By Jase Walker
Waking up a bit worse for wear this morning but I’ve got myself together and got a shower and another Dragon Soop in me to get things started and I’m good to go.
Opening up today for me is Chinese Football, hailing all the way from Wuhan and playing music that is essentially mid-west emo, not something you’d think China would be known for but they’re a bit bloody good. It’s a pretty muggy and overcast day but the pleasant noises Chinese Football puts out makes the experience exactly what it needs to be, chilled and joyful. The fact that I can just pay back, close my eyes and just take in the music is just what I need for a festival experience as a lot of music I tend to listen to often needs active listening, this however is ideal to relax to.
What a lovely start for today, although it’s going to ramp up in intensity pretty quickly with Hypno5e up next.
Admittedly I’ve arrived a bit later than I anticipated but I’m here now just in time for them to drop out of a more intense section into a more chilled part of ‘Sheol’, glad I’ve not totally missed this though! Their avant-garde style and booming sound radiates from the tent and across the field leading up to the stage, I’m really glad I got to catch these as they unfortunately had to drop out of RADAR festival. It’s interesting that the band themselves are in almost complete darkness barring the few flood lights behind them, I do get the impression it’d be better seeing them in a smaller, darkened room rather than midday in a field. The switching between hypnotic (hah!) melodies and glorious grooves is my bread and butter when it comes to progressive metal bands and Hypno5e have that down to a fine art. They can go as soft as explosions in the sky one moment and then go as hard as Gojira the next, absolutely superb.
After an extended break and camping shenanigans including many terrible jokes and getting one over on people with various obscure games, it’s off to the Yohkai stage for Brutus. I’ve missed so many chances to see these so I wasn’t going to miss them this time and I’ve dragged along a few people to see them as well! I never actually realised until now that their singer plays the drums at the same time as well, some skill that! Brutus’s mix of post-rock, post-punk, and well, post-anything makes for a really interesting and unique sound that’s clearly resonated a lot with the Arctangent crowd as this tent is pretty solidly packed. Their singer’s voice is even better than I could have imagined live, and hearing it clearly over the top of everything else, including her own drums is superb. I really wish I’d seen these sooner but now’s as good of a time as any I suppose at one of the festivals that is designed from the ground up to support bands like Brutus.
Next today is straight over to the main stage for Russian Circles, one of the premier post-metal bands around right now, for a bit of powerful and crushing riffs. I’m having a bit of a time out at the moment by opting to have a bit of a lie down outside the tent and just focusing on absorbing the music. Weirdly enough this actually makes the bass pound through my chest which I’m totally alright with, this is my comfort zone. Russian Circles are anything but subtle in their delivery, each song is a collection of crushing and relentless riffs that really seems to scratch an itch I’ve got for not just heavy, but atmospheric and overwhelming riffage. Having the sun steadily get lower over the horizon while Russian Circles play out what remains of the sunlight has been a pretty lovely way to welcome in the night. They’ve sounded fantastic and powerful right from the outset of this set, even on the outside of the tent it’s been immense.
For one of the final acts today, I’m seeing a lovely bunch of lads that I actually shared a stage with in another band in my teenage years, Yourcodenameis: Milo. I genuinely never thought I’d ever get to see these ever again, it’s legitimately been nearly 20 years! Their mathy, post-hardcore style hasn’t aged a day, it still feels every bit as fresh as it used to. The turnout is decent but not quite a properly packed tent which is a bit of a shame but given they’re up against Pigs x7 who have a pretty big draw in the ATG crowd. Despite this they still clearly enjoyed being up on stage and hammering out the songs they wrote so many years ago and more power to them.
Sadly the day has ended earlier than expected for me as I Built The Sky unfortunately hit issues crossing the border back into the UK and couldn’t make their stage time. I decided to head back to camp, hit the vodka and dance the night away at the silent disco… no doubt I’ll regret that in the morning.
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photos courtesy of Carl Battams and Jonathan Dadds. Copyright remains with the photographers.
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