If you have enough time, and are willing to cut a couple of sets short, you can see some of the most exciting acts in modern hardcore, post hardcore, and alt rock here over the course of one day. One person could hypothetically see music from They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, Momma, Drug Church, Fleshwater, Speed, Julie, Superheaven, Have A Nice Life, Alex G, and Turnstile. If they were, this is how that day would look.

Words: Will Bright and Jessica McCarrick

They Are Gutting A Body Of Water

They Are Gutting A Body Of Water open the third stage. Of the three, this stage has the most issues of the day – the fault of none of the bands. They Are Gutting A Body Of Water are plagued with sound issues with the drums seeming to be the only thing coming out of the PAs, all guitars heard only through stage amps. The band have made a stylistic decision to face away from the audience, perhaps to create more of a focus on the music. It’s a choice that would be more effective if the music could have been heard more, but it’s still enjoyable hearing them play ‘Eightball’ bookended between guitarist and vocalist Douglas Dulgarian using an electronic interface to create intermediary backing tracks. [WB]

Momma

On your way to see Drug Church, you have time to catch indie rockers Momma’s opening track on the main stage. They open with ‘Medicine’, from their 2022 album ‘Household Name’. It’s a brilliant track, with gorgeous vocal harmonies from founding members Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten. It’s a shame that there are more sound issues here, with Weingarten’s microphone coming through incredibly quietly for a large part of the song. [WB]

Drug Church

It’s on to Drug Church, playing on the second stage. Thankfully, there are no sound issues on this stage throughout the day, which is hosting the festival’s heavier offering. The band walk on to the dulcet tones of the Beastie Boys before launching in. The energy is immediately off the walls. Front man Patrick Kindlon does a brilliant job at getting a crowd that are already lethargic from the heat moving, bouncing, and crowd surfing. “If you stage dive today, you will die,” he jokes, “so instead, it’s crowdsurfing until you can’t no more.” It’s a set which never slows, ending with the massive one-two punch of ‘Myopic’ and ‘Weed Pin’. [WB]

Fleshwater

Fleshwater, playing on the same stage, bring a brilliant energy despite ongoing issues with the vocal sound. The band fly around the stage regardless, all three guitars bringing a huge sound. They play through most of their 2022 album ‘We’re Not Here To Be Loved’, after hitting us with 2024’s sensational ‘Standalone’. Thankfully, the vocals return to cheers from the crowd, and the day’s sound issues seem to be over. [WB]

Speed

Back to the second stage to see Sydney hardcore band Speed, who are intent on keeping the crowd moving. Speed won’t stop until they see the entire crowd erupting. As front man Jem Siow points out, “this music is made for moshing”. They may not get everyone here throwing fists and elbows, but the mosh pit is intense, frenetic throughout the set. [WB]

Julie

Julie take the main stage with an introductory sample of cello music. They sound fantastic – the bass is chunky, the guitarist is constantly cycling through at least three guitars, and the energy is spot on. You’d be forgiven for having to double check that this is a three piece. They play songs from across their five year release history, opening with ‘catalogue’ from last year’s debut album and going as far back as 2020’s ‘Flutter’. [WB]

Superheaven

On stage two, Superheaven follow up Speed with a brilliant set mostly made up of songs from this year’s self-titled album, the band’s first long-form release in a decade. Opening with ‘Numb To What Is Real’, Superheaven take the crowd, exhausted and sweating, on a journey through their music. By 2015’s ‘Poor Aileen’, the closing song, the crowd are singing along, ecstatic. [WB]

Glassjaw

‘Pretty Lush’ into ‘Siberia’ isn’t exactly what you’d call a cold open. Under the warped steel ribs of the tent, Glassjaw performs with staggering ease. Frontman Daryl Palumbo’s voice is hot and heavy, a pressure that bears down on the crowd, folding into the fiery motion surging back at the stage. Every eye is fixed, every body locked. This is not a game to them, but a ritual. 

They press on with a relentless setlist, ‘Majour’ cutting deep in its passionate pleas, whilst ‘Babe’ surges forward – guitar lines scrambling to keep pace with the drums storming onward. Then comes a moment in the set, a sudden stillness. The band freeze, their silhouettes caught in the moody glow of dimmed stage lights. The crowd hesitates, unsure. Has it ended? Palumbo stands at the centre, motionless. He runs a hand through his hair, fingers trembling, eyes lost somewhere beyond the haze, hovering in catharsis. The silence stretches – then shatters. It becomes clear we’re not participants – we’re witnesses. Glassjaw holds us completely. [JM]

Have A Nice Life

By the time Have A Nice Life begin their set in the third stage, the heat has built up so much that it’s hard to tell whether the haziness in the air is all thanks to the smoke machines, or a fog of sweat. The crowd is large here, and unexpectedly young. Have A Nice Life’s 2008 album, ‘Deathconsciousness’, has always been lauded online by music fanatics – apparently this has led to them having a viral moment on TikTok last year. It’s refreshing to see so many young faces loving the music. It’s soft, slow, haunting. They open with ‘The Big Gloom’ – apt, given the haze in the room and the red lights behind the band that throw them into stark silhouettes. By the time ‘Bloodhail’ comes around, the crowd are singing every word and front man Dan Barrett is among them, holding the microphone out to a raptured audience. A real highlight of the day.

Unfortunately, because this tent is an enclosed space, the festival organisers have to be strict on capacity. The queues for bands like Feeble Little Horse and Sunny Day Real Estate are long enough to pretty much make them inaccessible and the heat is unforgiving if you do make it inside. The festival would have benefited from having this tent open air, as with the second stage. [WB]

Knocked Loose

“Where is my mosh pit?” Frontman Bryan Garris doesn’t ask – he dares. Within seconds, the floor detonates in response. Then comes the gnashing riffs, rupturing screams, all at breakneck speed. By the second song, ‘Don’t Reach for Me’ is in every throat, clawing to get out and it’s a frenzy. Hit after hit land with the weight of concrete slabs, the precision of the five-piece is unparalleled in power.

Bodies are being launched overhead as the band calls for more crowd surfers. The stage on the horizon shifting in and out of view. It’s like being underwater, pulled by the current of bodies, whilst the music washes overhead. We’re cued to scream, it’s primal as we dive headfirst into a flurry of songs. A clear highlight comes with ‘Counting Worms’ – the moment those opening chords land, the crowd reacts, we’ve been waiting all night. We’re peaking and the moment’s almost gone, but before it ends we take one last look around, a united front pulsing to the same beat – and it belongs to Knocked Loose. [JM]

Turnstile

Headliners Turnstile open up with ‘NEVER ENOUGH’, the opening and title tune from this month’s fantastic album release. As they open up their set, so do the heavens begin to open. Rain, much-needed, builds up as Turnstile play through some of their more hardcore numbers before hitting a mashup of tracks from the new album. ‘I CARE’ flows into ‘DULL’. When they play songs from 2021’s ‘GLOW ON’, the lights switch from blue to pink, a nod to their album artwork. Turnstile first played Outbreak in 2013, and this is a triumphant return as a headline act that so comfortably straddles both the hardcore elements that have traditionally made up the festival’s acts and the slightly poppier and more alternative elements that Outbreak 2025 has introduced.

We walk in the rain to the nearest station. Despite some sound issues, and despite not being able to access the third stage for a couple of bands – perhaps inevitable issues as this year is the first one in London – it’s been a nonstop day of wonderful music and beautiful energy. Bring on 2026. They’ll have to work hard to top this. [JM]

First up, Liverpool’s Loathe opened proceedings and show why they were picked to support. Their blend of atmospheric metal caters to the fans of Glassjaw with ease, mixing shoegaze with brutal riffs. Frontman Kareem France is the focal point, drawing eyes and keeping attention firmly on him, able to drift between guttural screams and his clean singing at will. They smash their way through nine songs, including ‘Gored’, ‘New Faces In The Dark’, and ‘Two Way Mirror’ before ‘White Hot’ closes. Loathe are a band on the rise and look to be the next big name in the British metal scene. 

Glassjaw take to the stage, bathed in red light and launch straight into ‘Pretty Lush’ with frontman Daryl Palumbo opening his lungs wide, allowing his soaring vocals to penetrate the wall of cheers and voices throughout the venue as the crowd scream back the lyrics to the chorus. The biggest reaction of the night goes to ‘Siberian Kiss’ which sees the Forum explode into a frenzy of pits, Palumbo conducting the chaos in front of him with ease. 

‘When One Eight Becomes Two Zeros’ rumbled through the speakers, and highlight the bands playing prowess, with Justin Beck playing his guitar so heavily, it’s a surprise it didn’t break in his hands. ‘Her Middle Name Was Boom’ starts in melancholic fashion before exploding into an outrageous chorus, Palumbo directing the audience with a beaming grin on his face. The atmosphere throughout the night is one of joy and that’s led by the band themselves, all looking happy to be on stage with one another. ‘Piano’ is followed by ‘Babe’, showing off both sides of the band, moving from the soundscape shoegaze straight into a hardcore punk song, inciting more pits again. 

The colossal ‘Motel of the White Locust’ concludes the main set, before Glassjaw return to play their ‘Our Colour Green’ EP in full as well. ‘All Good Junkies Go To Heaven’ allows Beck to show off his technical guitar playing again, whilst Palumbo riles the crowd into a frenzy. These songs were considered B-Sides by the band, but they easily stand up against the first album and the fan reaction agrees. Glassjaw end the night with the ferocious ‘You Think You’re (John F**king Lennon)’ laying waste to the venue and expelling any last energy the crowd have. 

Bands playing albums in full is always a highlight for fans, getting to hear songs that sometimes have never been played live, and when bands as good as Glassjaw announce these shows, they are must see events. ‘Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence’ is a legendary record, and has been a major influence on the scene we all love today. Without Glassjaw, so many bands wouldn’t have been born, whether it’s a direct influence or a sub influence, this band’s fingerprints are all over the rock scene, and it’s time they’re given their deserving credit. Glassjaw don’t write sub-par songs or play bad sets, they are simply one of the best to ever do it. 

ADAM ROSARIO

The previously announced Glassjaw will top the bill while the latest additions of The Bronx, Cancer Bats and Angel Du$t will perform alongside Gallows, Turnstile and Knocked Loose.

The organisers confirmed that it is the first of two heavy stages at Slam Dunk Festival 2019, with no clashes between the two.

This year’s festival will take place at Temple Newsam Park, Leeds on Saturday 25 May and Hatfield Park, Hatfield on Sunday 26 May. Tickets are available here.

Images: William Pavli, Words: Mark Johnson 

Seven Colour Drive open the Arc on day two and the combination of an early start and a particularly slow, gentle opening song gets their set off to a laboured start. As the instrumental quintet progress through their set, the build ups get shorter and the crescendos heavier, creating a more active spectacle for the still-waking crowd. There’s a sludgy, stoner vibe to the riff heavy, half tempo sections which are balanced nicely against more melodic, finger tapping guitar breaks and soaring chord progressions to round off an interesting instrumental palette. Though the band admit to some nerves, they don’t show, making for an assured set that displays a lot of potential.

The instrumental prowess continues with Blackpool’s Blanket. The post rock quartet sound huge on stage, striking with more power than anyone on Yokhai so far and in particular, tracks from the quartet’s recent new record ‘How To Let Go’ are pristine and full of impact. Blanket’s cinematic sound is highly visual, often conjuring images in your head with sweeping soundscapes and emotional tones, and to make this more literal, they stream visual clips and videos to accompany their songs on a pair of monitors. It’s an altogether visceral event and with Blanket having just released their best work to date, this is a band definitely on the rise.

Codices’ brand of instrumental rock takes a more direct approach that’s less concerned with build up, preferring to deliver defined riffs and recognisable song structures. It’s rare to decipher verses and choruses in instrumental music but while this may seem overly conventional for an ArcTanGent band, the repetition of certain passages does their music a great service rather than detract from it. Having central riffs to come back to gives Codices structure and purpose and when the riffs are as good as this, it’s worth hearing them more than once. This quartet shows that you don’t have to be overly complicated to succeed in this genre and their set goes down as a head-bobbing crowd pleaser.

God Mother grab us by the scruff of the neck and yank us out of our instrumental reverie with blast beats, pulverising riffs and guttural screams. The Bixler stage didn’t open on day one, and having been dormant until now, vocalist Sebastian Campbell is quick to explore it, jumping straight into crowd, all the way to the sound desk. There’s not much subtlety in what this Swedish hardcore act produce, but an aggressive onslaught like this would never pretend to be anything different. It’s the first time the quartet have brought their ear drum damaging barrage of noise to the UK and off the back of this performance, there will be plenty of people begging for their return.

Having been bruised and battered by God Mother’s onslaught, Astralia offer comfort with the warm and soothing embrace of their ambient, instrumental post rock. With a cinematic quality like Blanket before them, Astralia conjure up images of natural beauty, like a soundtrack to a film of sweeping mountain ranges as dusk begins to settle. Beneath it all lurks an imminent threat of darkness, a minor tone always threatening to punch through, which lends a sinister subtone to their music. This edge gives each track suspense, never knowing when, and if, something heavier will break out and when it does, the impact is breathtaking. To generate this much atmosphere between just three musicians is superb and Astralia can be proud of lifting the whole mood of ArcTanGent with this performance.

We last saw Talons at StrangeForms festival back in April, their first performance in 22 months. Now back on the main stage at ArcTanGent and with a brand new album under their belts, it’s safe to say that the instrumental sextet are back and bigger than ever. Opening with their signature wall of sound, with two violins leading the way through a cacophony of noise, Talons make their way through endless rabbit holes of musical exploration, building to rousing crescendos that justify why they came back to write another record. Talons have plenty of creativity still to offer and when they can execute as well as this, there’s no wonder so many people crowded into the Arc to witness their triumphant return.

It’s been an outstanding year so far for Conjurer, who stunned us all with their jaw-dropping debut ‘Mire’ back in March, and have since taken every opportunity to blast it in our faces on stages across the country. And much to our delight, they’re showing no sign of slowing down. There have been some heavy acts at this festival so far, but nothing quite as punishing as Conjurer; if violence was distilled into a sound, this would be it. Far from being mindless violence though, there’s a premeditated complexity to the band’s sound, characterised by the shifting tempos, seamless transitions between time signatures and the startling amount of atmosphere that cuts through the chaos. It’s a marriage of styles that can only be executed by superb musicians and with yet another mind-blowing performance to add to their name, the future looks very bright for this quartet.

Vennart bring together several of the varied genres and styles of music we’ve seen thus far at ArcTanGent into one package, managing to be ambient and atmospheric in one instance, building gradually to a measured impact, heavy and riff led in another, then purely pop rock, led by catchy vocals. It makes for a multi faceted and interesting set, but while they may be jack of all trades, it may be better to lean on one aspect more heavily to truly be a master of at least one of these, as some of their transitions ultimately fall flat. It’s difficult to put your finger on Vennart’s sound and while that’s admirably creative, it comes at the risk of being forgettable once the festival crowd disperses and seeks its next, more easily definable, fix.

Tides From Nebula emerged as one of the stand out acts of Tech Fest last month, thanks in no small part to the respite their ambient post rock offered against a slew of otherwise heavy, aggressive bands. Here at ArcTanGent, the band are surrounded by kindred spirits playing a similar form of artistry but even among their peers, this Polish quartet stand out as a masters of their craft. Though the band’s sound is often ethereal and ambient, painting vivid dreamscapes of imagery in your mind, it’s delivered with venomous potency, imprinting each vision firmly inside your skull. The swelling bass tone and thundering drums do much of the damage while the guitars swirl and cavort with soaring melodies. It’s another best in class set that underlines an impressive festival run for this excellent band.

Six figures in white boiler suits, hoods, face masks and sunglasses step out onto the PX3 stage and stand in formation while a voiceover states that our Black Futures expedition is about to start. As a countdown from 10 begins, the two musicians that make up the band take their positions behind a drum kit and synth-station ready to start the set. The band’s sound is heavily drum groove orientated with synths, samples and guitars thrown in for good measure, punctuated by shouted, anthemic vocals that intend to rouse and engage the audience. At the end of the first song, it’s clear that’s not all that’s intended to engage the crowd, as two of the white clad figures hop into the crowd and dance to the next track, inciting those around them to join in. It’s one of the more visually interesting sets of the weekend and this kind of creativity is always warmly received at this festival.

Strobes’ sound is pieced together with drums, a guitar, keyboards, samplers and loop pedals, which offers a wide range of creativity and intrigue and while this initially holds true as they begin their set, it fails to come together as one coherent package. Too often their ideas meander at tangents to one another, rarely meeting in the middle to produce something memorable.

Tides of Man’s first foray into instrumental post rock, 2014’s Young and Courageous, was one of our stand out albums of that year and still remains one of the genre’s crowning achievements. Until just recently that is, when the Florida-based quartet released follow up ‘Every Nothing’. With a four year gap between albums, it’s clear that the band haven’t wanted to rush perfection, and now the record is in our hands, it’s impossible to argue with that sentiment. Last time we saw the band, the turnout was sadly meagre, but here they come out to a fully packed tent and by the time their set is through, the crowd goes beyond the tent boundaries into the field beyond. The reception clearly touches the band, who can’t thank the crowd enough, and it’s no less than they deserve; every song has been precisely crafted to produce just the right amount of build up before progressing to the next stage of the journey, which often ends in a stunning conclusion. No moment of any Tides of Man song feels too drawn out or unimportant and as they impart their hearts and souls into each note live on stage, the emotion in the music transcends even that of the records, to produce easily one of the best sets of the weekend.

In its five year history to date, ArcTanGent has been known to snag some high profile headliners, last year’s UK exclusive performance by Explosions In The Sky being an obviously noticeable one, but even among these past acts, legendary post-hardcore heavyweights Glassjaw might just be the biggest yet. With a big name comes big expectations and the set doesn’t exactly start with a bang. There’s a lengthy pause beyond the band’s scheduled starting time while soundchecks continue, but as they launch into their opening track, it’s not clear what the engineer was taking so long over, as the sound is muddy and unclear, with the guitar particularly difficult to decipher. Luckily Glassjaw have an arsenal of excellent songs to draw from and the likes of ‘Mu Empire’, ‘Ape Dos Mil’ and ‘Tip Your Bartender’ are good enough to incite enthusiasm from the crowd despite any technical difficulties. Tracks from the band’s new album ‘Material Control’ make up the majority of the second half of the set and they mix into the playlist well, letting us know that Glassjaw are well and truly back in business. The new era Glassjaw is fronted by a more subdued Daryl Palumbo than the front man of old, choosing to pirouette around his mic stand without expending too much energy, delivering his lines competently if not as enthusiastically as his younger self. Ending with the ferocious ‘Siberian Kiss’ provides a wonderful hit of nostalgia and reminds us how the name Glassjaw got so big in the first place. The production may have been underwhelming compared to our day one headliners, but their stature and collection of excellent songs make for a solid end to day two.

MARK JOHNSON

The band will be playing ArcTanGent in Bristol on August 17 – tickets available here – followed by a headline show at Brixton’s o2 Academy on August 18. Buy tickets for the show here.

Catch them at ArcTanGent festival in Bristol August 17th or at Brixton Academy August 19th.

The band surprised their fans at the end of last year, dropping new album ‘Material Control’ on 1^st December, unleashing the first new music in over a decade to a patient and dedicated fanbase. The show will give UK fans the first opportunity to hear their new material in a live setting.

Tickets go on sale 9am Friday 2^nd February at www.gigsandtours.com / www.ticketmaster.co.uk

The band can also confirm the vinyl release of  ‘Material Control‘ via Century Media Records on March 16^th

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