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Report: Évora Metal Fest 2017

Melissa Poseyydon 04/04/2017 Festivals, Reports Comments Off on Report: Évora Metal Fest 2017
Report: Évora Metal Fest 2017

On the first weekend of March, Évora hosted for the sixth time the heavy music festival inserted in the youth month commemorations by the city hall of  Évora. This event was supported by the “Associação Jovem Cultural e Artistica de Évora”. With rain and some hail, the festival was held in a pavilion assembled near the municipal swimming pools. In this location and weather conditions we could enjoy the concerts of the national and international bands that comprised the lineup.

Day 1:

The Évora band ThrashWall had the honor to open the first day of the festival. They play a raw thrash metal that satisfied the early arrived audience. Their brutal songs also encouraged the first moshpit / circlepit of the night. Their last performance song “Mosh in the Wall” was literally interpreted by the audience.

The London band GHOLD took the stage but their progressive rock didn’t seem to impress the audience. With a rather apathetic attitude the audience preferred to listen this performance away from the stage while waiting for the following band.

The Alcobaça rock band Stone Dead managed to unleash some energy amongst the audience with their mixture of good disposition and rock&roll. They played old and new songs like “Silverball” and “Moonchild”, respectively. Being the latter one part of their upcoming  album  “Good Boys” released on 13th of March, 2017 by Lovers & Lollypops. It was a great performance from a band that it’s definitely worth listening.

With 10 years of existence and experience in stepping into big stages like Wacken Open Air, Vagos Open Air and SWR Barroselas, the young trio Prayers of Sanity was next on the lineup. The audiences were awaken with their strong riffs, accelerated beats and aggressive sound resembling the old school thrash metal bands like Slayer and Destruction. They managed to provoke the audience in front of the stage to mosh and the audience in the back to headbang throughout the concert.

The break between the bands was sufficient to re gather the audience in front of the stage for the trash band Crisix. This band from Barcelona released last year the album “From Blue to Black”, presenting it at Leyendas del Rock 2016 and in October returns to RCA Lisboa. The band proved to be tireless and energetic on stage igniting even more the audience that created what it seemed an endless mosh pit in front of the stage. Crisix vibrated with the audience that also gifted them with a wall of death. Bassist Dani Ramis couldn’t hold himself and jumped into the ongoing mosh keeping to playing with the vibrant crowd around him. As anticipated, they played a cover medley which included “Bring to the pit” and “G.M.M”. They finished their performance and closed the first festival day with their song “Ultra Thrash”, full of powerful riffs and strongest beats.

Day 2:

On this second festival day, the rain drifted away and gave way to the sun. First on stage was My Master the Sun, a Lisbon doom band, that mixes sludge sounds to their music without any kind of censorship. They shared their critical message on the need to change people mentality. Encouraging disobedience and revolt against the suffocation caused by an hypocritical society that comforts with illusions.

The avant-guard atmospheric black metal band Névoa took advantage of the motto left by the previous band and with its hypnotic sound lead the audience to an internal conflict.

Continuing in the same genre, the doom death metal band Wells Valley went on stage with an audience that seemed asleep. Unfortunately their slow songs didn’t help to attract the crowd attention.

Still with a uninterested audience, the post metal band Awaiting the vultures perfomance started under applauses and managed to get some positive feedback. But with the amount of previous slower bands the majority of audience had left the room at this point. This showed that maybe the festival lineup should have been better planned to better captivate the audience.

People returned to watch the thrash band Contradiction, that successfully raised the audience mood. The german band formed in 1989, spared no effort to connect with the audience, that thanked them with applauses. An intense and captivating performance with a good technical execution, including striking and fast riffs.

Filii Nigrantium Infernalium, the Belathauzer band burned the room with their insanity. With a distorted and aggressive sonority, they played the black songs of the new album “Pornokrates: Deo Gratias”. This was a very appealing and pleasant concert.

Holocausto Canibal being one of the most extreme Portuguese bands, with significant international experience, is currently celebrating two decades of existence. The Gore Grind’s band went on stage with all the brutality that characterises them, waking up aggressive mosh pits. Enjoying the band’s performance from the crowd members of the band Contradiction were observed. In general, the audience seemed to be genuinely interested in this band from the north of Portugal.

Ending the night and the festival, doom metal returns to stage with Process of Guilt. This split the audience in those who don’t appreciate this sound and those who were very interested. Part of the audience stayed to support the band, loving their performance, that wisely used this opportunity to present songs from their upcoming album “Black Earth”.

This festival continues to grow and mature managing to please the present audience with good shows. Although they could have been more successful in the bands lineup of the bands and worked more in their advertising.

 

Words by: Melissa Poseyydon

Photos by: Sethlam Waltheer & Loudness Magazine

 

 

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