Live Evil Berlin. It was ridiculously packed compared to last year, could hardly move for some bands, still very enjoyable.
Bang - Excellent, like a more happy mix of Pentagram and Sabbath. Need to check out their albums now, not sure why I haven't done before really... 4/5.
Barrow Wight - slightly sloppy, punky thrash. Good fun. 3/5.
Black Magic - great band, new material is much more melodic and Blue Öyster Cult-ish. Their next album should be really big, even though the singer seems to be turning into Noel Fielding. 4/5.
Ranger - brilliant as always, total thrashing madness. 5/5.
Albez Duz - classic doom with occasional screechy black vocals. Pretty good. 3/5.
Division Speed - very good, proper thrash. 4/5.
Maggot Heart - new band of the woman from the Oath. Sounded like a cross between the last In Solitude album and Blondie. Meh. 2/5.
Solstice - really good, current singer nails the old stuff really well. Probably had the smallest crowd of the fest surprisingly. 4/5.
Saturnine - all girl sludgy black/doom. Got a bit samey, nice Bathory cover though. 2/5.
Possession - excellent, really intense. Caused the most violent moshpit of the day. 4/5.
(Dolch) - hard to describe, sort of post-black/doom with female vocals, was all quite sleepy, like a lullaby. Quite good though. 3/5.
Aura Noir - did what they always do. 4/5.
Malicious - more black/thrash, loads of bands doing this sort of thing, also not helped by broken guitar strings. 2/5.

Kraftwerk - Astounding. New arrangements of most of the tracks meant they sounded as fresh as any current act (and loud!), the 3D was necessarily retro but spectacular, the robots were... robotic but a nice touch. Two hour set, the only break being when they dropped the curtain to bring the aforementioned automatons in and out. The band even bobbed their heads and tapped their toes from time to time (fun boys). Slightly anticlimactic finish, ending with Techno Pop, Musique Non-Stop and Boing Boom Tschak but that was only by comparison with the previous material, it was still great.

Straight into my top five gigs, no doubt. 5/5.

Voivod tonight, utterly brilliant. 5.

Was at Electric Wizard in Newcastle last night. Wasn't sure what to expect, as I had never seen them before and heard quite conflicting reports on how they are live. I thought they were pretty good to be honest, the psychedelic projections were quite trippy and went well with the music. Definately sounded better live too, much punchier. Opener Riddles were good too, really energetic and quite 60s influenced , will check them out further. Angel Witch bored the shit out of me though, just one of those bands I really don't understand the hype over.

Bloodstock.
It wasn't shit.

I'm just back from Damnation and it was an excellent event, as usual.

Barrabus were absolutely superb at the pre-show bash the night before. Immortal Bird weren't too bad either. As for the day itself, bands of the day were Sodom, Grave Pleasures, Paradise Lost and Dragged into Sunlight. Honourable mentions go to Myrkur, Wiegedood and Agorophobic Nosebleed.

Nails and Mutation were shit.

Couldn't get in to see Nails as it was too full. Was right at the front for Mutation and it just sounded like a load of distortion. Myrkur sounded good but saw fuck all as a 6'5" guy with really wide shoulders stood infront of me. He had a nice T shirt though.

We got in pretty early for Nails but left after about 5 minutes and went and got some food. A friend of mine was helping out behind the scenes on the day and said the main Nails bloke was absolutely off his head and it appeared like the rest of the band were there to be his carers.

I, and several others, suffered from "tall bloke syndrome" during Dragged into Sunlight: I think gig positioning should be graded by height: Tallest at the back

Totally agree.

Glad Shallowthing doesn't post on here anymore.

I saw Enslaved in London last night and they were absolutely superb.

Darkher, who were supporting, were enjoyable, if a little one dimensional. They could do with adding more dynamics and variation to their songs. That lady can certainly sing, though.

Saw Senser last weekend, blast from the past, hilarious watching the middle aged crowd dad dancing to their hits

I took the missus to see the Foo Fighters in Sydney last week. I'm not a fan of the band personally but they're one of her absolute favourite bands. I was surprised to find that the Foos are an outstanding live band & I really enjoyed their three hour set despite the band's obvious rock star-isms. Dave Grohl is an excellent front man who gives it his all from start to finish. Weezer were OK in support without really seeming to fit the stadium format.

Saw Destruction last night- predictably solid with a good setlist. Four fists.

Desertfest, Camden.

Band of the weekend: High on Fire
Other excellent sets: Eyehategod, The Obsessed, Zeke, Church of Misery, Napalm Death (rumours of their demise have been greatly exaggerated).
Bands we only caught bits of but deserve more investigation: Suma, Cattle, Dead Witches
Unprepared band of the weekend: Nebula, for breaking a string and not having a spare guitar, or even spare strings.

All in all, a good time was had.

Sepultura with Death Angel in Sydney-first time seeing the Seps since 1994-pleasantly surprised. The drummer is a beast and Kisser somehow makes up for no second guitar....

The last show I went to was Paw Patrol Live. The storyline was based on an island treasure hunt with the pups trying to stop the evil Mayor Humdinger from snatching the pirate treasure for himself. It was the heaviest gig I've been to this year so far.

Some years ago now I went to Yo Gabba Gabba..that was pretty cool...

Machine Head in Brum a few weeks ago.

Ho-hum.

ELEINE @ Mammothfest Brighty

Did Diamond Head in Bilston a week or so ago.
Twas a top evening.