Temples Nights: A New UK Festival Worthy Of Worship

With such a vast array of festivals catering to connoisseurs of all things slow, fast, noisey, experimental and just plain heavy running all through the year, and all over the world, it's a great time to be a music fan. There's a veritable embarrassment of riches on offer for those who like it heavy, from internationally-renowned event such as Maryland Death Fest and Roadburn, to consistently excellent UK events like Damnation and All Tomorrow's Parties.
But this year one event has stood out from the pack.

Temples is the name on everyone's lips when talking about the 2014 festival circuit. From the instant intrigue upon hearing of the pedigree of the promoter, to the rabid proclamations of devotion upon the announcement of that first headliner, there has been a near-constant buzz among music fans from all over the UK and beyond, with ticket sales reported from many far-flung corners of the world.

As creator, director, promoter... well, basically the man behind Temples, Bristol-based DIY promoter Francis Mace has thrown all his experience into this massive undertaking. His hard work and dedication have clearly paid off, as the festival boasts three of the biggest names in modern metal; psycho-delic doom miscreants Electric Wizard, post-metal pioneers Neurosis and Maryland groove machine Clutch, as well as a whole host of other top-shelf bands, covering everything from d-beat to doom. Don't just take my word for it, look at the list of already confirmed bands: 

With yet more acts to be announced, and the excitement over Temples Festival already building to a frenzy, I spoke to Francis about that incredible lineup, Bristol becoming the new home of heavy, and more...

Read the interview over at The Sleeping Shaman

The inaugural edition of Temples Festival is set to take place in Bristol's Motion venue between Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th of May next year.

Weekend Tickets are on sale now from www.templesfestival.co.uk while Day Tickets are available exclusively through www.bristolticketshop.co.uk & www.gigantic.com.

http://www.templesfestival.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/TemplesFestival
http://twitter.com/templesfestival

Wolfbrigade - Audio Kollaps split 7"

I've had this split kicking around for a couple of months now, but just haven't gotten around to listening to it yet. I bought it on impulse when I had a few spare quid in my paypal account, being only vaguely aware of Wolfbrigade as being exponents of that modern crust sound I love so much, yet knowing nothing of Audio Kollaps except that they hail from Germany. Expectations are non-existant for both sides, though I'm excited to hear a couple of bands that I haven't before!

I'm going for what I think is the Audio Kollaps side first, since, rather annoyingly, the label has decided to force you to participate in some sort of 'DIY or Die' confusion in regards to the labelling of the sides. What the fuck?

First track 'Schwadronen Des Todes' opens with frantic buzzsaw tone, then the definition of cookie monster vocals kick in, and it sounds like the vocalist is singing this way for the very first time. I dig into the band's history a little and find that yeah, this was actually their first release, so that might be why his voice sounds so strained. An unimaginative single-snare d-beat hammers in background, with no deviation 'til halfway through, when the whole thing breaks down into a riff-led backbeat, which is pretty cool.

Second track 'Wahnsinn' is much more frantic and fast-paced. It's pretty standard grind, but late on in the track, there's this little weird descending riff that catches my ear. I dig that one riff, but not much else.

The final track, '5 Vor 12' opens with a bizarre sample of... what sounds like circus music, or trumpet-y nonsense soundtracking a chase sequence. Whatever it's from, it seems to have fuck all to do with the actual subject of the song, not that the English translation of the lyrics acually means anything, maybe they work better in German, I don't know. The blast of music itself is okay, but the sample has thrown me too off guard to really pay attention.

I'd need to check out what this band are doing these days to see if they morphed into something a bit more inspiring, after all, they've had 11 years to do so since this split's late-2000 release.

Next up is the side that piqued my curiosity...

It opens like the thousands of other punk/hardcore/crust/d-beat/grind songs I've heard, abrasive riff for a couple of bars, with two-chord accompanying drumfill intro, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And considering I can't get enough of that turn-of-the-century sound, I am more than happy with this record for this first track ('High Tech Degradation') alone.

Second song 'Equality?' opens with the sort of fat bass rumble that, again, countless bands utilise (Stockholm's VICTIMS seem to do it for every second song, and I fuckin' love 'em for it), before kicking into some awesome barked out vocals about the hypocrisy in crying equality, yet judge those who don't share those same beliefs. Lyrics I actually read and relate to? Whoah, this doesn't happen often.

Final track 'Misery' is a short sharp shock, over so fast that I have to drop the needle back at the start to try and catch it. S'good.

This was released on a German label called Epistrophy, who should still have some copies I reckon, as well as a bunch of other German punk/crust goodness I'll get around to checking out sometime.

Check out Audio Kollaps' amazingly 90s site HERE

I can't seem to find an official site as such for Wolfbrigade, other than a myspace link, but I sure as fuck ain't clicking that. Hey bands? There's this thing called bandcamp. Get into it.
In the meantime, here's SOMETHING I found for Wolfbrigade.