Live review – Festival – Friday only

5 minute review read

Intro

On Friday, the 15th of May, I went to Kyleakin village hall on the Isle of Skye to go to Dùn Rùin Metalcore Festival – the first one in the Highlands! There were four bands playing, but we went mainly to see Gun Ghaol – the world’s only Gaelic metalcore band – as we saw them last year at Belladrum Tartan Heart festival and love their music, concept and incredible stage show!

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The Night

The first band playing is called From Tyranny, but because its a ninety minute drive to get there from our house, we missed their first couple tracks. They had incredible energy and really got the crowd going, but they weren’t as much my thing as the next two. They still had an epic sound and if you want to give them a listen I’d recommend it. (Really I recommend all these guys, it was an epic night and they all had great sound and skill)

There was 30 minutes or so between each act, so we went and got our Gun Ghaol merch then, in the hopes of getting small sizes – a rather difficult thing at a lot of shows. The shirts were brilliantly priced and had great designs – also the lead singer of Gun Ghaol, Colin Stone, was at the table, and it’s incredibly surreal talking to someone who you’ve seen play once before and online a lot. I’m pleased to say he was really nice and talkative, genuinely there to speak to the fans, not just because its the done thing.

The next band to play was Rosen Bridge – they put on a fantastic show and I much preferred them to From Tyranny and Eschalon later… They had great use of a mix of clean and gritty vocals, and the moshpit grew throughout their set. I’m not a mosher myself (yet), but I enjoyed the prompts to headbang and bounce! I think my relationship with metalcore and heavier metal in general is that I really have to be in the mood to listen to it day-to-day, but put me standing in a live show and its the best thing ever!

Another break later, and Gun Ghaol came on with their newish song Salm – I guessed that that would be their opener, its so distinctive and builds incredibly! The set that followed is nearly indescribable and everyone was absolutely hooked and having a whale of a time! I, again, didn’t mosh, but enjoyed a place at the side near the front where I could literally jump up and down for about an hour without feeling watched and awkward – my curse in standing shows… It took a while for me to get my comfort zone – but my younger sister had no such qualms, she was at the barricade and earned a mid-show fistbump from Colin for her bravery!

The technical skill displayed throughout all the performances that night was awe-inspiring – vocals and instruments, and it was clear that all the bands were supporting each other and working off the previous artists energy.

It was brilliant to see so many different people from lots of different walks of life at the same place and unified over the same music – There was older people, for whom this is clearly not their first moshpit, younger guys (I use that term gender-neutrally), who were instigating the pits and also enjoying from the side, (there was a pit at one point where a younger woman in a bright white dress was wall-of-death-ing with elder metalheads in denim patch jackets and a couple lads of 13/14 who I’m guessing were at their first proper metal gig). There were also a few kids of 5-8 who were getting along incredibly (tho for safety’s sake, getting along great outside of the moshpit) – an instance that particularly caught my eye was a boy of about 6 play-moshing with Colin Stone during From Tyranny, running around and bashing into him with great joy – it was really sweet and heart-warming to see!

I would like to take a minute now to direct any Chappel Roan fans who have made it this far (good on you for getting here!) to DEISEIL, one of Gun Ghaols earlier singles. DEISEIL is a slightly altered cover of HOT TO GO! and was amazing fun live, everyone knew at least some of the words, its was amazingly high energy and you couldn’t help but move, and who else can say they’ve seen moshing to Chappel Roan? The mickey-take of HOT TO GO!’s cover art on the single is also quite amusing!

The final artist to play was Eschalon, and I think I was a bit tired, achey and not in the mood anymore, so I found these guys kinda underwhelming at the time… they were the headline of the night, but they played for a shorter time than Gun Ghaol, only around thirty minutes. But, they still had some really cool elements – they opened with a kind of spooky countdown in a computer-generated female voice that made me think of E.V.E. from the Bring Me The Horizon lore immediately! And were programming their tech elements on-stage, something that requires a lot of skill and practice. So I would definitely be very open to hearing them again, when I’m not cramping up from jumping for the aforementioned hour or so!

So, if you live a sensible distance from Skye, or are up here on holiday next May – get yourselves to Dùn Rùin Festival, for a specific band or just to absorb the incredible and infectious atmosphere!!! Almost everyone was very friendly, and I, as a young woman, never felt unsafe or at all threatened – a very valuable thing at any gig or festival – and I think the crowd and staff were the perfect size to support this feeling.