Review by Gary Spiller for MPM
“One day, one stage, one monster rock show.” Now in its eighth incarnation Stonedead Festival well and truly lives up to its motto. It has unequivocably become an industry mark of exacting standards within the rock and metal calendar. It doesn’t take very long to put those sold-out signs up each year, and this is achieved ahead of any lineup announcements; such is the trust and faith that Stonedeaders have in their organising team.
The welcome, from a seemingly ever-happy troupe of volunteer staff, is warm and jovial as ever. From our experiences as punters, guests, or media it’s consistently embracing as if you’re returning to the arms of family. And that’s the key word – family – and at the core of the ethos. The Stonedead attendance is measured in four figures but that doesn’t prohibit a collective eye to attentiveness or indeed an apparent infinite supply of patience whilst, all the time, wearing sincere smiles. It’s a similar parallel, albeit on a smaller scale, to Germany’s Rockharz Festival; it’s what, at the end of the day, generates loyalty on many perspectives.
Arriving in the vicinity of the hosting Newark Showground in the early hours of last night, we were greeted by a spectacular lightning display. The signs weatherwise were most certainly ominous. Sure enough, even with a pleasant enough start to Friday, just three hours prior to gates opening, a fierce thunderstorm sweeps across the former RAF Winthorpe site. Though having drenched and battered the festival grounds spirits are far from dampened; the day summer broke but Stonedead wants to let its hair down and party!
There are three bands for our delectation, and they provide an inversely proportional spread of styles from classic mid 80s thrashing to the anti-establishment punk via a healthy dollop of bad-arsed West-coast sleazy metal. If the mission was to provide a broad variance in just a triple helping, then it appears a most successful one before even the first note is struck.
Defiantly the leaden Nottinghamshire skies are brightening up by the time grizzled punks Anti-Nowhere League set about delivering a swerveball full of snotty posturing and prickly rebellious attitude. It’s a bold booking by the Stonedead organisers going beyond the boundaries of the ‘standard’ classic rock and metal their event is known for. Judging by the reception given to the buzzsawing set-closer ‘We Are The League’ it’s a surefire conclusion that ANL have ‘gone down well’ with an audience outside of their normal parameters.
By the time the very familiar sneer of the Pistols’ ‘Anarchy in the UK’ blares from the PA (not for the first time this evening) the arena has begun to fill nicely. Prowling with intent the band appear, intro’d by Planet Rock’s Paul Anthony, sole remaining founder member Nick ‘Animal’ Culmer cheerily greets a sodden but enthusiastic Stonedead “Hello my heavy metal friends.” In an instant any barriers by musical definitions are dismantled by this amiable approach.
The razorblade ‘anthematics’ of opener ‘Pig Iron’ draws in even more of a crowd. With back patches adorning their waistcoats and cuts the band, at quick glance, could be taken for a biker gang. Hoisted off 1997’s ‘Scum’ lp this track and the following high ordinance pummelling of ‘This Is War’, a 2011 single-only release, prove to be the only offerings from outside the realms of right in your face debut album ‘We Are The League’. Well-received by the press of the time upon its release in 1982 it has, to an extent, defined the band with its raw anger and visceral emotions of the time.
The quartet bristle with blustering pugilism and a ‘don’t give a damn’ attitude; the buzzsawing anti-establishmentism stance of closing number ‘We Are The League’ is the perfect encapsulation of an outside view looking inwards. It whips up a storm but not before a colossal helping of six other tracks from the album of the same name have wrought a ground-clearance near and far.
It’s short and sharp, three-minute heroes, and amidst the raucous belligerence there’s the barbarian on the warpath approach of ‘We Will Survive’ and the fist-punching goodness of ‘I Hate …. People’. Metal and rock much like punk have been considered, through time, to be outside of the accepted ‘norm’ so there’s much to relate too in shared feelings.
The singalong punker ‘Let’s Break The Law’ is surely an influence upon Massive Wagons whilst the anarchic re-working of Ralph McTell’s ‘Streets of London’ replete with a time-honoured snippet of ‘London’s Burning’ is a joyous raising of the middle digit. ‘For You’ packs a Sham 69 crossed with Stiff Little Fingers body slam whilst the legendary anti-braggart viewpoint of ‘So What!’ has me reaching out for my Doc Martins. Apparently, some upstart thrash outfit from San Franscisco by the name of Metallica covered this back in the day.
Those boots of teenage years are long gone but the inner spirit still pogoes along with an abandonment belying our years. It’s simply great the music of our younger times can still be celebrated over 40 years on. Anti-Nowhere League has rolled back time, and they have unequivocally proven to pack a relevance by getting this year’s Stonedead off to a flying commencement.
The momentum is continued most aby with American sleazy rockers Kickin’ Valentina. It’s hard to argue with their self-proclamation of delivering ‘loud, unapologetic rock and roll’. Low slung dirty riffing brings Stonedead back into more familiar territory and the faithful lap it up, every last drop and morsel of it. Formed just over a decade ago in Atlanta, Georgia you’d be forgiven if you took on the assumption the band had been brought up on LA’s Sunset Strip instead.
With hugely tangible elements of the likes of Mötley Crüe, WASP and Guns n’ Roses this four-piece have been gaining traction in the UK during recent years. They first came to our attention four years ago, just along the A46, with a blistering mid-afternoon set at Call of the Wild. High energies and a wrecking-ball impact they ensured that they remained in the memory banks.
The tone for the following 50 minutes is firmly set with D-A-D’s ‘Rim of Hell’ ushering the four elements stagewards. According to the Danish cow-punkers “the best damn parties” are held there and it’s a statement which Stonedead can effectively live by as we teeter partying on the brink of the underworld throughout our time at the Showground.
Number one with the bullet KV quite literally burst onto the stage hitting it hard from the very first note welcoming everyone to the ‘Freakshow’. It’s all action muscly Stateside rocking, vocalist D.K. Revelle’s rasping edge could easily be primetime Axl Rose prior to the GnR’s frontman inserting of his cranium up his anal passage. There’s a considerable, yet not overblown, swagger across the ranks and justifiably so.
With the sun setting the weather holds fair and the rock n’ roll soiree continues. ‘Dance of Destruction’ is the first of several offerings from the band’s fifth studio album ‘Anthems from the Underground’ – released just a few hours earlier – despatched at regular intervals during their set. A quickfire, pinpoint hard rocker it announces their intentions adroitly.
The 80s sleazy glam metal of ‘Rock n’ Roll Casualty’, the first single from ‘AFTU’ buzzes with the intensity that one expects if sharply poking a hornets’ nest. Revelle speaks with pride regarding the new album and, to loud cheers, announces that this evening’s performance is being recorded for a forthcoming live album.
KV alternate between new and established tracks with a heavy as heck ‘Man on a Mission’ switching back to the back catalogue ahead of the raunchy slither of ‘Generation Timebomb’, another glimpse into the new release. ‘Somebody New’ melds Vixen and Poison with the beauty of angels whilst there’s some neat daubs of Black Stone Cherry in latest single ‘Silver Moon’.
A gentler moment is provided by the countryfied rocking airs of ‘Don’t Be Mad’; a new track it feels like it doesn’t quite know its precise identity which piques my curiosity. It flitters, intriguingly, at stages between Black Stone Cherry and Credence Clearwater Revival. The highly flammable ‘Ride or Die’ emits high levels of infectious vibes; with Revelle engaging with the Stonedead ranks and encouraging all the while. There’s time aplenty for one final stand with the strongarm ‘Get Ready’ rocking the Showground one last time. There’s a little looseness in parts about KV, but they don’t unravel, this is live rock n’ roll and all the better for it in my opinion. After all, if I wanted to listen to the record in perfection I’d put on the cd or vinyl. Myself? I’d rather be carousing hard on the rim of hell.
Friday’s headliners Kings of Thrash take me back to the mid-80s emergence of thrash metal but also into the midst of a personal conundrum. Of the big four American thrash outfits there was one I simply couldn’t, at the time, connect with. The band? No doubt you’ve correctly guessed Megadeth. The reason? The nasally vocals of founder and frontman Dave Mustaine. To this day I equate his voice, on a personal level, as the equivalent of running nails down a chalkboard.
However, Kings of Thrash present an opportunity to operate the formula Megadeth minus Mustaine and see what the result actually is. Of course, in reality this is totally nonsensical as this in its absolute completeness would result in there being no band whatsoever but the chance to be able to listen to that early material with no vocals courtesy of Mustaine is one I can’t resist. To clarify this isn’t a slight, in any way whatsoever, upon Mustaine as a vocalist but purely a personal note of my not liking his vocal style.
The 2022 reunion of co-founding bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Jeff Young – 50% of the Megadeth lineup, alongside Mustaine and drummer Chuck Behler, that recorded ‘So Far, So Good … So What!’ during 1987 – provides an intriguing glimpse of Megadeth with a different vocalist. As nightfall begins to descend upon the Nottinghamshire countryside draws in a healthy crowd; not all are invested as the thrash metal sub-genre never was a fit for all.
Helicopters buzz overhead of the cavalry charge as one by one the Kings assemble. Lastly Ellefson enters the fray and the dam burst begins in earnest with a rapidly thrashing opener. Reminiscent of Kreator and Overkill there’s a doom-laden core rammed full of King’s screeching six-stringing. The set-opener for this tour leg has consistently been ‘Rattlehead’ but tonight’s frenetic beginning’s id eludes me. Frontman Chaz Leon greets the Stonedead masses with a “What the fuck is up?” enquiry before introducing Ellefson and adding a further question to discover whether the festival is ready for some “mega thrash”.
Upon a platter at volcanic temperatures the Kings have dished up the entirety of the ‘So Far, So Good … So What’ album in track order. Commencing the eight tracks with the darkened instrumental ‘Into The Lungs of Hell’; its funerial march paving the way for the proper old school of ‘Set The World Afire’ as the fullness of the moon breaks through the clouds.
There’s total pandemonium with the bulldozing rendition of ‘Anarchy In The UK’; probably not as Lydon and co imagined it but this energisation goes down a storm. For me ‘Mary Jane’ benefits hugely from Leon’s vocal injection as, like the blood-lusting wolf, the track growls and snarls.
An energetic ‘502’ follows leading into the albums signature track ‘In My Darkest Hour’ receives a reverential treatment and reception. The marauding stomp, naturally, despatches touches of early-Metallica and leads seamlessly into the obliteration of ‘Liar’. The pulverisation of the 1988 release is concluded emphatically by ‘Hook in Mouth’ which receives a well-mannered circle pit. A first for Stonedead perhaps?
The pace slows and the doom deepens with ‘Dawn Patrol’ marauding ahead of the turbo-injected engines of ‘Eye of the Tornado’ being worked to the max. A mosh pit broils amidst the lightning storm that rages. The coupling of a surprising, and entertaining, cover of Maiden’s ‘Murders In The Rue Morgue’ along with the inevitable monstrous ‘Peace Sells’ brings a cracking hour to a satisfying conclusion.
Putting a thrash band on the bill of what is essentially a more classic rock / metal festival is a bold manoeuvre but has proven an overall success. For myself Megadeth minus Mustaine’s vocals has worked well. Perhaps I really should make a serious attempt to give Megadeth-proper a relistening and re-evaluation in the aftermath of tonight. Three bands and a hat-trick of styles have worked well for the pre-festival party. With a nervous eye upon the weather forecast we head into the main event.
Photography by Kelly Spiller for MPM
