Damnation festival 2012 – Electric Wizard, My Dying Bride, Pig Destroyer plus more…

Gama Bomb lay it down and lay it down hard with a robust lesson in thrash, which leads nicely into the eagerly awaited set from Irish miserablists Primordial. They rouse the audience to astronomic levels, and given the amount of time they have to play with, we are treated to anthem after gloomy anthem culminating in a triumphant closure with ‘EmpireFalls’.

Trying to get into the bunker to shed some tears watching 40 Watt Sun was nigh on impossible, as experienced throughout most of the day. We hear they were absolutely soul draining, though. Which is what we wanted to hear.

Over on the Terrorizer stage, Aura Noir chuck out a brilliantly intense set with their pure black thrash attack, faces are well and truly sore from this smack to the chops.

Back upstairs, My Dying Bride lure the masses for a crowd eager for more odes to depression following Primordial. Opening with ‘Kneel Til Doomsday’, Aaron gives a passionate performance from the off. Working through a well-rounded set of old tracks with some newies chucked in the mix, it’s great to see theYorkshiredoom lot baptise their return with a stout set borne of fire.

Entering the closing run of the day, Belphegor serve up a savage set before we get our asses down to the Bunker for a good view of AMENRA, which wasn’t needed as their set is suitably drowned in darkness and smoke. Their concrete heavy grooves set a vivid scene of a devastated and dark landscape which is contrasted by Electric Wizard’s slow dirge of doom. Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham’s riffs are catastrophically heavy. So much so, that the floor vibrates and it becomes increasingly difficult to see straight when the likes of ‘Dopethrone’ reaches full momentum. They continue driving on and when the ‘Satanic Rites Of Drugula’ drops, everyone is well and truly locked into a visual stare-off against a wall of doom until the final notes of ‘Funeralopolis’ chime out.

(Shaky fan footage)

Catching the final riffs of Pig Destroyer, what should’ve been a barrage of scathing brutality was marred and underpinned by technical issues and a knackered looking quartet. But when it did come together, it grinded hard.