Live Review: Repulsed Festival 2024!

“Hey! Kikikuloa! No flippies off the dock! You could get hurt! Let the Master show you how it’s done!”

Ever wondered how they manage to convince esteemed actors like Robert De Niro to appear in TV adverts? When you’ve got more money than your family can spend for multiple generations to come, where does the motivation come from? Meh. Anyway. It’s a scorching hot day out and we’re seeking shelter from the high pollen count so we’ve travelled to Reading Facebar for Repulsed Festival where 10 bands playing a myriad of Hardcore, Deathcore, Beatdown and what not will take to the stage. They’ll be competing to see who they can extract more sweat, spin kicks and risky moves from over 9 hours of pig squeals, riffs and beats. What more could possibly go wrong?

Snoop Dog is blazing up the sound system in the venue as Hardcore crew Expressionless [8/10] tune up and the band look at ease having dropped single “Surrounded By Suffering” in April. Performing like a well oiled machine, they tear it up with an energetic mix of old and new material that brings out the two steppers and spin kickers in force. Good old fashioned fun, simple and lethally effective from the first note, the band lining up all the mosh parts and knocking them down like pins in a bowling alley. On this evidence their soon to be released new EP is going to be the real deal.

Having raised the dead with last year’s “Crowbar And A Mallet” album The Tura [8/10] are in no mood to mess around and get straight to the point with concrete slab after concrete slab of staccato riff breaks in Beatdown Hardcore style. Mixing up the vocals with rap screams and harsh Death growls while hinting at Death Metal and Deathgrind influences, these dudes go low and heavy, crushing like an anvil and making angry music for happy people. Didn’t someone else coin that phrase? F*** it.

Having a guitarist who looks like the stepped off a private jet to appear in a Death Metal music video who then decimates the weak with primitive Beatdown Deathcore riffs like a medieval axe wielding maniac gives Callout [8/10] a platform as they demonstrate their prowess with material from last year’s “Power To Profit“. Although what their vocalist is doing in his boxers and an open flannel shirt is probably a story for later. He’s got a ferocious throat on him and roars through the lyrics, the EP title track a brutal assault on the senses. Downtempo moments cut up with faster Beatdown Deathcore, electronics and samples makes for an award winning formula.

The Tura vocalist picks up the 5 string bass for No Witnesses [8/10] who mix in elements of classic Metallic Hardcore with their Beatdown Deathcore brutality so you get a wealth of tempo changes that work incredibly well. Blast beats, Death growls and distinctive gut punch moments are all present and correct, as are a wealth of perfectly executed false endings. “Deluded” and “Lake Of Rot” are absolute belters, the band getting a couple of microphone grabbers during the former that are actively encouraged. Inciting mosh pit violence since 2016 the vocal range on display is nothing short of incredible even if some of the lyrics are so violent that the band might need to consider therapy.

A home town throwdown of a set comes courtesy of Detriment [8/10] who go through the gears like a Formula One driver on the Monaco circuit. A band who infuse Death Metal with Hardcore, they hammer through cuts from last year’s appropriately titled “Between Two Evils” with the first song they wrote together “Wolves Who Wear Sheeps Clothes” going down like a pint of the finest on a hot summer’s day. The pit is full of two steppers during the punishment beating, the muscular riffs and pummeling percussion non stop earache. Crossover Thrash flirtations in “Blood Money” add a spice that’s nice, the bands ability to build atmosphere without loosing sight of their roots making them a force to be reckoned with.

They may claim to sound like shit because they haven’t practiced for a while but East Midlands Hardcore crew BiteWound [8/10] pull off their set with like they practiced yesterday. Their freer style of sound with 80’s crossover roots and rap screamed vocals offers something different at the Kings table. Cuts like “Spit” go down a storm with a run of vocalists from other bands snatching the microphone and making their presence felt. The crowd get rowdy and the band slow things down for a minute asking everyone to respect the venue, the sound man and those who put the event on.

German brutes Gone Society [8/10] have an assortment of weapons in their arsenal with a twin headed dragon of a vocal attack, a warmer fuzzy quality to their guitar sound and a five string bassist who uses every single one without using a pick. That makes them feel like they’ve got Stoner Metal vibes to them when in reality they are a meaty Beatdown Hardcore band, although to be fair they mix it up with 30 seconds of Rage Against The Machine to keep the crowd on the toes. Intense and heavy they drawn in the crowd before trampling them into the dirt. April saw them unleash album “The Legacy” and cuts like “Chaos” tear the roof off.

Using borrowed gear Beatdown Hardcore Groove crew Insane Asylum [9/10] arrive from Trier Germany with EP “Fresh Grooves” but struggle with technical issues during an extended sound check. When then finally give the green light they go off like a hand grenade with flecks of Hardcore Punk in the riff department setting the pit off during a savage rendition of “Exponential Suffering“. Tonight opens up the possibility that Andi from Harlekin will reprise his role on “The Facility” which he does in brutal fashion, the band admitting to being hungover but showing no signs. More involved riffing separates them from the pack and we look forward to hearing more from them.

Spin kicks, wrestling moves, back flips, two steppers, six foot dudes doing summersaults across the front of the stage, furious high energy sets, Repulsed Festival had it all. After securing had an earlier conversation with someone about launching a microphone stand off the stage after the mosh pit got a bit too crazy Harlekin have their set cut tragically short as someone decides it’s a good idea to pick up a barrier from in front of the sound booth and take it into the mosh pit. In the aftermath the sound guys laptop gets trashed and there are two bands left the play. What Harlekin do manage to get through sounds legit but we’re not going to rate it out of respect for them.

After a bit of negotiation, the show continues but in limited capacity as Negative Frame play four songs with no microphone and no PA, plugging straight into the amps like a rehearsal space show. They make the most out of it, bouncing around the stage like a bunch of maniacs and to be fair the quality of sound is great, it just feels like they’re busting out instrumentals. The joke is that this is a unique never to be heard again experience and having travelled 4 hours from Yorkshire to play tonight, Street Soldier follow suit. They play five cuts including “One Man Gang” before submitting to peer pressure and playing one more song as the crowd chant for it. We can have nothing but respect for the headlining bands for not giving up, taking to the stage and giving us something when they could have so easily just walked away…