Hellfire Festival 2009 Day Two [Live]

November 8th 2009 Birmingham NEC

November 28, 2009, 10:29 AM

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by Matt D [More from this Author]

So after the first day at Hellfire where the UK metal underground had started to take more of a presence we now move on into the more diverse sounds of Day Two as we encounter doom, hair and near indie/Biffy crossover music.

The day started with Birmingham's own Blakfish, once again the crowd size was small and the majority just stood there however the space allowed for more of an intimate gig as evidenced by the vocalist deciding during the last song to drop his mic, start a sing along while walking around the concourse stage they were in and actually getting one going! Blakfish also had the only 'moshpit' I saw all weekend, granted it was two kids but at least one happened!

Painted Smiles came next and given the interview I had with Mikee earlier in the day this would be an interesting listen given most people knew him from Sikth (and maybe if you're really hardcore the songs for the more folk style project of Sad Season that was on Myspace). For their second ever live gig they gave the performance of a band that's been around for a few years, there are elements of Mikee's previous bands crossed with early Matchbox 80's B Line disaster, 'DIY' being a future hit when the inevitable album release beckons.

Question: What would you get if you mixed 80's Hair metal with Avenged Sevenfold and Dragonforce?

Answer: The Morning After, personally I was looking forward to these after hearing "Lost in Time" a few months ago, they gave one of the most energetic performances of the day and I hope that the tour that followed with Viking Skull gained them a few new fans, from the people I met this seemed to be the case at Hellfire. The final 2 bands have a link as the old and the new collide with Serotonal and Anathema, the main connection being that the singer of the former used to be the singer of the latter (Darren White), the two bands however are different to each other.

Serotonal have more of a slight hardcore / melodic / doom crossover, songs such as '[Hinge]' prove this and it was fun to see a crowd move around, heads nodding to it. The album recently came out and I encourage all to buy it. Anathema still prove why they are one of the founders of the UK doom metal scene with a great set and one surprise... the first time in 13 years that Darren White did vocals with them doing 'Sleepless' ending a great weekend.

A very fun weekend despite some of the crowds throughout, there are plans for Hellfire III and IV in 2010 in more 'rock and roll venues', I look forward to seeing it on the next stage!