Arctangent Festival 2023 (ATG) has announced its first bands for next years event, with a selection of ‘Greatest Hits’ from 2022, for Wednesday 16th August 2023. These include Scalping (Wednesday headliner), Conjurer, DVNE and more! ATG 2023 dates are 16th/17th/18th/19th August. Tickets are avaialble at the link below. Read our review of the recent event here.
We chatted with Damnation Festival Director, co-founder, and booking agent Gavin McInally to preview this weekend’s 2022 festival in Manchester, UK. Gav discussed this year’s festivals, what goes into planning a festival, booking artists to perform exclusive sets (Converge, Godflesh, Pig Destroyer, At The Gates), how the fest pivoted to new headliners when they lost one (Ministry), booking the “Night of Salvation” event, the move from Leeds to Manchester, the current state of the UK heavy music scene, and more!
Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly has announced its flagship event for 2023, taking place once again at The Fillmore in Philadelphia. Taking place April 14-15, 2023, co-headlining the festival are Suicidal Tendencies (performing a special 40th anniversary set of the S/T album + hits) and the return of The Black Dahlia Murder. Joining them will be EyeHateGod, Incantation, Mizmor, Frozen Soul, All Out War, Undeath, and more! Tickets go on sale this Friday October 21st, 2022.
RPM Fest… three days in the woods at Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club in Montague, Massachusetts of Western MA with all of the homies, great food, great drinks, yard games, drag bingo, metal yoga, karaoke, and more metal, punk, and ska music than you can shake a battle vest at. It’s been two years since RPM Fest happened due to the ongoing pandemic. But this year it was able to make its mighty return as the official end-of-summer send-off party that it is known to be, this past Labor Day Weekend.
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Events Center, Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV 8/18/19
Desertfest has announced its dates and first bands for 2023 for its Desertfest London event. Taking place Friday 5th May – Sunday 7th May 2023, weekend tickets are on sale now at the link below. Initial headliners include Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, along with Graveyard, Kadavar, Church of Misery, Somali Yacht Club, Blood Ceremony, Inter Arma, Grave Lines, Valley of The Sun, Spaceslug, Mars Red Sky, Gaupa, Ecstatic Vision, Celestial Sanctuary, High Desert Queen, Plainride, Everest Queen, Venomwolf and Margarita Witch Cult. Buy tickets and see the first poster here:
Catton Park, United kingdom, 14 Aug 2022, Lamb of God performing on the Ronnie James Dio Stage at Bloodstock Open Air Festival Credit: Rich Price/Ghost Cult Magazine
SATURDAY
Considering most people are already feeling like overcooked baked potatoes wrapped in tin foil, the fact that today is meant to be the hottest day of the festival really isn’t the best news. Still, that certainly doesn’t deter a healthy crowd from shaking off the hangovers and getting on with the business at hand, Baest and Lost Society both grabbing the main stage by the scruff of the neck while Sister Shotgun and Mastiff do the same on the Sophie stage.Continue reading
Catton Park, United kingdom, 12 Aug 2022, Behemoth performing on the Ronnie James Dio Stage at Bloodstock Open Air Festival Credit: Rich Price/Ghost Cult Magazine
Main Stage and Sophie Lancaster Stage
THURSDAY
If there are two things we love doing in the UK, it’s complaining about the weather and queuing for things. Well, this year at Bloodstock Open Air, both are freely available and at no extra charge. Not a moment goes by without a comment on the sweltering heat or about having to wait to cross the road to the festival ground. Yes, not content with spending two hours in the main queue, campers have now invented a brand new line to join before even getting that far. For the first time ever, a line has formed for people pulling trolleys and sack carts. Almost a quarter of a mile of people waiting in a surprisingly orderly queue before joining an even bigger queue. England, never change.
With the heat already playing its part, I finally arrive at the Sophie Lancaster Stage in time to catch Italian nutters Nanowar of Steel who send the audience into hysterics with daft costumes and a “Wall of Love” (a traditional wall of death that climaxes with people hugging each other to George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’). Preceding the infuriatingly catchy ‘Norwegian Reggaeton’ with Burzum‘s outdoor recipe for roasted salmon (“you place the freshly caught salmon on a rock and burn down the church next to it”) the band then take the opportunity to use the mighty ‘Valhalleluja’ to build an Ikea coffee table, holding it aloft for the elated crowd. Accompanied by an actual goblin for the duration of their set, US act Nekrogoblikon certainly put on an enjoyable show but find it tough following such a display of irreverent insanity.
Gorguts at MDF 2014, photo by Hillarie Jason Photography
In a statement posted on social media, Maryland Deathfest has announced they will return! After a hiatus for 2023 the fest will return from May 23rd to May 26th, 2024. In a message to fans the co-founders of MDF discussed the hiatus and the the return as well as new dates for 2024. MDF 2024 will be their 20th fest in Baltimore. They did announce that aftert the upcoming London Desertfest, they are discontinuing all other festivals they have put on, Netherlands Deathfest, California Deathfest, and more will be no more. You can read a statement from the co-founders Ryan and Evan, below. MDF has operated for almost 20 years, put on 19 fests, and expanded to a global footprint, all while giving a greater voice to Death Metal, Avant-Garde Metal, Stoner Doom, and more genres, perhaps as much or more than any fest in the world. Continue reading
Decibel Magazine, America’s finest metal magazine has announced its first annual Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Denver event! It will take place December 2nd-3rd, 2022, at The Summit, and will feature Cannibal Corpse, Pig Destroyer, Dark Funeral among many other international and local bands! The even has beer in its name so it will also have some of the best (and Most Metal Breweries in the scene. The full lineup can be seen below and tickets go on sale Friday July, 22nd at 10 AM!