ArcTanGent Festival, a yearly outdoor four-day fixture at Fernhill Farm near Bristol, attracts a devoted following to its niche yet eclectic lineups of artists who generally have an association with post-rock, progressive metal, or experimental rock. It’s “sort of” a metal festival, but the range of acts it showcases steers towards the more left-field and eccentric end of heavy music and at times stretches beyond what could reasonably even be labelled as “rock”.
Wednesday:
Wednesday’s warm-up day features a cut-down setup of just one stage with several Bristol-based bands alongside a few bigger names. Ogives Big Band, Five the Hierophant, Bicurious, and Skin Failure start things off through the afternoon before Pupil Slicer hit the stage for short set of manic and furious hardcore-infused grinding metal.
ATG veterans DVNE are up next, declaring that “it’s good to be back”, and drawing the ever-growing audience into their fantasy-inspired sonic landscape. Bleak and mournful yet strangely uplifting, the set is full of epic and spacious textures with driving riffs, elegant keyboard and guitar lines, and dramatic vocals that shift between harsh growls and emotive melodies.
Soon after, Conjurer (who, like DVNE, also played 2022’s event) launch into 45 minutes of progressive metal replete with formidable guttural growls and myriad riffs ranging from the finger-shreddingly fast to the morbidly slow and bludgeoning.
Top of Wednesday’s bill are Scalping, whose idiosyncratic blend of bleeping electronica and dark rock music seems to gradually seduce the crowd throughout a set whose energy level continually seems to build. Ever more hands are rhythmically thrust skywards as one track seamlessly flows into the next and creepy hypnotic sci-fi video projections glitch and pulsate along.
Thursday:
Mountain Caller take to the main stage early on Thursday, bringing huge doom metal riffs (with a massive drum sound), jangling post-rock and a hint of classic metal to a mostly instrumental set.
Around lunchtime, Barcelona’s Los Sara Fontán arrive on the smaller Elephant in the Bar Room stage to begin a set that sees Fontán herself perform all manner of wonderfully outlandish sonic acrobatics with a violin and and array of effects boxes, all of which drummer Edi Pou punctuates and underpins with his dextrous jazz-tinged grooves.
Wallowing arrive dressed in black robes and veiled hats resembling those of beekeepers. Armed with a noise board alongside the usual rock instrumentation, their set is dismal and despairing (in a positive sense, of course), with demonic screams and doom riffs rising out of a pit of harsh noise that is occasionally broken by ambient interludes.
Soon afterwards Belgium’s Wiegedood bring a relentless black metal onslaught to the main stage. Crazed tremolo picking, menacing harsh vocals and frenetic blastbeats are mixed with discordant prog riffs during their insanity-inducing performance.
Svalbard follow with a set that encompasses hefty post-rock and fast hardcore crossover riffery. As usual, frontwoman Serena Cherry talks passionately and eloquently about some of the personal circumstances that have influenced the emotive songs that captivate the uproarious audience.
Cave In’s main stage performance is characterised by gigantic post-hardcore riffs and Stephen Brodsky’s bluesy snarling voice. The crowd euphorically headbang along to the heavy grooves and classic rock guitar solos that litter this triumphantly bombastic set.
France’s Birds in Row are tight, dynamic and explosive as they deftly produce angular and atmospheric post-hardcore that bristles with punk energy and bursts with vitality and power.
Brutus, from Belgium, shift continually between electrifying post-hardcore and cinematic soundscapes, led by Stefanie Mannaerts’ inventive drumming and sublime voice that often recalls Björk.
Following a pre-show airing of AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (Pigsx7) launch brazenly into an hour of riff-heavy old-school rock. Their sound, whilst unashamedly rockist, is infused with punk aggression and peppered with some interesting vocal effects. Matthew Baty jumps around the stage as he barks out often monotonal but eminently compelling melodies over Sabbath-inspired scuzzy grooves.
Thursday’s main stage headliners are Converge and, as always, their manic ferocity is unassailable. Amid myriad pace changes — from whirlwind-fast hardcore to sludge-drenched breakdowns — they maintain a startling level of intensity that sends continual ripples of excitement and catharsis through the jam-packed audience.
Friday:
On Friday morning the the bleary-eyed audience are shaken to their senses by Witchsorrow, who command the crowd to “scream for me ArcTanGent!” amid pulverising sludge and swaggering blues-infused stoner rock.
Curse These Metal Hands follow with a performance that feels meditative and ethereal and maintains a majestic elegance even as the sound intensifies from dreamlike soundscapes towards enormous riffs and impassioned guttural vocals.
Norman Westberg may no longer be a member of Swans (more of whom later), but he has been touring with them as solo support act and has a Friday lunchtime slot at ATG. He arrives on stage with a brief “hi,” in between chews on his ever-present gum as a low and steadily intensifying drone whirs out of the PA. With a guitar and table full of effects Westberg invokes ambient textures throughout one long and seemingly semi-improvised piece. Hints of melody drift in and out as the sonic sculpture slowly mutates and becomes incrementally more absorbing.
Host Body’s set encompasses electronic noise and fierce blackened post-hardcore. Unsettling interludes punctuate manic riff-heavy segments filled with raging screams, lopsided syncopated rhythms and rapid-fire drums.
Holy Fawn’s early afternoon main stage slot is rich with dark and sombre shoegaze textures aided by Ryan Osterman’s sorrowful singing. Their dynamic and atmosphere-rich set often veers into black metal territory when Osterman’s voice shifts to a despairing scream and the music becomes more intensely anguished.
It is mid-afternoon when Dawn Ray’d hit the PX3 stage with their set of raw, ferocious and punk-tinged anti-fascist black metal. The marriage between unnervingly chaotic heavy textures and forlorn folk violin melodies and vocal chants is truly powerful. The performance is augmented by some pre-recorded parts including synths and choir vocals, which add dimension and depth without diminishing the bite of Dawn Ray’d’s impassioned and arresting show.
Liturgy’s early evening slot begins with Haela Hunt-Hendrix performing a cappella in a quasi-operatic style, before launching into crazed screams as a behemothic cascade of monstrous noise erupts. The pace and feel are constantly in flux as delightfully bizarre riffs dance with tight and jagged syncopated drum patterns and plaintive black metal atmospherics.
As Friday evening’s rain begins to pour, the fittingly named The Ocean take to the Yohkai Stage to deliver their vast and rousing post-metal. Glorious vocal harmonies and massive doom riffs trade places with formidable roaring vocals and fierce drum blasts throughout nearly an hour of emotional catharsis.
New York’s Swans, infamous for the organ-shaking volume levels of their concerts, have recently shifted things around in their lineup and approach. Tonight bandleader Michael Gira leaves behind the electric guitar to instead sit down with a battered acoustic, surrounded by a band that includes two pedal steel guitars and (sometimes) two basses, plus keyboards, drums and percussion. The set begins with a foreboding but weirdly joyous drone that grows steadily into a beautiful cacophony as Gira drawls semi-improvised utterances in his trademark baritone. He also acts as a kind of conductor, using hand gestures to direct the band through ultra-dynamic sonic contours as the music flows in waves between heat-soaked swamp blues, poundingly heavy grooves, electrifying noise and tender acoustic-led sections. Although its often difficult to discern exactly which song Swans are playing at any given moment, such is the way they twist and contort them for live airings, the set seems to lean heavily on tracks from this year’s album The Beggar, including the dark and ruminant eponymous piece. The rain-soaked audience are held in rapturous quasi-spiritual communion throughout Swans’ deeply affecting performance.
Friday’s main stage headliners Heilung provide an experience described by one bewildered food-stand worker as “more like theatre than music”. With at least 15 performers in antlered costumes and an elaborate stage set decked out with foliage and gongs, the concert often resembles an ancient ritual. Hypnotically intoxicating tribal drumming is layered with various acoustic instruments, throat singing, and majestic chants. The rich sonic and visual atmospheres conjured have an uncanny resonance and it feels as though everyone in the crowded tent is taking part in some kind of primeval ceremony.
Saturday:
Belgium’s Psychonaut take the Saturday midday main stage spot having apparently only just made their ferry over to the UK. Their music drives forth with a palpable tension as they merge elements of Black Metal with dark post-Rock and Doom-Metal riffs.
GGGOLDDD, from the Netherlands, play a set that merges goth-influenced electronica with experimental rock. Singer Milena Eva dances elegantly and captivates the audience with her haunting voice throughout stirring renditions of songs including the particularly poignant “Old Habits”.
Over on the Bixler stage, Grub Nap, a recently-formed two-piece featuring Daniel Barter of DVNE and Steve Myles of Cattle, launch into a frantic and aggressive show of short songs that veer between superfast Hardcore and sludgy dissonance. Dual harsh vocals rise out of syncopated grooves and an all-encompassing baritone guitar swamp (sent through both bass and guitar amps) during this short but thrillingly intense set.
Next up, Sweden’s Domkraft bring half an hour of sludge-doom-blues-desert rock to ATG. Martin Wegeland’s snarling drawl punctuates Kyuss-esque riffs, Psych-Rock wah-wah guitar solos, and driving one-chord Hawkwind-style jams.
Rolo Tomassi’s eagerly-anticipated slot begins with a pre-recorded intro of feedback and snare drum, before the band crack into their noisy yet intricate synth-infused math rock, led by Eva Korman’s compellingly angry barked vocals, and interspersed with gloomy and desolate interludes.
Norway’s Aiming for Enrike are perhaps the perfect demonstration of what makes ATG special. An instrumental two-piece, their set begins with heavy Prog Rock guitar and imaginative drumming, but gradually progresses into something more akin to a rave (via the use of loop pedals and a bank of effects that make the guitar sound more like a synth). Layered repetitive ostinatos are underpinned by driving four-to-the-floor drums, and the music dynamically ebbs and flows such that the excitement level seems to constantly increase. By about half-way through, the crowd of metal fans is jumping and pumping the air in tandem as though at a strange warehouse party with an all-black dress code.
As Saturday evening rolls on, Health take to the Bixler stage to deliver cascades of huge chord washes alongside harsh industrial beats and gothic electronic rock.
https://youtu.be/QatxlnkY63Y?si=TIPiLnlXHw16NVFb
Haken headline the Yokhai stage, all dressed in botanical shirts that match the backdrop. With the addition of not only synths but headless guitars, their set leans towards the melodic and technical end of prog rock and is flawlessly executed.
Meanwhile, over on the Bixler Stage, Loathe are ripping through a performance that incorporates breakneck post-hardcore, punky shouted vocals, blasting machine gun double-kick drums, synth soundscapes, and contemplative melodic sections.
Headlining the main stage on Saturday is Devin Townsend, the legendary Canadian progressive/experimental metal singer-songwriter. The four-piece band somehow produce an absolutely gigantic (and incredibly clear) symphonic sound. Townsend’s career-spanning set is divided into three segments: an initial run of crown-pleasers followed by “weird stuff” and then “heavy stuff”. His stage talk is characteristically amusing and self-deprecating, and the crowd enthusiastically shouts back when asked to, as well as singing along jubilantly to the many anthemic choruses. There are tender moments led by lush acoustic guitars, expansive prog metal epics, virtuoso guitar solos, and, at one point, gigantic cowboy hats. It is undoubtedly a triumphant set that joyfully and uproariously brings the festival to a close.
With 2023’s edition, ArcTanGent have yet again unquestionably succeeded in creating a welcoming, inclusive and varied event that is nevertheless unique in its approach to lineup curation and that fosters a strong shared sense of community. It also helps that the toilets are clean, stages are all sheltered from rain, food and drink outlets are high quality, and queues never seem to get out of hand. Walking around the site and overhearing conversations gives the impression that for a lot of people with a predilection for this sort of music ATG is just about as good as it gets. And, to be honest, it’s hard to disagree.
Follow ArcTangent for news and next year’s announcements!
WORDS BY DUNCAN EVANS