ArcTanGent Festival 2023: The Review – Friday

All the way from down under, Caligula’s Horse are a band who’ve not been to the UK for a good few years now, but judging by the reception and crowd, you wouldn’t know that. The Aussie prog-metallers hit the main stage to an enormous cheer, as they launch into a galloping opener. Their gratitude is evident, getting the crowd to join them in screaming the world’s loudest “G’DAY MATE” which goes down very well. With a setlist that spans a good few records, ‘Marigold’ is the highlight, an emotional journey of a track featuring some guitar wizardry and some frankly massive headbanging moments. Vocalist Jim Grey’s soulful pipes are on top form today as he bombastically sings his heart out. As they leave the stage, the hope is that it won’t take long for them to return to these shores.

“Get ready it’s gonna get loud, hold onto your butts it is gonna be a wild ride!”, Josh Scogin of ’68 exclaims as indeed the Atlantan’s 30 minutes has its ups and downs. Halfway into new single ‘The Captains Sat’ Josh unfortunately breaks a string stuttering their start. The duo are pros though and take it in their stride, dressed like they should be ArcTanGent’s in house jazz band, drummer Nikko improvising to fill time. They eventually pick up where they left off, Scogin pacing the stage whilst Nikko fills his space with flailing limbs jamming in between sections of songs, sometimes feeling a bit disjointed but entertaining nonetheless. You can’t take your eyes off the two for a second in case you miss something including their surprising cover of Beastie Boys ‘Intergalactic’. As Josh strips down Nikko’s drums during the finale making the stage techs’ lives easier, they have left in a blur.

Back under the canvas of the Arc, as Holy Fawn levitate with ‘Candy’ into ‘Dark Stone’, the fact that the Arizonia collective weren’t originally destined to play this main stage is honestly mind boggling. Bumped up to main stage in a last minute lineup shuffle, no other stage at this festival would be able to host Holy Fawn for two reasons. Firstly, no other tent would have the ability to contain their towering, sprawling and suffocatingly atmospheric sound. Secondly, as the band look over the countless heads in attendance, the main stage is quite frankly the only stage at ArcTanGent with the capacity to accommodate the literal thousands gathered. As anticipated by one and all, Holy Fawn are transcendent today. It may be mid-afternoon – a prime time for intoxicated revelry – but the flawless performances of ‘Death Is A Relief’ and ‘Void Of Light’ lull the capacity tent into deep transfixion with their gorgeously fatal nature and deafening possessive dynamism. These tracks may essentially be ruminations on death and the final realm that lies beyond the veil, but even with such explorations contrasting with the life-affirming environment of this festival, it’s clear that the thousands here are more than willing to be buried under Holy Fawn’s wonderful sound.

Photo Credit:

Joe Singh

Across site in the Yohkai, some formality from The St. Pierre Snake Invasion. Well, at least an attempt at class. “Suits were a bad choice” suited-and-booted vocalist Damien Sayell exclaims during an unusually warm afternoon for the Mendips area. What isn’t a bad choice is watching Damien and co. bring a new era of the band to a festival they know all too well. The sound initially not doing the added electronics and samples any favours, but this soon levels out as they dip into singles ‘Submechano’ and ‘The Overlook’ from their AOTY contender Galore. The energy is as high as it has ever been for the Bristol based quintet matched only by their disgusting heaviness through a new musical lens. Not ignoring their previous stellar album Caprice Enchanté they rip a new arsehole out of the day. Galore is an album about being bold and brave and pushing yourself as hard as you can’ Damien advises the crowd and this set proves yet again TSPSI are certainly one of the boldest in the UK scene.

One of the surprise sets of the weekend, Project Mishram take to the Elephant stage just as the rain begins to fall. The seven piece, all the way from Bangalore, bring their brand of frankly insane tech/djent/Indian classical music/prog to ATG and gather a frankly massive crowd for it. In attires ranging from Metallica shirts to traditional attire, the band themselves seemed positively overwhelmed at the crowd and put on a fantastic show, which finished off with a lengthy round of applause that leaves the members visibly moved. Their riffs are heavy and the intricacies of their music aren’t lost, with the sound definitely on their side. There are pits, cheers and headbanging aplenty, and on this showing, the band seem to be guaranteed a bigger stage next time round.

Back in the Bixler, Petbrick enliven the ethos of ArcTanGent,. Two legends in their own rights coming together once again to obliterate eardrums with their futuristic yet tribal sounds, also as ever keeping one on their toes. There is a sense beings are watching from unknown spacecraft above as a neolistic future unfolds before their eyes. Wayne Adams’ dystopian glitchy beats alongside Igor Cavalera’s mind shattering hits behind the kit are the intensity needed to keep a festival crowd going in the middle of the afternoon. The mix of slower ambience and electronic noisey bridges to Wayne’s laptop seemingly having a migraine or your 56k Dial Up router finally melting down, this is an intoxicating set. Igor’s hard hitting drums reverberate inside the heads of those in attendance getting them pumped up for the rest of the evening ahead. For a festival that is all about left field, experimental music this duo push the envelope that touch further.

Photo Credit:

Carl Battams

They may be from Belfast, but tonight, under the crimson canopy of the Arc, And So I Watch You From Afar are home. A true staple of this festival and the scene ArcTanGent champions, ASIWYFA are clearly a band that can play this event countless times and still fill stages to capacity. As the UK post-rock heroes jettison into their set with ‘Three Triangles’ prior to sating the demanding crowd with ‘A Slow Unfolding Of Wings’, a synergistic relationship and bond is instantly established between band and crowd; the artist delivering energetic post-rock at it’s best, the crowd before them returning the offer with abundant energy. Truly, the energy under this yawning canopy is utterly palatable, and as the act tear through ‘Mullany’, ‘Big Thinks Do Remarkable’ and new track ‘Heft Sulk’, the Arc Stage is host to nothing a sense of musical childlike wonder and those joyously celebrating in it, carless to the worries existing beyond the physical parameters of this festival. It’s hard to envision another post rock-band that has this relationship with their audience or is able to stir thousands into a collective frenzy, and as the group close out their set with an extended rendition of ‘Redesigned A Million Times’, it’s only minutes after this flawless set that the populace of ArcTanGent demand the return of this unrivalled act.

The skies may have opened, the temperature may have plummeted and the winds have picked up, but within the cosy confines of the Elephant In the Bar Room, CLT DRP keep spirits alive in fine form. Rattling through a set featuring tracks from their 2020 debut Without The Eyes and thei forthcoming LP Nothing Clever, Just Feelings, the electro-punk trio are a fierce and welcome reprieve from the somewhat masculine prog taking place on the other stages, the throbbing likes of ‘I Don’t Want To Go The Gym’ and latest single ‘I See My Body Through You’ seeing the crowd pulse, gyrate and haplessly dance along. In fact, as the Brighton band fly through their set with energy most bombastic, it could – and will – be argued that CLT DRP are as progressive as their contemporaries playing other stages. CLT DRP divert the genres of punk, electronica and all things provoking to offer a danceable and tantalising offering of sound straight from the bylines of energy itself. It’s fun, sincere and emotionally exposed, something highlighted as Annie Dorrett demands attention with an explosive rendition of ‘New Boy’.

Much akin to ASIWYFA, surely, without Sikth, there’s no ArcTanGent? A true legacy band at this point in their career, they manage to battle through technical troubles like the professionals they are to produce a fantastic Friday night Yohkai closer of a set. With the classic, original lineup back together now, including Justin Hill, classics like ‘Hold My Finger’, ‘Summer Rain’ and ‘Pussyfoot’ sound as fresh and brain meltingly confusing as they did back in the noughties. The fact that they could release their first two albums today and they’d still stand up is a testament to their unrelenting, forward thinking attitude and unrivalled technical ability. The aforementioned technical difficulties seem to affect guitarist Pin the most, but they don’t detract from a high energy set. Mikee still possesses a voice that rivals Mike Patton’s in terms of its deranged versatility and sheer menace. The range of ages present hints that the band have managed to cross generations, and hopefully a growing fanbase gives the group impetus to maybe write new music. In the meantime though, they’ll have to stick to legendary tech-metal tunes like ‘Skies of Millennium Night’ and the chaotic bombast of closer ‘Bland Street Bloom’. A glorious closer for this stage today.

Photo Credit:

Jonathan Dadds

As tonight’s main stage performance get’s underway, within the PX3, bedlam unfolds. “Be the most ignorant version of yourself”, cites Harry Bailey prior to them and George Milner delving into ‘Shrike.’ What follows is, quite frankly, ultra-violence. Vital queer hardcore duo Death Goals may be something of a outliner on this lineup – one of two hardcore bands on this entire bill – but tonight, ArcTanGent is more than happy to go full ‘goofy mode’ with the one of the best names in hardcore. Flogging the populace of the PX3 within an inch of its damn life with a kind of self destruction only seen in the likes of early Converge, Death Goals are utter carnage. For the first time in its history, ArcTanGent witnesses two-stepping, crowd-killing and other antics not once associated with this event. Yet none of this feels out of place. Death Goals perfectly fit within the festival’s ideological parameters due to their total commitment to pushing musical boundaries to its utter limits, and as the duo drop into ‘The Horrible And Miserable’, it’s hard to deny this fact. Long live Death Goals, long live queer hardcore.

Earlier in the day we witnessed Petbrick summon E.T., and as Friday night draws to a close, LLNN return to ArcTanGent to devastate worlds. Ominous sounds lurk over the PX3 tent as if floating in outer space, ArcTanGent finally with appropriate levels of wind and rain adding texture to the night. Vocalist Victor Kaas takes centre stage in just his fourth show with the Danish destroyers, opening the set solo performing ‘Stormgate’ which he collaborated with John Cxnnor on and previously performed at Roadburn. He takes the opportunity to show what he is made of with guttural screams as he contorts across the stage. The lights dim once more as the remaining three quarters join Victor on stage no wasting a moment of their fourty minute set in creating heaviness only other beings can comprehend. Seamlessly linking songs from albums ‘Unmaker’ and ‘Deads’ they leave no moonstone unturned. The light show adding intensity to the stomach pounding riffs. It feels at moments if the earth will start separating underneath the feet of the audience. The depth in the playing and sound is also clear thankfully due to some great work behind the sound desk as the grooves ebb and flow through the feet up into the spines as a tent wide headbang continues throughout. If Carlsberg did heavy music if would probably be LLNN.

As for the Arc headliner for tonight, something different awaits. Shamanic rituals rooted in Viking age history your thing? Good, because that’s what Heilung do, and they do it exceptionally well. Rumours circled they had to cut their lineup down to fit onstage from 32 to a svelte 27, and whether true or not it’s indicative of the scale of their undertaking. The collective practice what they call “amplified history”, researching ancient musical traditions and bringing them into the present, with as much historical accuracy as they can muster. That means onstage, they’re outfitted in tunics, robes, bone headdresses, warpaint and more and their instruments are often formed of animal skin and bones.

Each set is its own ritual and tonight is no different. Under cover of darkness outside the tent and ambient lighting in, they sage the stage before a procession chants and takes up positions. Rhythmic drums punctuate shamanic chants, ululating wails and throat singing; it’s a million miles, and several thousand years, away from everything else that’s graced the festival so far but it’s utterly electrifying, the crowd’s attention focused almost solely on the spectacle unfolding. Heilung truly bring ArcTanGent under their spell.