Slam Dunk Festival 2022 approaches at less than two months away, taking place over June Bank Holiday Weekend, Slam Dunk Festival has revealed stage splits for its tremendous lineup. Headliners Neck Deep, Alexisonfire, Sum 41 and Dropkick Murphys and countless more bands. See the splits below.
Despite sharing honours with Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! for worst band name in metal history, fortunately We Butter The Bread With Butter fare better in their musical creations than in their nomenclature skills. Despite starting out as a joke band, come their fourth album Wieder Geil (AFM), WBTBWB are a pretty serious proposition in terms of popularity in the world of hooky, groove-focused metalcore, even if their tongues stray fairly regularly into cheeks.
While not being the most original of bands, the Lübben quartet, led by guitarist/programmer Marcel “Marcie” Neumann, know how to tick boxes, as playful, catchy electronica and synths dance in and amongst stabs of metric heaviness, and the band power through track after slick track based around rhythmic poundings laced with poppy synth based motifs, such as the hooky ‘Berlin Berlin’. ‘Exorcizt’ showcases Paul Bartzsch’s ability to hit menacing deep growls and juxtapose with a contagious chorus without wussing out into the autotune territory inhabited by the worst of this ilk (take a bow Breathe Carolina), the repetitive chorus causing involuntary skull banging. Meanwhile ‘Rockstar’ is a Euro rock club dance-floor anthem in the waiting, with its driving, pacy driven guitar and annoying rave “Ooo ooo” interspersing popcore Rammstein.
WBTBWB are a difficult proposition to nail down as, at times, they aren’t all that far removed from lowest common-denominator metal, as exemplified by sprightly down-tuned jack-in-the-box stomper ‘Zombiebitch’, or ‘Ich mach was mit Medien’, the side-effects of a bizarre Rob Zombie and Asking Alexandria splicing experiment; yet all through they entertain with effective, hooky, heavy simplicity. Living on the poppier, cheesier (dairy reference not intended) side of the fence than contemporaries such as Crossfaith, nevertheless, they groove, they engage, they don’t outstay their welcome, and are distinctive, all while delivering ten platters of fodder ripe for mass mainstream metal consumption.
6.5/10
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STEVE TOVEY