8

Monster Truckers

Hard hitting five piece Malefice came out of Reading in 2003 and wasted little time in making a name for themselves with a well received debut album and a heavy touring schedule that included a slot at Download last year.

They hit the second stage at Hellfire Fest mid afternoon to yet another disappointingly small crowd on this stage. The sound isn’t great but you do get the sense of real power from them, backed with low growling vocals from Dale Butler. As with most bands on this stage today it’s hard to pick out the dynamics and whilst the wall of sound they produce is impressive and the rhythms rather hypnotic there is no hint of a tune coming through the mix.

As such it’s half an hour of relentless pummelling punctuated by the occasional musical breakout into heavy riffage. You get the feeling that there is much more to this band than they are being allowed to showcase today but with so few people in a big room, the high frequencies are just bouncing all over the place and what variety there is in tempo or dynamics is lost in a thunderous wall of noise. They could’ve played the same song six times and we’d have been none the wiser, which is a shame as they seem to have some interesting ideas. Next time with any luck we’ll find them in a proper venue with decent sound.