FEATURES

2000 Trees Festival Announces First Wave Of Names For 2027!

Topping today’s announcement of 61 names is the first headliner New Found Glory, who will be headlining Thursday night before playing a second set of deeper cuts on another day, and, of course, Reuben, who will finally be playing 2000 Trees after cancelling their headline set way back in 2008. They will also be joined by freshly announced heavy hitters such as Creeper, The Menzingers (performing an After The Party anniversary set), Mannequin Pussy, Lonely The Brave, Native James, Unpeople, Bayside and the freshly reformed Crooks.

On top of this, today’s news also includes the announcement of the Revival Tour takeover. As part of this, Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem), Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Dan Andriano (Alkaline Trio), Dave Hause, Tim Barry, Emily Barker, and Jenny Owen Youngs will commandeer the Forest stage on Friday for a day of collaborative folk sets.

On today’s announcement, James Scarlett states; I’m very proud of where we are as we come into celebrating 20 years!  It is still the original 6 friends that started 2000trees and we’re all still involved in some way, and that isn’t going to change. We’ve held on to be independent and continued our original aim, which was to create a festival that we would want to go to ourselves and nurture new artists just as much as we want to celebrate the bigger acts.  It seems wild to think how it began and to have the rich history of acts like Frank Turner, Idles, Wolf Alice, George Ezra, Kneecap and so many more that have gone onto incredible things. 2027 is going to be a massive celebration.”

As usual, 2000 Trees will take place at its scenic home of Upcote Farm, Cheltenham, between the dates of 7th – 10th July 2027. Tickets are flying out, with four-day tickets already long gone. Find remaining tickets here and peep the line-up thus far below.

ArcTanGent Festival Announces Second Wave of Acts for 2027!

Heading today’s announcement are Russian Circles and Brutus, who will both be returning to ArcTanGent to jointly headline the Wednesday night following on from sets at the festival in 2023. Also topping the news today is the confirmation of Elder, Faetooth, Future of the Left (Celebrating 20 years of Curses), SubRosa, Kong, Hippotraktor, A-tota-so and a collaborative set from Death Goals and Tunic. They will be joined by fellow newcomers Bloed, Cold Night For Alligators, Earth Moves, Earthside, Hubris., Ihlo, Lancing Hand, Paper Hats and Speedial in joining an already stacked lineup boasting headliners Blood Incantation and Neurosis.

From ATG head honcho James Scarlett; “To be sat here a few months after our first ever sold out ATG, with ticket sales for next year’s festival already miles ahead of where they’ve ever been at this time of year, AND announcing two juggernauts co-headlining our early entry Wednesday, feels like an immense privilege. To also be announcing a range of other incredible bands that include Future Of The Left and Kong – who have both released some of my personal, genuine all-time favourite albums – reminds me what a huge honour it is to put on ArcTanGent Festival. We truly can’t wait to begin the next chapter at our new home with this amazing community.”

ArcTanGent 2027 will take place at its new home of Todenham Manor Farm, Gloucestershire, and will once again host some of the best names in all things post, prog, math, noise and generally left-field. With one headliner still to go, tickets are flying out and starting to run low. Grab a ticket and find further information here, and peep the lineup thus far below.

Wyatt E. & Nina Saeidi, Soot Sprite, Blood Command and More: New Noizze – The 10 Must-Listen Tracks of the Week

Wyatt E. & Nina Saeidi – The Branch That Yields Peace Has Been Cut For the Oil of its Fruits

Fans of psychedelic, progressive doom rejoice – Wyatt E. and Lowen vocalist Nina Saeidi have joined forces for a collaborative album releasing 29 January on Heavy Psych Sounds and it’s exactly what fans would hope for from such a union. The “ancient doom” Wyatt E. have formulated over the years swells and thunders, while Saeidi’s voice is as impassioned and remarkable as ever, the melodies she and the band conjure winding through lyrics in Farsi, English and even Akkadian, an ancient language from Mesopotamia. As Saeidi explains, it’s “a song of mourning over the destruction of innocence and nature at the hands of warmongers and despots.” There are three tracks yet to be unveiled and we suspect they’ll all be as fascinating and grandiose as this. – Will Marshall

Soot Sprite – Cautious Optimist (Reckless Version)

It’s no secret that we love Soot Sprite. After all, there’s a very good reason why we named their debut LP Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon the 14th best record of last year. Thankfully for us and emos nationwide, it doesn’t appear that we’ll be waiting long for another release. Lifted from their forthcoming EP Carbon Copy, ‘Cautious Optimist (Reckless Version)’ serves as the first taste of the reworked tracks that form the EP and sees the South West group redressing the solemn and quiet closer of the record into a defiantly rousing singalong. Should this be played live on their upcoming tour this month, it’s going to be massive. – Dan Hillier

Crowquill – Cannula

In the UK ‘core scene, Crowquill have been a powerful force for the last two years. An unhinged blend of Converge and On Broken Wings, their unrelenting style combined with frantic live shows has clearly struck a chord as they just announced their debut album, Slept With Cannula and it’s being released by DAZE and Hardlore Records, which is a mighty seal of approval. While it’s out on 20 November, ‘Cannula’ is the newest track (as three were teased in an LP promo earlier this year) and the word rager doesn’t do it justice. A gloriously deranged slab of metalcore, its raw production and edge of the seat style performances are just breathtaking. It’s shaping up to be a late contender for album of the year, so don’t sleep on Crowquill if you like anything heavy and chaotic. – Chris Earl

Blood Command – Tequila Sunrise

Norway’s least self-conscious export rarely disappoint when it comes to serving up irresistible slices of hooky punk goodness. ‘Tequila Sunrise’ is an unashamedly poppy ode to unrequited horn for someone with “Megan Fox’s eyes, Kagney Karter’s ass and thighs” and we’re very much here for it. Dropping a Pamela Anderson reference onto her lyric sheet offers Nikki Brumen the miniscule encouragement required to get her into the famous red one-piece for the exuberant accompanying video, and it’s clear the band are having a hell of a time. With a string of singles building anticipation for a full-blown follow-up to 2023’s World Domination, it seems a fair bet that Blood Command will be reasserting their dominance in these parts once festival season returns. – Pete Wall

Get To Know: The Wot Now

How did you two meet?

Margot: We met through our parents – our brothers played for the same football team, and we bonded over our hatred of going out on rainy Sundays to watch them play.

Katie: My mum put an ad out on Facebook saying, ‘My daughter sings, needs a guitarist,’ and weirdly everyone in Northamptonshire is connected because your mum taught at my primary school, and I was also mates-ish with [Margot’s] sister as well. Conveniently, I called up to your gaff and realised you lived in the garden.

Margot: Yeah, at the time I lived in a shed in the garden, which was wonderful. I had also just gotten sober at the time, so I was a husk of a human being. I was in pyjamas, and I said, ‘Hey, let’s record; let’s make some songs.’

 

How did The Wot Now start?

Katie: It started out as learning lots of covers, and we did that for a couple of gigs that we had in February. We had one up in Towcester, which was a decent turnout, and we had some very interesting dancers.

Margot: Very interesting dances for sure; there were a lot of middle-aged women in leopard print dresses dancing along to the covers, so I had a great time.

Katie: Then it came to March, and we were in a bit of a roadblock; we were just doing covers – which is great because it gets us a little money – but that’s not really for us.

Margot: No, and we realised that we both had similar structures and similar ideas when it came to writing, and we thought we’ll go ahead and do it, but we had to make a pact early on that if we were going to write together, it had to be honest, and it had to be viscerally uncomfortable at times, no matter what, it just had to be honest.

Katie: Yeah, I think we’re very much, like, handshake, no bullshit, or something like that. Exactly. Something along those lines.

“I think that the most vital thing that we can do as people is just to put good into the world” Reclus.É on their origins, ethos and staying grounded

You’d be forgiven for saying Reclus.É popped up out of nowhere earlier this year. After all, they kind of did. Back in May, the band released their debut single ‘A Muted TV’, confirmed their signing to Rise Records and announced their live debut would be supporting A Perfect Circle at the iconic Brixton Academy. From there, they announced their debut LP The World Can’t Take Much More and spent the summer bouncing between 2000 Trees, Outbreak and finally ArcTanGent. Naturally, in times like these, accusations of nepotism and all of that are all but inevitable. Such baseless allegations are ridiculous, though. The band, formed between Soren Bryce of Tummyache and Daniel P. Carter of everything else, was always destined to achieve immediate attention from the outset thanks to each of their careers. And as the band explain, their foundation came not from industry pressures or anything of the sort, but a chance message.

“We have a bunch of mutual friends. Two in particular”, states Daniel P. Carter just a couple of hours following their set on the final day of this year’s ArcTanGent. “I was writing some music and was looking for a singer, and they suggested to me about messaging Soren, which I did. Then we met in London to feel like we could get on, because you never know if you’re going to be able to actually create something together. Then I sent Soren some music, and then they sent back three songs, and I was just like, this is amazing.”

It’s not surprising this message into the unknown worked out so well. Sure, this set today was only the band’s fifth ever show, but in post-hardcore circles, Reclus.É has quickly become a subject of interest, and not just because of their origins and members. There’s no denying that the world is in an utter state at the moment. Wars are being waged around the globe, genocides can be more or less livestreamed, and the tyrannical capitalist powers that be line their pockets in the process. For those who have seen Reclus.É this summer, they will know that this is a band that rallies against such evils, albeit in a way that’s jovial, empowering and life-affirming.

Core. Festival 2026 – The 10 Artists You Can’t Miss

Portrayal Of Guilt

Scathingly heavy black metal screamo grinders Portrayal of Guilt are purveyors of some of the most abrasive music of the current age. As uncomfortable as it gets in the live setting too, they’re a prize to get for Core. as their latest record, … Beginning Of The End is one of the best heavy releases of the year so far. It feels almost poetic for them to be playing just before the legends that are Saetia, as PoG owe so much to their sound but also have taken it further and darker than most would have thought possible in the early days of screamo. One of the absolute must see bands of the Friday.

Saetia

Screamo legends Saetia are a rare sight indeed. Originally active in the 90s and incredibly influential on all things screamo (and to a lesser extent post-hardcore), they reformed in 2022, and their set at Core. is one of just two UK appearances. A mix of unbridled chaos instrumentally and pained, fierce shrieking vocals, expect classic tracks from their only studio album alongside their selection of EPs and newest release from 2025. For many, this will be the first and likely only time to see a band who inspired so many and laid the groundwork for an unprecedented number of bands. A truly monumental set awaits in the Friday night headline slot.

Taqbir

Furious, politically charged hardcore punk from Morocco, Taqbir will be bringing their anger to the stage on Saturday at Core, fest and you just know it’s going to get wild. Blending more traditional punk sounds with a heavy touch of bounce and distortion, you can be your life there; there’ll be side to side all evening as they bare their souls in their native tongue of Darija and vocalist Nao pulls no punches on stage.