Hey metalheads!
As you guys may already know, I spent the last weekend in August attending the Afropunk Festival 2015 in Brooklyn, New York. Although this was the 10th annual Afropunk festival, it’s my first time being able to attend. And now I’m very ashamed that I waited so long.
Now – What I would like to share are the bands that I enjoyed the most at this festival. And they are the following:
Candiria
Suicidal Tendencies
Death Grips
Candiria was actually a band that I’ve never heard of before. And as I was wondering around the festival, I was drawn towards these raging harsh vocals with this mathy post-hardcore backdrop. Everything sounded so technically calculated, raw and perfect that I absolutely had to figure out which band was playing. And Candiria turned out to be the culprits.
afropunk festival 2015
The first thing I noticed when I first walked up were the select few who knew how special this moment was. Candiria, also known as Brooklyn’s hometown heroes, have been one of the most well-kept secrets in the underground scene since 1992 and have reunited recently. By the end of their set, I was wondering why they weren’t as popular as Glassjaw. The vocal chaos and musical insanity was similar, if not, better than the aforementioned.
afropunk festival 2015
Onto Suicidal Tendencies.
You guys know how I fucking love my punk (and if you didn’t know, now you know!) so I was excited by default to get up-close-and-personal with Suicidal Tendencies. Their self-titled debut back in 1983 remains one of the sickest hardcore punk albums from start to finish. I definitely wasn’t the only ecstatic individual because the crowd grew insanely huge. They even brought motherfuckers on stage to mosh to “Possessed To Skate”, wrecking the stage in the process (as expected). It was fun to watch.
afropunk festival 2015
Suicidal Tendencies’ performance was fueled by their concrete reputation as “the fathers of crossover thrash” and their dedicated fanbase who didn’t miss a single lyric. I’m sure they delivered a much more spastic and hyper performance in their younger days but these veterans are too old for that shit now! They were smart to let their fans take care of that for them.
Alright! Last but not least, I have to tell you guys about Death Grips. These guys aren’t metal. Nor are they punk. They are just fucking noise (industrial electronic noise to be exact).
afropunk festival 2015
The majority of their following is due to their unpredictable live performances and the harsh style exhibited by all members of the project. And having recently gotten back together after disbanding last Summer 2014, I swear everyone at the festival migrated to that stage just to see them. Nevermind that Lauryn Hill was playing at another stage. DEATH GRIPS IS PERFORMING. YOU BEST BELIEVE NO ONE WAS MISSING THAT. And I have no regrets. The gloomy epilepsy-inducing atmosphere fit their experimental style so dead on that I completely lost sense of myself. It was the most engaging performance out of the entire festival for me personally.
So! That’s my recap of my Afropunk 2015 experience. I’m already excited for Summer 2016 to see what kind of line-up Afropunk will bring.
I’ll be posting a separate blog showcasing the beautiful people of Afropunk 2015 so if you are interested, stay tuned!