We all know it’s the last time we’ll see Svalbard play in London; for many, it’ll be the last time ever. So that energy yields plenty of real tears, a whole lot of raw, unashamed love for Svalbard, and of course some of the most wildly enthusiastic moshing I’ve ever seen. 

Whether your ears will actually enjoy listening to art so radical is not something I can comment on; but what I can say is that the Igorrr live experience is second to none, and should be witnessed by anyone with even the slightest interest on one occasion at the very least.

Godamn! What a show. Like many of us here, I feel lucky to have caught this smaller club show from Psychonaut, hoping that this will help to catapult them to even greater heights – and that tonight’s poster remains on the Lexington walls, marking the arc of that trajectory.  

Overall, this makes for a brilliant tour package, showcasing that even some of the seemingly rigid sub-genres are capable of versatility and variety. With this Doom Triumvirate, the gloom, the misery, and the melancholy are all very real; but so fortunately is the joy, the passion, and the melody.  

We shouldn’t need events like Loud Women Fest to provide spaces where women and non-binary musicians can form a majority and perform without being made to feel fear, discrimination, indignity, or condescension. But unfortunately we may well need them more than ever. This festival wasn’t just a noble cause, however: it was a wonderful day of music, laughter, and solidarity, and I hope to make my return next year.  

Bear Stone is a liminal zone where only the best values of the outside world still apply. When the sun’s out, it’s beach vibes all day; when it goes down, the trees seem to close in and create a fairy glade where real magic and pleasant madness can occur. 

More so than any other festival I’ve been to, ATG feels like a big old party. But one where everyone is lovely and on the same wavelength, and I’m not going to spend most of it riffling through the host’s bookshelf waiting for it to end. And a party where you can legit listen to weird prog one minute, ultra-dissonant hardcore the next, and still get away with “dancing”.  

It’s another exciting and thought-provoking show courtesy of London Prog Gigs, introducing me to another great Camden live music venue, and demonstrating how Teiger and Pearl Handled Revolver are two of the best bands in the UK.  

ArcTanGent Festival, famous for its eclectic, dazzling line-ups as much as its relaxed and fun atmosphere, kicks off its 2025 edition on Wednesday 13 August and Joe Norman and Nick Dunn will be there for every minute of it. (It’s a hard assignment, but someone had to do it!)

Welcome to Bear Stone Festival: a liminal zone where only the best values of the outside world still apply. When the sun’s out, it’s beach vibes all day; when it goes down, the trees seem to close in and create a fairy glade where real magic and pleasant madness can occur. It might well be the best festival I’ve attended.

Bear Stone Festival is a psych, stoner, desert rock festival set in the idyllic surrounds of Donje Primišlje, a village in Central Croatia. And it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect location to spend three days enjoying this kind of music.

Once again, twelve years down the line, Desertfest still delivers a wonderful weekend, balancing the safe, solid and predictable with plenty of surprises along the way. And it’s one of the few festivals to which I know I’ll be returning next year regardless of line-up: the atmosphere is that good.  

Chaos Theory Music, the London-based promoters, are celebrating fifteen years of curating “new music for open minds” by bringing together a suitably eclectic selection of bands to fill the sacred subterranean chambers of the Camden Underworld on this unseasonably hot winter day. It’s the second day of their big annual bash, which kicked off last weekend at Signature Brew in Walthamstow.

What I love most about Suffocation is the intricacies and diversity of their riffs: each a perfectly-crafted, hybrid bundle of different techniques and modes, woven together and delivered in a frantic burst of ideas; they are technical riffs but written to provide a sense of narrative and strong song-writing rather than to be complex for its own sake.

The finale ‘Death Atlas’ reaches a pinnacle of awesome heaviness and shocking tightness, which sustains its intensity and majesty for what seems like a glorious age, while Travis is right up the crowd dishing out hugs and screeching melodically into their ecstatic faces. It may only be January, but Cattle Decapitation set a very high standard indeed for extreme metal shows in 2025.  

Watching Alcest feels warm but not cosy, sheltered but not fully safe: cocooned within the sonic fairy land that Neige always used his band to develop.  Some bands would run out of steam over a twenty-five year career, but Alcest have developed their sound so perfectly that there will never be another metal band who sounds quite like them. . .

I feel like I’m back in time, watching a classic band like Biffy Clyro or Muse at a small show about to make it big. Lizzard’s sound has certainly moved on from the Undertow-era Tool sound of their early material, becoming a little cleaner, more nuanced, yet still heavy, still strange.

“The beast, he keeps cool, light-hearted and fun”: a sentiment that applies to both Jayle Jayle and :Of the Wand and the Moon: in different respects and equal measure. And it’s a perfect pairing from Old Empire, demonstrating once again why they deliver some of the most exciting shows in the UK underground.  

Clad in black denim and relaxing upon a black throne, surrounded by burning candles, incense and images of Baphomet, Evan Patterson sure looks like the frontman of Kentucky’s finest goth blues band. He’s in the Lucifer Lounge of Raven Records, joining Joe Norman for a conversation that covers the origins of Jaye Jayle, the band’s forthcoming new album, and his many exciting artistic ventures.

In late November 2024 Joe Norman from E&D linked up via Zoom with Guillaume Bernard, guitarist and founding member of the French art rockers Klone to speak about fatherhood, touring, recording, and Klone’s amazing latest album, The Unseen (2024) from Pelagic Records. 

From the slime-ridden swamp, up into the skies of rotten planets, and back down to the dystopian streets of Earth, tonight was a show that will leave your ears ringing, your shirt drenched, and your body bruised.