ArcTanGent Festival 2025 - Kalandra, photo by Chris Andrews

ArcTanGent 2025: An Unforgettable Weekend of Alternative Music Excellence [Festival Review]

ArcTanGent 2025 was an intense and unforgettable weekend, featuring one of the most diverse alternative music lineups in the world.

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Published

1 year ago

08/28/2025

Chris Andrews

Article Views: 3,628

The four days of ArcTanGent last week saw one of the most diverse alternative music lineups on offer across any festival, with a flawlessly run event across four stages having something to offer for everyone in attendance. From new discoveries to career-best performances from scene veterans, it was a thoroughly enjoyable event to remember.

Kicking off on a Wednesday, the festival offers early arrival for the hardcore and a somewhat community-sourced lineup built typically from previous ATG alumni. The chaotic punk of Thank fits that bill, judged by the response from the tent, before the uber-heavy post-metal of Hundred Year Old Man sees both stage and the audience filled with smoke – a swift olfactory reminder that you’re at a music festival.

God Alone brought two chaotic frontmen flanked by relative calm on the second guitar and synth in their math rock, before Healthyliving put on a show where their sound is a lot sparser and lower energy compared to the acts before them. It’s some welcome respite before the aural assault which is to follow from Underdark’s post-rock/blastbeat heavy blackgaze blend in an unusual show that engages the crowd, preceded by Year Of No Light. Their doom is so incredibly loud and bass-heavy that it’s almost to the point of physical pain. It’s an odd sensation to have such oppressively heavy music playing whilst it’s still daylight outside the tent.

You wouldn’t guess just from the name of Colossal Squid that the act is a solo drummer with samples playing fast grooves and beats, and their performance was helped by plenty of good-natured heckling along from the crowd. One of the biggest changes in musical style then came in Kalandra, a Nordic folk band whose performance is utterly captivating both audibly and visually. It’s completely different from everything of the day so far and absolutely stunning.

Eclectic but from another end of the spectrum, Teeth Of The Sea bring DJ and loop-driven electronica to get the crowd dancing, picking up the tempo from their predecessors ahead of the riff-heavy psych rock of Slift, who perform almost silhouetted in front of full screen visuals; their sound is huge for just three members.

In a first for ArcTanGent, their vast main stage tent has been opened on a Wednesday and all in the name of Wardruna. Their ancient Nordic folk played on traditional instruments fit perfectly on the large stage, as their ensemble of members built huge soundscapes within each track. They utilize shadows on the hung screen behind them to ensure that all in the audience can enjoy all the way to the back, and seeing them play as night falls is a magical and surreal experience. A headliner of this calibre is an extremely welcome addition to the festival and something I would love to see return.

As the main three days of the festival kick off on Thursday, the main stage is opened at 11 am by Parisian post-rockers Lost in Kiev. Their music is gutwrenchingly beautiful, and they command the space with their presence, songwriting and visuals. From their beauty to the powerful post-metal sludge of The Grey, starting instrumentally, each bass note feels like a chop to the throat, with even more oomph added when joined by Grady Avenell from Will Haven on vocals.

In a weekend of eclectic music, Rezn, space metal from Chicago, won the most unusual instrument award with their musician behind the desk deploying a PlayStation 4 controller at one point. This was the most notable part of their set, though with their music not quite landing for me. On the contrary, We Lost the Sea put on a masterclass in their first set of the weekend; with their six-pronged instrumental cinematic rock generating a warm reaction from the main stage crowd, helped both by their undeniable musical quality but also their stage presence too… There’s more movement and engagement than you might expect from them on record.

Lowen is a band I had the pleasure of witnessing just a week prior at Bloodstock, and up close and more personal, here the theatrical elements of their live show shine even more alongside the muscular riffs and soaring vocals. They’re definitely a band on their way up in the UK scene and one to keep a close eye on for sure. The Fall of Troy bring chaotic energy with their happy proggy mathcore on the mainstage, and the anarchic elements of their show are elevated even higher when joined by Seb Alvarez from Meth, who dives into the crowd to keep everyone involved.

Over in a couple of the smaller tents, this evening, Kylesa, with their riff-heavy stoner metal, and Sungazer, playing progressive jazz metal in matching outfits with wild time signatures, entertain and energize the crowds. But it’s on the main stage where two highlights of the whole weekend strut their stuff on the Thursday evening.

Leprous are no strangers to ATG, having played here back in 2022, and with their promotion to the main stage, they bring a headliner-level production. With pyrotechnics (appropriately utilized in “From the Flame”) and complex lighting arrangements, their show matches the flawless performance by the band and outstanding vocalist Einar Solberg alike. The privilege of closing out the stage for the evening goes to a band embedded in ATG’s DNA in Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They put on an incredible show of post-rock at its absolute finest, but it is an endurance test for the die-hard into the late night.

Alongside the artists, one key thing to note about Friday is that it was very hot. Hot in a way that the other August days on site couldn’t hold a candle to, and if you were to hold a candle, it wouldn’t be surprising for it to spontaneously ignite. With this in mind, all are grateful for the wake-up call from Chalk Hands, a worthwhile addition to the hand-themed genre of music with their Palm Reader-esque post hardcore from Sussex.

On the main stage, one of the events of the weekend comes from Ithaca, who play their last ever show to a packed tent. Joined occasionally by friends from bands like Devil Sold His Soul and Pupil Slicer, they tear through a set that feels all too short, and then, they are gone. As guitarist Sam Chetan-Welsh says to the crowd, “you are loved” with the feeling being mutual.

Other artists taken in on the day include Giant Walker, who display their prog rock with flawless vocals and headbopping riffs with panache, Car Bomb with an atomic set on the main stage and another volume-defying doomy post-metal set this time from Dimscûa. It’s a welcome change of pace to see the peaceful acoustic music of Emma Ruth Rundle, complete with relatively relaxing visuals to take a breath in the afternoon, before the cheery progressive math rock of Alpha Male Tea Party gets everyone moving and shaking again.

There are two other sets on the main stage ahead of the evening’s headliners of note on what’s already been a stacked day; Envy, post-hardcore from Japan, lay on a set packed with emotion that fully engages the audience despite the language barrier in their lyrics, and many have said are one of the highlights of the weekend. Green Lung’s musical approach is more traditional but executed perfectly and highly entertaining; to quote the band, “We don’t have polyrhythms, time signatures or blastbeats, but we do have riffs, solos and deeply researched lyrics about English folklore.” At this stage of the day, it’s exactly what’s needed in the well-populated tent.

In one of the cruellest festival clashes I can remember, one stage sees We Lost The Sea play their second set of the weekend, performing their finest work, Departure Songs in full. At the same time, progressive metallers Between The Buried And Me rip majestically through their magnum opus Colors. I opted for the latter and spent my time in a pit that alternated between furiously charging into one another, bouncing and dancing along with each other and belting out the clean sections of “Sun of Nothing.” It’s a real shame not to have been able to see both full album playthroughs, and hopefully, it is a scheduling note taken for next year to avoid such clashes.

Vower are a relatively new supergroup but put on the polished show you’d expect from their members’ tenure in bands such as Palm Reader, Black Peaks, and Toska. The instrumental side is excellent, but it’s the unique and incredible vocals of Josh McKeown that make their sound really special. With post-rock having a heavy presence at the festival, a notable artist from the scene, Maybeshewill play a special show to celebrate their 20th anniversary and first since 2016. Blending their huge storytelling tracks and powerful riffs with accompaniment from a string trio adds further atmosphere, and it’s a memorable set.

Friday’s headliners have travelled all the way from Australia and are an artist the festival has wanted to play for some time, and Karnivool do not disappoint. It’s an incredibly tight headlining set, blending supreme musicianship with an amazingly synced light show, and the audience participating fully, singing along to “Simple Boy” being a highlight, and becoming fully enveloped in their performance.

Another ATG alumni has the pleasure of waking the site up on Saturday morning, with Sugar Horse doing a good job through their high-volume hybrid that skirts between rock, punk and hardcore. Love Rarely display their energetic math rock bouncing round the stage in one of the smaller tents, ahead of A Swarm of the Sun, providing a masterclass in how to intricately and introspectively build each of their post-metal tracks from the ground up. It’s a set to fully engage you and one that’s utterly hypnotizing to witness on such a grand stage.

Following them is a drastic shift in vibe with The Callous Daoboys, the hot thing in metalcore right now, and the massive influx of people to the main stage tent shows how big they’ve become, with the audience spilling from its sides into the sunshine. Putting on a highly energized set, they close with a euphoric cover of Enter Shikari’s “Sorry You’re Not A Winner” (“your national anthem,” according to vocalist Carson Pace), and the clapping at all the right times suggests they may have a point.

From here it’s a smorgasbord of progressive metal throughout the afternoon, starting with Dvne with their beautifully layered riffs and vocals pulling some of their finest work from recent albums. They’re one of the quietest bands of the weekend volume-wise, but the mix is extremely well defined, which suits the complexity of their music perfectly. BTBAM’s second set is eaten up by the packed main tent, with the newer tracks some of the highlights of their performance, ahead of Unprocessed putting on one of the best sets the second stage sees all weekend. Frontman, guitarist and vocalist Manuel Gardner Fernandes frequently calls for more from the crowd – more screaming, more pits, more crowd surfers – and they oblige in engaging fully in a show to remember.

It’s surprising that Rolo Tomassi are celebrating their 20th anniversary in an emotional set on the main stage, such is the vigour with which they approach each new release and live show. They utilize the full range of their sound from the serene and emotional to the enraged and thrashing heavy sections, and put on a celebration to remember. From these poignant moments, it’s unusual that they’re followed by the utterly bizarre Clown Core; I felt like I’d stumbled into a cult everyone was in, apart from me, such was the chanting along with trumpet solos and ‘songs’ which felt more like skits than musical pieces. My opinion feels in the minority, and very much “Old man shouts at cloud”, but I just don’t get it.

Ahead of the night’s headliners, God Is An Astronaut provide the perfect post-rock tonic to purge the clown madness with thick fog and atmospheric lighting, marrying their richly layered compositions in a set that recentres the mind after the aural and visual assault which came before.

The pleasure of closing out the festival’s live music goes to TesseracT, who headlined back in 2022 prior to the release of War of Being and this time come armed with some of the best tracks they’ve ever written alongside a heaving back catalogue. Constructing a stage consisting of multiple levels, planetary terrain and what felt like more lights than every other band of the weekend combined, they ripped through a set with minimal between-track chat that leaned heavily on the recent but also had enough to satisfy any fan of the band.

TesseracT are rightly renowned for their incredible live shows, and this, billed as one of their biggest ever, does not disappoint in any way. Musically, they’re an absolute force of nature as you’d expect from all members being together for almost 20 years now, whilst vocally, Daniel Tompkins has one of the most recognizable and captivating voices in metal (whilst only occasionally being reminiscent of George Michael). It’s an absolutely triumphant performance, and a completely fitting way to finish off a magical weekend.

ArcTanGent returns in 2026, and you can pick up tickets for one of the best medium-sized fests there is here.