Live Review: ArcTanGent Festival 2023 – Wednesday
Words: Matt Noble
Photos: Carl Battams / Derek Bremner / Joe Singh / Jonathan Dadds
It's so nice to be back at Arctangent Festival. The festivalgoers are always friendly and warm, the food is great, and the silent disco is truly where it's at come sundown. Plus, the eclectic mix of bands on the lineup seems to have turned a lot of heads, with quite a few people I know going for the first time this year. Whether you're a prog or post-metalhead that the festival typically caters for, an indie kid, or into more extreme music, you'll find plenty here to suit your tastes, and probably a good number more that you'd never heard before. It really is the place to check out music that you'd have no reason to anywhere else, and then come home with some serious listening homework. Over the course of the weekend I saw one act make its first ever UK appearance, one act make its second ever gig, and at least a couple that I may never get to see again. Decent!
My first band at Arctangent Festival 2023 is Five The Hierophant on the Bixler Stage, a band name referring to the tarot card with wonderfully mystical music to go alongside it. I missed them last year, so had no idea what to expect. I've never seen an instrumental guitar-bass-drums-saxophone act like this before and they certainly leave an impression, and set the musical scene for the weird wackiness that's to come at this festival. Jazzy, proggy, epic and with hints of dark post-metal, they're captivating and the kind of act you struggle to tear your eyes from. It's all about the cool instrumental tones and sounds, especially when the guitar is performed with a bow. They're all dressed in obscure black hoods and certainly look the part.
Skin Failure follow with somewhat prog-tinged extreme/thrash metal, with undertones of sludge, hardcore and groove metal in a multidimensional sonic attack. The powerful vocal presence has harmonies and layers of screams behind the frontman's vocal acrobatics. Charismatic, fun, and slightly chaotic, they clearly don't take themselves too seriously and introduce a bit of a party vibe to the tent. They bring on their guitar tech to join them for the last song, as well as someone to smash a drum cymbal, showing that at their core they are a group of friends having an absolute blast onstage along with their excellent, innovative music.
Pupil Slicer put on one of THE defining sets last year - despite competing with Opeth - and deservedly return this weekend. Showing appreciation for their crowd, who've come for the extra day, they perform with as much chaos, energy and heaviness as I was hoping for. Their latest record Blossom definitely has seen them redefine what it means to be Pupil Slicer, and the title track in particular goes down well. Yet the intense reaction to Stabbing Spiders, for example, proves that the material that got them to this point has plenty of shelf life left. As the hours continue to tick on day one and the beers start to flow, the pits are particularly feral and there's a clear sense that we are seeing future titans of the grassroots scene post-Covid.
Dvne undoubtedly put on the finest set of the day, if not one of the best over the whole weekend, as we go into Wednesday evening. Their spellbinding, sci-fi-inspired prog metal ticks all the right boxes for me - with five instrumental powerhouses, dual vocals that only get better as the years go by, and a series of songs from Etemen Ænka, my personal favourite record from 2021. The material doesn't really lend itself to flamboyant frontmanship, but with the way that the audience start to clap along unprompted during Court of the Matriarch, it's not needed. Victor seems to effortlessly shred his 9-string guitar and Dudley puts on an exceptionally strong performance on the drums, and the crowd seem to mostly respond in stunned, appreciative silence for the whole set. Ending on the majestic Satuya, they announce that it's the final show of the Etemen Ænka cycle to applause - when we'll next hear these songs again is uncertain (for some, these might be the last time they're played live!) - but they raise the curtain on this memorable chapter with style and true class.
My final band of the day is Conjurer, who I've seen something silly like 12 or 13 times before. They've come a hell of a way since that first one and never ever disappoint. They don't take themselves too seriously today in spite of the emotionally and sonically heavy music, and gain a frenetic audience response in return, with the pits absolutely going off. It's a Páthos-heavy set, with weighty material such as All You Will Remember and Those Years Condemned acting as a suckerpunch in the face, but the first airing of The Mire since 2019 is a real treat for more longterm disciples, sounding just as intense as ever.
The doom and gloom of Cracks in the Pyre ends proceedings on a wonderfully dour note. So what are Conjurer like in 2023? Brady and Dan remain incredibly tight on their guitars, with a ferocious dual-vocal attack that manages to be as emotive as it is filthy. Conor is a feral headbanging beast between the two of them, and relatively-new drummer Noah commands the kit with confidence, in spite of the demanding capabilities that Conjurer material needs. More and more, they are becoming less of a secret of the UK grassroots as the world begins to take notice of their racket. Based on today, the sky really is the limit...
Photo credits: Carl Battams / Derek Bremner / Joe Singh / Jonathan Dadds
