FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Incineration Festival 2025
Words: Sam Jones
Photos: Tim Finch
Incineration Festival. A mainstay of London’s underground metal community for years, yet my first time attending its hallowed programme. Being held over the course of a single day, May 3rd, this year is particularly ruthless with a first announcement guaranteeing exclusive performances from Undergang and Blood Incantation, bands which instantly garnered my attention.
Alongside these exclusives we also have Triptykon performing Celtic Frost material, which if you haven’t seen before is absolutely worth seeing, Decapitated and Batushka. Incineration will also feature acts newer and older across its numerous venues with Warbringer, Blackbraid, Spectral Wound, Bedsore, Lamp Of Murmuur, Trivax, Carnation and more coming over.
But we mustn’t think Incineration sports a European roster alone for a surprise discovery announced, Mur, shall be coming all the way over from Iceland and bring a particularly progressive angle with them against a thrash and death metal heavy lineup. Incineration’s strength may lie in that breadth of talent for newcomers Deathcollector, Gorgon Vomit, Vaticinal Rites and Coffin Mulch also find themselves added amongst the festival’s sprawling lineup this year.
It’s great to see such new talent, and such a quantity, featured across Incineration this year. It really speaks volumes about today’s world of metal that Incineration can boast predominantly younger bands yet tickets fly out just as quickly though the heavyweights are always there to destroy. With bands spread across the Underworld, the Roundhouse, the Black Heart, the Dev and the Electric Ballroom, Camden Town is set to explode in a single day and night of extreme metal.
Bedsore, Cryptopsy, Celestial Sanctuary, Wormwitch, Cruelty and plenty aforementioned shall be assembled and ready for battle. For many, including myself, Incineration is more than the first major event of the metal calendar; it’s the opening salvo of 2025. Come May 3rd, London becomes a war zone.
Photo credits: Tim Finch Photography
