FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Damnation Festival 2021

November 4, 2021 Jessica Howkins

As the summer festival season fades away, Damnation comes out to play. Every year, fans from across the country travel to Leeds to file into the city’s University Union venue to see some of the most cherished bands in metal. The 2021 edition marks a more special place in the hearts of goers, COVID-19 snatched 2020 away from us, like every other live event, bands have had to pull out left, right and centre, and it will mark the last time the event will be held in Leeds as from 2022, it will be held in Manchester, scaling up the venue size. We look at the line-up of one of the most anticipated metal events of 2021 and who we think you should be seeing.

Before chaos across four stages and a few thousand metal lovers proceeds, Damnation is set to host a pre-show on the night prior. Four bands will be performing special shows on the Refectory stage at Leeds University Union on Friday 5th November to get the party started. Kicking the night off, UK extreme metallers AKERCOCKE will be performing a 20th anniversary set of their 2001 album, The Goat of Mendes. Before heavy metal band ORANGE GOBLIN take to the stage to celebrate their 25 Years of British Rock and Heavy Metal set, metallers SVALBARD will set the tone by putting on an exclusive performance of their latest album, When I Die, Will I Get Better?. Closing the night and getting the audience pumped ready for the full Saturday will be British heavy metal band RAGING SPEEDHORN who will be playing a second exclusive performance of the night, alongside SVALBARD, of their debut self-titled album.

Opening the Jägermeister Stage, UK thrash metal band EVILE will pave the way for all other bands after them to continue delivering punishing riffs and plenty of headbanging moments. Following on from them, post-metal band BOSSK will put out big shoes to fill. We’re certain the likes of thrash band ONSLAUGHT, industrial metallers GODFLESH and gothic metal band PARADISE LOST will do just that before much-loved extreme metallers CARCASS close the festival. Unleashing punishing riffs and most likely some of the filth they released on their latest album Torn Arteries, you do not want to be missing a moment.

If the Jägermeister Stage isn’t entirely for you, have no worries because next up is the Tone MGMT Stage. Extreme metal band CRYPTIC SHIFT will rip through the stage before bands such as PARTY CANNON and MAN MUST DIE take over and hopefully set the mood for people to throw down. Thrash metal titans GAMA BOMB will cause a riot before letting post-metal/hardcore CONJURER and doom metallers CONAN rip into a new dimension with riffs for days. Closing up Tone MGMT Stage, we can promise that Birmingham death metal band MEMORIAM will destroy everything in their path, leaving the room in a state of utter carnage.

Cult Never Dies is where the riff-fest lies though. One-man black metal artist ABDUCTION will open the stage ready for post-metallers URNE, swiftly followed by a band who mixes horror films and filthy riffs; VIDEO NASTIES. A double bill of Mancunian black metallers, WODE and WINTERFYLLETH, will mix things up a bit and set the tone for another one-man blackened speed metal machine, HELLRIPPER. Closing things up on this stage for the night, Birmingham-based funeral doom metallers ESOTERIC, will make the cold November outside feel like a summer day.

The Eyesore Merch stage is just as jam-packed as the other three, leaving you again, with so much choice it’s difficult to choose who to see. If you’re around this stage, check out heavy-instrumental prog band MOUNTAIN CALLER who will be warming the stage up for funky riff-meisters BOSS KELOID. For all fans of Frank Herbert‘s sci-fi classic Dune, post-metal/doom/prog band DVNE will hit all of the nerding out levels for you. Psychedelic vibes will be delivered next from GREEN LUNG, followed by atmospheric soundscapes crafted by Norweigan multi-instrumentalist SYLVAINE. The penultimate band taking to the stage will be French black metal connoisseurs REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER, leaving genre-bending and fellow French band, YEAR OF NO LIGHT, to unleash their seamless changes from post-rock, psychedelic and sludge to end the night.