Dwayne from Sunken State at RAMFest 2020 (Photo Of The Week)

In March 2020 I made my way to RAMFest (which was held at the Voortrekker Monument on the outskirts of Pretoria). It was actually happening on the 14th of March 2020 – that was one day before South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the 21-day lockdown to curb spread of COVID-19.

More Info About RAMFest

RAMFest actually started as a multi-day festival in Western Cape province of South Africa. The first festival was held in 2007 in Worcester. The first Johannesburg edition of the festival was held in 2010 at Emmerentia Dam.

After the 2014 edition of the festival (which featured international headliners Biffy Clyro, Foals, Killswitch Engage and Trivium) the festival was not held until 2019. The 2020 edition of RAMFest was held in Pretoria and Cape Town and featured The Black Dahlia Murder (from the USA) as the international headliner.

More info about Sunken State

Sunken State are a heavy metal band from Johannesburg. The band was formed in 2018 and has been honing their sound ever since.

Their debut EP, Enter the Grey, was released in August 2019, followed by the single “This Is the End” in March 2020, which was praised by the US metal site No Clean Singing as “vicious, brutal music that still manages to be catchy.”

Although they are relatively new to the scene, each member has been developing their skills for many years. Together, they bring a high-energy, tightly-knit performance style that has been gaining significant attention.

The band won the African leg of the Wacken Metal Battle and will be performing at Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany in 2024.

I snapped this photo of Dwayne Hees (the lead vocalist of the band) during their set at RAMFest 2020 and it has been selected as the Photo Of The Week on SA Music Zone.