Video and additional reports coming soon! Read up on Report 1 HERE and Report 2 HERE.
We woke up aware that this was going to be one of our busiest days. Considering the amount of bands we wanted to see and the intense interview schedule we had we woke up early and started our work under a sunny and hot day. It all was made even harder by the time-changing that unfortunately confused everyone that day. It was announced and notified on the UKTMF facebook page, but since we had no internet access, we were hardly able to understand what was going on with the timing. But luckily we managed to see all the bands we wanted and do all our interviews despite some delays and difficulties.
The audience was brutally waken up by the virulent performance of the Glasgow-based mathcore band Colours To Shame. I honestly wasn’t familiar with this band, which defines itself as “the sound of Ronald McDonald hardcore dancing through a jazz band”. But this set struck me with impressive energy and madness. Definitely a band to check out.
After their set, we moved to the main stage to assist to Above The Earth’s exhibition. This was one of the bands I was looking forward to most that morning. It’s the new project from the former Destiny Potato vocalist Aleksandra Radosavljevic and Karikeya’s Arsafes side-project (who also played with his band, Kartikeya shortly after on the same stage). This cross country musical project was premiered at UKTMF with their first official appearance and it was largely appreciated by the audience. They brought a sound which is actually similar to Destiny Potato’s approach on music: atmospheric progressive metal with pop-oriented vocals but refined and groovy riffage. Aleksandra’s vocals were amazing as well, so you should definitely watch out for this band in the near future. They’ve got something really good going on.
Shortly after I sadly understood that Neosis (which I would really have loved to meet) and Joconfy were not going to perform today and that Destiny Potato’s set had been moved to 4.15 pm. We quickly changed the time of two of our interviews so that we could watch and film at least a good part of it but in any case we were not able to watch Red Seas Fire, Disperse and most sadly Uneven Structure. But this is good for you because we interviewed Brandon from Veil Of Maya, Kashiv from Skyharbor, Sean from Shattered Skies and David & Aleksandra from Destiny Potato.
At 2 PM it was the time for Shattered Skies live set on the second stage. I honestly must say that I enjoyed their live performance even more than their studio material. They played their recent singles “Saviours” and “15 Minutes” along with some of their older tunes and also an amazing cover of Pendulum’s “Propane Nightmare” which I personally loved. These Irish guys are currently looking for a label to release their debut full length album “The World We Used To Know” so keep listening to their stuff and support them.
Around 3.30 pm we attended Dresif Stalin’s performance on the main stage which can only be described as one of the heaviest sets of the whole weekend. A big crowd attended this show and got literally trampled by the heaviness unleashed by Drewsif Stalin and his band. It was a memorable set. And he was a really nice guy, always happy to have fun with the people he randomly met around the field during the weekend.
Shortly after it was the long awaited (and delayed) time for Destiny Potato! I was personally really stoked to see them, but unfortunately we had some interviews scheduled and were only able to witness the first three songs of their set. The first one was a new track, followed by “Love Song” and “Dark Side Of You”. I wish I could hear more of their new material, but their live performance was truly solid even though they looked a bit stressed for the load of problems they had with the travel and technical troubles. Anyway, we filmed that part of their set and did an interview with them so stay tuned to check them out.
From the garden of the press area we could hear Uneven Structure playing anyway and it sounded unbelievable. The people I talked with told me that it was one of the sickest performances of the weekend. At the end of their set we heard a thunder (probably provoked by Uneven Structure’s booming set itself) and a few minutes later we had the only 5-10 minutes of rain of the whole weekend (which is huge and improbable luck considering we are in the UK… I thought that a 4 day open-air festival in the UK would yield at least 3 days of rain, but the weather was beautiful and hot as hell for the whole weekend).
Once we finished all the interviews we recharged our camera’s battery and I was finally able to relax and enjoy two of the best bands around. I considered this a present for my birthday, while my friend filmed both of their sets. I’m talking about tonight’s headliners Skyharbor and Veil Of Maya. Skyharbor’s very first appearance in the UK with their vocalist Daniel Tompkins was a huge success. This was also officially one of the audiences favourite performances, and I’ve seen a lot of people enthusiastic for it. Their performance was actually flawless. Especially Daniel’s amazing vocals were just too perfect. But the rest of the band played a clean and memorable set, proving this is one great live band. But there’s one more thing to tell about this performance: the band’s official drummer (that great artist named Anup Sastry) was currently on tour in the USA with Intervals, supporting the Misery Signals release tour. Guess who took his place… hell yes! Once again the amazing Mike Malyan (Monuments & The Algorithm) joined the band and nailed it on stage. This was Mike’s third set after the unforgettable one with Monuments and the performance with The Algorithm during the after party. And the most amazing thing is what Kashiv from Skyharbor told us during our interview with him… Mike only started to learn those songs on Wednesday! Mike actually learned a 45 minute set of complex Skyharbor greatness in 4 days! And he even brought his own brilliant interpretation to deliver an amazing and unforgettable live performance. Oh-my-god. I was fucking speechless.
Veil Of Maya’s set was delayed for a considerable time because it seems like their bassist got stuck somewhere in Belgium and had a lot of problems reaching the venue. He finally made it and the show began a bit later than expected, but also a bit louder than expected! Veil Of Maya brought some ruthless madness on the UKTMF main stage with a crazy, fast, and killer performance. They played a balanced setlist with songs from their latest albums “Eclipse” and “[id]” but also the biggest successes off “The Common Man Collapse”. I never saw them live before and I was extremely happy to enjoy them on my birthday. Their performance and the “Happy Birthday” sung by the audience before Skyharbor’s performance were the best presents possible. This weekend keeps getting better by the day.
– MATTIA
Links: Facebook // Official Website
