Southampton Annihilation Festival has been going for several years now and firmly established itself as a reliable event in every local metalhead's gig calendar. Featuring an impressive twelve bands across a single day, it's a relaxed and warm-hearted event where most of the crowd know each other's first names. Everyone is smiling, the ale and cider is flowing freely and you can find yourself chatting with a band minutes after their set finishes.

Which might seem odd to anyone who isn't into metal because most of the bands here produce the kind of racket that'd get Daily Mail readers reaching for their pitchforks and hastily building a Wicker Man. Death, Thrash and Doom are the order of the day, the majority of vocals are growled, there's no catchy choruses to be heard and there's some hilariously over-the-top t-shirts on display, so there's very little chance of anyone that sounds like SHINEDOWN taking the stage. This is Metal with spikey unreadable logos which scowls as soon as a camera comes near, but when the audience is this upbeat it makes a brilliant day out.

It's up to London four piece OVERTHROW to start the day off and they do so with aplomb. Their set is half an hour of big riffs, guttural vocals and enough energy to power the Hadron Collider. Despite the early hour, they get heads banging during the very first song and have some pretty impressive solos in their repertoire. They also make a major contribution by bringing a Sombrero with them that spends all day getting passed from one band to the next. It's a great start and nicely followed with the monstrous DECAARTA. Like a coastal bombardment made into a band, they're tremendously heavy and have a natural showman in singer Sam Watkins. Hair flies in all directions and drummer Owen Land pounds the living shit out of his skins, riling everyone up nicely over their early afternoon pints.

 

There's more Death Metal up next with INEBRIOUS INCARNATE, a band whose logo is so spikey we had to ask a passer-by who they were. Their entire set is an ode to drinking, capped off with a cover of 'Empty Tankard' that sounds nothing like the original. The already-quite-tipsy folks down the front love it, the cavemen vocals and masses of chug going down a storm.

 

They're neatly juxtaposed with the more atmospheric but equally brutal DYING VISION. Armed with several select cuts from their 'Univerself' album, they turn the Firehouse into the pits of iron and suffering beneath Isengard and sound a bit like Black Metal that's been written by Uruk Hai. There's also lots more melody than we've heard so far and they prove to be one of the highlights of the day.

 

With several members who look like they bench press corpses and a bass player wearing a leather mask, MEAT TRAIN are the day's most intimidating group. Their music is gore-soaked and has a definite '80s punk vibe to it. They could have been one of John Peel's favourite bands if they'd formed earlier, but they are dramatically overshadowed when CAMBION take the stage and steal the entire show. The moment they start playing, you can feel the ground tremble as the venue gets sucked into a vortex of militaristic mega-metal, fronted by a singer who sounds alternately like a Demon and a religious leader. And not a nice religious leader either, but one who spends five years shagging his follower's daughters then gets them all killed in a siege.

 

By this point the Firehouse has been bombarded with extreme metal for nearly four hours and you'd think we'd heard it all. However, there's been a noticeable lack of Doom up until now, which is rectified nicely when MORASS OF MOLASSES take their turn. After the bludgeoning we've just received, the only way to follow it up is to slow things right down. The pace drops dramatically, the vibe gets more psychedelic and the spirit of BLACK SABBATH fills the room. It's the musical equivalent of eating pasties and drinking cider with Jus Osborn in the depths of Cornwall and it's totally brilliant, the power of the riff compels us all!

Things speed right back up again though with REPRISAL next. They proudly wave the Thrash Metal flag as faster than light guitars rage constantly and heads bang from start to finish. It's a very well timed shot of adrenaline straight to the heart, all day gigs can be gruelling affairs and their barbarous power chord slams wake everybody up nicely.

 

That was Tim's accounts of the afternoon of the festival taking place and I Lotty shall give you a lowdown of when I arrived for the evenings proceedings. I remember last year's edition of Annihilation Festival being a fantastic success so I was more than happy to cover it again this year; due to work commitments I couldn't cover the full day.

The first band I managed to witness a full set from that fateful evening was Black Metal quartet VEHEMENT. It was last year's edition of this festival where I first caught this group of four for the first time and due to their successfully chaotic show I have kept my eyes and ears out for them since.  A sudden blast of the smoke machine which set off a mysterious yet eerie atmosphere that Black Metal is well known for, VEHEMENT were well underway. Watching them create pandemonium and chaos which is what they are known for musically and performance wise, in terms of Black Metal that is a huge compliment. I was also pleased to hear some brand new material from them; particularly some clear vocal work from Xysor, I hadn't heard clear vocal work from them before so I liked that touch a lot. So in my opinion a successful set from Eastbourne's dark storm VEHEMENT.

 

The difference this year there was a much more obvious mix of Rock and Metal. The clear evidence of this was the next band. Hard Rock quartet MEANSTEED were next to show Southampton what they were made of; considering a Black Metal band had taken to the stage previously to see a Hard Rock band after that was a sudden genre change but it worked especially well. I first saw MEANSTEED in their home city London as main support for JETTBLACK's album launch show in 2012 and remember enjoying their show then. Their performance at Annihilation Festival was very well received by audiences at The Firehouse. Their memorable melodies consisting of flawless guitar work, thunderous drums and powerful vocals were greatly appreciated by punters. Their energetic presence and eye catching stage antics i.e. lead guitarist Alison Curry sitting on someone's shoulders as she cracked out a blistering solo I think I speak on behalf of all that were there that they are welcome back to Southampton.

 

Before watch Bristolian Death/Gore Metal heads AMPUTATED I managed to catch few words with them; being a relatively new listener to the band and a novice listener to the genre I was eager to find out what to expect. They told to expect a lot of disgust and filth during the show; they were not wrong. From the word go AMPUTATED had The Firehouse eating out of their dirty, revolting hands; this actually is a compliment where this band are concerned. Their filthy guitar riffs, grimy vocals and their energetic stage presence were certainly a win for me and because of this they certainly became a new favourite band of mine. So to say they created disorder and uproar with their show is a massive understatement. Hope to catch them again soon.

 

XERATH have been receiving high praise in the metal community; lots of mentions, lots of acknowledgment and lots of honour. I honestly wasn't familiar with their work until that night; despite getting soaked in beer within the first few seconds the excited fans started their antics and showing their open appreciation. Their fantastic sound was so beautifully constructed with the perfect balance of melody and aggression alongside. That added with their exciting stage presence seemed to win them over and provided the evidence that they were definitely the ideal choice for headlining.

So from what I caught from the festival proceedings it looks again Southampton Annihilation Festival was a triumphant success; the one difference I noticed that added a more organised and official approach were the different screens displaying the band names and their stage times. I thought this was a great touch to the festival and speaking with other punters they agree. I honestly feel honoured and privileged to have this local phenomenon on my doorstep. Hope to see this again in 2016!

*Photography by Tomasz Wrobel