ArcTanGent 2024 - 10 Bands Not To Miss
Words: Matt Noble
Photos: Tim Finch
As we near this years instalment of the wonderful ArcTanGent Festival, we highlight ten bands you simply must not miss!
Mogwai - A solid place to start. The Saturday night headliners were at the top of the list of bands that Arctangent wanted for their tenth anniversary, that had never played at the festival before. This really is a special opportunity to catch one of the most influential post-rock acts out there. Expect dreamy soundscapes and transcendental melodies from the Scottish maestros.
Baroness - A year or so after the release of the Stone album, the iconic genre-bending titans are sounding as strong as ever in the studio and it’s now our turn to hear these songs in the flesh. Whether you prefer the sludgy grit of their early work, the proggy musicality of the later albums, or the more direct rock bangers on Purple, they’ll promise a captivating, euphoric performance wherever they go.
Electric Wizard - Who saw this announcement coming? Dorset’s heaviest export hasn’t played too much since the pandemic, so Arctangent is an ideal opportunity to catch Electric Wizard. The horror- and drug-worshipping Sabbath disciples have nine albums of gloriously heavy riffs to choose their setlist from next week; if it’s half as good as Desertfest London 2022, we’re in for a treat.
Animals as Leaders - Playing their only European date of 2024, Tosin Abasi et al take instrumental wizardry to another scale. It would be easy to only see them as a band for other guitarists, with how influential (and dazzling) Abasi’s guitar acrobatics have been over the last decade and a half, but if you stick around then there’s still plenty of clever musicalities and jazzy breaks to keep you hooked.
Squid Pisser - Yeah, you read that band name correctly. Nasty and vicious, their breakneck speed ‘vomit grind’ has gained some notoriety over the last couple of years. Dressed as masked lunatics on stage, they’ll be sure to incite some good old (pure-spirited, Arctangent-friendly) violence from the PX3 Stage on Thursday afternoon. They’ll be that band that your mate saw but you didn’t as you hadn’t heard of them, but when your pal can’t stop talking about their set, you’ll wish you did.
Urne - Bringing the word ‘power’ to the phrase ‘power trio’, and then some, London’s rising masters of heaviness fit Arctangent like a glove. They don’t neatly slot into one genre, they fearlessly bleed raw emotion in their material, and they absolutely rule in the live arena. They’re championed by Gojira’s Joe Duplantier (who you might have spotted on TV recently), and if you haven’t worked out why that is yet, now’s your chance.
Healthyliving - Again, not a band that neatly fits into a box! They’re everything from and in between rock, metal, punk, lightness and darkness, with soaring female vocals coolly sitting over the top of an intricate instrumental section. A multinational collective of experienced musicians, there is very much a buzz around Healthyliving and the serious potential to bring one of this year’s most talked-about sets.
Curse These Metal Hands - If you’re there on the Wednesday, make sure you don’t miss Conjurer and Pijn’s special collaborative project. This festival is the natural home of Curse These Metal Hands, and following a packed out main stage performance last year, they’re back again for more. There have been whispers of a follow up to 2019’s eponymous EP – maybe we’ll hear more of what that might sound like here.
Meshuggah - The pioneering technical death metallers have got one show in the UK this year, and it’s right here! It’s been a few years since the release of their last album Immutable, so we might be able to reasonably expect a little bit from all the disparate eras of the band’s extensive back catalogue. Prepare to be caught in an intense daze of instrumental and rhythmic mastery.
Frail Body - The Illinois three-piece will truly be a hidden gem of the festival, bringing their powerful, intense, and emotive hardcore to Fernhill Farm. They are a little unorthodox at times, sometimes even leaning into dizzyingly fast black metal territory, though there is something quite cathartic about hearing them that I can only imagine will translate into something even more powerful live.
Photo credits: Tim Finch Photography
