Richard HolmesByker Grave Festival Pre-show @The Lubber Fiend, Newcastle, December 6, 2024
Byker Grave Festival @Newcastle University Students Union, December 7, 2024
Appetites had already been whetted by a stacked bill of doom, sludge, black thrash and hardcore.
Anticipation for 2024’s Byker Grave Festival, however, reached fever pitch in the autumn, as Venom Inc. were announced as headliners.
And a move to Newcastle University’s higher capacity Students Union, following stints in venues across the city, showed how far the fest had come.
Rich Holmes weathered Storm Darragh to witness the biggest Byker Grave weekend to date…
Fiendish Friday
It’s testimony to Byker Grave’s increasing popularity that its pre-show is now a thing.
Last year, Venomwolf blitzed The Little Buildings and they were back again on Friday, this time bearing their teeth at The Lubber Fiend. If anyone could decipher singer/guitarist Duncan McLaren’s inter-song banter let us know – the reverb was maxed out – but his band’s annihilation-level, metal punk onslaught didn’t need any interpretation.
Sparking a raucous pit with Bring Down The Axe, Venomwolf deserved their headline billing – and were a level above their last Newcastle show.
The remainder of Friday’s bargain (4 quid in!) bill ran them close though.
Bone Tomb made their live debut nine years after their first (and only) release, searing the night with spectral, second wave black metal riffery and majestic leads. Featuring current and former members of Vacivus, Cruciamentum, Plague Rider and Wodensthrone, there was some serious talent in their line-up… and it showed.
Grave Altar’s black thrash savagery was also a revelation, as they joined Friday’s headliners in unbridled Venom worship – with hints of early Sepultura and Sodom thrown into the mix too.
Yep, a ferocious cover of Slayer’s Black Magic spilled blood, but the trio’s own work shone through: Hell’s Necromancer and Wrath were just two highlights in a punishing set.
Switching up the vibe, Yorkshire’s Dead Monarchs lean more towards Matt Pike than Mantas, and beneath all the genre tags, are simply a damn fine rock n’ roll band. The upshot was instant satisfaction as the towering Al Mancrief and co. thundered their way through Memory Of Lies and a host of meaty cuts from Titan.
The North rises…
Byker Grave Festival has long championed local talent, with Live Burial, Nemorous, Waheela and Disciplinary all lighting up the fest over the years.
2024’s edition was no exception.
Druidess weaved their earth magic around Saturday’s opening slot and even singer Shonagh Brown’s searing sore throat was kept at bay for a mesmerising half hour.
The Newcastle quartet blend spectral trad doom with kaleidoscopic prog, creating rich, folklore-inspired songs like Witches’ Sabbath and The Hermit Of Druid’s Temple – both delivered with some serious Byker bass at the weekend.
And then there are guitarist Danny Downing’s saxophone solos, which float eerily above their doomscapes. Anyone entering the uni as Trip Meadow grooved into being might have done a double take.
But hey, it’s fucking cool.
Doom sax?
We’re here for it.
Switching from one fast-rising doom crew to another, Durham’s Goblinsmoker were all about the bass.
And the fuzz.
And the seismic, granite shattering riffs.
Their set dragged us into a black hole of filth, making the uni’s PA work overtime, and mirroring Electric Wizard and Sleep in its intensity.
A very different proposition, then, to Arð, whose tales of ancient Northumbria are told through beautifully sculpted doom hymns.
It was obvious that Arð’s first North East show meant a lot to its creator, composer, arranger and piano teacher Mark Deeks. The emotion was etched on the Blyth native’s face as Burden Foretold unveiled itself and Banner Of The Saint was held aloft.
Sharing vocals with Winterfylleth bandmate, Chris Naughton, Deeks delivered a host of spine tingling, epic sermons… and a masterclass in doom architecture. After the release of 2022’s Take Up My Bones, he promised that “Northumbria will speak again”. Thanks to glistening performances like this, we’re hearing its hallowed voice, loud and clear.
Magarita time
Yep, we threw in a Quo reference there (look it up Gen Zs), because we just know that Rick Parfitt would have approved of party doom purveyors Margarita Witch Cult. And it made a nice header…
Anyway, the brummies have fun with Sabbathian grooves, taking their cues from Supernaut rather than Electric Funeral, and drew a huge, gradually drunker crowd to their afternoon slot. But how else were they going to hear a fuzzed-up, sludge caked take on Billy Idol’s White Wedding at an extreme metal festival? Alongside killer rockers Diabolical Influence and Sacrifice, it just made perfect sense…
The nightmare continues
Discharge laid waste to Damnation Festival’s Night of Salvation back in November, tearing through ’82’s Hear Nothing Say Nothing See Nothing like their lives depended on it.
And here they were again, searing flesh with that relentless wall of noise and the distinctive, d-beat attack that spawned an entire genre.
The Blood Runs Red, Fight Back, Never Again, War Is Hell, New World Order… Stoke’s finest plundered their discography for a blistering set, spearheaded by livewire New Jersey punk JJ Janiak – whose arrival ten years ago reignited the band.
Founding members Tez, Bones and Rainy lit the spark back in ’77. And as this set showed, they’re still on fire, nearly five decades later.
Yep, the quintet could have easily headlined Byker Grave themselves.
But there was a hell of a lot more to come…
Born on the bayou
Ever get the chance to witness New Orleans duo Goatwhore and Eyehategod on the same bill?
Take it.
With a collective CV that includes Acid Bath, Down, Soilent Green and Arson Anthem, we’re talking about Louisiana royalty here.
They’re time served veterans of a thousand stages, from greasy dive bars to colossal Eurofests.
They know how to throw a party.
Following Discharge was a tough ask for Goatwhore. But Sammy Duet and the boys were up for it. Caustic black thrash rained down on Newcastle, as the quartet soaked Byker Grave with the motörvenom of Bearing Teeth For Revolt, battered their way through Born Of Satan’s Flesh and unchained a triumphant Fucked By Satan.
Frontman Ben Falgoust grinned as he helped out the crowd surfers. “Fucking A” he roared. Too right.
And it was a big “fucking A” for Eyehategod too.
Nihilism wrapped in barbed wire. Jimmy Bower’s disintegrating, dystopian blues. And those, loose, churning grooves. They all coalesced around sludge poet Mike IX Williams.
High Risk Trigger was pulled on Byker Grave, lurching into the crowd with a clip full of riffs, Worthless Rescue dipped us in southern swamp filth, Agitation! Propaganda! sped it up, all hardcore gristle and spite.
The unholy collision of Black Sabbath and Black Flag was like nothing else on Earth.
Tyne evil
Just days before Venom Inc. hit Newcastle for their first hometown show, Mantas announced that he had quit the band. Recovering from a second heart attack, he hadn’t played live for some time. No one expected (although some held hope) that Venom’s co-founder would make the gig.
But amidst the concern for the guitarist’s health, the (Cronos-fronted) Venom vs Venom Inc. debate resurfaced, and there were calls for Tony ‘Demolition Man’ Dolan to call it quits.
However, anyone with doubts Dolan and co. could carry the Black Metal torch, and continue Venom’s legacy, would surely have had them quashed at Byker Grave. Or at the very least, would have respected their sheer, primal force.
US-born guitarist Curran Murphy, dreadlocks spinning, never stopped smiling. Geordie drummer Marc ‘JXN’ Jackson was a fusion reactor, propelling Blackened Are The Priests and In League With Satan with thunderous abandon. Dolan looked possessed, mic raised high, Lemmy-style. His bass tone turned ear drums to mush. Ian Kilmister would have been proud.
A power trio in every sense of the word, Venom Inc. looked like they were enjoying this homecoming.
It mattered to them.
It also mattered to Prime Evil era guitarist Al Barnes, who leant his fretwork to Tribes.
And to an ecstatic Sammy Duet, who bellowed out Countess Bathory in the place it was spawned, all those years ago.
Yes, there was the nostalgia, the classics.
Poison. Live Like An Angel. 1000 Days In Sodom. We got it all.
But Venom Inc.’s own cuts, such as War and There’s Only Black, sounded monstrous too, and far fiercer than they do on record.
Tours have been lined up, though the controversy will no doubt still rear its head. Whether Venom Inc. record again is an unknown. There’ll be fallout from Mantas’ departure.
But for one night in Newcastle, none of that really mattered.
Heavy metal had the last word.
All photos used courtesy of Stefan Rosic, Conundrum Images.