REVIEW: Saturday at Winter's End 2024 with Stone Broken, Empyre, King Herd and more

Unlike most festivals, the grey overcast and constant ‘mizzle’ means nothing when you’re indoors in the warmth, with merch and jewellery stands to explore, and a host of bands to either check out or check back in with.

New artists that strive to create their own space, eluding obvious comparison, are never less than interesting, irrespective of how much you ‘get’ them. There’s a good chance, though, that you’re gonna ‘get’ Crowley, who open proceedings at Winter’s End today. Lidya Balaban is like a twentysomething Ann Wilson fronting Dio-era Sabbath or a female-blooded Green Lung. Her voice veers from ominous croon via strident metal to bloodcurdling screams, and in ‘Pyre’ and ‘The Witching Hour’ these occult-touched pagan rockers already have at least two great songs. They’re new on the block, so let’s watch ‘em go.

Local band Ortario have stepped in for the absent Pyrogaric at the last moment and while they are not as ear-catching as Crowley, they knit a neat brand of alternative rock. There’s occasional rap and nu-metal staples amid their assertive riffage, but they know the value of tunes as ‘Forget About It’ and new song ‘Silenced’ demonstrate.

“In the review they’ll say that we were the first band that ever asked to be booed off the stage,” jokes Darran Charles, frontman with prog-metallers Godsticks, shortly after requesting exactly that. Despite having no fewer than six albums to their name, the Welshmen are a modest bunch who also make a thankfully unproven joke about having very small genitalia. Thankfully their music – fastidiously marshalled metallic riffs with leftfield choruses – is much bigger.

Doomsday Outlaw might consider themselves a little unlucky not to have reached higher ground than their mid-table billing suggests. Phil Poole’s heartfelt, throaty vocals and Alez D’s cool handed guitar licks put you in mind of Scotland’s much lamented Temperance Movement, and while this Sheffield band aren’t quite that good yet, songs like ‘Turn Me Loose’ and ‘If This Is The End’ are seriously emotive calling cards.

If you think you haven’t heard much from Departed recently, you’re not wrong. As Planet Rock’s Darren Redick notes, they did indeed depart – for four whole years. The returning band, a slightly shorter-haired version, continue to play erudite hard rock. ‘Are You Ready’ shows flashes of prime Tyketto in its smooth delivery, and includes a blistering solo from guitarist Ben Brookland. Thankfully their chosen brand of melodic hard rock is pretty timeless which ought to take them to good places if they stick around.

That same good place is where you should find King Herd. After a brilliant ‘Halo’, the thunderously dark Midlanders deliver the electric shock intro to ‘The Same’ from which Dave Taylor emotes such lines as “everyday is the same now and it’s dragging me under”. From places of despair can come great art as we’ve seen from Nirvana onwards, and King Herd are another great exponent in the making. What’s more, they’re getting better with every showing. During ‘Like It Used To Be’ you can actually feel the hurt radiating from the stage and swelling inside your own rib cage. That’s genuine connection, and as much as you can ask from any band.

It's an outing that Empyre are perfectly placed to follow. They’re a different kind of ‘heavy’ – less so in guitar volume but more so in terms of reflection and soul-searching. That said, there’s a dark humour about them, frontman Henrik Steenholdt well aware that his band would not be the first on the guest list for wedding parties. “We’re good at killing the vibe,” he notes, “you can see it in our faces.” It depends what vibe you’re trying to kill, because Empyre’s remarkable ‘Cry Wolf’ and their cover of Chris Cornell’s ‘You Know My Name’ bring frisson of their own making, while on the languid ‘Only Way Out’, Henrik’s voice alone is sufficient to fill the room with feeling.

Stone Broken, worthy headliners, are a band that have not always had things their own way. In terms of its timing, the pandemic could not have hit them harder and you sense from what frontman Rich Moss has to say tonight that the passage back to these stages hasn’t always been serene. Professional to the core, they nail down riffs, rhythms and hooks with near scientific precision, but key to their songs’ success is their very humanity. ‘Black Sunrise’, ‘Make It Out Alive’ and even the cheeky ‘Let Me See It All’ (a strip club favourite we are, err, reliably informed) are so easy to connect with, and played tonight with the honed, bulky sound we’ve come to appreciate. Then, in a clearly impromptu speech and in slightly faltering tones, Rich speaks candidly about dealing with personal demons and how reconnecting with music helped him. Introducing ‘Stronger’, he pins his hopes on this song having helped even one individual. In reality, Rich would need Carol Vorderman to work out the numbers his music has affected, and perhaps there’s a sign of that when tonight’s crowd takes on the shout-along chorus of closer ‘Not Your Enemy’ and rattle the very rafters.

Winter’s End 2025 Early Bird tickets:

Tickets to Winter's End 2025 are on sale RIGHT HERE at Early Bird prices until 11.59pm on Sunday 18th February 2024.

All Early Bird weekend tickets come with a FREE Winter’s End 2025 T-shirt.

Buy Winter's End 2025 tickets

Saturday at Winter's End 2024 in photos:

REVIEW: Friday at Winter's End 2024 with Massive Wagons, Black Spiders and more

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