I have been based in Sussex for ten years but had not come across Hammerdown Festival before now. From its small beginnings in Danehill Village Hall (nee ‘Pitch Up Festival’) and then Burgess Hill, the festival has stepped up after an extended post-Covid hiatus, reaching Worthing last year and Brighton’s Concorde2 this year. The mastermind behind the event is Harry White, who has ambitions for Hammerdown to become the “ of the south!” Big words indeed but, having witnessed the man’s energetic ‘leading from the front’ management style and his team’s can-do attitude and willingness to pitch in and solve problems as they crop up, anything seems possible right now. With the right people and the right attitude, who knows where things could lead for new, smaller heavy music events (take Bloodstock Open Air as a case in point)?
After a nice stroll along the Brighton seafront in the blazing sunshine (and an obligatory ice cream, of course), I emptied my wallet at the merch stall and settled down to watch the opening band. Just a quick note, Hammerdown really seems to understand people’s merch needs – it’s not just about the T-shirts (although the Hammerdown Family shirt is particularly cool and shows off the excellent Nordic-inspired logo perfectly). Hip flasks, lighters, tote bags, bottle openers, patches… all the good stuff was on offer and not at ridiculous prices either.
Now this was to be a bittersweet moment for NuMetal enthusiasts NTT, as it was to be their final ever show. I had not heard them before the run-up to Hammerdown but at least they did the decent thing and honoured this last hurrah! And what a hurrah it was as they impressed me and the not-too-shabby-for-an-11:20-start crowd with their hot mix of rap and metal, with clean vocals lifting some of the choruses too. They are one of those bands staying true to the legacy of the likes of Linkin Park and their ilk (they played a good version of ‘Papercut’, telling anyone who didn’t know the track to “just leave now, there’s the door”). Nathaniel and Zack spit their vocals over hard metal beats with gusto, adding cleaner singing in the more melodic, hook-filled parts. It’s a shame they have decided to call it a day but these things happen and I am sure that we will be seeing, at least some, of the band in other ventures in the future. Special love goes out to the drummer ‘Bang Bang’ who seemed to be genuinely “buzzing…but emotional” for the rest of the afternoon.
My brother and I saw Unknown Refuge play Maid of Stone Festival last year and they have clearly benefitted from playing more live shows, judging from this tight performance of metal-tinged hard rock tunes. They remind me a little bit of Of Mice and Men at times but lead vocalist / bassist Alex Mancini has a cleaner voice. They introduced us to a new single, “Shellshock”, which was particularly good and “If The Gods Be Good” featured some nice soloing from Jack. The boys from Bolton done good today.
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I think I read somewhere that Lonesome had been added to the bill because they had won a competition but I cannot find the reference now. Anyways, despite the lame name, the music/lyric writers in the band are clearly struggling with some inner turmoil, which is pretty heroic in itself. And the frontman’s insistence on rocking the woolly hat to the end of the set was also pretty ballsy. He also had a very nice painted jacket. Sadly, the music didn’t hit the right notes for me, however. Whilst the sounds were pleasantly ambient, they didn’t quite tweak the appropriate strings in me to get an emotional response, so I found my mind wandering as each song came and went, mainly thinking about who was on next…
Neon Empire are a different proposition. Describing themselves as ‘Electronic Metalcore’, they upped the pace with some uplifting metal songs over an underlying score of electronica, interspersed with some interesting electro-flourishes. They are like a mashup of Bullet For My Valentine and Avenged Sevenfold but with lots of blips and bloops. Whilst they reined back on the neon facepaint I was expecting, this Dublin quartet put on a good show of hard hitters (including “City of Lights” and “This Clarity”) and were rewarded with the first moshpit of the day (largely instigated by Bang Bang; see NTT). The frontman happily got involved in the pit too, which is always nice to see.
Fellow Dubliners Idle Discourse kept us moving with their dubstep dance beats and gnarly metal guitar riffs. The rapped vocals reminded me of Sonic Boom Six at times and the shadow of Linkin Park loomed large over their general sound. Mixing up dance beats, hip hop vocals, metal riffs and poppy choruses may well be the ‘in’ thing at the moment but who can argue against it when it’s done as well as this? Frontman Craig Hey took a walk into the crowd and they even enjoyed the first (if mini) wall of death of the day. This was a good performance, well received.
Local band Marang have played Hammerdown before and, if I have understood correctly, the band is the main outlet for the Greek-Cypriot multi-instrumentalist, known as…well…‘Marang’. They play a progressive metal fusion of jazz and guitar-based frolics that would certainly please the more prog-minded guitar solo worshippers among you. Whilst clearly talented and musically gifted, the band was good without being great, in my opinion. Or, as we say in Jazz Club,…nice. This was also not Weller’s first Hammerdown rodeo either and they slotted right in to the bill well with their pop-minded rock and metal. I think they had ‘metalled’ up their hip hop-based material slightly, with Hammerdown in mind, and they put on a good show. The Linkin Park effect was evident in their musical stylings. Weller invited NTT onto the stage to run through a rap-metal collaboration they had put together, which went down well and became an emotional farewell to the latter
Sworn Amongst were probably the first straight-down-the-line metal band of the day and I revelled in their brash take on modern thrash, as they incited plenty of moshpits throughout their set. Frontman and lead singer, Liam Liddell, said, after the gig, that they had just come back from a bit of a break and were raring to go, being especially excited to play Hammerdown. It showed, as they roared through their hard metal songs with vicious intent and time changes aplenty. Listening flavours to look out for are 4Arm, Nuclear Assault, Sanctorum (a great UK band from the 2000s/2010s), a little bit of Slayer and all manner of other good stuff, with dirty chugging basslines, gruff vocals, screams and guitar solos abounding. Their set was slightly marred by the ejection of an idiot from the moshpit, who didn’t understand the difference between fighting and moshing but Class A drugs will do that to you I guess). Sworn Amongst probably put on the strongest overall show so far.
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Esoterica would have been on next but they had been bumped up to headliners when the original headliners pulled out a few days before the event. Our Hollow Our Home split up and cancelled all of their planned shows. No doubt the full story will emerge at some point, and it’s a shame they didn’t feel they could see out their commitments, but full marks to Harry and the team, who pulled off some quick creative thinking and brought in Skarlett Riot as main , apparently at Esoterica’s recommendation (top marks for that). Now, I have to declare that I am a big fan of the Riot and I have been listening to their anthemic modern metal a lot over the last ten years or so. Their songs have plenty of chug, with masterful guitar work, pounding drum fills and frontwoman, Chloe’s imioned singing. They are always a pleasure to hear and a thrilling live prospect. The songs tackle emotional topics (“Human”, “Stronger”, “Warrior”) but their playing style has become noticeably heavier over the years and Chloe has obviously had some coaching, so that she can also introduce growled vocal effects. Their live sound is harder hitting now but at the expense of some of their great earlier songs, I fear. I also have to hold my hands up and it that some of those notes were a bit off key towards the end of the set but I may just be being hypercritical because I know the tunes so well.
Esoterica found themselves unexpected headliners, after the withdrawal of Our Hollow Our Home, and decided to do something a bit special. Well, I assume it was their idea? The band played the entire, extended, set accompanied by the Parallax Orchestra in a one-off performance. From their matching white suits to the specially written music for the string sections to the light show, the whole thing reeked of quality and class. Now I’m not sure how the sound mix was supposed to have been set up but we couldn’t actually make out a word which Tobias was singing. For me though, it didn’t matter a jot – each track gradually emerged and stretched its wings as the doomy atmospherics swelled around the room, the orchestra really adding something to the overall sound without pushing itself to the front of stage demanding attention. I am not really aware of Esoterica’s back catalogue but their compositions remind me of Tool a little bit, just a little bit, without being as awkward or punchy or psychedelic. As a live spectacle, this really worked and was definitely worth the hard work involved in pulling it all together.
All I had to do now was scoot back across town and try to avoid the masses leaving the Carl Cox set being played on the Brighton on the Beach venue next door. I definitely caught some strains of “Phoebus Apollo” as I tiptoed through the ravers (oh yes mate, I know a bit of Carl Cox mate… I have a few of his albums too mate. No, I really do).
