FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT: SWR - BARROSELAS METALFEST
We go beyond the beaten path of the live circuit - find your new favourite festival!
About time we do another one of these, right? Last time round we suggested a very eclectic event in Gothenburg, VIVA SOUNDS, but now we are going in a much more specific direction. Not only metal, but extreme metal, which is the heart and soul of one of the coziest, most comfortable events of the genre, one that is still in a way a bit of a hidden secret in the European scene. Tucked away in a remote rural village in the far North of Portugal - roughly 4.000 people live in Barroselas -, SWR - BARROSELAS METALFEST has been going uninterruptedly (Covid years aside, naturally) since 1998, and in just a couple of weeks the 24th edition will kick off. They actually have a history page on their website with all the bills of all past editions, so just from those you can see how the growth of the event has been slow but very sure, never taking steps that are “bigger than their legs”, as you would say in their local Portuguese language, but always striving for growth every year. After a first edition that probably won’t mean much to you if you don’t come from the Iberian underground scenes (this one), after 26 years SWR - which means Steel Warrior’s Rebellion, in case you were wondering - has already featured in its stages some of the most legendary names you can think of, like Venom, Kreator, Immolation, Hellhammer, Napalm Death, Sodom, Bolt Thrower, Ratos de Porão, Immortal, Candlemass, Possessed, Mayhem, Watain, Discharge, Autopsy and so many others. At the same time, they are a beacon for the Portuguese and Spanish scenes, so even if you’re a jaded, weary veteran that has seen all the classics a thousand times before, half of the bill will always feature local talent, established veterans and hungry newcomers alike, that will surely tickle your discovery bone. The festival has even been the host for the Portuguese finals of the famous Wacken Metal Battles, which typically feature new bands trying to travel to the gigantic German festival and making it big, so it’s really the place to go if you’re looking for something new and fresh. Take a look at this year’s offer.
Right? From undisputably legends like Blasphemy, Terrorizer or Cancer to exciting newer names like Thantifaxath, Conjurer and Vulture, to local exciting acts like Cobrafuma or Els Focs Negres (whom we’ve actually covered before on TDM here and here, respectively), it’s a fantastic mix of things that will satisfy you no matter what you’re looking for. Besides, though the basis is obviously extremity and ungodly noise, the genre variety is also very important and something that has been carefully cultivated over the years - death, black, thrash and more traditional heavy metal are always on display, not to mention a very healthy portion of punk and crust, so no matter what your poison of choice is, you’re always spoilt for choice. On top of it, here’s a particular care taken with the quality of the stage show, the sound is usually spot on and bands tend to gain a new dimension when performing there. Check out a few vibes from last year (and the full collection can be found here if you dig this example):
The area of the festival is relatively small, everything is within a short walking distance, including the two stages, and there are no overlaps, so you can catch every show if you like. There’s a whole bunch of food and drink options, including the SWR Café, and you can even go either into the surrounding village or the beautiful woods (again, everything mostly within walking distance) if you fancy a little escape into normality. Hell, there’s even a church a few yards away if you need to atone for a few sins or for a little too much Satan worshipping. Though Barroselas is remote for Portuguese standards, it’s relatively close train ride away if you catch a plane to Porto and super easy to get to if you rent a car. In short, it’s pretty much the perfect festival if you’d like to go to a place that gives you some of the best names in the metal underground but you’d still rather avoid huge crowds and mud and the general mess of the big events. And it’s starting in just under a couple of weeks, so you can still make that last minute decision and show up. You won’t regret it. Tickets are here, and yes, it won’t break the bank either, especially when compared with other similar events. Out of fun, here’s a few of the most legendary names that are part of the SWR hall of fame (at the festival site, there are actual large carboard cutouts of these above the bar):
SWR - Barroselas Metalfest was founded and is run by the Veiga brothers, Ricardo and Tiago, and their awesome team, and we took this opportunity to have a cool chat with the epically bearded Ricardo. Check it out after the jump.
All info about the festival can be found here: swr-fest.com
“We always want to do more and better, so there is always margin for progression. We just need to be creative and challenge ourselves constantly. We have remodelled the festival area several times and we are planning something new for 2025 already.”
- Ricardo Veiga
For everyone who might be less familiar with the festival, could you activate your memory banks and recall the very first days? Where did the idea of doing a festival in Barroselas come from back then, how were the very first editions?
Ricardo Veiga: Everything started in the mid-90s when me and my brother Tiago got more deeply involved in the alternative and heavy metal underground, which lead to creating the Metalurgia fanzine and our death metal band Goldenpyre. These two entities started a constant exchange of music with people from all over the world, we had regular excursions to shows and forged a strong brotherhood between lovers of this kind of music, we really established ourselves in the underground scene to the point that it felt like we were set in stone there. Through the contacts we acquired over those years by sharing music, and because we had a great desire to promote new talent and let our own homeland become better known, around 1996 we started putting on shows with some other bands that we were friends with, at Casa do Povo [a sort of cultural centre - TDM] de Barroselas. After two years, we thought about doing something more elaborate, and that’s how we started doing the cultural reference that is Steel Warriors’ Rebellion – Barroselas Metalfest today.
If during those first moments someone would tell you that after 25 years SWR would still be going strong, would you have believed it?
Ricardo: During those times we really didn’t think about the future very clearly, it was a spur of the moment thing and we mostly focused on surviving and overcoming all the difficulties. If someone would imagine that this beast would still last until now like it has, I would surely have laughed at such a ridiculous idea… but that’s how it went, things just kept going, life made us stronger, and with an extra dose of will and resilience we have been able to resist the passage of time, and we’re still here and kicking!
Was there any specific year where it felt like the festival had really become something more serious? Or a year that felt like it was particularly decisive in the evolution of the event?
Ricardo: We’ve been through several phases, but the seriousness that we face the event with has never been questioned – this is our baby and we’re going to our graves with it. What evolved was mostly our own lives, we grew up with the festival and it grew up with us too. In the beginning we were kids full of hunger and now we’re old dudes full of hunger, we’re always ready for the fight and we’re always looking for something different to do, we want to build the festival that we would like to visit as spectators ourselves. With the slow but sure evolution of the event, we’ve been setting challenges for ourselves and finding new kinds of ambition – and of course, with those, come some difficult decisions and new obstacles, that have forced us to adapt and change, changes that have shaped the way we look at and develop SWR. On the fourth edition, for example, we had to rent the big tent for the first time and we could finally host two stages, but that was also the year where some people invaded the local graveyard, Mayhem cancelled and we got the first really negative reactions to the work we were doing. It was very hard to go through and it felt very tough on us personally. Despite the problems, however, I think that was a decisive edition for our continuity, we built defences, fortified the organism and learned lessons that have lasted a lifetime.
After all these years, the fesitval now seems light years away from its humble beginnings, in terms of infrastructure, conditions, size, stages… everything, really. However, it’s noticeable that every year you always try to improve something, even if it’s little details by now. Do you think there is still a significant margin for progression and growth? What plans do you have that you could reveal, and which of those changes for this year would you like to note?
Ricardo: We always want to do more and better, so in a way there is always margin for progression. We just need to be creative and challenge ourselves constantly. We have remodelled the festival area several times and we are planning something new for 2025 already. The decorations and illustrations we use have become a big part of SWR and we are constantly adding more to our collection. There are also plans to create some shows curated by SWR, and next year the new SWR Café will be finished, remodelled and perfected to be used as the DINAAMO cultural space, a part of our NAAM association, and that will see a lot of activity including some DJ sets. Little by little we are making our mark on that space, creating our world there, positive and dynamic.
Having the Metal Battle event at the SWR Café last December [which TDM covered here], with the visibility that it had, could it have been a little test, a further step for having a sort of Winter SWR maybe?
Ricardo: Yeah, the Metal Battle Portugal, though it wasn’t the first show we did there, was indeed a test for the space’s new configuration to be used as the DINAAMO cultural space, and also a test for ourselves, for our will to invest in our own hometown. The idea of associating the Metal Battle to a fuller event with the SWR brand has been in our mind for a while, but it’s something that we haven’t explored a lot and is basically still on paper. But with a space managed by us and with the conditions to put together something more elaborate, we’ll see. It could be a possibility and it could work very well. One thing we can guarantee right now – the qualifying rounds and the final of the Metal Battle will all take place in Barroselas for the forthcoming years, this time we’re really going ahead with it.
Has there ever been the temptation (or even specific offers?) to change to festival to some place more under the spotlight, so to speak, or is the connection to Barroselas something umbilical for you guys?
Ricardo: After the troubles of the fourth editions and subsequent accusations made by some people in Barroselas, one of the possibilities that arose was in fact abandoning our town, there’s no denying that. It didn’t seem feasible to us to continue putting on such an extreme event around these parts, with a large part of the population against us and with a bunch of problems on our backs. Fortunately for everyone, things calmed down eventually, we grew up too, and learned to handle criticism better, so we ended up staying in Barroselas, which was what we really wanted all along. Happily, today there is an enormous respect for the festival, there is much more tolerance for the natural extravagance that comes with this music, and there are also many things on the line now because of it, in terms of local tourism and commerce. Institutionally speaking, things could be better and more collaborative, but what happens is that those people come and go, and we always remain. Changes in office are not always beneficial for us, but there’s also a lot of incompetence, demagogy and inaction. We do our part, and whoever wants to join us in good will, that’s cool. If they’re not, just don’t stand in our way and don’t make things more difficult than they are, that’s all we ask.
Do you think the festival has been important in making the Portuguese extreme metal scene more visible, as was one of your initial objectives? It’s clear that there’s always a lot of care to have several local bands, from the most celebrated to the young and up and coming, right?
Ricardo: Absolutely, SWR is the mecca of extreme music in the Iberian Peninsula, and our local bands have always been very well represented, it’s one of the trademarks of the festival and they are some of the biggest allies in our rebellion! We constantly support the local underground, we are unconditional fans of the genre and we want to be always remembered as Warriors of Steel!
Bad things aside, which edition has remained the most in your memory, and why?
Ricardo: For several reasons, the 2006 edition was a huge deal for us. Aside from managing to get one of our favourite bands, Bolt Thrower, for the first (and only) time in Portugal, in that year we definitely stabilised our organisation and began building the future in a more conscious and planned kind of way. That festival was really crazy and it left a big mark on us, but of course since then we’ve had many others that have been special for all kinds of reasons.
Having brought names like Venom, Kreator, Immolation, Hellhammer, Napalm Death, Sodom, Bolt Thrower, Ratos de Porão, Immortal, Candlemass, Possessed, Mayhem, Discharge, Autopsy and so many other legends, is there a “holy grail” that you’re still chasing?
Ricardo: There will always be “holy grails” to chase, we never accept defeat. Most of the times it’s a question of opportunity and we are always on the lookout. If there is ever a Dissection, Death, Amebix or Impetigo tour, we’ll go for it! [laughs]
How do you look at the future, from this privileged position of 2024? Do you see yourself doing this in 25 years, still sporting your epic beard but maybe with a little more white on it?
Ricardo: The sustained growth of SWR is one of the main things for us, and we’ll keep going while we’re comfortable with the idea we have for the festival, be it with white beards or leaning on a walker. There’s still a lot to do and improve, a lot to explore and accomplish, and we feel strength and creativity enough to do different things. Maybe 25 more years is a bit much, but we’ll try to postpone our retirement a little bit and leave a real mark with our rebellion.
