There’s just over a month to go until Hevy Festival 2014 marks the festival’s return to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park down in Kent. After – let’s be honest, a fairly disasterous turn of events in 2013 that saw the festival cancelling and taking a year off – the festival is back, with a new focus and energy behind it. It might not have the size or chequebook to match Download or Sonisphere, but the return of Hevy to the UK festival calendar is definitely something we can get behind – which is why this week’s Sunday Spotify Slaylist is all about their 2014 line-up.

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Amenra/VVOVDS
The Abyss Stares Back #1
Hypertension Records
02 June 2014

by Cheryl Carter

Hypertension Records’ The Abyss Stares Back split series is one that will surely be closely watched due to the names and sounds involved. Their first instalment features the cathartic tones on the incredible Amenra alongside their fellow Belgian countrymen VVOVNDS (pictured above), and other planned releases will see Scott Kelly, Primitive Man, Alkerdeel and Hessian lined up against each other.

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This week’s our Sunday Slaylist is taking a look at Beyond The Redshift, a one-day extravaganza of post-rock and post-metal, taking place at three venues across North London on 10 May 2014. The Forum, The Dome, and the Boston Music Rooms will play host to a variety of acts handpicked by the festival’s headline act and curators, those peerless Swedes Cult of Luna.

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Cult of Luna don’t play live very often. Seeing as they’ve just released what will surely be one of the albums of 2013 (yes, we know it’s only January) the Thrash Hits team was out in force to see them play live. Most of us were in London, but Gary Wolstenholme took some photos for us up in Sheffield, so there are pics of Her Name Is Calla rather than Amenra. FYI.

Six things we discovered when Cult Of Luna played a gig in London

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Well, since Christmas and the New Year are now well and truly out of the way, we figured now was the perfect time to throw the next episode of the Thrash Hits podcast out there for you to digest. This week, Raz and Hugh are talking about the various ins and outs of certain legal cases (Ian Watkins of Lostprophets, Harley Flanagan – formerly – of Cro Mags, and, of course, Randy Blythe of Lamb of God) that have been going on while we were on our Christmas break, as well a a discussion on the nature of making tips and predictions, and even a little bit about what’s going on with Thrash Hits for 2013. HINT: BIG PLANS.

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We we watched Amenra perform live at Damnation Festival 2012, it damn near burned our eyes out and tore our ears apart. The apocalyptic blend of intense power and sonic textures in the Belgian post-metal outfit was something else entirely. Hugh Platt sat down with the band’s frontman, Colin H Van Eeckhout, a few hours before our transcendent live experience, to find out just what makes the Belgian five-piece so compelling.
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Here it is! The final Thrash Hits Festival Splash Page of 2012. All our work from Damnation Festival 2012 is going be linked to from this page (eventually), so give it a bookmark or just don’t close it, because it’s all you’re going to need. Interviews, photos, setlists, reviews – it’s all here. [Read more →]

This week, Raz and Hugh discuss their respective recent festival activites at Iceland Airwaves and Damnation Festival in Leeds, break down the latest clutch of bands announced for Download Festival 2012 (except A Day To Remember, who got announced on Scuzz just after the first run of new band announcements), and look back on the life of Mitch Lucker from Suicide Silence following his death last week.

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The Thrash Hits Podcast 017: Airwaves, Damnation, Download, and the death of Mitch Lucker.

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For the second part of our Damnation Festival 2012 review, our deputy editor, Hugh Platt, raves about Amenra and Extreme Noise Terror, and remembers falling over in a toilet. You stay classy, Hugh.

Six things Hugh Platt learned when he went to Damnation Festival 2012:

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With Damnation Festival 2012 a mere three weeks away, Hugh and Tom blast through every band on the line-up of the UK’s heaviest Winter festival, rating and slating as they go.

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