Skies Turn Black introduced themselves on the Jagermeister Stage as a “rock ‘n’ roll” band, but more accurately fall as a modern spin on classic heavy metal, with groove metal and hair metal influences.
They hail from the North of England – with members from Manchester, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Liverpool and Durham – and they are clearly good songwriters, with a real sense of fun in their music.
Their songs would often start with progressive-esque build-ups, going into more popular-style oriented songs with good melodies, great riffs and solos, and big anthemic choruses.
A favourite of mine they played in particular was This Too Shall Pass.
The two vocalists they featured worked together very well, and they also had a good presence and energy on stage, coming into the crowd and engaging with the audience well.
So far, so good. However, the band suffered from two big misfortunes during their set.
Firstly, the positioning of the small Jagermeister Stage, which is right next to the very, very loud main stage, hurt the set as the noise from outside the tiny tent was very audible.
Secondly, the popular Sepultra began their set during the last 10 minutes of Skies Turn Black.
This led to an undeserved crowd exodus at the end of their set, despite how well they had done up to that point.
Nonetheless a good set from a very promising group – and I got a free shirt that was thrown into the crowd!
