Into oblivion
Blackhole are a five piece outfit from down south that play tuneful but hard edged punk/metal. For the second band on they get a pretty decent crowd in the Lock Up tent and successfully get a mini pit going, which is no mean feat at this time of day.
This is the second time I’ve seen Blackhole this year and the second time that I’ve completely forgotten that singer Richard is the younger brother of Gallows front man Frank. This is a good thing really as comparison would be unfair but unfortunately the vocals don’t fair too well today, being harsh anyway the fact that the sound isn’t too great makes them really unclear. The guitarists do much better and turn in a solid performance and whilst the sound isn’t great it’s decent enough to pick out some nice chunky riffs.
As they get into their set Richard tries to animate the crowd (with limited success) but he doesn’t move around much and really needs to do more to capture the interest if they are going to make any kind of impact. The material is decent but it’s nothing new and nothing that other bands here aren’t already doing better. The guitarist finishes the last song sitting on somebody’s shoulders, which raises a good few smiles and overall they do alright today but with some quality bands on this stage further down the bill they haven’t really done anything to make their set stick in the memory.