This year Damnation has moved to Manchester and thought some might be interested in this (and are probably already going :laugh: ), especially with the recent changes (they lost Ministry so added Godflesh).
Tickets and details - https://www.damnationfestival.co.uk/
The main festival has Converge (playing Jane Doe), Godflesh (playing Streetcleaner), Pig Destroyer (playing Prowler In The Yard) and At The Gates (playing Slaughter of the Soul) and more:
(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54233748e4b09a4121be41d5/74346631-ce83-4918-aef7-e418347326dc/Announcement+09-22.jpg?format=2500w)
The night before is pretty good too (I'm a fan of Ithaca and Pupil Slicer):
(https://i0.wp.com/distortedsoundmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Damnation-Festival-2022-A-Night-Of-Salvation.jpg?resize=1536%2C1536&ssl=1)
Sold my tickets for about 40 quid below cost there a few weeks back because it wasn't panning out in my favour to go. And then they announce the fuckin Streetcleaner and Jane Doe sets, absolutely fuckin scalded, feel like getting sick through my teeth Tim Roth "Four Rooms" style
I'll be heading over for this. Apart from the ATG set I've no real interest in the other headliners, should probably give those albums a listen that are being played a listen though
Decent lineup.
Very tempting line up.
Anyone familiar with the venue, is it hassle getting back to city centre afterwards, is it best stay out near it. Any idea of when it will start or finish.
It does look like a bit of a ball ache, the setup in Leeds was great, close to the city centre made life easy coming and going (and cheaper hotels)
When it was in Leeds it was 13:00 to 23:00, guess they will keep to that. There is a clashfinder up for it (https://clashfinder.com/m/damnationfestival2022/) but don't think they've actually announced stage times so not sure how accurate that is
The last tram (every 12 minutes) towards town seems to be after midnight so looks like it will be fine
EDIT
That clashfinder is BS, on the Facebook forum the Damnation team are saying Converge are the last act and will be finished at midnight (and there could be an after show)
Parkway tram station is about a 10 minute walk away and the last one is at midnight so should be grand for getting back into the city
Theres supposed to be an after party announced too though, so if that's also in the venue I'd say it'd be a taxi back
Wish we got gigs like this in Ireland.
Excellent, thanks for the heads up Halo. Will know by the weekend if a buddy is up for going to this as well.
In my excitement I managed to send the Pig Destroyer Prowler flyer to my kid's basketball team whatsapp group rather than Locust Furnace from here 😱😂
All tickets sorted now anyway, looking forward to this bar major clashes 🤞🏻
Clashfinder, from the forum (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=6437734832907328):
(https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/311467291_6437734809573997_7370962179667343128_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=p6gcl9NQSfEAX8bMPXM&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=00_AT_HwAnPuD3e8vYxTgW_tQCmIFUvE-jiW4t6Rv7LaThv9g&oe=634C8200)
Only real clash for me is Green Lung/WITTR, and I reckon it'll be be Green Lung since I haven't seen them live yet
The bigger problem for me is there's not really a break from bands I want to go see from Oceano until closing, going to be a fucking heap by the end
Anyone else head over for this? Other than a lack of food stalls which meant some shitty queuing time it was a class set up. Got in just as Insanity Alert were starting and it was a great way to start the day. Incantation,Despised Icon,Pig Destroyer,At the Gates all on top form but Green Lung were probably the band of the day for me
I really enjoyed the day overall.
Oceano were new to me but I'll be checking them out at some stage for sure. They seemed to finish early as we caught a fair bit of Bruit afterwards but they were meh (nothing on that stage interested me for the day anyway).
Headed into Insanity Alert then and the feel good factor kicked in straight away seeing the giant Picachu in the circle pit and crowd surfing :laugh: The front man was class and the banners were a cool touch, albeit they could have trimmed the sharp corners before trying to decapitate some people in the crowd!! They would have been a great band to finish the night with a oarty, but then again it might have got too messy.
Incantation were excellent, it was nice to be awake for them this time and not fall asleep standing up waiting for them to come on as in Killtown and proceeded to miss the show until a bouncer woke me up, still standing like some animal :-[
Main reason for me deciding to go was Pig Destroyer and My Dying Bride. Pig Destroyer was my fave of the day and there was some anticipation building during the intro. That was the most packed i saw the biggest venue all day as well.
Next highlights for me were My Dying Bride and Misery Index.
Budddy was well hyped to see Godflesh but he was really disappointed. Not my thing anyway so I wasn't bothered, a good time to queue for food and drink.
I need to check out some Despised Icon, while At The Gates were my 3rd fave of the day, pure class despite Slaughter not being my fave album.
Last band I caught was Decapitated and the place was hopping up front of the sound desk - you really miss the feel of things looking on from anywhere behind the desk.
Headed off before Converge as not our thing and was conscious of trying to get a cab back afterwards as the location seems a bit of a dose being that remote.
Taxi's fleeced everyone afterwards but concenience ruled (one person I know had to pay 3 times the cost of getting there in the first place!).
Yeah both food and drink were a big let down for sure, but they seem to be taking things on board for next year, e.g. water fountains so you don't have to queue for 30 minutes if you just want to rehydrate. Room temperature cans of Magners at the start of the day for £5 was a joke, especially with no ice avaialable. 2 pint glasses more expensive than advertised previosuly and manky by the tine you get through the first pint anyway, so not something you'd do much but for the pain in the hoop that was the bar situation.
Overall it was dead handy to get to from Cork and the short duration really suited. Not so much though for the Cork head hauled off the Ryanair flight home on Sunday afternoon :-X It was good to chat to local heads I hadn't met before either.
Looked into going this year, but never got the finger out. How could the food and bar situation be so poor, they've been at it for 15 years, no?
Teething problems from moving to a new city I guess, eg not the same links with local foodie vans I guess.
Venue itself was fantastic the way you could move easily between rooms, bar the toilets being a death trap with so much water on the floors. The guys mopping the floor gave up the ghost fairly early!
Yeah,we left before Converge too to try getting transport back. The taxi out there took about five minutes, one guy quoted us £60 for the way back. Ended up with an Uber for £15 for five of us
Ithaca were brilliant on the Friday (as were Mastiff and Pupil Slicer) we bailed back into town on the tram after them for pints in town.
Saturday was good, thought they did pretty well for moving venue/city and going up in size to be fair. We skipped out once Converge finished Jane Doe and were back in town by 00:20 on the tram, worked for us. When we went to get food we joined the queue and were eating within 15 minutes (between Pig Destroyer and MDB maybe?)
Rarely mad into the headliners for Damnation so hopefully next year will be fine for getting a later tran. They could just start and finish earlier, you can't tell people to get public transport and then finish up after public transport ends ...
But really I'd just prefer a venue in a city (any city) not out in some industrial estate but guess it's BEC from now on ...
Brilliant day out, quality of the line-up meant there was hardly time to get out and get something to eat. Venue is well laid out and easy to move from one stage to another. The bands are scheduled so you can catch all the bands on the mainstage and then choose between the two other stages.
Caught the end of Oceano, but Insanity Alert on the main stage were great craic. The second stage had some of the more atmospheric sets from Stygian Bough and WITTR.
I was disappointed with the sets from MDB, Godflesh (terrible sound) and 40 Watt Sun, but super sets from Incantation (my favourite of the day) ATG , Converge (nice touch adding Wolverine Blues and Aimless Arrow to the Jane Doe set) and Elder . Was sorry I missed Pallbearer but to be fair Despised Icon were excellent.
The 50-55 minute sets are ideal as bands have to squeeze in the fan favourites. I was surprised to see the trams still running after midnight so I must have caught one of the last ones running, otherwise its hours walk into town. It was a Man City weekend so flights and accommodation weren't too bad. Roll on next year.