Metal4Africa.com » » WinterFest’10 Review

A note from the organizer

A big thanks to everybody involved – from the bands to our M4A Staff and to the hordes who descended upon the Klein Libertas Theatre – A big thanks for making our 8th festival one of the best yet!  Turnout was absolutely tremendous.  We were able to pay the full travel expenses of our guests, Wrust, and chip in a little something extra for all the participating bands – which is a very rare thing to be able to do – and a rare thing for bands to feel that high level of appreciation.  That has made this WinterFest most special indeed!

Below is a review of the event as seen through the eyes of two who attended, and were kind enough to submit their experience.

Co-written by: Bloodpixie & Decay

With the masses marching in and the energy running high, heads are banging to the tunes of metal sounds from some brutal bands. The much anticipated Winter Fest is here and the crowds are partying hard to the shredding and rifts of the guitars. Seeing the venue full to epic proportions gave a feeling of great satisfaction, knowing so many came to support the talent. With no stopping it, the venue just kept filling up more and more with metal minded people.

Once again the organizers out did themselves with the give aways like free entry tickets for a few lucky fans that remembered to register for the event as well as one very lucky guy who got the guitar give away and was ready to explode with excitement.

As we all know metal isn’t that widely available, so many were very thankful to Subterania for putting up a merchandise stall and supplying us all with hoodies, t-shirts, cds, dvds and brilliant posters to buy.

As the night drew on many bands graced the stage, each time sending the crowd into a bigger frenzy than before. First to do so was ‘The Heathens’ kicking off M4A’s line up sending it off to a brilliant start. They gave the metal scene a new fresh vibe with their basic yet powerful sounds. They are releasing their debut album on the 01.09.2010, so keep your eyes open for the full review.
‘Crow Black Sky’ was up next, this is the bands first gig since 2009 and made a great come back with melodic metal that kept the people mesmerized and wanting more.
Another new band on the M4A stage, ‘Sabretooth’, with their big hair and daring guitar leads blew the crowd to pieces with their unique style of not-so-mellow 80’s sounds.
Taking the stage by storm ‘The Broken Result’ played some amazing death metal/metalcore with a brutal, hardcore fast pace sound. Louis kept the mosh pit going with his fearsome high pitched screams.
‘Stellitius’ made an amazing come back after also being off the circuit for quite some time. They were also generous enough to team up with Jackson (one of the event sponsors) to provide the give away guitar which was a King V shape.
Our visitors, ‘Wrust’, who travelled all the way from Botswana had the crowd in awe with their brilliant guitar skills and awesome vocals leaving the masses gob smacked.
As for ‘Mind Assault’ who were co headlined by ‘Wrust’ played a brilliant set and left the crowd wanting more from both sides. Bringing back childhood memories of “Wielie Wielie Walie” and cardboard cut outs that crowd surfed before getting torn to shreds.
With friends and fans alike, a chant began, getting so loud that the next band appeared from the wings of the stage to see. Mind Assault had heard the chant of their name and to the crowds utter joy, they started to rip the stage apart. Getting the crowd worked up, a massive mosh pit was formed with dozens of arms, legs and bobbing heads.
Marching Dead, who have also been scarce of late, made a mind blowing come back to the scene with brutal vocals and brilliant tunes making the metal heads go mad.

As the night came to a close and people left with many mosh pit battle wounds, spirits where high. Many spoke of one of the greatest gigs ever; knowing the next day would serve as a happy reminder of the night before. From all the neck pain and bruises, knowing all the pain was worth a night now gone but wont be forgotten.

Pictures supplied by: Fluffee @ UT Radio

The M4A team is now poised to embark on a Promo Tour to Gauteng and to Kwazulu Natal to spread the M4A magic, and to promote the services of this website.  Please visit the facebook events for each region and help us spread the word of African Metal:

GAUTENG 04 SEPTEMBER 2010: Northriding, Sandton @ Muso’s

http://www.facebook.com/the.darkfiend#!/event.php?eid=100776519980276&ref=ts

KWAZULU NATAL 11 SEPTEMBER 2010: Durban @ Burn Nightclub

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116195251763302