The annual gathering of alternative folks who like their metal more on the fringes of the mainstream returns again to the Malvern Hills as Arctangent delivers perhaps it’s best line up to date. We’ve got some folks on site who’ll be reviewing the whole fest but again I clearly have too much time on my hands so I’m going to give you a rundown of bands I think you should be watching across the four days
On the Wednesday there’s a lot to love with the brilliantly diverse shoegaze of HealthyLiving first on my list as Hundred Year Old Man will be the first band to really deliver some post-metal heaviness. If you really want some viciousness though go over to Underdark, who stay within today’s obvious post something remit but tinge it with black metal blasts. It’s back to cinematic post metal and filthy sludge for Year Of No Light but the day is polished off by the ritualistic ceremony of Wardruna.
There’s a more eclectic group for Thursday as HealthyLiving’s Amaya López-Carromero returns with her alter ego Maud The Moth performing some classical catharsis. Then there’ll be some riotous psychedelic motorcycle space wizardry from Battlesnake as Tayne will be getting you bouncing with glitchy industrial noise pop. If you want something a bit more transcendent Rezn will be bringing the psychedelic space doom as Lowen again feature in these pages and I’ll once again urge you to check out their magisterial brilliance at the festival especially as they will be joined by cellist Arianna Mahsayeh for a very special performance.
The return of Kylesa is one that was long awaited so you need to check out why when the experimental sludge originators will look to make your ears bleed, if you prefer your bands a bit more melodic and cinematic then the likes of Pelican and Sungazer have you covered with blissful post rock. In the music industry there’s an unwritten rule that if the Melvins are playing you should go and see them so, do that as you never quite know what to expect. On the other hand you know exactly what to expect when Leprous take the stage and that’s some razor-sharp modern progressive metal with one of the best singers around. No singers needed though for Godspeed You Black Emperor as this post-rock collective will be ending day two with and Audio-Visual feast for the senses
Rebecca Black once sang it’s Friday and she probably was thinking about Arctangent 2025 when she did as Ithaca will be playing one of their last sets ever, expect emotions to be running wild, so if you need to calm down the Nordic Giants could be the way with their glistening post-prog allowing to escape, as Giant Walker will be packing riffs. Of course if you really want a good cry then I’ll suggest Emma Ruth Rundle who brought one of the tents to a stunned, reverent silence when she last performed at the festival, so make sure to be mentally prepared for that.
There’ll be the first of two Between The Buried And Me sets on Friday and with such an expansive discography behind them both sets will be a must see, but this one seems earlier in the day so will present some deeper cuts than their set on Saturday. Let’s not look forward to far though as there’s a Friday ritual from Green Lung to join first, this band have risen rapidly in the metal fraternity and if you like your music packed with folklore, the occult, right on ideology and 80’s metal riffs then they’re the band to see. Danish alternative band Mew will also be something special as this forms part of their ‘farewell’ tour, well their final tour with founding vocalist Jonas Bjerre, so it will be probably your last chance to see them in their original form, before they become Mewtwo (I assume).
Finally the Friday headliners are the imperious Aussie prog metal act Karnivool, it’s not hyperbole to say that many of the bands appearing at this years and previous years Arctangents wouldn’t exist without the prog metal blueprint laid down by Karnivool, their three studio albums and two eps remain pretty much the nadir of modern prog metal, so with another album in the works, this could be a chance to see new music from Karnivool in over 10 years, make sure you’re there for this.
So then Saturday the final day of bands but the beefiest one so far as there’s violence from Burner to get you going, filthy sludge from Swamp Coffin, sludge at the more atmospheric end with Wren and if you just want to not be able to hear for the next week then you need to experience Ahab at full volume. On the other side of things instrumental prog metal comes from rising stars Sometime In February, anyone looking for a Tool fix of heavy prog grooves need to watch Scots Dvne get all chuggy.
If weirder music is what you crave though then may suggest dropping in for some Sugar Horse and their non-conformist sound, described as unpredictable and unrestrained, they will be ones not to miss, neither will be The Callous Daoboys who also play unpredictable music that is wild and frenzied and will be probably one of the most unusual bands to feature violin on the whole weekend, these two bands will be ‘”I was there” moments going forward so don’t miss out, though after this headf*ckery you may want to move into ethereal realms with God Is An Astronaut’s audio fireworks.
The main attractions for many though is the second set from Between The Buried And Me which I assume will be bigger and louder than their one the day before as mathcore originators Rolo Tomassi, if you thought your brain hurt after TCD and Sugar Horse then the schizophrenic delivery of Rolo Tomassi will have you all over the place, a brilliant booking for the Arctangent faithful and one I’m sure will have a full tent.
Closing out Saturday are Tesseract a band we have covered multiple times here on Musipedia Of Metal and everytime they get better and better, this show sees them at the height of their powers, a festival headliner who will soon be gracing even bigger stages, so this maybe your last chance to see them at Arctangent, it’ll be a theatrical, epic performance from these original djentlemen who have outgrown the tag they helped create.
Most importantly no matter what you see have a great time at one of the UK’s most welcoming and diverse festivals.
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