If there’s one sure thing that British public transport can guarantee, it’s to be delayed (or cancelled at the last moment) and the usual shenanigans mean that I am late for the 2026 edition of the Hammerdown NWOBHM Festival. As the birthplace of Iron Maiden, The Cart & Horses is to the NWOBHM what The Cavern is to Merseybeat and it makes the perfect frame for this year’s event. Set in the pub’s basement, the music room still retains many of its original features and has absorbed a little of every band who has ever performed here. It’s a history that hangs heavy and makes treading these boards a daunting prospect for any band and that adds a little spice to the day’s events.
My disappointment at having missed opening acts Desdemona and The Hellfire Club is allayed somewhat by Slander. What I love most about the NWOBHM is the sheer enthusiasm and wild-eyed belief of the participants displayed, and that’s two things which Slander have in abundance. Despite having formed in 1990, their debut album (91’s Careless Talk Costs Lives) encapsulated all that was great about the genre and would have created serious waves had it been released a decade earlier. Vocalist Steve “Whitty” Whittington is something of a live wire and makes the first of several sojourns into the crowd, intent on getting up close and personal with a near capacity crowd. If you’ve yet to make Slander’s acquaintance, you need to rectify this as soon as possible.
With roots stretching back to 1972, St. Albans-based band Bleak House pre-dated the NWOBHM. They fully grasped the do-it-yourself ethos the genre offered, self-releasing two EP’s during their original tenure that bristled with punk energy and delivered it with skilful metal musicianship. That’s very much what they bring to the stage this afternoon, hitting the ground running with a hard and melodic sound. The band’s twin guitar attack could rival the Downing/Tipton or Smith/Murray combination, riffing in tandem and trading solos, they create a dizzying affair that ties the crowd up in all sorts of knots. ‘Inquisition’ (from their debut EP Rainbow Warrior) goes down particularly well, but the band barely put a foot wrong over forty furious minutes. It’s been full steam ahead since the band reformed in 2020, and this gig continues their upward trajectory and makes a nice precursor to their homecoming show this September.
It could be argued that Grantham’s Overdrive peaked too soon. Their 1981 debut EP ‘On The Run’ was a fast and loose effort that positioned the band at the head of the pack, but then they seemed to buckle under the weight of expectation, changing their name and developing a more melodic sound. A return to their original moniker in 1988 found them back in the saddle, releasing albums that could rival their early work (2005’s On Wizard Ridge is worthy of your attention). The usual line-up changes have impeded the band’s progress, yet with their current incarnation you feel that Overdrive have found an easy equilibrium. New vocalist Jacob Edward Newby leads the charge (he’s like a younger Bruce Dickinson, only on amphetamine), but the whole band are on fire and lock in tightly to ensure that songs such as ‘Nightwalker’ swing with wrecking ball force. They’re the type of band who feed off the crowd’s energy, and when a Jason Voorhess look-a-like enters stage right swinging the head of Donald Trump (a prop, obviously), things go into…overdrive.
Sudbury in sleepy Suffolk might not be your first thought when thinking kick ass heavy metal, well it’s time to think again because Trespass have been waking up the neighbours since 1979. They’re playing with the same energy that characterised their early career, and as such there’s no time to waste on fancy introductions, the band getting straight down to business with a couple from their latest long player (2023’s Wolf At The Door), including the title track from that record which packs a potent punch. From here it’s back to the band’s genesis with ‘Bloody Moon’, the b-side from their sophomore single before ‘Visionary’ signposts a bright future. Bouncing around between old and new cuts, the set flows smoothly despite the years that separate the songs, but even within individual cuts there are wheels within wheels, ‘Bounty Hunter’ kicking down the gears before suddenly bursting into life, then ‘Live Like A King’ takes raising the danger level exponentially. 1981’s ‘Bright Lights’ hurtles us towards the set’s conclusion with ‘Stormchild’ (dedicated to the memory of Kev Riddles) getting us there in style.
When Kev Riddles passed away last year it was a loss felt keenly by everyone in the community; he wasn’t just a guy in a band but someone who shared the same kind of rabid fandom as those in the audience. While tonight’s show isn’t a memorial set per se, there are many present who’ve come to pay homage to one of their own, and that the set contains material from Death For Glory, the last work of Kev Riddles makes this gig by Tytan all the more special. It must have been a hard choice for the band to continue after losing such a powerhouse as Kev, yet tonight’s set proves that it was the right decision and I’m sure this is how Kev would want to be honoured, not by a sombre memorial but as a horns-held-high, foot-on-the-monitor celebration of heavy metal, and that’s exactly what Tytan serve up tonight. Attired in a long flowing robe, vocalist Mark Hale looks like he’s come straight from a black magic ritual, and he certainly casts a spell over the crowd tonight meaning that by the time we reach second track ‘Money For Love’, the whole venue are locked into a singular groove. ‘Women On The Front Line’ balances heaviness and melody perfectly whilst ‘Cold Bitch’ raises the temperature a few degrees, and new track titled ‘Catch The Fallen’ really stomps. Covers of Angel Witch’s eponymously-titled stomper and Grim Reaper’s ‘See You In Hell’ threaten to take things off the (Richter) scale before it’s back to Tytan for ‘Far Side Of Destiny’ and it all conspires to make for a perfect set, and I’m sure Kev Riddles is looking down and raising a glass in affirmation.
