Live Review: Riffolution Festival – Day 2

I remembered to check Riffolution Promotions social media posts on Sunday morning, only to find that one of the bands I was most excited about seeing, Elephant Tree, has pulled out of day 2, but it meant a slightly later start time, so I had another cup of tea before setting off.

At the slightly later time of 4.20pm, middle eastern prog doom quartet Lowen take to the stage to begin day 2 of the festival. I was massively intrigued by the band, and with the words “Rise, Rise from your slumber” being chanted by the splendidly dressed Nina Saeidi, they start with the excellent “Ashurbanipal’s Request” and what a song that is!!!! The riffs are huge and plentiful, and while Saeidi is fairly motionless, the rest of the band are going crazy, all adding to the mystic.

Something did seem off in the second song though, timing issues maybe, but the voice dominates the room, as it’s so powerful and feels like she’s casting a spell over the audience. I think I may have recognised the new single “Waging War Against God in the set somewhere before they treat us to “an unreleased song, well until Friday” and play “Corruption on Earth” which has lots of fret tapping before it goes all crazy. An enjoyable performance to start the day of with.

Time now for one of the bands I was most looking forward to seeing, Durham’s Goblinsmoker. They are the epitome of slow and low and begin their set with “Take the Dead” and submerged in green atmospheric lighting, they are mean and menacing. Having chatted with a fellow Durham lad before they started, he mentioned that they had a sort of revolving bass slot, and low and behold, before the second song Adam announced that “our bassist starts as this is his last show” and I got a knowing nod and smile from the chap next to me.

“We are going to take you into our world, this is what we do” and we are immersed in “Toad King”, which takes us off into a different place and all I can do is stand in amazement and mouth WOW!!!!!! They are just incredible, they bass sound is awesome, they have riffs aplenty, and heads are banging all over the venue. They leave us with the classic “Time to Ride” another epic journey of a song and they have most definitely brought the heavy with them today.

Following that was always going to be tricky, but one thing I’ve learnt from watching Amon Acid before, is that they always rise to the challenge. With a trippy, space age beginning they start off and soon the heavy bass sound from Briony Charvas comes through loud and clear. They have that lovely silky-smooth flow to their music, with a tinge of eastern mystique, “Toad Venom” possibly, and they make it look so effortless.

Playing songs from their latest release “Submerging” they mix the slow and moody melodies with full on evil in the heavy sections of the songs, with “Demon Rider” I think getting played alongside the brilliant “Hyperion”. Through the applause, we get a nod of approval from the guitarist and the 1 more sign, before we are lost again in their world of hedonism as the crowd moves as one along to their dreamy and beautiful rhythm.

I saw Stockport’s Under for the first time last month supporting Barbarian Hermit and was surprised that they were so high up on this bill, but when that slow drum intro heralded the start of their opening song, I was reminded of how good they sound live. With dual vocals from drummer Andy and bassist Matt, they deliver music that is jagged and slow with off kilter riffs that tease the audience.

Songs like “Malcontents” and “The Ref” give off that sort of Primus feel, but without the slap bass and early Fugazi, but with elements of prog and noise mixed in. We get advice from guitarist Simon about what not to google about Russia, and he adds more venom with his vocal onslaughts. “Happy” is always great to hear live, and the madness ensues throughout their set. With Andy apologetic about “not being able to sound sarcastic” in his praise of Danny from Riffolution, they finish off with the brilliant “Traitor’s Gate”.

Then it was time for the craziness that only comes when you watch Gurt. The four piece take to the stage with frontman Gareth wearing a broad smile and waving at the crowd manically, before shouting “hello”. They bring that heavy sludge, doom noise to the party and are having a damn good time. Playing around 6 songs off their new album “Satan Etc” I think I can make out “Knife Party”, “The Most dying way to Die” and “In for a Penny in for a Pounding” as we get a few others that they had yet to play live before.

We are encouraged to “go and buy it over there, it’s only a tenner” before Gareth reminds us that if bassist Dave “was to fall off a cliff, we are fucked as a band, as he does everything” which is greeted with loud applause. They play another new one, the sludgy wonder that is “Sandworm Fleshlight” and then it’s time for some oldies.

With it being the 10-year anniversary of their debut album Horrendasauras we get asked “does anyone wanna guess what song is next?” to which there is a collective shout from the audience of the title track and with a “way hey” they are off again, with that trademark heaviness. The crowd are lapping it up and getting really into it and with the final song approaching we get a “this means a lot to us, as we’ve been out of it for a while, so thank you” and the big sound of “Rolling Stoned” is pouring out of the speakers. It’s great to have Gurt back.