reach all four corners of the globe. Maybeshewill‘s latest album, “I Was Here For a Moment, Then I Was Gone” has propelled them to the next level and a much wider audience, and fully justifying their billing in the lineup. A band to catch if you need a moment or two of serenity in the mayhem of Damnation Festival.

Yorkshire doom merchants My Dying Bride (Jägermeister stage, 8.00pm) are a band that have stuck to their own philosophy over the years. They have refused to conform or compromise their sound in order to appeal to a wider audience. Their new album “A Map of All Our Failures” is testament to that philosophy and steadfast mindset. My Dying Bride will deliver a morbid, melancholic hour long set, filled with a mixture of classic tracks and maybe a select few from their latest opus, we hope.