Live Review: Rabidfest 2023 Day #2 (Sunday)!

One of the great things about Rabidfest is that while they put on a varied line up each year, there is method to their madness. This isn’t just a collection of random bands thrown into a melting pot in the hope that everyone will have a good time. Far from it. Instead, each day is a steady build up to the headliner with bands that fit well together, something which takes time and forethought to prepare. That ensures that everyone is going to be in for a good time and once you enter the venue, you’re going to struggle to leave before the end of the night. So while the Saturday was less heavy with Blaze Bayley in mind you can bet your bottom dollar that with Bound In Fear headlining the Sunday, it’s going to be brutal…

Opening up to a filling venue Maelstrom [8/10] blast away the cobwebs with a raging set of… Two shots of Hardcore and one of Metal, asking the crowd to step forward and fill the centre space before the council build houses on it. They say never judge a book by its cover and when it comes down to brass tacks, the least looking Metal person in the venue happens to front this band and is f***ing great at it. Charismatic between song and with some caustic vocals, the blue shirt and chinos get real sweaty real quick. The bombastic five string bass is in full effect and with influences in Soulfly, Incendiary (a cover of “The Product Is You” is a killer moment in the set) and Slayer the riffs fly like bullets from a Smith and Wesson in a cheap Western. Old School Hardcore cut “Fraudulent Activity” is an absolute blast.

Not to be confused with Dying Fetus, Grindcore band Fetus Destruction [7/10] are next up on the Devolution Magazine sponsored main stage. They go off like a Molotov Cocktail, an incendiary blast of frenetic energy, restless and relentless drumming, feedback and death wails. “Frankenfetus” is a highlight, the mid cut momentary slowdown for some gore fuelled vocals a masterclass in mixology. They even have a song about Poo so we can fill our boots with it while they blast our ear canals out with their abrasive abominations. We’ve got no idea how many songs they actually crammed in because as with any Grindcore act after a while the sound merges into one homogenous mass, the features gradually disappearing much like they do when you’re hit over and over again in the face with a baseball bat. What we can say with certainty is that their album “Biologic Organic Brutal” shoehorns 17 cuts into 28 minutes…

Its the end of an era for Oxford Beatdown Deathcore quartet Depolarize [8/10] as it is the last show for their vocalist. He’s not going out without a fight however and ends the bands set in the pit for a rousing rendition of “Godless” from their June released debut album “Captured“. Before that throat splitting moment, the band play a set filled with downtempo groove, haunting Death Metal moments and several purposefully missed riffs in a play on silence that makes those who haven’t previously indulged think the power has been cut to the stage. Cuts like “I Met God And Set The World On Fire” and “PTSD” cause the ground the rumble beneath our feet while a Mosh pit with members of Shoot To Kill who have turned up early to support their friends is a spin kicking good time.

As with last year’s event Draconian Reign are forced to drop out at the last minute and we wish them well. That gives the opportunity for some money to be raised for the Sophie Lancaster foundation as Jay, a reviewer and interviewer from the Moshville Times, gets his head shaved on the main stage. He’d been growing those locks for four long years! Good on him for doing it because not all heroes wear capes. Not the beard though. Don’t touch the beard!

Fresh from Derby Alt Fest last month, Those Once Loyal [8/10] have stepped in at the 11th hour due to illness in the From Her Ashes camp. The Melodic Hardcore crew from Nottingham who presumably take their name from that Bolt Thrower album are armed with EP “Relentless Cycle” as well as a tasty cover of “My Last Serenade” by Killswitch Engage that gets a huge mosh pit. In truth the band have more in common with 2003 era American Metalcore than anything else and watching them is a nostalgia trip of pure pleasure as they tear up stage with glee. Given that this time yesterday they didn’t even know they were playing and they’ve never been this far south for a show before, the effort they put in to get here is well rewarded by the crowd.

After 25-30 shows with their new drummer behind the kit Gutlocker [10/10] have officially broken him in ahead of Tech-Fest’s Techabilitation even next month. It might be a Sunday but the these boys are fired up like you just pissed on their shoes and play a fierce set full of non stop groove after teasing us with a couple of 60 second bursts during the soundcheck. A Groove Metal band with an ocean of verve, swagger and a few sharp edges, who also have a collection of tunes to help you breathe more easily, with cuts like “Make My Day” and “Send Them All In” going down a storm. Sonically they are one of tightest bands on the circuit, a well oiled machine who know how to get an audience moving, that Jamiraqu cover from Godzilla remaining a crowd pleasing monster that is not to be missed live. Craig McBrearty is on fire vocally tonights, taking his time to crack a few dark humoured jokes between songs which always adds an extra spice to the performance. We just wish they had more time.

Watching Tribe Of Ghosts [10/10] live is a spiritual thing, the band having found the perfect contrast between heavy, melodic, emotive and caustic with their material. There is a really beauty in the contrasting and intertwining male and female clean vocals cut against a stark backdrops of industrial tinged sound, it stirs the soul like no other. The permeation of that with the heavier guitars and vicious screams from Adam Sedgwick gives adds a sense of abject horror that has the audience gripping the pillow tightly while the groove laden foundations of the bass and drums hold it all together perfectly. Cuts like “False Gods” and “Cold” are as beautiful as they are destructive and even though it doesn’t seem possible, they actually have a more energy live than they do on tape. They defy genre but Industrial Post Metal is possibly where they fit best if you must. Leaping the barrier in front of the stage, Sedgwick turns to face Beccy Blaker from the pit during the final song while the fans gather around and headbang with him. It’s a special moment that adds a sense of drama to the show before his guitar gets launched into the audience in time honoured fashion. As a band, now they have got to grips with the style in which they want to create, they are going to be huge and having survived Bloodstock earlier this summer the World is their Oyster. The icing on the cake would have been to have Ben Mason from Bound In Fear reprise his role on “Sunburner (Deny The Rot)” but alas some things simply aren’t meant to be.

Metal 2 The Masses Shoot To Kill [9/10] made their live debut at Rabidfest in 2021 and so tonight feels like something of a homecoming for the everything heavy outfit. One part Hardcore, one Deathcore and one Nu-Metal, they create a wall of noise that is incredible, the drum sound and matching the intensity of the machine gun riffing. A two stepping Mosh pit goes off like a nail bomb during “Abuse Of Power” while their frontman leaps The Bullingdon barrier to get in the pit to join in. A f*** you to police brutality, “Thin Blue Line” is there most recent single and finds the crowd cutting shapes. The five piece have a real energy about them with non stop movement on a stage that can barely hold them, something which sees their bassist land on his arse when attempting a mid song spin kick. Fortunately no one is hurt as they burst into their final cut, the Rabidfest crowd giving it a circle pit to send them on their merry way.

As with the last time we saw Cage Fight [10/10], due to his commitments to TesseracT tonight is a show without guitarist James Monteith. That means that bassist Will Horsman has switched to guitars as he has previously with Stefan Whiting of Polar as a fill in on bass, however none of that detracts from the performance which finds the band at their destructive best. The pit is quite literally non stop throughout their entire set with the crowd chanting one more song for an encore once the hole in the fabric of space and time has been torn. Cuts like “Guillotine” and “One Minute” are as incendiary as they come with vocalist Rachel Aspe painting the sultry figure between caustic screams that are so vicious they break glass at thirty paces. Naturally “Eating Me Alive” is performed in tribute to the late great Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder and it takes the roof off the venue. Its the last show of 2023 for Cage Fight and we hope that 2024 will see a sophomore album from them.

Saving the heaviest band until last, a packed Bullingdon welcomes Downtempo Deathcore skull crushers Bound In Fear [10/10] with open arms. Bathed in blood red light the band go hard from the very first second, leaving nothing but blood, sweat and spilled beers in their wake. “Sigmata” is huge, the sound engulfing the venue like a tidal wave of toxic waste before “Godfear” sets things alight. The constant movement of the band and crowd against a backdrop of flashing lights creates momentary still frames in the minds eye while Ben Mason calling for two step action before delivering some bowel clenching guttural lows feels like he’s asked for a splash of coke for colour in a pint of whiskey. The mosh pit violence is non stop as “Cutthroat” rips through the ear drums before the vicious little ditty that is “Penance” decimates the weak. The grand finale is of course “Hate Circuit” with Mason joining a number of bands this weekend in talking about Mental Health and removing some of the stigma.

We’ve been proud to be a Media Partner of Rabidfest again this year alongside Red Death Media, Moomin Merchandise, Metalplanetmusic, Moshville Times, GraphicsFix, Unearthed Music and main stage sponsor Devolution Magazine. The Festival is all for charity and in 2023 the profits will be going to the The Sophie Lancaster Foundation!

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