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”.
Following on from the acoustic Live in Leeds show and 2020’s Galactic Quarantine performances, the third of Devin Townsend‘s Devolution series, Devolution #3 – Empath Live In America (InsideOut Music) was recorded on the Canadian’s ill-fated tour of the US which had to be cut short due to the Covid pandemic.
It’s only been two years since the release of the first album from Saigon Kick’s guitarist, Jason Bieler. Containing an eccentric mix of music accompanied by a star-studded cast of other musicians, Bieler created an experimental medley of rock and progressive sounds. Now Bieler is back with the rest of The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra to do it again and delve even further into the peculiar sounds previously explored. While the debut dipped its toes into the eccentricity, it seems the band are looking to fully submerge. The main question lingers, whether it is odd for art’s sake or just odd for odd’s sake.
For many who tuned into the Eurovision Song Contest in May, Australian entrants Voyager were just another fun, novelty rock act. Crowd-pleasers with wild hair and even wilder grins, the Aussie five-piece were still a markedly different proposition to the previous hard rock and metal participants in the completely serious competition reserved strictly for European countries, featuring absolutely no politically motivated judging whatsoever.
Formed in a seedy Pennsylvanian cantina in 2015, the rise of Star Wars obsessionists Galactic Empire has been noticeable even to those not blessed with force sensitivity. What began as a bit of fun jamming with Ortolans and Pa’lowicks has quickly led to world tours, videos with millions of views, and seen more costume changes than a shopping trip with Princess Leia and Padmé Amidala.
The mighty Arctangent Festival 2023 today announces their final main stage headliner for this year’s event, The incredible, truly one-of-a-kind Devin Townsend will be closing out the whole festival on the main stage, Saturday night. The festival will be taking place between August 16th through to August 19th, at Fernhill Farm, a short drive from Bristol City Centre. Also announced today include Haken, Yourcodenameis:Milo, Ashenspire, Clt Drp, The Guru Guru, and many more. Acts already announced include Heilung, Converge, Deafheaven (playing ‘Sunbather’ in full as a UK exclusive), Swans, Empire State Bastard, Sikth, The Fall Of Troy, Cave In, Igorrr, Pigs7, Elder, Russian Circles, Chat Pile, Svalbard, Jaga Jazzist, Brutus, Loathe, Rolo Tomassi, Svalbard, and many more.Continue reading
Ghost Cult’s Chris Small (aka Smallz, Papa Smallz) has been an essential member of our live coverage team this year and chipped in a few other types of reviews over the years as well. When he is not voraciously consuming heavy music, he is also a dad, documents underground rap shows, and streams on Twitch. Here are his top 20 albums of 2022 list! Peace and Chicken grease, as Chris would say…
Press on, intrepid reader, to find out our top albums of 2022, as voted for by the cast, crew and hangers-on of the good ship Ghost Cult. Over 275 albums were nominated (including one stray and errant vote for Stryper… we’ve had words), some people lauded albums as the greatest of all time that no one else noticed, other albums picked up a steady stream of votes across the board without tickling the top of anyone’s charts, but through it all, we’ve been able to compile our team list of the best 75 albums of the year. And there are some absolute corkers, here. 75 of them, to be exact…
