DESERTFEST LONDON 2015 – LONDON 24/04- 26/04
Psychedelia and Southern spirit arrive in London
A few years past, the end of April came to be a very special date among lovers of stoner rock and psychedelic in London, thanks to DESERTFEST, one of the best festivals of the sort.
It started off as a two-day festival held in very small venues which would fit up to 500 people but it is now becoming a mass event; three days and the best venues in Camden Town: the Electric Ballroom, Koko and The Underworld. Other small venues such as the Black Heart, The Purple Turtle and the Jazz Café were also hosting bands this year. Every year the festival strives to improve in terms of organisation, venues, staff and what interests us most, the line-up. This edition’s was particularly good as we had no less than stoner/doom/psychedelic kings RED FANG, EYEHATEGOD and SLEEP headlining each of the days.
Friday 24 April
As expected, Camden Town was packed with DESERTFEST attenders, especially around the Electric Ballroom, where the main stage was. It is precisely here where Metalcry decided to spend the very first evening.
For starters we had NY-based psychedelic rock trio THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX. The Americans introduced us to their recently released full-length Gravitron, of which they played most of its tracks: ‘No way man’, ‘Proto World’, ‘It’s Alright’, their single ‘Sexecutioner’ and the vivid ‘Fuckface’ , to name a few. The venue was full of fans of the band and their rapport with the audience was excellent. They performed accompanied by a pop-art/’60s American-psychedelia-inspired video-clip, as they normally do, and ended the show with their single ‘Revival’.
After such nice aperitif, we head to see our favourite Londoners, ORANGE GOBLIN. The quartet have a long musical career under their belts, with 8 studio albums in the market and several EP’s and live CD’s. They’re celebrating their 20th anniversary this year and what is DESERTFEST if not the best place to get the celebrations started.
Something we just know when we get to see these guys is the much valued appreciation they show for their fans’ unconditional support. Frontman Ben Ward’s thankful words get to the audience and transform the atmosphere into some sort of connexion between the band and their fans. This makes ORANGE GOBLIN a great band to experience, be their ‘Maiden-esque’ classic heavy metal inspired fusion of doom-rock of your likes or not. After an introductory moment with ‘I want you (She’s so heavy)’ by THE BEATLES, the band started to go through most of their discography, where songs taken mostly from their well-known The big black were played, for instance ‘You will never get the moon in that’ and ‘The big black’. Others songs from more recent works were ‘Red Tide Rising’, among others, while the ambient was procured by the moving images of horror and action film clips from the ‘60s and ‘70s such as ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Circus of Horrors’, ‘Hell’s Belles’, ‘Shivers (they came from within)’, ‘Beyond the door’ and ‘Let’s scare Jessica to death’. All must be said, these images were exceptionally synched with the band’s music and entertained us all. There were numerous humorous moments and stage collaborations in their show too. Songs such as ‘Turbo Efflunt (Elephant)’ and ‘Beginner’s guide to suicide’ from their album Healing Through Fire, featured two of their friends playing keyboards and the harmonica. The Londoners often like to share and celebrate their achievements by playing and this was exactly the case. Ben’s words praise the audience for their continued support: ‘if it weren’t for all of you down there over all these years, we wouldn’t be here today’. They also shared the scoop that they will be playing their 20th anniversary gig at the same venue on 17 December.
The first day of the festival is getting to an end and the most awaited moment for many fans is fastly approaching. The venue is getting busier and busier and there’s more and more RED FANG’s tees and patches around. As opposed to the other bands we have seen earlier, favourite stoner-metal band won’t go for the ambient video-clips but will just simply use the projector to show their 1st album’s front image, making their show, compared to the rest of the bands, a bit more dull. RED FANG is a band with a rather short musical career. It was founded in 2009 when they released their eponymous album and thanks to MASTODON’s support and the undebatable quality of their work (‘Prehistoric Dog’ was among the tracks in this album), they have become a landmark band when it comes to stoner-rock. It has been two years since the release of their third studio album Whales and leeches and they have been touring great part of the world ever since.
They are currently in the process of recording their fourth full-length so they took this opportunity at DESERTFEST to show us one of their new tracks and remind us why they are one of the top bands within the style. Their show started off with the sixth song of their first LP, Bird on Fire, followed by several tracks from their following album Murder the Mountains, such as ‘Dirt Wizard’, ‘Number Thirteen’ and ‘Malverde’.
The sound was rather good, despite the sound problems bassist and lead vocalist Aaron Beam experienced for a few moments, and the songs were indisputably well chosen, but it is true that the interaction with the audience was so minimal that, in our view, the start of the show looked a bit poor. It wasn’t until they played their mega hit ‘Cream like blood’ that the show picked up and it all turned upside down; them joking with their fans and telling stories from previous gigs in London. As mentioned before, they played some new songs, whose titles they didn’t unveil. However, from Metalcry we can assure you that they keep up with the standards. They called it a night with ‘Throw up’, not before they played their hymn and widely acclaimed ‘Prehistoric Dog’.
Saturday 25 April
Second day at DESERTFEST starts with Icelandic stoner band THE VINTAGE CARAVAN. The Reykjavik trio look amazed at an indisputably crowded Electric Ballroom despite the early time of their show (2.45pm). Among a list of 8 songs, they present their new single from album coming out next 15 May with record label Nuclear Blast. This single ‘Babylon’ is already available on Spotify and alongside the live premiere of ‘Shaking Beliefs’, it gives us a taster of what their new work is going to sound like. They continue with their already hymn ‘Craving’, which certainly leaves us craving for more. Guitarist and vocalist Óskar Logi’s presence is energetic and, despite the time, he had the vast majority of the audience in his pocket – when taking a look around there’s plenty of people headbanging to their dirty stoner/hard-rock.
With ‘King’s Voyage’ we embark in a psychedelic ‘trip’ (indeed!) of matching colourful visuals as if from a kaleidoscope, and without even noticing it we enter a trance the length of Óskar’s trippy solo. They’ll close the show with ‘Expand your mind’, when frontman comes down to the pit to finish what for us was a rather inspiring experience surrounded by cheering and satisfied members of the audience.
In the blink of an eye we have Americans BLACK PYRAMID on stage. Despite their not so extensive musical career (the band founded in 2007) and the several changes to their line-up (only founding member left is drummer Clay Neely, who is not with us today either due to family issues), the experience of its members is obvious.
The Massachusetts trio self-define their style as ‘psychedelic war metal’, and they have got their reasons; the stoner/sludge metal they do is blunt, aggressive and full of doom notes. Guitarist and singer Darryl Shepard’s joining the band in 2012 (taking over Andy Beresky, who had left the band after the recording of their second album, II) brings a slightly different tone to their music, noticeable in songs such as ‘Issus’ and ‘Swing the scimitar’, from their third studio album Adversarial (2013), whose riffs are tinged by more classic heavy metal influences. Likewise their new single ‘Open the gates’ is evidence of this too. From previous works, we can hear ‘Mercy’s bane’ (II), full of clearly ‘Sabbathian’ doom-rock riffs, and ‘Visions of Gehenna’, from their first and eponymous album (2009), which they end the show with.
After having marched with the Massachusetts trio, it is time for one of the longest-awaited moments of the evening: it is time for desert-rock creator BRANT BJORK to come on stage.
How could we sum up the career of a musician and composer who has worked in the industry since the late ‘80s? He was no less than the founding drummer of KYUSS and has played in five bands, among which there is VISTA CHINO, whose name had to be changed from original KYUSS LIVES! due to legal issues with former member of KYUSS Josh Homme. Other bands where he has partaken are the well-known FU MANCHU and MONDO GENERATOR. Not to mention the ten solo albums he has not only played all instruments for but also recorded and produced. Truth is you have to be talented to have achieved such thing. BRANT BJORK is an eminent figure in the world of stoner-rock and this is well-known by all lovers of the style. At DESERTFEST this is made crystal-clear to us; the venue filled more and more as the looming time for his show was coming.
From quite a solid set-list (which we can imagine was difficult to elaborate, having so much repertoire in his hands), the Californian chose to begin the evening with ‘Automatic Fantastic’, from his first solo album Jalamanta (1999), followed by the classic ‘Low Desert Punk’, straightaway driving the audience completely mad. Brant has a close rapport with his fans as he showed when thanking them for their enthusiasm. He also mentioned how much he likes what he does… the desert, women and playing in London. It has been few months since the release of the album Black Flower Power with THE LOW DESERT PUNK BAND, so he presented several songs such as ‘Buddha Time (Everything Fine)’ or ‘Boogie Woogie On Your Brain’, among others. We could not forget other of his solo albums such as Local Angel or Keep it cool, from which he played the song that names it. He would then close with ‘I Miss My Chick’. We don’t really know if he actually does miss his chick but rest assured we are going to miss him for the rest of the evening, if not the rest of the festival. His charisma, talent and personality left us open-mouthed in astonishment. For Metalcry this was clearly the best act of this Saturday night.
The second day of the festival will soon be over and there’s something in the air telling us about what it is shortly going to happen; tonight’s headliners are about to deliver. The projector’s image has changed and now shows the front image of the latest work of New Orleans’ quintet EYEHATEGOD.
To those who do not know much about the band, they belong to the NOLA metal scene and are one of the biggest bands to play more aggressive stoner/sludge. They formed in 1988, have eight studio albums and two compilation albums under their belts, two of their most famous ones being Take as needed from pain and Dopesick. The band has gone through many stages, during which it split either for its members to start a solo project, or due to internal problems or even due to leader Mike IX Williams’ issues with jail and drug addiction. Some of you may know of the leader’s battle against heroin and the unconditional support shown both to him and the band by Phil Anselmo.
We can hear people cheering the quintet’s name at once from the first rows. With no further delay (and no further delay indeed as the band came onstage 10 minutes before schedule), sludge metal messiahs started their show with their latest album’s first track ‘Agitation! Propaganda!’, which instantly led into a mosh pit. They played no less than 22 songs and covered wide part of their discography, mostly focusing on early works, from which we could hear songs such as ‘White Nigger’, ‘30$ Bag’ and the 2 parts of ‘Sisterfucker’ (from album Ten years of abuse and still broke). Also part of their set were several songs from their previously mentioned album Dopesick, such as ‘Dixie Whiskey’, ‘Methamphetamine’ and ‘Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War)’, and their show was topped off with one of their darkest doomiest songs, ‘Run it into the Ground’. If for many people, we are sure, this was a great show, for us it was quite average; it didn’t really live up to our expectations of a band of such calibre, let alone of a band headlining the festival on Saturday night. We can’t argue that the sound was up to standards but in terms of attitude, their performance fell short. New Orleans quintet looked rather aloof onstage and they barely shared any words with the audience; only words uttered by frontman Mike IX Williams were to ask people for booze or other substances, which sometimes led to quite awkward moments of silence. Never did they show what they were there for: to be the biggest, strongest act of the night. Rather, other bands playing before them did show the majesty and grandeur of a solid performance. Maybe, as they themselves explained during an interview for DESERTFEST: ‘Preparations?! We are EYEHATEGOD! A fest is a fest, a gig is a gig. As far as preparations go, we have packed our guitars and our amps and we are ready to be there. The aim is to deliver a destructive gig’. And that was exactly the impression they gave; that they were there just to play.
Having finished the main act of DESERTFEST’s second day we are not quite satisfied yet so we head to The Black Heart for more. This is a small pub with a little stage upstairs which can host up to 100 people. We anticipated this venue was going be too small for the magnanimous HANG THE BASTARD, especially being the only act on at that time. And small it was indeed! We were lucky to get in as many people had to hold a queue and wait for somebody to come out in order to get in, very Saturday night club like. Many actually missed out. The queue to see the Londoners almost went round the whole building and those who were actually in felt like sardines in a tin. The venue had nothing to envy a sauna.
HANG THE BASTARD have released 2 studio albums and are currently presenting Sex in the Seventh Circle around the UK. What is DESERFEST if not the best opportunity to play their new songs? It is an up-and-coming band among London’s alternative scene and we are sure they were amazed to see so many faces packed in at their gig. The show was indeed sick, a headbanging crowd having a total blast. The Bastards proved to be full of energy and ready to share it with the audience. Their set-list was short but intense, focusing mainly on their latest album, from which they played 5 songs. Among these songs was their single ‘Sweet Mother’, a moment the singer chose to show some guts and throw himself into a singing audience. The cheering and clapping wouldn’t stop for minutes after their last song, showing that they were just the right band to have as a closing act to our second day at DESERTFEST.
Sunday 26 April
Our last day at DESERTFEST looks promising as Camden Town is bursting with people from early afternoon. We are not surprised given that today is the day for the kings of the scene and we are here to see no less than KARMA TO BURN, ACID KING, UFOMAMMUT and legend SLEEP, a band London has been craving to see live for years. Today the main stage is at Koko, literally round the corner from The Purple Turtle, where the remaining acts flagged up by Metalcry were taking place, so we spent the day coming back and forth, from and to both venues. At lunch time we decide to go see Germans MY SLEEPING KARMA for a session of virtuous, peace-filled music and tranquillity.
They took this opportunity at DESERTFEST to present their soon-to-be-released fourth studio album, Moksha, to their British fans. They are the band to consider when it comes to the spiritual side of stoner-rock, for the trio plays with the codes of Hindu faith like no one else. Mainly instrumental, they are highly recommended for those who love rock at its most progressive and/or even post-rock. Compared to other guest bands at this 2015 edition of DESERTFEST, the German trio can reach far more different audiences with their unique vision of psychedelic rock. Many things caught our attention at this show.
First, there is the excellency of their sound and the complicity among the members. There is also the exquisite use of video art: trippy clips full of symbolism and spirituality (depictions of Hindu deities) in perfect accordance with their songs. And last, the rather positive response by the London crowds to whom they showed much appreciation. They are very devoted to their fans and this left the audience wanting more of them. An encore wasn’t possible though. Their performance mainly featured songs from 2012 album Soma and previously mentioned new-born Moksha, of which they let us hear tracks such as ‘Akasha’, ‘Prithvi’ and album’s eponymous song, to close the show.
From the exotic and spiritual sounds of the Germans we now go back to the stoner sounds of the Western world, pure redneck style. This time we fancy experiencing a storm from the Southern States; only this one comes right from England, DESERT STORM.
Since playing at the first-ever DESERTFEST, Oxford quintet have knocked their socks off to get to where they currently are. Having released their second full-length, Horizontal Life, and having toured relentlessly with bands of the likes of KARMA TO BURN, HONKY and NASHVILLE PUSSY, DESERT STORM have continued to grow and have gained well-deserved recognition among the scene. The release of their third album last autumn, Omniscient (which they recorded with ORANGE GOBLIN producer Jamie Dood), has earned them good critiques by music press, which have been backed up by the solid quality of their live shows. The venue was packed when they came onstage and their show mostly consisted of tracks from their new full-length, such as ‘Outlander’, ‘Horizon’, ‘Night bus blues’ and ‘Queen Reefer’. A rather remarkable moment for Metalcry was their hit ‘Word to the wise man’ and the jam session they delivered with ‘Shenzhen’, where drummer Matt Ryan could show off his skills with the pedals. DESERT STORM are soon to become a landmark band among the stoner-tinged Southern rock scene. Because hard work is always rewarded and the Oxford quintet totally deserve it.
We then come back to Koko for one of the longest-awaited acts of this Sunday: San Francisco trio, ACID KING.
After their almost 10-year hiatus proclaimed in 2006, the three-piece led by guitarist/vocalist Lori S., is one of the landmark bands among American doom/stoner circles. The female presence among the scene isn’t very common and this only makes them more especial. The original line-up is almost complete but for the incorporation of bassist Mark Lamb. ACID KING is not the type of band that decides to reunite to sell out and then vanish into thin air. There is actually an album on its way, their fourth full-length Middle of nowhere, centre of everywhere. Tonight’s gig consisted of seven songs but due to their duration and the heavy-riffed repetitive guitars, it gave the impression that they were playing only four (extremely long) ones. People seemed to know only two of these songs; ‘Electric Machine’ (from 1999 second album Busse Woods) and their closing ‘Wheel Nation’, from album III. The rest of the tracks they played we assume are taken from their new work, and we assume it because they didn’t utter a word. However, it wasn’t really necessary; ACID KING’s music is so powerful that words sometimes are just redundant. The very few but remarkable voice interventions by Lori consisted of reverb-effect-loaded lineal melodies that, alongside the blunt riffs, contributed to a heavy doom atmosphere echoing dark misticisms. If you like doom and you haven’t seen ACID KING yet, don’t miss out next time!
One last time we head to The Purple Turtle. After our interview with Swedes THE ORDER OF ISRAFEL, we couldn’t miss them in action.
There weren’t many people at the gig but this is again understandable if you consider that they only released their first full-length Wisdom last year. Even though there are former members of bands of the likes of CHURCH OF MISERY or HORISONT (frontman Tom Sutton), they are not so famous yet. Promising rather. As they tell us themselves, their shows are energetic, full of elegance, and they combine so many different aspects within the metal sub-genres (from Sabbath heavy metal grooves to doom-tinged dark riffs) that the arrow of sounds is pleasantly vast. For logistic reasons, the Swedish three-piece could not bring their own instruments; Sutton’s funny jokes about the ones they had to play with gladly entertained the audience for a few minutes while a pedal for the drum set was being replaced.
Key to their success tonight was their playing of 15-and-a-half-minute-long song ‘Promises made to the Earth’, as they managed to hypnotise the crowd for its entire length before they were able to come to their senses and beg for more. Once the Order were gone though, they were gone and we had to move on.
Night is falling and we only have two bands left. We find a spot in Koko where we will spend the rest of our evening and patiently wait for the two big acts of the night.
First to play were Italian landmark psychedelic metal band UFOMAMMUT. It was only two weeks ago when the Italians released their eighth studio album Ecate (Neurot Recordings) and once more they’ve made it clear that they are always reinventing the wheel. Many critics consider UFOMAMMUT the stepchildren of American SLEEP, maybe because of their album Eve, which consists of an only 45-minute long song. Anyhow, no one can argue against its members’ virtuous live performance and the variety of sounds in their discography. The Italians made an energetic appearance but due to technical problems during the first song, «Somnium», the show had to be stopped for a good 5 minutes’ time. Luckily the audience chose to show their support by cheering and clapping at the members, despite their own silence. Having fixed the technical problems, the Italian trio continues delivering their show, accompanied by powerful lights and ‘80s-styled psychedelia/drug-themed clips. Even if their interaction is almost non-existent, their music and the atmosphere makes it very clear that sometimes instruments and songs speak for themselves and there is absolutely no need for any member of the band to address the audience in order to get to them. As the show continued, the background visuals turned darker and darker, depicting only natural elements such as clouds, smoke, fire or the sea, in hellish red tones which were in real synchrony with the heaviness of guitarist’s doom riffs. They included many tracks from their new album Ecate in their set-list, such as ‘Plouton’, ‘Temple’, ‘Chaosecret’ and ‘Revelation’, but there were also songs like ‘Snailkin’, which they chose to finish their show, that are taken from the work they became mostly famous for: their second full-length God.
The festival is truly coming to an end now and it is time for the almighty SLEEP to go on stage. The venue is completely packed! We clearly struggle to get ourselves a place to watch the show… Having reformed in 2009 following their self-imposed hiatus, it seems the cult status of the trio continues to grow show by show. The much loved heavy riff that Sabbath basically invented has been transformed into a green haze that permeates from the amps engulfing the venue and crowd, SLEEP is stoner metal at its most extreme, at its most mystical. Expansive, grinding, mind-bending, the SLEEP way is so entrenched in the green leaf powers you can’t help but be mesmerised by the sheer depth of droning noise seeping from the stage. SLEEP were then being perceived by a large, intimate crowd, as they opened up the set with the first 20 minutes of their one-hour track Dopesmoker.
To hear at least a section of the one hour stoner opus instantly made the gig all the more epic for all attendees. It was then after, they would perform new music that they are currently writing up. Of course, with one new song written up, it was to be expected by the fans to hear them play that new track live, and they did. SLEEP went on and performed their newest track ‘The Clarity’ which was executed perfectly by the band. After ‘The Clarity’, the band went back to the time of ‘Sleep’s Holy Mountain’, where the first song off the album that was performed was ‘Dragonaut’, before moving on to ‘Sonic Titan’ of an unreleased track from Dopesmoke album.
The band didn’t talk much throughout the show, though, Al Cisneros did give his thanks to everyone who showed up on behalf of the rest of SLEEP. The four tracks from ‘Sleep’s Holy Mountain’ that were performed were all just as amazing to witness live as it was to hear it on a CD or vinyl. No matter how many bong rips you’ve had or how long you’ve been sober for, to hear any particular track off the album live is a beautiful moment to hear and see. After the end of ‘From Beyond’, the band went straight back into ‘Dopesmoker’, where they moved onto the ‘Cultivator’ and ‘Improved Morris’ sections of the one-hour song. With the band finishing off their set with that track, guitarist Matt Pike left the stage, bowing to the crowd, as he grabbed his electronic vaporiser. Jason Roeder then left, with Al Cisneros being the last onstage, leaving his bass next to the amps to allow his four strings create a drone sound to spread throughout the room as he walked off the stage, giving his thanks to the crowd. SLEEP are the most influential entity in stoner music, and their live executions of their music will continue to inspire many worldwide fans for many years to come.
Having said that, we say goodbye to these mind-blowing days of stoner, psychedelic and doom. We look forward to attending next year’s edition of the festival, hoping that it will bring good times, better musicians and improve the capacity of some of the venues.
