Chains, chants and glam rock hair hit Brighton Racecourse on 27th September 2014 for Brighton's first ever all metal festival….

As my colleague and I arrived at the entrance to Brighton Racecourse, I couldn't help thinking what an unlikely venue the racecourse was for a metal festival. As we were ushered into the forecourt, the metallic clatter filled my ears and the resulting crowd signalled to me it was to be a day of chains, glam rock hair, tattoos and piercings. Brighton's première metal festival was put on by organisers Becky Weatherley and Stefan Curzon-Price.

The festival consisted of two stages, the main stage, and the Uprawr stage. The Uprawr stage was situated usually where the parade ring is. Its aim as a stage was to act as the showcasing arena for bands that the Brighton community and the headliners themselves had chosen.

 

Food choice was limited with little more than burgers (albeit luxury burgers) and pizzas. My colleague and I would have liked to have seen a little more variety, with perhaps a Thai or Chinese stall for the more refined festival goers. The same could be said for the beer tent and its offerings. If you didn't like beer or cider, or a warm Jack and Coke you were pretty stuffed!

I was also utterly surprised by the number of toilets that were available too, and I have only good things to report (surprisingly) being a lady you're usually subjected to plenty of gross mishaps when bums are placed on seats. However this could be down to the fact it was only a one day festival, and pints of beer were £4 a pop!

What is also surprising about this event was given the amount of raw noise emanating from the robust amps, there was not a lot of noise bleed, so no band was at a loss sound wise whilst they performed.

Upon entering the main stage area, we were greeted by the Fathoms, a heavy raw energy, with driving drums and a lead singer who pushed himself to the limit. He was seen swinging his microphone around like a yo-yoing champion and climbing the metal gantry at the side of the stage, his Adidas shorts swinging and Nirvana t-shirt acting as the ultimate statement of anarchy. His roar was certainly heard by his audience. I would definitely like to see this band again.

Bigfoot for me conjured up memories of Jack Black and his Rock School crew, except this time he was backed by guitarists that sported the very best in glam rock hair. This band came across at first as your atypical glam rock band, however, after a few minutes I was exposed to something quite different, the lead singer's soulful vocals. It made me wonder if perhaps there was in fact more to this band than my original preconception that they reminded me of a Jack Black tribute. I then left the Uprawr stage to catch Collisions who were just about to commence with their set on the main stage.

Upon my arrival I could feel stark anticipation and tension resonating through the crowd. Collisions is a band with members that hail from nearby Shoreham and Oxford. With vocals that can be likened to that of Maynard Kennan of Perfect Circle, and instrumentals that flit from reggae, to Drum and Bass, to their main element metal. They are changeable and an engaging band to watch. We got the chance to catch up with them back stage afterwards

"One of the reasons we are called Collisions is because we have so many different influences that we bring to the table, everyone has got their own particular bands that they grew up with" no wonder I thought I heard a bit of reggae in there. Spud their bassist played in a lot of punk bands and attributes his style to punk heroes Green Day, Alkaline Trio, Wild Hearts and Therapy. Ollie on the other hand is massive Nu-Metal head "I absolutely have no qualms with sharing this with the entire world….It's all been about bands like Inflames and Perfect Circle… He's a big vocal influence for me" Richard is into a band I have never heard of "Snot". He insists they are really good and "like a band from America that did one album and they are like a heavier version of Red Hot Chilli Peppers…" From what I can gather Will (who joined us towards the end of the interview) is into just about anything and everything, Spud proclaims "A really important part of what we do is down to Will and his influences. He listens to a lot Snarky Puppy and Miss Sugar…if you get in a van with Will, you don't know what he's going to make you listen to… On the way home we will listen to classic FM just to chill out a bit, we try and get inspiration from wherever we can". The lead singer's cheesy grin lit up the stage, and was seen running around the stage like pre-pubescent child, but it all added to the fun and changeable nature of this band. They are engaging, fun, and my personal favourite was a cover of Bjork they managed to incorporate into their set list. This is a band to look out for if you get the chance to catch them on the Brighton circuit. When asked what the band have in the pipeline Richard jumped in to say "we have actually got an album coming out next year, round about March time, we are just in the process of finalising it. There's a launch organised for April 2015 as well and until then we are going to do a couple more shows round the UK to try and drum up a bit more interest. Predominantly the rest of year is about putting the finishing touches on the album." Ollie was keen to mention that they recorded the album with Gez Walton over at Stronghold studios "He's done work with bands like Pitch Shifting who we greatly respect, and I think he's even worked with Skindred, he was the guitarist of Earthtone9, he's done so much for us".

Back to the festival Glamour of the Kill were a bit too commercial for my liking, with high-pitched vocals and the obligatory neck tattoos, I was left feeling that there wasn't anything significantly individual about this band.

Then it was it over to Despite My Deepest Fear, which consisted of little more than two men battling it out on stage for pole position. Nothing grabbed me, and I felt the set to be a little lacking in originality. I didn't stick around long before I moved on to watch Everest.

Everest are another local Sussex band, from East Grinstead and they certainly had a few surprises in store for us at Breakout. As I approached the stage they had already started and the air was full of beach balls, which I presume they had brought along. It certainly caught your attention with brightly coloured balls being kicked and flung higher than the stage. The band have a nice punky / metalcore sound with a deep growley vocalist and enough diversity to hold your attention. The drummer and bass player looked like they are putting everything into their performance and provide an intense solid backdrop for the rest of the band. While guitarist Jacob loves to prance around the stage egging on the crowd, even popping down into the press pit at one stage… Though it was Chris the other guitarist who stole the show, if not the whole festival, when he called up his long term girlfriend onto the stage and proposed to her half way through the set. She looked totally shell shocked but said yes. An entertaining performance with good music to back them up. They have only released a couple of songs so far but certainly a band to keep an eye on.

Sirens In The Delta probably had the worst deal of any band at the festival. They had come all the way down from Teesside and were on the Uprawr stage at the same time Collisions were performing. One of the annoying things of the festival was the 2nd stage seemed to have bands starting 5 minutes after a band started on the main stage and finish 5 minutes before they ended, which meant a lot of people missed out on the bands playing there. It might have been better to overlap them a bit more. Indeed for the Sirens they barely had enough people watching them to fill a small pub gig. Even I almost missed them as, like most people there, the band to see was over on the main stage. I think this reflected on their performance too. They had interesting pop/rock tunes that should have entertained a bigger audience and you had the feeling they were only putting in about 80% of what they had as they were mainly playing to the festival staff and a few fans. After a few songs I was being drawn back to the main stage again as that was where everyone else was. Maybe I'll give them a second try if they ever come back to Brighton.

Betraying The Martyrs did little to move me either, other than when fear set in as I thought the keyboardist was going to scramble over the crowd on his keyboard like the silver surfer.

Idiom were certainly an interesting band with interesting lyrics and a great stage presence. Their songs are rammed full of social-political commentary and their music, dances between high range melodic part mixed in with some down right dirty metal. The singer Matt is very watchable on stage and great at 'playing the crowd', even getting down off the stage to get up close and personal with the audience. While the guitarist was almost impossible to see as his long hair was constantly being flung around while head-banging along to all the songs. Their current song and EP is entitled 'Same old Songs' which must obviously be taken with a hint of sarcasm as this band is certainly not an act which just churn out the same old stuff. I expect we will be hearing a lot more from this band in the future.

It's obviously a trend I've missed out on in the metal scene recently but The Blackout, like a few other bands on the bill, have two singers trading lyrics all the way through their set. Sometimes it works but for me The Blackout seemed like a string of clichés with bland lyrics, predictable hooks, although they are not afraid to pull any stunt. Whether it's flinging mics around over their heads, lining up for a good head bang or making a big heart shape to the crowd…. While entertaining and very watchable the last thing I took notice of was the music.

Collibus, hold a special place in my heart. I think I can speak on behalf of all Northerners, especially Mancunians, that one feels instant patriotism for northern counterparts. I did remain unbiased though, as much as I could, and of all the female fronted bands they were by far the best over the course over the festival although we counted only three in total. Gemma has huge stage presence and despite the low crowd numbers at the beginning of their set, Gemma kept up the energy by encouraging the crowd participation and showcasing her formidable vocal range. She certainly kept me engaged with her resilience and by the end of the set had managed to collect a number of adoring fans and new ones to head-bang along with her.

Deadly Circus Fire have something slightly different to offer on the metal circuit. Their lead singer Adam Grant's pitchy vocals, reminiscent of Serj Tankian (lead singer of System of a Down) was a welcome surprise. His "look" is that of grove foraging pixie and possessed a more delicate vocal range than most of the other bands. The best way to describe them would be raw melodica. They are certainly not conforming to the norm, and were one of my personal favourites of the festival. But don't be fooled this vocalist has a blood curdling scream that most metal vocalists would love to possess.

InME drew a huge crowd to a setting sun over the racecourse. Faster than the Chase was a memorable song, with the chants floating eerily over the land.

Funeral For A Friend were magnificent and the chorus of fans chanted "Roses for the Dead" in true groupie fashion. It was obvious that the lead singer had lost his voice on this occasion which was unfortunate (he complained of having a runny nose, stating that "It was pretty gross") however the droves of fans didn't seem to mind as they avidly engaged with their set and listened intently to tales of the drummer's Mum cooking the band Cornish pasties, which won a chant from the crowd "Casey's Mum, Casey's Mum, Casey's Mum…"

Skindread's "Ninja" stole the show for me, with an eerie intro, heightening the suspense after their opening tune. Benji paraded an enormous Union Jack flag over his shoulders launching into "No Christians. No Muslims. No Jews. No Blacks. No Gays. Just Skindred"; a move that won over the crowd with a series of cheers and chants. The crowds kept poring into the arena in their droves, and by the end of their set all that could be seen was a sea of the obligatory forked rock gestures and whistling support for these awesome performers.

If I had to pick one band to see again from the festival it would most certainly be The Qemists. I don't even know where to start… I can see them appealing not only to just metal and rock fans but also the techno dance crowd. Maybe it was the overuse of strobes and smoke, maybe it was because they were headlining the 2nd stage and pulled an impressive crowd, either way they certainly deserved the top slot. The energy of the music oused from the stage and the crowd responded to it. Unfortunately they were pitched against Funeral For a Friend on the main stage and I slipped off to check out a few of their songs but the whole time I spent watching them I was thinking about darting back to the other stage to catch the end of The Qemists set. One of the strengths of the festival, that it only took a minute or so to get from being fully immersed in the music on one stage to getting swept up on the other stage but it's always frustrating when there are two bands you want to see playing at the same time only a few hundred meters apart…

 

To conclude the event, I did feel the organisers had to some degree played it safe with bands that they knew would draw a crowd. Personally I would like to see a lot more individuality on stage next year, maybe a few sharper choices on the Uprawr stage, and something a bit different to break up the commercialism. But all in all it was a well thought out and organised festival. It's good to hear the festival will be returning next year but this time I may bring my own packed lunch.
 

For more photos click here: http://www.brightonsfinest.com/html/index.php/Gallery/breakout-2014

Alexandra Lea & Jonski Mason