By Jonny Bakes
Now in its third year, Power Metal Quest Fest is once again bringing power and steel to the industrial city of Birmingham next month. After outgrowing the previous venue, this year’s event will be held at the Asylum on Saturday 28 September for a full day of power metal glory.
Coming in at an incredibly reasonable £20 for advance tickets (£25 if you buy them on the door), the calibre of bands represents great value for money. This lineup is certainly not something to be sniffed at!
Headlining the festival, Italian power metallers Ancient Bards will be bringing the second part of their ‘Black Crystal Sword’ saga to the UK for the first time. Fronted by the talented Sara Squadrani, Ancient Bards have mastered the art of power metal storytelling with their tales off the dark wizard Sendor and the power of the Black Crystal Sword. These guys have been a favourite of mine for a long time, but their visits to the Über Kingdom are relatively few and far between, so this is a great opportunity to catch them!
Also performing are local power prog metallers, Dakesis, who are currently in the throes of recording the follow up to 2016’s ‘The New Dawn’ so we could potentially be in for some sneak peaks of new tracks at this festival.
Relative newcomers to the scene, symphonic power metal band Memories of Old will also be gracing Birmingham with their presence. These guys are currently crowdfunding their first full length album and have a couple of singles recently dropped, so we can expect to hear new material from them too!
Completing the lineup are Italian power metallers RuinThrone, Bristol melody maestros Control The Storm fresh off the back of their Sophie Lancaster Stage performance at Bloodstock Festival, Luke Appleton of Iced Earth and Fury UK kicking it acoustic, perennial Berkshire heavy metallers Primitai and the historically influenced Merseyside newcomers Forlorn Hope, who recently pricked up our airs with the Peninsular War-themed debut, ‘Over The Hills’.
The event also features stalls from patch amnesty who will be collecting unwanted patches to sell to raise money for mental health charities, and Kult Salutations where you’ll be able to find a selection of brutal greetings cards, badges, notebooks and more…
Advance tickets are available from the festival website and can also be bought in a bundle with this year’s event T-shirt for the great price of £30.