It’s rare I have to leave for a show before lunch, but this wasn’t just any show. Uprising, Leicester’s annual Metal festival hosted by Resin Events was back at the O2 Academy this year with an incredibly varied and stacked lineup.
The festival also features a second event as well, the grand final of Leicester’s Metal 2 the Masses event. So with the day finally starting at an incredibly early 1pm, it was time to head down to the second room for the first band of the day and the first act of the M2tM final.
Tech-death 5-piece Voidwalker were the first band of the day, taking the second stage by storm with an onslaught of riffs and breakdowns. An incredibly solid band that definitely got the crowd woken up. Second on for M2tM we’re Nu/Alt-metallers Loach, who gave the audience a tasty set filled with great levels of groove and some fantastic stage presence.
Inflictions brought the heaviness next with their Nu-Metalcore breakdown-filled set that had an unrelenting level of energy while Running with Knives, the final competing band played one of the tightest M2tM sets I’ve seen. Whilst every band performed great, unfortunately only one could go on to play Bloodstock, and this year’s winners were Voidwalker, congratulations lads!
After that, we moved on to the main event of the day with the first band on the main stage, Internal Conflict who offered up an impressive serving of metalcore, after seeing this band so many times over the almost 9 years of shooting shows it was great to watch them on the mainstage. The next band up on the second stage was Blood Oath, who offered a tasty helping of Blackened Death metal to an incredibly eager crowd.
After getting lunch, the next band I caught were Lowen, an absolutely incredible Middle Eastern Progressive Doom act that brought some much-needed sludge to the festival via the second stage. I then checked out Skarlett Riot, a British 4-piece hard rock act I’ve not heard of until today and god damn, I was impressed. From great stage presence to one damn tight performance. Definitely, one to check out if you haven’t.
The next band I decided to check out were Damim on the second stage, a blackened Death metal act. While they didn’t have the most energy, they made up for it in tightness. Afterwards, I headed over to the green room stage for the first time to see Master Charger, the sludgy Southern Stoner 3-piece as they created a Great Wall of Sound that engulfed the corridor they played in. Next up was the master craft of Post-Hardcore which is Palm Reader. With great stage presence and a phenomenally tight performance, it’s safe to say they were the festivals stand out act for me.
After my last little break to refuel, I went back in for my last few bands of the day. First of which were Recall The Remains, one of the most exciting Deathcore bands the midlands currently has to offer who absolutely smashed out their green room headline slot with one of the tightest performances of the festival. Definitely, a band I recommend everyone checks out as soon as they can. Up next we’re Combichrist who laid waste to the second stage with their old-school Industrial-Electronica set. The energy was unmatched and truly infectious with the room absolutely filled. Utterly fantastic.
Lastly were the main event, Paradise Lost who has the main room filled to the brim with eager metalheads who ate up the set of gothic Death-Doom. While the band weren’t necessarily my thing, i couldn’t help but admire the musicianship of the band and the quality of the performance. A perfect way to end the night.
Uprising is honestly a festival done right. From organisers who are truly passionate about what they do, to always having a great range of bands (both genre wise and size wise), this is the standard I wish all festivals would hit. It was great catching up with so many industry friends, seeing so many great bands and just seeing a festival done right. Early bird tickets are available now, and any fan of metal should grab tickets now, because if Uprising 7 is anything like this years event, I can promise you won’t want to miss it.
A big thank you to Dan @ DC Sound Attack for the opportunity.
Review & Photography: Dan Stapleton
Birmingham-based portraiture photographer
Bookings open
https://linktr.ee/pulsemediavisuals
