Kate Russell (@littletinykate) went along to Temple Works for ‘kin Hell Fest last weekend and had one hell of a good time …
As a bit of a lapsed metal gig goer, that noises crashing into my brain from inside the venue snapped me wide awake.
I arrived in time to catch the last half of Edinburgh death metal band Cancerous Womb – their fast, relentless style paired with brutal vocals reminded me exactly what I shouldn’t have been missing. Over competing shouts of ‘Scotland’ and ‘Yorkshire’ and a frenzied circle pit, their set left everyone on a high and hungry for more.
Plymouth’s Ishmael’s doom sludge metal really turned down the tempo but cranked up the intensity. The drums punched through an almost impenetrable trudging wall of noise, while Dani Hawkins’ erosive vocals sounded like a movie exorcism.
Flayed Disciple from Taunton picked up the speed and whipped up the crowd with their energetic, thrashing, guttural death metal. They are forcefully charismatic and amazing to watch – kind of a wonderful punch to the face.
Leeds band Asomvel changed the pace with their more traditional heavy metal. Bringing things back to guitar solos and growling vocals, front man Conan brought some humour to the show. They were the ‘odd ones out’ of the day, and admitted as much on stage, but they put on a great show.
The best of the day for me was Palehorse – brash, ferocious, grinding music, and dual screaming, raw vocals. Their level of intensity was off the scale, going into the audience, screaming from on top of tables – like coiled springs, tense and violently energetic.
Temple Works is the perfect place to hold ‘kin Hell Fest. It’s slightly off the beaten track so you’ve got to want to find it, which kind of adds to the undergroundiness of the whole thing. The gig room is nice and dark and low-ceilinged, the ‘backstage’ area beside the stage is improvised with road closed signs, and the windows are blacked out with flung up bits of cloth – it has that warehouse freeparty thing going on, which makes for a really friendly, completely up for it atmosphere.
The only disappointment was having to miss the headliners – the show was running about an hour and a half behind and last buses wait for no woman. But that aside, ‘kin Hell Fest was awesome. Loads of different styles were covered, something for pretty much anyone, and you know Paul Priest knows his stuff.
The atmosphere was brilliant, the bands were insanely good, and the beer was cheap – and that’s all you really need.