Saturday 17 May 2025
It’s Eurovision weekend! But I’m fucking it off this year. While I’d like to say that’s because I’m taking a principled stance against the inclusion of Israel (which I would be if I was at home), it’s equally due to the fact that it’s also Desertfest weekend, so I’m off to sunny Camden Town to see the world’s finest collection of Orange amps and hear some of the finest crushingly loud music available.
And for once, sunny Camden Town is actually sunny! Just the sort of weather to listen to some doom and stoner metal. Or, in the case of Verminthrone, some righteously nasty thrashy sludge. Verminthrone take tips from the likes of previous Desertfest guests Eyehategod, serving up a deliciously unpleasant mix of chunky riffs and mosh-confusing rhythms with a real groove at the bottom end to the packed Devonshire Arms, a handy venue on Desertfest’s Roundhouse day, because it’s about midway between there and The Black Heart. They also do a song about the Hat Man, which is a subject tragically neglected by the wider music industry, so that’s cool too.
Roundhouse Day at Desertfest is always a little odd, as while the distance isn’t exactly huge, it does make it harder to pop out after a band, have time to grab a beer and catch a band elsewhere before getting back in time for the next Roundhouse band. And the line-up at the venue is killer this year, so we end up encamped there for the rest of the duration.
And they kick off with album opener “Foeman’s Flesh”, and it’s MONSTROUS. Despite visually having the air of (as Dave says) “the slightly weird uncles off your estate” — lead singer and guitarist Jon Davis is wearing what looks like quite a nice jumper for the occasion — Conan are ABSOLUTELY FUCKING BRUTAL.
Playing against a montage of clips from various sword and sorcery movies, cartoons and videogames, just in case there was any doubt that they’re not named after the talk show host, Conan are a perfect example of a) how nerdy metal can be and b) how awesome nerdy metal can be if the band really leans into it.
Next up are Pallbearer, who due to problems at customs missed their soundcheck and are forced to do an impromptu one in front of the audience, which gives rise to the slightly awkward situation whereby it takes the lighting guy a while to realise when they’ve actually started, meaning their gothy doom first takes shape in a fully-lit Roundhouse.
Now I don’t know exactly what happened at customs, but I’m prepared to guess it’s all part of the process of Western enshittification which has made touring a bit of an arse for all but the biggest bands, and which sucks. Especially when, as here, they really needed a longer soundcheck.
Don’t get me wrong, the music’s great, and the performance is awesome, but in a venue with sound as notoriously fickle as the Roundhouse, you can’t take too much for granted. The more intricate parts of their set (three vocal lines plus guitar harmonies) suffer as a result, but when they lock into a groove and are just kicking out hard volume they sound amazing.
Hopefully next time I see them (and I’d very much like there to be a next time) I’ll get to experience them as they are meant to be experienced.
Then it’s Amenra, who are a fucking revelation. I’ve only listened to them this week for the first time, when I suddenly felt like I’d found something to fill the Neurosis-shaped hole there’s been in my listening since Scott Kelly turned out to be a massive piece of shit. This is not to say that they sound like Neurosis — other than “slow guitar riffs” they really don’t — but the sure as hell FEEL like Neurosis.
That feeling that you’re not so much looking into the Abyss only to see it looking back into you, but standing in the path of a hurricane and realising you forgot to put any trousers on. It’s like having your soul sandblasted and all you can do is stand there and hope you survive the process. It’s dark, it’s bleak and it’s utterly transcendent. I’m late to the party with these guys, but what a fucking party it is.
And finally to tonight’s headliners. Desertfest have always been really good at throwing the occasional curveball and picking a band who might not necessarily fit with the overall musical vibe of the rest of the festival, but who will definitely be appreciated by the attendees. Past years have seen the likes of Napalm Death and Turbonegro filling this role, and this year it’s the mighty Zeal & Ardor, who are currently having a well-deserved day in the sun.
While the last couple of albums have moved away a bit from the initial “black metal African American spirituals”, there’s still a fair bit of that in tonight’s set. And you know what? It all fits perfectly. Manuel Gagneux is an adorably engaging presence between songs and a terrifying yet soulful one during them. The call-and-response structure most prevalent in the earlier stuff works even better on stage, with Gagneux and two backup vocalists trading lyrics.
At times heartbreaking, at times terrifying, Zeal & Ardor are one of the most insanely rockin’ live acts around. Every now and then you find yourself thinking “wait, this dude who is currently a physical manifestation of metal also has a yacht rock band?” (Soft Captain. They’re also ace), but then you forget because he’s doing “Gravedigger’s Chant” and everything’s got really frightening again.
Even Gagneux himself described the decision to book them as “frankly wild”, but it was a REALLY good one. What an incredible end to a fantastic day. Or at least it would have been, had my journey home not been such a fucking nightmare. But fuck it, I had Zeal & Ardor on my headphones to relive the vibe, so it was all good.
-Words: Justin Farrington-
-Pictures: Dave Pettit-
Sunday 18 May 2025
So, Sunday at Desertfest, and it’s another beautiful day. With ears still ringing from the previous night’s incredible performances from Amenra and Zeal & Ardor among others, I pop my head into the Black Heart for a pint and the opportunity to get my ears in gear again with Brighton doomsters Outback.Combining super-heavy sludgy grooves with blackened vocals, they get the walls reverberating and the crowd’s skulls vibrating. Considering the early hour, this lot draw a packed house and everyone seems to be having a great time. Good stuff and I’ll be checking them out again for sure.
Next a quick trip to the Devonshire Arms for Slump, an old-school metal trio (think Orange Goblin or Corrosion Of Conformity) from Birmingham. Echoes of NWOBHM and some of the heavier desert rock bands also come to mind. What is true is that these guys sure know how to write some chonky riffs. Good stuff, if let down somewhat by the Dev’s frustrating layout and poor visibility (yeah, yeah, I know it has been around forever, but whatever).
One of the main reasons I skipped out of the Dev early, apart from the Ballroom merch stand, was to check out the Divide And Dissolve set. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of them before, but I was intrigued by the small blurb in the little Desertfest guide.
It seems this was a band that was motivated by anti-racism and opposition to genocide, something that couldn’t be more important in our current terrifying times. Checking out their third album, Gaslit, on the train on the way in, it seems their chosen tool to fight these atrocities and injustices is a combination of crushingly heavy instrumental drone / doom allied to melodic neo-classical. Brilliant stuff and making them a must-see at the festival. And they didn’t disappoint.
This is greeted by another roar from the crowd, and then she drops her first chord and by golly, it’s heavy. In terms of reference points their music, at the heavy end, brings to mind SunnO))), early Earth and Feedbacker era Boris, but counterpointed beautifully by the gentle neo-classical sax. It is indeed great stuff.
At the end of the first song / movement / part, Takiaya comes to the front of the stage to thank the crowd for coming and to talk a little about the ongoing genocides in Palestine and Sudan, white supremacy and indigenous land rights. This could feel a little preachy or forced, but Taniaya is so gentle and embracing in her delivery that any awkwardness evaporates, and her words are received extremely warmly by her audience.
In fact, whereas as on record they (to my ears anyway) often bring to mind Gong, live they are far more metallic. Loads of great riffs, cosmic keyboards and mind-shredding guitar, they are a great palette cleanser after the aural density of Divide and Dissolve.
And before the aural density of Earth. Well, not quite in fact. Let’s face it, we’re all here for Earth, aren’t we? And we kind of have some expectations of what seeing Earth will be like right? Well, we’ll get to that.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t really heard too much of their recent stuff, if any in fact, since Angels Of Darkness I, my favourite records of theirs being Thrones And Dominions and Pentastar, and I’m assuming that most of the set is drawn from the more recent stuff. And it’s great. It’s really great. It’s heavy as fuck, and the sound does it’s best to smash its way into your cerebellum. But it’s having trouble in that regard because it’s just too bloody quiet.
Having finished my photography duty, I join Justin around midway back in the crowd and I have no choice but to take out my ear plugs, because with them in it sounds like the band are in the next room. I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but things do improve as we move forward, closer to the front.
I love Dylan holding up his guitar to the crowd, having just played a monumental chord, like a shaman, saying “This is my sacrifice to you, hear it, and use it well!” They finish with “California” and “Other Impossible Dreams”, which starts off with the riff to Mötley Crüe’s “Misunderstood”; it sounds weird but it’s perfect.
A truly epic, monumental song, and one which provides a suitable closer for the night.
-Words and pictures: Dave Pettit-
