Femme Metal Festival @ The Peel

After a hearty breakfast Sam and I ventured to The Peel in deepest darkest Surrey, Kingston to be precise, for a Femme Metal Festival. This was a charity event in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK. Femme Metal, to the uninitiated, is a female fronted metal band. This event was originally meant to be in Southend so we were not best pleased when it got relocated to Kingston just so that it could be advertised as "in London" although that was really stretching things! Things didn't start well when we had to wait 45 minutes before they actually opened the doors!

What we were treated to was seven bands (there should have been eight buy Triaxis has to pull out, more on this laster).


CRIMSON TEARS
CRIMSON TEARS were a really good opener and warmed up the crowd well. They had string songs & vocals even though the sound levels were a bit low.




See all the CRIMSON TEARS pics here: 081109CrimsonTearsFemmeMetalFestival

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/ukcrimsontears


SOLSIKK
Next up were SOLSIKK delivering some very hard and fast thrashy music and some good vocals.




See all the SOLSIKK pics here: 081109SolsikkFemmeMetalFestival

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/solsikk


SANITY FALLS
By the time SANITY FALLS hit the stage we were cooking with case and it was just getting heavier! Dishing up some fine thrash metalcore, they has some great riffs and
good blend of screaming and singing.




See all the SANITY FALLS pics here: 081109SanityFallsFemmeMetalFestival

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/sanityfalls


SCARECROWN
Hailing from Italy, SCARECROWN came on stage and owned the place. It was more heavy stuff with a very good groove to it. Singer Antonella had an amazing voice and they took the festival to another level with their set.




See all the SCARECROWN pics here: 081109ScarecrownFemmeMetalFestival

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/scarecrown


APPARITION
I won't make myself popular here but APPARITION were the weakest band on the bill for me. I get the feeling the position on the billing was more to do with the bass player being involved with setting up the festival rather than any earned right. Don't get me wrong, they weren't terrible but......... the singer took a while to get into her stride and was off key a few times, she never seemed comfortable on stage, kept pulling awkward poses and kept fiddling with her wardrobe. The guitarist was technically superb but was like a corpse on stage. The tunes were good, Sam's voice did improve but I felt they should have been openers rather than 5th on the bill especially give the quality of the bands that preceded them. Still, everyone else seemed to love so what do I know LOL




See all the APPARITION pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/k.t.glitz/081109ApparitionFemmeMetalFestival#

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/apparitionworld


SOULGRIND
Could SOULGRIND be on of the most unlucky bands in the world? There was a big delay as they were setting up. Turned out they were one power adaptor short of a touring band! They finally managed to cobble things together only to find that their DAT machine was kaput and therefore they were unable to to continue. They did however manage to play 4 songs (which didn't require the DAT machine). They had a really good death metal style and the singer looked a little like Dawn French which was a result!




See all the SOULGRIND pics here: 081109SoulgrindFemmeMetalFestival

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/soulgrind

And now for my grumble! Triaxis had cancelled so there should have been at least an hour of leeway on the setting up of bands. Given that this was a Sunday night in the middle of nowhere there was no excuse for things running late. Amazingly however, with the 45 minute delay in being let in, and the squandered time with Triaxis cancelling things ran later and later. Sirenia were supposed to have been on at 21:30. In theory they could actually have gone on at 21:00 if people had run a tight ship. As it was they didn't go on until 22:00 so there were lots of people that would have to leave during Sirenia's set (Sam and I included)

SIRENIA
We only managed to see two songs. It was a damn shame, the sound was awesome and the two numbers that we could stay for were absolutely superb.




See all the SIRENIA pics here: 081109SireniaFemmeMetalFestival

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/sirenia

When we got to the station we started talking to a Japanese guy who had been at The Peel. He was really grumpy as he had left just before 22:00 to get to the station. He had travelled all the way from Bristol (leaving at 06:00) just to see Sirenia and as a result of bad time management on the part of the organisers he missed them altogether so was totally grumpy (and understandably so). Suggested he writes to the organisers to register a formal complaint.

Don't get me wrong though, it was a blinding day raising money for some good causes with some great bands and I am really glad we got to go. I just hope that the organisers are receptive to constructive criticism before planning any future events like this.