Frantic Fest

This year's edition of the Frantic Fest, which has just come to an end, will long be remembered as a major event. This year's line-up was truly impressive, boasting internationally renowned artists: from the noise of Unsane to the black metal of Enslaved; from the neofolk of Rome and King Dude to the punk of veterans G.B.H. Also worth noting were the breakcore of Igorrr and the black/death metal of Swiss duo Bölzer. On top of all this, there were also metal acts like Sadistic Intent and Hirax, straight from sunny California. The festival was closed out by Entombed A.D., standing in for Exploited, whose set was cancelled due to the precarious health conditions of frontman Wattie Buchan.

The Ferragosto pre-party kicked things off in the open-air spaces of Tiki Taka Village with free shows by Insane Therapy, MuD and In Vein, bands from the thriving local Abruzzo scene. On the 15th a bit of rain also fell, bringing some relief after the intense heat of the previous days. Both stages are covered, so there was nothing to worry about. In any case, it wouldn't rain again in the following days, with temperatures dropping slightly - a real relief for everyone staying at the festival's free campsite.

Thursday 16 August is when things really got going, with a performance by the immortal Unsane, in top form and able to conjure the spirit of a certain uncompromising noise/post-hardcore that has withstood the passing years. Today the band is something of an emblem of the Nineties - an era of noise, rage and nihilistic passion, but also of scars and the marks of time. The New York trio gave everyone at the festival a lesson in style, drawing on tracks from their long career.

Next we took an abrupt leap back to the Eighties with the adrenaline-fuelled, vitriolic performance of G.B.H., the storied English hardcore punk outfit. The aggressive punk attitude at the root of this legendary act hasn't lost an ounce of its edge, and they rattled off gem after gem - "Sick Boy", "Maniac", "Give My Fire" and countless other bullets from their long career. Direct and capable of hitting like a runaway train, G.B.H., led by the charismatic Colin Abrahall, took no prisoners, leaving even younger bands in the dust and reminding everyone what the right spirit and approach to old-school hardcore punk really looks like.

We then jumped forward to the 2000s with the singer-songwriter neofolk of Luxembourg's Jérôme Reuter, who first released material on the legendary Swedish label Cold Meat Industry. Over the years, Rome has built a live act with real impact, and his performance at Frantic Fest didn't disappoint, even if it was somewhat hampered by being staged on the small stage next to the food stands. What's certain is that when Reuter picks up the acoustic guitar and delivers gems like "The Spanish Drummer", "Only Europa Knows" and "One Fire", all the surrounding noise fades away and the crowd in front of the stage listens in rapt silence.

Thursday night was closed out by Igorrr, the eclectic electronic breakcore project (though "baroquecore" would be a better description) that throws everything into the mix: black metal, opera, swing and Balkan melodies, all seasoned with an ironic, irreverent spirit. The live set is great fun, but it comes across as more parody than experimentation. Still, there was no denying the craft behind it.

Friday was the most "metal-oriented" day of the festival. Veterans Hirax delivered a superb set of Eighties-style thrash/speed metal, a genre that's rather back in fashion these days. Formed in California in 1984, the only original member left in the band is singer Katon DePena, a true showman on stage who had no trouble firing up the Frantic crowd.

Another highlight of the night was the set by Sadistic Intent, another cult band hailing from California. Pioneers of death metal in the early Nineties, Sadistic Intent proved live to be a war machine, capable of setting the stage ablaze with brutality and admirable dedication to the cause.

Also on the main stage, festivalgoers got to witness the extraordinary performance of Bölzer, the Swiss duo who deal in an intriguing and atypical form of death/black metal. Having risen to prominence with excellent EPs like "Roman Acupuncture" and "Aura", the duo have earned widespread critical acclaim. Even though so far they've only released one full-length, 2016's "Hero", Bölzer are a act well worth keeping an eye on. They could well have some big surprises in store in the future, and their Frantic Fest set was yet another positive confirmation of that.

Enslaved closed out the night with a fine set that also looked back to the classics of the past, including a couple of tracks from "Frost" ("Wotan" and "Loke") as well as an excellent rendition of "Allfӻðr Oðinn", a track dating all the way back to 1993. The black/viking metal band held nothing back, ranging from their latest forays into more prog and melodic territory to blazing, epic black metal inspired by Viking exploits and Scandinavian mythology. Grutle Kjellson first joked with the crowd about the band's progressive metal leanings, even namechecking Premiata Forneria Marconi, before he and the rest of the band launched into a string of classic Nineties tracks by the Norwegian outfit that set the Frantic crowd alight.

The last day of the festival featured The Secret, an interesting band from Trieste who've earned well-deserved international fame, even releasing material through Southern Lord. Starting out from tight hardcore/crust, The Secret's sound soon hybridized with black metal and doom. The result is remarkable, and on stage it's thoroughly convincing.

Another much-anticipated date was with Zu, the Rome-based jazzcore band who stand among Italy's finest and are very well known abroad too. They've recently also made an album with David Tibet of Current 93, released as Zu93. For this show at the Frantic, the trio also saw the return of Jacopo Battaglia on drums, alongside Luca Mai on sax and Massimo Pupillo on bass. It was a memorable and intense performance, with notably high volumes down at the foot of the stage, on a par with Unsane's on Thursday.

Next up was the neofolk/darkfolk of King Dude, aka Thomas Jefferson Cowgill, who performed on the small stage. If Rome's set had conjured a kind of Mitteleuropean neofolk, Cowgill's is steeped in the ghosts of deep America, with its drunken specters and religious obsessions, somewhere between damned gospel, satanic blues and folk music. A Luciferian figure in the vein of Nick Cave's "Your Funeral... My Trial", Cowgill took the stage alone, in a dark suit, with his guitar and his trusty bottle of whisky. The set was somewhat marred by a few early technical issues and by Entombed A.D.'s soundcheck on the adjacent stage, but Cowgill's talent is undeniable, and it shines through even on the couple of tracks he delivers with just voice and electronic keyboard.

Then it was time for the evening's headliners. Entombed A.D. are a band formed in 2014, after Lars Göran Petrov left what is now Entombed. These days, Petrov and co. tour with the Swedish band's "classic" repertoire alongside the new albums released with the current lineup. Their death'n'roll takes no prisoners, and on stage they hold nothing back, digging into tracks from "Wolverine Blues" and delivering an inspired version of "Left Hand Path" that sent us home satisfied and fulfilled.

All things considered, this edition of Frantic Fest is pretty incredible for a grassroots festival staged in a small Adriatic town in central Italy. It's not just the internationally renowned names involved that impress, but also the organization, the respected schedules, and the care put into the location, the food and the camping. It's hard to find a festival of this kind in Italy operating at this level, capable of ranging from punk to metal to neofolk and noise, with an extremely high level of attention to the quality of the musical lineup. A resounding success.

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