... my HELLFEST 2013 (Day 1&2)

Another edition of HELLFEST, I just did Day 1 and 2, missed today (day 3) as we were celebrating the 75th anniversary of my mother , he ! and as one month ago for the 50th birthday of my sister - the day after the Anthems of Doom fest, I was hardly presentable at lunchtime with the parents and family but I guess that was a surprise for nobody !!! 

For some reasons I'm not gonna write a detailed report, just the coolest pictures I took.... and some quick impressions; of course I digged all the bands mentioned below, missed as usual several ones I had planed to see on my schedule, been disappointed by a couple of ones (Hooded Menace especially, but that wasn't a big surprise, as the 3rd album was a real deception), have been too much in the back for some others and finally saw just one or two songs for others (Saxon, Accept, Neurosis, Down...)... 

Shit, I drank so much rhum and red wine during three days (I arrived on Thursday evening) that  I actually feel my entrails completely acidified ! It's nice to get to know people who are partners of the fest, this allows to come easily with bottles of strong alcohol rather than just drinking soft ones, but tonight my rotten body tells me that  it's better when I just concentrate on hash or/and weed, hahaha !   

Rather than setlists or special details that I'm not able to clearly remember, the most essential impression that remains is PLEASURE ! The perfect organization, the excellent sound conditions (under the tents at least - where I saw all those bands below - , but it looks like this is still variable on the mainstages...), some good friends to speak/have fun with... Everything was cool ! 

Coming back to the playing conditions under The Valley Tent, I think they were the best I've ever heard there in 5 editions and shit - it can make such favourable differences ! SLEEP for example were immense, nothing to do with their too loud performance at Roadburn last year... 

Special mention for UNCLE ACID who were mindblowing... The guys took their time to prepare their LIVE set, there's obviously been a lot of work for this and the fans are immediately rewarded... The vocal performance of each of the 3 guys is stunning !  well, actually Ye Olde and his other guitarist Yotam Rubinger for the most part - bassist contributes too but more like backing vocalist...

Logically, the setlist includes quite a number of songs from the new album "Mind Control" (Mt Abraxas, Poison Apple, Valley of the Dolls, Desert Ceremony) but classics from "Bloodlust" are not forgotten for sure (I'll Cut you Down, Death's Door, Over and Over Again)... This is hypnotic, damn heavy and simply beautiful !!! 

They are yet big but will become much bigger everyday from now on and this set was so good and exciting that I'm really looking forward to see them again... Sure I think it's a band to see ultmimately in a small-to- average venue or under a big tent like this friday but the guys are ready for stadiums or big halls...The ultimate combination of this new album and the fact of opening for Black Sabbath on their upcoming euro-tour will make them explode before the end of the year, we need new leaders, UNCLE ACID will be one of them and I've got no problem at all with that :) 

just like PROCESSION for classic Doom; after having seen them for the 2nd time in two months and in pretty different conditions, I definitely think that they have the potencial to replace Candlemass in the realm of Doom METAL... Felipe has really that little plus/something special in a LIVE environment that just a few can prevail on.

The pictures are posted in order of appearance, all those bands are in the TOP 10 of my fest which in the right order is :

UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS

SLEEP

PROCESSION

BLACK PYRAMID

BISON BC

MISANTHROPE

REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER

PALLBEARER

STILLE VOLK

SURTR

STILLE VOLK

MISANTHROPE

BISON B.C.

                                         


                                                                     PALLBEARER

                                                                  BLACK PYRAMID

                                                                         SLEEP

                                                                          R.L.H.T.

                                                                         SURTR

                                                                     PROCESSION

                                                   UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS

                                                        Cheers folks \m/

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats "Blood Lust" (soon to be released on vynil via Rise Above rds)

Emerging from an (english) acid coven with an oustanding 2nd album named "blood lust", here's the new sensation of the whole underground (proto)doom scene : Uncle Acid & the deadbeats...

Self financed at only 100 copies, this album is simply brilliant and (a few weeks later) already has caught the attention of Rise Above which will soon release a limited vynil edition (certainly before a larger CD edition ?). Potencially, there's for sure a hype coming towards this band but I think this would be well deserved, as their identity is real and cohesive.

To compare with bands that present apparently some same caracters, this trio is musically closer to  The Devil's Blood than to Ghost, with the occultosatanic elements being replaced by an horror movie vibe, they take influences in the 70's from Black Sabbath to Neil Young, Cactus or the Kinks (B.S. being naturally the most prominent...). 

The vintage production fits pretty well with a particularly dark and haunting approach topped by a psychedelic special touch; melody is constantly present too, not just with guitars but also vocally wise.The pace is always removed and heavy;  some riffs are really original, so catchy that you immediately memorize them while beating the rythm with your feet. I don't know if that's just my case but this band has for me a positive  and exciting edge that I've rarely felt before in the doom genres, maybe cause I feel it's actually THE perfect stuff to listen loudly without making at least half of the people running away !!!

Some people have complain about the expensive price of the album after having realized that it was a CDR, sure this can be a bit disappointing for some "fetichists" but the "blood lust" 's content is absolutely flawless, so they'd better complain before about albums that are musically just empty and generic... Anyway I thought that it would be fair to give you Uncle Acid's  own answer about that :

-source "doom forever - forever doomed FORUM"-

"This is yer Uncle Acid..I was pointed in the direction of this thread and just thought I'd clear a few things up. First off...thanks for all the kind words on the album, very much appreciated! Secondly about the CDR thing....As we were only releasing 100 copies to start with, we simply could not afford to get a glass mastered CD pressed and replicated at such low quantities. We were given the advice that anything under 500 copies should be duplicated rather than replicated. We just sent in the master disc and got it duplicated at the factory and it came back on discs that to me resembled CD's. In fact the order sheet even says "GRADE A+ CD". But now I'm told they're technically CD-Rs!! I'm a musician...to me it was just a plastic disc with our music on that can play in a cd player. I honestly didn't think there was much difference. But...now I know, so thanks for bringing it up.

We've not had any complaints from anyone so I was not aware of this being an issue for some people... but I've updated the listing on our big cartel page to mention that it's a cdr. We aren't here to screw anyone or mislead people and I hope no one thinks that's the case. And to the guy fae Glesga...at the moment we're not signed to Rise Above, they're just releasing the vinyl for us...something we could never afford to do on our own! Cheers!"

 That being said, one thing is certain : we've got here one of the most surprising effort of the last two or three years and nothing can prevent their ascent... Experience them now !
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