Hello everyone! This weekend, I had the chance to go to a small festival in Durbuy, a lovely village in Belgium. This is mainly a rock and metal festival gathering hundreds of people. In short, it is a small friendly festival and the camping site is even more friendly. It occurred from the 6th of April to the 7th of April, late in the night. In this first article, I would like to introduce the bands which performed on the 6th of April and the second article will be focusing on the bands of the 7th of April. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to see all the bands but for those which I have seen, I will share my impressions with you. For the rest, I will simply tell a few words about it and share links to their Youtube Channel.
I do not own the photos in this article, it was made by a talented photographer of the festival whom his name is at the bottom of each photo, you can find his page on Facebook.
Coalition
Belgian band coming from Bastogne, their genre is mainly trash and death metal and their influences are death, trash and hardcore. Here is the link to one of their songs
Anwynn
Anwynn is a Belgian symphonic melodic death metal band from Brussels. Their name is inspired by the Welsh mythology and means "the other world". Their songs are a melting pot of genres including folk metal and symphonic metal and are composed of death metal riffs, heavy metal solos, and massive orchestration. It is a very interesting and strange kind of music that I recommend you to listen to! Their Youtube Channel.
Galderia
This is a French heavy metal band from Marseille. Their music would be a kind of power and melodic metal with powerful guitar solos. Here is a song of them I really appreciate clink here.
Acus Vacuum
They could be characterised as a pagan-folk and neo-medieval band. Their songs immerse the listener into an atmosphere of rituals about the legendary folk of Arduina and are composed of pagan instruments such as bagpipes, strange horns and other mystical ones. To listen to them, click here.
Null Positiv
Leading by a female singer, Null Positiv is a German band singing exclusively in German. Hard to understand but still very great to hear! The singer alternates between growl and clear voices, giving a balance to their songs. I can't give a proper genre to this band but I would say they are between death metal and heavy metal. Their YouTube Channel.
Ithilien
Ithilien is a Belgian band who defines themselves as "FolkCore" since their style is a combination of traditional Belgian folk music and modern metal using Flemish bagpipes, flutes and more. I think that this band is really atypical and is worth listening! Link here to their YouTube Channel.
Imperial Age
Since I am a huge fan of melodic metal, I was looking forward to hearing this band on a live show. This Russian band characterises itself between symphonic metal and opera rock with two female voices and one male singer. Well, I wasn't disappointed but I found the female voices quite weak in comparison with the male voice. But anyway, they gave a really great show and I would recommend this band to anyone who fancies melodic metal! To listen to them, click here.
Alestorm
The bigger headliner of the festival and the band I wanted to see absolutely! This band doesn't need much description since they are well-known and headliner of many festivals. They formed in Scotland and describe themselves as a pirate metal band. We could say that they are the pioneers of the genre but are mostly characterised as heavy or power metal. As the headliner of the day, they put the crowd on fire by giving a lot of energy and their proper "drunk pirate" atmosphere. I really enjoyed their performance. However, I only deplored the lack of strength in the lead singer voice sometimes.
Here are some of my favorite songs from them: Keelhauled, Drink, Shipwrecked and Hangover.
Therion
Therion is a mix of neo-classical music, heavy metal and opera rock with powerful guitar riffs and opera voices. It is a very interesting style, they even make an entire opera metal but in this festival, they only played a few songs from this opera. To hear one of their songs, click here.
Ultra Vomit
The last band to perform for the day. Undoubtedly, the festival have put Ultra Vomit to end this first day cheerfully with this parodic metal combining the powerful musical characteristics of the genre with hilarious lyrics that moved the entire crowd until 1.30 am! Here is their YouTube Channel: click here.
This was the end of the first day of Durbuy Rock Festival and for this first article! I will be back soon for the second part and I hope you enjoyed this one!