Report

Mystic Festival's Warm-Up Day Was More Than Warm

Do you find yourself wide awake in the middle of the night wondering what is the largest and best heavy metal festival is in Poland? Let me help you if you haven’t been reading all my hype leading up to this festival. The festival is called Mystic Festival and it takes place every June in a shipyard in the very scenic port city of Gdansk, located in the north of Poland. Warm Up Days in brief mean that there’s a reduced number of bands playing that day and a reduced number of stages. In summary, Mystic Festival’s 2025 Warm-Up Day had some heavy hitters in terms of bands, and a little bit of rain (you’ll be reading about the rain in every report, it was a constant nuisance) and a lot of excited metalheads. For full report, please continue to read on…

Mystic Festival Welcomes You!

The first band of the day and the entire festival for me was Alcest. I reviewed their latest album a few months ago, “Les Chants de l'aurore,” and even though I’m not their biggest fan, the album was really good. The same can be said for their set at Mystic Festival. They are competent musicians, they sounded great, but they were a tad boring to watch. There were a lot of Alcest shirts being worn throughout the festival grounds, so they were definitely one of the larger crowd draws on the day.

Alcest

The next band on my list was a band that’s been trending like a rocket during this past year, medieval heavy metallers, Castle Rat. I’ve heard and read the stories about their live show, and now I was about to see if it was just an exaggeration or something worth my time. The rain started to fall as they took the stage but I forgot about that right away because I was fully entertained throughout my 3-song allowance. Yeah, they’re gimmicky, but their show is unequivocally entertaining. At one point, a human sized rat came out of nowhere and joined the party onstage. I would have loved to stay and watch the whole set, but with my raincoat already soaked, I went to the indoor food court area to wait out the rain before the grunge guitar legend, Jerry Cantrell, began his set.

Castle Rat

Then rain finally subsided before the much-anticipated Jerry Cantrell set. He is obviously better known for his work in the grunge super-group, Alice in Chains, but that’s the magic of Mystic Festival, it’s not strictly a metal festival. The festival books punk, rock, and alternative, and EDM acts as well. This year was no exception and you’ll read about them later. As I made my way to the front of the stage, you could feel the excitement from the crowd that had already shown up early. For those that never got to see Alice in Chains while they were a live band, they were more than stoked when they played some favorites such as “Them Bones” and “Would.” Visually, the band wasn’t the most exciting to watch, but I enjoyed hearing those grunge hits live one more time.

Jerry Cantrell More...

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Desertfest London Announces Day Splits

Desertfest London have announced day-splits along with 15 more bands for 2025 in a line-up that promises to take its audience on a cosmic trip across the heavy realms this Spring in the heart of Camden Town. Weekend and day tickets can be purchased here.

The latest artists to join the 2025 fold include French celestial psych-metal trio Slift, seminal Swedish stoner rock trailblazers Lowrider, and Polish doom smokers Dopelord, making a long-awaited return to the Desertfest stage since their last appearance in 2018.

Elsewhere, Melbourne, Australia’s Khan will bring their hazy psychedelia back to the UK, while Norwegian quintet Dunbarrow have been summoned to bring their brand of proto-doom, played the old way, in a new age.

Desertfest 2025 welcomes its newest additions:
?Slift
?Lowrider
?Dopelord
?Khan
?Dunbarrow
?Maha Sohona
?Torus
?Worshipper
?Longheads
?Froglord
?Deville
?Black Elephant
?Verminthrone
?Yetii
?Free Ride More...

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Mystic Festival Announces Daily Lineups

The Mystic Festival 2025 lineup is shrouded in less and less mystery. The growing clarity about what you can expect should make it easier for you to plan your attendance at the festival.

Sounds that are new, daring, exploratory? There are a few up our sleeves. The Swedes from Imminence need no promotion among fans of such soundscapes, their visionary take on metalcore speaks for itself. SiM – aka Silence iz Mine – are coming to us from Japan, where, for the last two decades, they have been creating their own musical world that marries metal with hip-hop and even… ska. The fans of the Attack on Titan anime will need no introduction to the band. Progressive rock is mostly associated with the genre’s golden era which bloomed half a century ago, but Port Noir are bringing it into the 21st century. Unprocessed are also offering progressive, virtuoso playing, but it is altogether more aggressive, with the metalcore nerve. The Brits have recently taken the lead in setting the new course in heavy music and Split Chain is another one in the list of pioneers – although in their music you will hear the familiar sounds of the turn of the 21st century, from shoegaze to nu-metal, but has anyone ever combined them in such a way as they did?

Graphic Nature is nu-metalcore buttressed with cold-as-ice electronics, a music both hostile and hypnotizing. The progressive vision of post-metal is spread by Blindead 23, who enter a new stage of their odyssey with the enthralling mini-album Vanishing. Heave Blood & Die scoff at genre lines, colliding post-punk with hardcore, to then swerve in the direction of prog rock. The guys from the deathcore band Paleface Swiss are said to have met at a Slipknot concert and you can hear that in their blood-thirsty music – though, as any predatory, they walk their own paths.

HÉR is a local, Gdansk band, but their setting their sail and taking the sea. “Their minimalist, violin and sax-laced rites gradually tilt the world further off its axis” is what the British Metal Hammer had to say about the band, and it is hard not to agree. The Finnish band Luna Kills, with the charismatic Lotta behind the mic, combines nu-metal with video game soundtracks and makes something that works more than well. Then there’s the brooding and saturated with extreme emotions metalcore which is the domain of the Warsaw-based Last Penance.

You prefer a more traditional sound? During the show of the New York band Castle Rat, you can expect the following – the Rat Queen will behead swiftly and smoothly every poser with her sword. The rest will be able to enjoy a superb, classic heavy/doom metal. Their compatriots from Bewitcher will send your heart speeding with their devilish speed’n’roll, and so will the British Hellripper, which at full speed ahead goes neck and neck with the legacy of Venom, Motörhead and Sabbat. Inhuman Nature is a thrash/heavy metal band from London – no shortcuts, only riffs sharp enough to cut. Bad Touch will remind us what the origin of it all is – classic, blues-based hard rock, reminiscent of the greatest years of Led Zeppelin or Free.

Hatebreed, but of course, take no prisoners. Why would they if the construction of this weapon used the engine of Slayer and the armour of the American hardcore? The rumour has it that the Brits from Grove Street started out playing for fun, but you’d be remiss not to take their music seriously now – it’s crossover colliding forceful, hardcore riffs with thrash rampage.

Stoner, doom, sludge, desert storms and cellar apparitions? Always more than welcome at the Mystic Festival! The music of Elder draws from doom and heavy metal but comes into bloom with all the colours of the psychedelic rainbow – those who enter into this magic realm won’t find their way back. Sun Dont Shine is still a new name, not everyone knows it yet so let us introduce the members – Kenny Hickey (Type O Negative, Silvertomb), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar, Down), Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative, Silvertomb) and Todd Strange (Crowbar, Down). The sun really doesn’t shine in their music. “Life kills you” as Dopethrone warn us in the title of the opening track of their latest album Broke Sabbath. And if life fails to do the deed, the Canadians will finish you off with the mixture of everything in music that is heavy, vile and evil. Tundra rock is the response from the North to the desert, stoner sound from the States – Slomosa know what riffs are meant for and they’re not afraid to use them. We remain in Norway. Bokassa are sometimes compared with their fellow countrymen from Turbonegro and Gluecifer and not without cause – their music is a high-proof mixture of punk, metal and stoner rock. Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol is coming all the way from Texas to get you a boo-boo from the music they tried to summarize with the title of their new record, Big Dumb Riffs. You can expect an equally unforgettable adventure from the encounter with the doomgaze band Faetooth, hailing partly from California, partly from the netherworld.

We also have some good news for the darkness devotees. The cult Greek band Zemial, currently touring with Absu as part of their live band, will perform their original material, allowing us to glimpse into the abyss of Tartarus. The Dutch band Soulburn, led by Eric Daniels, the guitarist from Asphyx’s classic line-up, will present a perfectly nefarious marriage of black and death metal. Not only is the music of the Canadian band Thantifaxath of diabolical pedigree, but it is also devilishly complex as if King Crimson signed away their souls. It is hard to say in which category to put Thaw, who in 2024 recaptured our attention with their excellent album Fading Backwards. It is, without a doubt, the musical embodiment of pitch-black darkness, though their sound derives not only from black metal. “Black Metal is Krig” as proclaim the Norwegian witches of Witch Club Satan and we have no intention of arguing with them. Totenmesse is a black metal band with a Polish seal of approval but their own vision for the genre – their 2024 slot at our festival was interrupted by a thunderstorm; they are coming back to finish the destruction that they started. Martwa Aura (Polish for ‘dead aura’) perfectly encapsulates in its name the music that the band plays – a funereal black metal without even a trace of daylight.

Enjoy pain, don’t you? Well, we are happy to provide. Vader entered into the new century with perhaps the most uncompromising material under their belt – now, the time has come to bring back the full body of the wrathful Litany. Can you smell decay? Must mean Necrot from California are near, with their cemetery, putrid death metal. Similar ground is covered by the British four-piece Celestial Sanctuary, trekking through pure, living death. A lesson in brutal yet technical death metal will be presented by the Italians from Hideous Divinity. More...

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Cirith Ungol Announces Three Special Shows

American heavy metal icons Cirith Ungol today announce three special live performances. The trio of dates includes a performance in Denver, Colorado for the first time ever as well as a show in West Hollywood, marking the band‘s first Los Angeles live appearance in thirty-five years!

Comments the band, "Cirith Ungol legions arise! We are coming to unleash our epic metal darkness upon three US cities. Los Angeles will see our first appearance since 1988 - be there to behold this triumphant return! Our Colorado show will mark the band‘s first time ever in the Centennial State, and for you New York diehards, we cannot wait to return and play for you. Prepare yourself for an unforgettable descent into the abyss!"

Tickets are on sale now. See confirmed dates below.

8/18/2023 The Gothic Theater – Denver, CO w/ Night Demon, Castle Rat, Chamber Mage
8/20/2023 Le Poisson Rouge – New York, NY w/ Night Demon, Sanhedrin
10/20/2023 The Roxy – West Hollywood, CA

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Castle Rat Premiere New Single & Music Video

Brooklyn, New York-based sludge/doom metal band Castle Rat premiere a new single and music video by the name of “Dagger Dragger”, streaming via YouTube and Spotify for you now below.

Explains the outfit: More...

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