The Grey deal in tension, atmosphere, and the sort of heaviness that could level buildings. Restrained passages give way to bursts of outright force, and the contrast makes the heavier moments land that much harder. In the close confines of Mangata, expect them to deliver one of the most absorbing, pummeling, and cathartic sets of the day.
Giant Walker have spent the past few years gradually becoming one of the UK’s more interesting progressive heavy bands. 2024’s Silhouettes balanced hefty riffs with atmospheric detours and enough melody to stop things disappearing down a technical rabbit hole. Mangata offers up the perfect chance to catch a band whose live set has already dazzled the discerning crowd at Arctangent this summer.
A-Tota-So don’t make things easy for themselves, which is probably why they’re so much fun. Their mix of math rock, grunge, post-hardcore, and noise is all sharp turns and unexpected left turns but never feels like complexity for complexity’s sake. With the new album I Told You So dropping on the eve of the festival, expect one of the weekend’s more unpredictable and unforgettable sets.
If you like your black metal progressive, steeped in history and complete with the sort of atmosphere that only comes from snowy forest photoshoots then Enslaved are the band for you. The veterans keep pushing the boundaries of what black metal can be, and new track ‘Solar Will’ is no different. There’s the typical tropes in there, but it’s all surrounded by a swirling atmosphere of heavy metal, there’s even some Ozzy esque vocals going on which adds to the NWOBHM feel to the whole thing. This is a rip roaring journey built from a 35 year career that clearly ages like fine wine. – Rob Bown
Hardcore wizards Judiciary’s latest single ‘ Death Knell’ is another mid tempo affair, replete with all the hallmarks that make a good track in this niche. It’s memorable, ferocious in its execution and tight as can be. The guitars sound like they’re being dragged up from the depths of the ocean, each drum strike evokes hidden subterranean depths, and the vocals cut through like a demonic commander leading its armies. This track will make you want to run through a wall, or maybe someone stood across from you at a hardcore gig. Either way it’s four minutes of all out war, and it’s coming for you ear canals. – Rob Bown
Yummy yummy HM2 death metal, it never really gets old. Burner’s latest offering to the altar of midtempo hardcore inspired death metal is a headbanger, inducing psychosis of the best kind in all that lay ear upon it. It’s short as shit and gets right to the point of slamming your head into the pavement repeatedly. This one is for sure going to go hard live, quick, brutal, and beautiful in its simplicity. Burner just doesn’t seem to miss, and the new single is one to make sure you give a few spins. – Rob Bown
Cult of Luna continue to defy expectations and push themselves far beyond what the boundaries of expectation are on ‘A Way Back’. More laid back than the previous single, and album title track, ‘In The Shadow Of Your Shadow’, ‘A Way Back’ leans in to a dark Americana that the Umeå natives are more than capable of mastering. Driven by the haunting vocal of Fredrik Kihlberg,’A Way Back’ feels like a love letter to the long departed, previous Cult of Luna collaborator Mark Lanegan. Not an obvious choice for a single but a welcome one, Cult of Luna continue to prove they are the premier post-metal band with every passing year. – Kevin Ashburn
Without too many shreds of hyperbole, The Callous Daoboys have never sounded quite so frantically unhinged as they do on new single ‘Watching Us Kiss’. Batshit was already the name of the game, but they’ve upended it and outdone themselves once again with a scathingly heavy slab of dissonance that still finds time to fold in as much weirdness and the occasional melody, including a brief pulse of electronics that you’d swear would lead into a dance break. Instead, the already-slow riff comes back – yeah, even slower. Also “cuckold” is a mosh call. Trust us, you need this song (and seemingly everything the Daoboys do) in your life. – Will Marshall
What music was in your headphones and inspiring you whilst writing this record?
Annouli: Toxicity was a big one.
Hannah: Yeah, yeah. Toxicity for me definitely. We recorded this in September, October, and I had a transformative life experience at a System of a Down show in Chile and I was like, oh my god, and I recently saw them at the weekend, so they are very much at the forefront of the mind in terms of inspiration.
Why has music connected you three?
Jess: It just feels normal now. I feel like I can’t really remember what was before. It’s just always been music. We’ve been together a long time.
Annouli: Yeah, and we’ve all been musicians like our whole lives, you know, and so it’s the most natural form of expression. But I think that Hawxx gave us like a new level of expression in it all, thank fuck that we just have that, what would we even do without it? This band specifically, it gives us that container and permission to go completely outside of ourselves and become completely unhinged and feral and feel powerful, and be who we wouldn’t be in other situations, and welcome people in to do the same and feel the same. And so it’s a gift. It’s a real gift for all of us.
Jess: It’s so true, that thing of permission. Because this band is the first time I felt like I could suggest anything. And they’ll be like, well, of course. I guess we all have a bit of that, we can just do the thing that we’ve been maybe not so confident about doing before.
Hannah: I think music for me has always been, whether it’s conscious or not, a meditative thing, something to focus on in difficult times. But Hawxx is where I’ve been at my most expressive and my most feral. As we say, we’ve been musicians a long time, so we know what the instruments are and what they do, but to be able to channel a lot into those instruments in this body is absolutely amazing. And as Annouli said, a real gift.
What – aside from the state of the world – inspired the song Resistance Is Justified?
Annouli: Our music always balances the political and the personal, even on a track like Resistance is Justified, which is about the Filton 24. That was also really personal for me, because Jordan Devlin is my really close friend. He was doing work on my narrowboat, he was building shelves there, and then the next day he didn’t answer his phone, and he was in prison under the Terrorism Act. That case has been a huge part of my life over the last two years, and it still is. I was in the courthouse a lot, in the public gallery, and I wasn’t expecting Jordan to get acquitted, but then he did. It’s just terrifying, in terms of what happens when a government is afraid of its people, and it’s just been such a roller coaster, this entire thing.
Where did the song Feral Mother come from?
Annouli: Feral Mother is about grief. And it’s not the usual type of story that we tell. It’s about my cat Moses that went missing a year and a half ago now. I was basically living in the marshes here in Walthamstow in the middle of February, camping there, trying to find him and I thought I found him. But then it turned out that, after weeks of trying to catch this cat that I thought was him, it turned out to be a different cat that was nearly identical to him. And I never found out what happened to him. And he was the love of my life. But that song also spans outwards in terms of all kinds of grief, because sometimes I feel like, oh yeah, it’s about my cat. And not everybody understands how painful that is.
It’s not every day you hear a new band sound as fresh and as healing as this. The debut single from art-rock octet Moksha, ‘Three Rivers’ sounds less than a new band taking their first clumsy steps and more of a well-established band who have long found their own musical niche and sound. Such a thing isn’t too surprising though when considering the lineup; cofounded by Sam Chetan-Welsh (ex-Ithaca), Moksha features an array of established musicians from a range of scenes and genres. Still, this is a wonderfully translucent and spiritually healing listen, especially considering the way the track fluidly mares classic emo, math-rock, neo-soul and jazz to the point where genre tags become less defining features and more vague reference points. Moksha will be making their debut festival appearance at ArcTanGent later this month, and going from this single, you would be a fool to miss it. – Dan Hillier
The crossover between electronic music and heavy music is not a new one. For decades now, synths, glitches and digital effects have become an established part of the soundscape in metal – regardless of how people feel about it. Many bands have taken the sound head on, letting the digital ice flow in the warm veins of their artistic creations, but none have done so quite as well as Northlane. The Aussie djent outfit has spent a considerable amount of time honing their unique and recognisable sound, winning over a legion of purists with raised eyebrows, and it’s never been more clear that they’re exactly where they want to be than on ‘CUT_it’. Abrasive, metallic synths open the track before vocalist Marcus Bridge really kicks things off with a brutal opening line. Angular guitars and compressed drums follow quickly after, showing fans that the band is still as much ESP as LED. This track in particular leans quite heavily on the electronic side of things, and while it may have some awesome riffs and a memorable, almost Thornhill-like chorus, the electric beats and dance synths may still cause some traditionalists some problems. It’s clear that the band is fully owning their sound though, and they sound so strong for it. Why would you want to unplug from the matrix if the soundtrack is this good? – Jude Bennett
Australian metalcore/alt metallers Future Static turned heads with their debut album Liminality, and have just unveiled their upcoming second album Ornaments & Memories along with its title track. As a much more philosophically-minded album, it follows that the music is just as boundary-pushing. Progressive flourishes and soulful vocals carry its opening, before vocalist Ami Cook delivers gut-wrenching lows at the song’s first crescendo. Switching then into thundering djent-adjacent slow chugs and battering drums, without losing the melodicism of Cook’s vocals, it’s a stellar example of the band’s songwriting reaching new heights. Cook explains of the song’s themes, “I wrote the lyrics to ‘Ornaments & Memories’ as if writing a letter to myself to listen back to when I start to lose track of what is important. A reminder to be more present, and to take each step based on what will create the most positive impact.” – Will Marshall
Show Me The Body
NYHC, but not as you know it. Show Me The Body brings all the sensibilities of a grassroots, DIY hardcore band, while also sprinkling in a banjo, some noise-adjacent riffs and hip-hop influences. Hot off the release of their critically acclaimed fourth studio album, Alone Together, the three-piece are on a fast trajectory towards true stardom and finally receiving the flowers they deserve. Expect weird melodies and plenty of tempo changes when you catch them at the North Arena at 13:55.
