The return of the award winning festival, 2000 Trees are going out this year with arguably their biggest ever lineup. But of course, you already know that. By now you’ve probably already got a rough schedule for the weekend in place. We don’t need to tell you to go watch Kneecap’s set that will prove to be historical, annihilate your vocal chords to Alexisonfire or watch Coheed & Cambria whilst longing to brush Claudio Sanchez’s hair. Once again, the lineup for 2000 Trees is god tier, and you all know it.
But beneath the big names and scene favourites lies an utter treasure trove of new and fresh artists playing across the weekend. And with that in mind, here’s our top picks for the artists you would be utterly foolish to miss next weekend.
2000 Trees is part of unpeople’s DNA like few others. They played their first ever show here in 2022 and are returning heroes, having just packed out the Avalanche stage at Download as well as headlined the prestigious (honest) Noizzefest at Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff. Fans of three-part harmonies, massive riffs and singing away your problems, make sure you catch them at 4:20 on Wednesday on the Forest Sessions, or 2pm Thursday on a well-deserved Main stage slot. – Will Marshall
Self described as ‘Bristol Hardcore with a Queer Edge’ and founded in a skate park, this band could not be more grassroots if they tried. Uncertainty sounds better placed in the late 80s Hardcore movement, and provides a breath of fresh air to stalwarts of the genre. A must for the headbangers and those who like their music aggressive and eclectic. Playing The Cave 11am-11:30am. – Cece Lawless
London’s Puppy are a refreshing, tongue-in-cheek twist on alternative metal, fusing sugary melodies with old-school metal riffs and a grungy, sludgy sentimentality. Vocalist Jock Norton’s unmistakable inflections and sharp, offbeat lyricism help Puppy stand out as a notable force within the UK alternative scene. Their genre-blurring sound has seen them share stages with the likes of CKY, Turbonegro, and Employed To Serve, cementing their reputation as a band who defy categorisation. Their Thursday set sees Puppy primed to deliver an intimate midday performance that will showcase their masterful musicianship and playful yet heavy live presence that’s won them a cult following. Expect thick riffs, infectious hooks, and a show that feels equally nostalgic as it does new- a reminder that Puppy’s oddball charm and creative edge make them one of the UK’s most endearing heavy acts to watch. – Emily Simister
Mallavora pride themselves on accessibility and championing disability rights, ensuring that their headline sjows have enough space for plenty of chairs if people need to sit down, and often have intervals in their set as well. Not content with being good people, they’re also bloody excellent musically, a strain of alt metal that’s got bounce, melody and aggression that only gets heavier live. We should know – they laid waste to Fuel Rock Club at Noizzefest earlier this year. Catch them on the Main stage, 11am Friday. – Will Marshall
Vexed are one of the UK’s best, most undersung metalcore bands and their second album Negative Energy raged against industry cliques while simultaneously facing devastating grief and mental health struggles. Now, they’re finally making their 2000 Trees debut at 3pm on The Cave stage – prepare to hear some vicious gutturals, string-bending riffs with more bounce than a massive trampoline park, huge choruses and perhaps even a taste of what they’ve cooked up since then. – Will Marshall
Savage Hardcore from London Town, False Reality pulls no punches. With thrash inspired riffs and screams that set your goosebumps ablaze, this band will undoubtedly gain a fair few new fans after their set at 2000 Trees. Ensure you catch them at the start of their journey and you can brag that you ‘were there’ before they blew up. Playing The Cave 2pm-2:30pm Friday. – Cece Lawless
With an 11-year career, the band didn’t make it big by chance. From the south of France, and mostly from Marseille, Florent Salfati (Vocals), Nicolas Exposito (Guitar) and Rudy Purkat (bass) always worked hard to climb the ladder. With a self produced album, Hollow, in 2016 and playing Hellfest the same year, LANDMVRKS literally took off. Their metalcore sound appealed in such a way that the German label, Arising Empire, signed them 2 years later, and that’s where they released the great Fantasy. LANDMVRKS are all about an organic sound, a catchy and engaging phrasing, and moreover, a really well-mastered sound. Nothing is messy, everything is just meticulous. The band defended their project at the French Download Festival in 2018 in front of both established followers and newfound fans.
Those drawn by the band’s populairty coming for a long time. Their label provided them with a springboard and the band effortlessly continued on the road, building up their community through Europe, between concerts and festivals. France is a country that shunned metal music, mystifying it and is one more likely to advocate for rap and other similar pursuits. But regardless, the quintet made their mark throughout the continent, and even above and beyond.
The rest of Europe has always been eager about extreme music, and it was easily conquered by their music style. When supporting prestigious acts such as Stray From The Path, While She Sleeps, or even Bring Me The Horizon and Sum 41, they could only continue to arise further and beyond. Nonetheless, the band never shied away from France, and they are now seen as a national treasure in these parts, proof of which is in their latest tour across the country, alongside the likes of Boston Manor or Aurore. They also played at home, in 2019, at the Espace Julien, and did a live recording of that show. They always figure out how to satisfy their community and maintain that link with them.
They say good things come to those who wait. Many will doubt such a notion but at least the sentiment is true when it comes to Karnivool. The Aussie’s first single in four years and dropping a whole 12 years since their last LP, ‘Drone’ see’s the ‘Vool doing what they do best; offering massive prog rock that’s as swaggering as it is immersive. A slow-cooked wonder of a track that’s tested and tempered by both time and patience, this single pays credence to the band’s steadfast approach to making art without being shaken by demand nor the ever prevalent cheap commodification of music. Plus, with a new record seemingly on the horizon, it appears we shouldn’t be waiting too long for even more new music. – Dan Hillier
Igorrr are three singles deep on their wildly varied romp towards the new album and they haven’t missed yet. ‘Infestis’ follows the trend of bangers with a massive, stomping, chorally enriched, industrialised anthem that sounds like it’s been dragged screaming from the depths. There’s times where it’s like Cradle of Filth is having a scrap with Strapping Young Lad and we’re here for it. This new album is promising (and no doubt will deliver) a lot, the wide variety of sounds Igorrr are willing to use speaks volumes when they are so seamlessly woven into such delightfully heavy tracks. – Rob Bown
Once “Turnstile summer” is over, fear not, Belgian trio Slow Crush will provide the soundtrack to your post-summer blues with the release of their third album Thirst on August 29th, which promises to wrap listeners worldwide in a warm haze of melancholia set to some of the best contemporary shoegaze out there at the minute along with the likes of Holy Fawn and Wisp. Or you could already start getting in the mood by revisting their two, equally crushing (pun not intended) and moody, previous singles if the summer season is more synonymous with longing and yearning to you than it is with crop tops and spin kicks. – Avrian O’Brien
Charli XCX ended her Brat era at Glasto last night by quite literally torching her backdrop. Which is nice of her to do as we enter Adebisi Shank summer. The second single from the Irish trio post hiatus and taken from their suitably named new EP This Is The Second EP Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank – released August 15th – ‘Orange Splash’ is a sun-kissed burst of energy that’s only enhanced by the vocals of Yvette Young. Harkening back to the carefree manic energy that characterised both the band’s 2010 second record and the summer in which it released, ‘Orange Splash’ is just one of those rare tracks that’s impossible not to feel re-energized by. Yes, the adolescent days of youth synonymous with the early tens may be long over, but at least Adebisi Shank are back to offer up what are essentially musical equivalents of fruit shoots on scorching summer days. – Dan Hillier
A fitting song given current events, ‘Apocalypse Now’ see’s synthwave legend Perturbator collaborating with Kristoffer Rygg of Ulver to acutely narrate what the final war waged by man would look and sound like. Forgoing bombastic intensity in favour of a sleek, pulsating but fatally nihilistic soundscape that ponders humanity’s unique tendency for self-destruction at the expense of progress, ‘Apocalypse Now’ is a darkly seductive track that mirrors the enigmatic pull that draws us to our own demise. However, it’s the wonderful video courtesy of director David Fitt that makes all of this unconformably visual. “The lyrics of ‘Apocalypse Now’ have made me wonder: what would the last war look like? A coup? A war of all against all? A nuclear war? Maybe. Could be”, states Fitt on the video. “But I realized that what I would love to do, to watch, to happen, is a war of world leaders against themselves. The war they all dream of, but are too cowardly to fight themselves. This would be the ultimate war, in my opinion. And that’s what I aimed to show. And then we’re left wondering: what would be next? What if women took charge? Would power consume them too, eventually? Are we doomed as a species? That’s what I wonder and want people to wonder with me.” – Dan Hillier
Taken from the band’s upcoming second LP Screamers – released July 11th via Human Worth – ‘Wind Up Chattering Teeth’ is about as subtle as having one of your molars ripped out. Sounding akin to a classic Tom and Jerry scene albeit with the titular characters being replaced by Lightning Bolt and Full Of Hell, here, London’s Why Patterns take the abrasive ultra-violence of grindcore and infuse with a sense of inherent weirdness that would even make Mr Bungle fans think twice. The end result is this, a track that sounds like Mike Patton speed-running amateur dental surgery sans any form of pain relief.
But it’s the concept of ‘Wind Up Chattering Teeth’ that makes the track just so visceral. A reflection on how more and more young people are being exposed to extreme violence via social media and even content specifically designed with children in mind, the track just mirrors that sense of how mass violence is being normalised and rationalised within society. The track’s music video, a rapidly edited compilation of various Hanna-Barbera clips now in the public domain, only makes such a theme violently visceral. It’s also quite fitting, given how the vocals of Doug Norton sound a bit like the aforementioned Tom Cat being the subject of a hammer attack and the track’s delightful cowbell abuse.
Screamers is released July 11th via Human Worth, with a percentage of proceeds from Bandcamp sales being donated to MacMillian Cancer Support. Pre-order the record here and watch the video for ‘Wind Up Chattering Teeth’ exclusively below.
Taken from their forthcoming EP of the same which releases August 22nd via Greyline Records, ‘Enteral War’, like it’s moniker suggests, is utterly bloodthirsty in it’s delivery. The latest single from the South England band which features ex members of Stampin Ground, Romeo Must Die and Above All, ‘Eternal War’ is a product of ceaseless mental strife and the resulting outpouring of emotion that comes from an individual at their breaking point. It’s also the sound of a band with unfinished business with the scene.
Driven by it’s grinding fretwork and the traded vocals of frontman Tony Maddocks and genre pioneer Tim Williams, this four minute laceration feels like an explosive decanting of manic energy that’s delivered with contrastive pinpoint accuracy. There’s nowt sloppy presentation, shoehorned melodicism or any of the ills that plague the metalcore sound of as late. Instead, ‘Eternal War’ sounds precise, resilient, studied, and above all else, absolutely furious. Here, the sound of time tempered musical finesse synonymous with the founders of the genre is invigorated by the energy and hunger of the current UK scene that’s being championed by the likes of Long Goodbye, xapothecaryx and Rozemary.
Eternal War, the new EP from Fates Messenger, is released August 22nd via Greyline Records. Watch the lyric video for ‘Enteral War’ exclusively below.
Drain have this knack of doing exactly what your brain requires at the right time. The new song ‘Nights Like These’ leans into big slamming thrash riffs interspersed with squealing pinch harmonic melodies and cutting technical sharp leads and it does so with the usual gusto that’s the bar for Drain releases now. It’s always mind boggling how hardcore bands manage to actually write a nice complete song and then compress the action into less than 2 minutes, but it’s no different here, there’s even a breakdown that’s slapped on to the end just to squeeze out that last bit of spin kicking, cart wheeling energy before the song finishes. – Rob Bown
If it wasn’t already common knowledge, La Dispute further evidence that they are the true kings of story driven post punk on latest single ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’. A 7 minute epic, it displays the classic trappings of the Michigan quintet, but pushes them further across its incredibly distinct three act structure. Jordan Dreyer is in the form of his life, creating that close almost whispered storytelling in the first act, before exploding into his inimitable pained howl while the band shape and evolve the melodies underneath. If this is anything to go by, La Dispute may be on to yet another modern classic. – Kevin Ashburn
The last three The Armed records have, collectively, dissected what it means to be authentic as an artist in the modern age. Now, their recently-announced The Future Is Here And Everything Needs To Be Destroyed isn’t beholden to a pre-existing notion or conceptual arc. Tony Wolski explains, “It’s music for a statistically wealthy population that somehow can’t afford food or medicine—endlessly scrolling past vacation photos, gym selfies, and images of child amputees in the same feed. It reflects the dissociation required just to exist in that reality.” In other words, it’s another genre-obliterating thrill ride, and new single ‘Kingbreaker’ delivers just that. In a hair under two minutes, there’s vitriolic hardcore, laconic distorted singing, throat-tearing shrieks and a sense that they’re taking the “Everything Needs to Be Destroyed” very literally. Refract. – Will Marshall
Crafting relatable power-pop and pop-punk bangers about the mundane aspects of modern life since 1997, Motion City Soundtrack return with the first single from long-awaited seventh album The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World and it’s a riffy, synth-laden slice of classic Motion City Soundtrack. Combined with frontman Justin Courtney Pierre’s trademark vocals, the mellow, texturally interesting middle-eight and the “i’m not trying to cause a scene, i’m just trying to understand” refrain, the instrumentals on this track create a believable background when considering the lyrical content of an obviously chaotic relationship that will surely hit a nerve with plenty of aging pop-punkers. – Ez Luscombe
The third and final track to be taken from their upcoming new record Slow Fade – releasing July 4th via Big Scary Monsters – ‘Trouble’ see’s Watford emo glockstars Lakes looking fondly back on the days of the early internet. Soothing and pacifying in thanks to it’s twinkly riffs, delectable glockenspiel and delightful Pedal Steel guitar curtsey of Hovvdy’s Bennet Littlejohn, the single wonderfully harkens those gilded days of youth where evenings were spent on MSN, chatting on message boards and ruining the family PC by downloading Linkin Park songs from Limewire. In true Lakes fashion, it’s irrefutably charming and endearing, and a wonderful reflection on the days before the internet was host to bots, algorithms and AI models that will one day make all of us ultimately redundant. – Dan Hillier
The Texan trio have just made their first overseas appearances at Download and headlined Alyx Holcombe’s Mantra evening two days prior, also marking their first ever headline performance and first ever festival – not bad going for a band with a single EP to their name, plus the recently-released ‘Sepsis’. It speaks to just how good Gore. are, and ‘Sepsis’ takes them to a new level of heavy. Haley Roughton spits some of her most vitriolic, savage screams while the instruments bludgeon wantonly. Naturally, there’s a stunning chorus showing her range with vocal runs, shot through with vulnerability. It hits all the harder for the vitriol for the rest of the song. It’s sure to be an exciting 2025 for Gore. and you won’t want to miss out. – Will Marshall
There have been, and continue to be many surface-level imitators of the “thall” style, eager to throw in their own little bendy riff and pitch-shifted chugs and call it a day. However, the Finnish “Northcore” outfit Atlas are part of those select few that distinguish themselves from the crowd of mere imitators. Of course, that is partly due to the fact that guitarist Tuomas Kurikka is a touring member for Humanity’s Last Breath and that Buster Odeholm is on production duties for them. But Atlas have truly carved out a niche for themselves with their brooding, ice cold mix of scandinavian-inspired accoustic folk and thall-infused metalcore. New single ‘Anodyne’ continues to perfect that unique formula in a slow-burn of a track that gnaws away like frostbite and takes over before you know it. The summer solstice may be upon us but Atlas will have you wishing you were bundled up in the warmest clothes you can get your hands on. – Avrian O’Brien
A much needed respite from this suffocating heatwave, ‘This Is Water’ sees Dream Nails return with a playful look on the surrealism that’s inherent to modern living. Splashing in the kind of indie-punk inspired by The Pixies and the first track to feature bassist Mimi Jasson on vocal duties, ‘This Is Water’ is a mantric yet wholly spirited reflection on how each and every one of us are swimming along in the same sea yet totally immersed in our own personal bubble. It’s a wonderful little track, one that brilliantly uses the band’s established sense of playfulness to manage and address the surrealism that’s inherent to the message that floats the single along. – Dan Hillier
