TAKE A BOW
VENUE Fernhill Farm, SomerSet DATE 15-17/08/2019
This month we’ve been to ArcTanGent, Radar, A New Day and Bloodstock festivals, and we’ve seen Public Service Broadcasting, Rosalie Cunningham, Adrian Belew and more…
This year’s ArcTanGent Festival is bigger and better, both in terms of attendance and the size of the bands booked. It’s the seventh year of the festival, which has grown from a bunch of math rock bands in a field to the most important math rock, post-rock and experimental metal festival in the world.
THURSDAY
First up on the Arc stage is a bittersweet act – a tribute to Dan Wild-Beesley of Cleft and GUG, who passed away last year following a battle with cancer. Cleft played almost every ArcTanGent from its inception in 2013 to their break-up in 2016, and GUG played in 2018. Smashing out the Cleft classic Trapdoor, and following with a super-cut medley of bombastic ‘turbo-prog’ Cleft riffs, the supergroup formed for the tribute are on fire. That shouldn’t be a surprise, as the band is comprised of math prog heroes Alpha Male Tea Party, Cleft’s former drummer John Simm, and Mike Vennart of Oceansize. After the medley, they play a 10-minute piece written by Mike and Alpha Male Tea Party’s Tom Peters, which culminates in more than 15 other guitarists taking the stage. Members of bands that toured with Cleft, friends, and Dan’s widow join to play the climax of the song, after which there’s not a dry eye in the house.
Headliners Coheed And Cambria don’t quite ‘just play the hits,’ but they’re certainly not delivering a curveball set of deep cuts either. They slay early single A Favor House Atlantic, although the biggest fan reaction is to the sprawling anthem In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3. They close with a triumphant take on Welcome Home, but the several tracks they play from latest album Vaxis Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures also translate well to a festival setting.
FRIDAY
Friday morning brings with it some typically unpleasant weather, though that does at least mean that A.A. Williams is playing to a full tent as she opens Arc. Somewhat in the vein of other crossover acts like the brilliant Emma Ruth Rundle, it’s an emotive and charismatic performance that’s perfectly suited to the sheet rain and dark skies outside.
Later, 65daysofstatic blow the doors off, with world-destroying takes on tracks like Heat Death Infinity Splitter and Retreat! Retreat!. They don’t tease any material from their upcoming LP, instead sticking largely to a set of fan favourites, as well as tracks like Asimov from their excellent soundtrack to the videogame No Man’s Sky. The crowd are behind them all the way, and their new line-up of three guitars makes 65 even more potent live.
With new album Blood Year, Russian Circles returned to a hi-fi sound, while revisiting to some extent
“MESHUGGAH’S WORLDCLASS MIX OF WEAPONS-GRADE COMPLEXITY, OCCULT IMAGERY AND HOWLING DOOMCORE BRUTALITY BRINGS THE HEAVIEST ATG YET TO A SUITABLY BRUISING CLIMAX.”
the darker, instrumental black metal aesthetic of their opus Memorial. Live, this heavy, evocative post-metal rips through the late-afternoon fatigue of a now very damp crowd, and recalls their set in 2014 where they also played in typhoon-like weather. The set highlights are Arluck and Quartered from the new album; interestingly they don’t play their triumphant live staple Mládek though Afrika from Guidance proves an excellent stand-in.
SATURDAY
For fans of headbanging heaviosity with a cerebral edge, Saturday definitely brings the richest rewards at ArcTanGent. London trio Three Trapped Tigers offer an exhilarating mid-afternoon taster of things to come with their free-jazz guitar-shredding, pounding percussion and analogue synthesiser honks. Mancunian neo-kraut drone-punks Gnod also bring the heavy artillery, their full metal racket powered by two clobbering drummers locked eye-to-eye in gladiatorial sonic combat. Meanwhile, Car Bomb detonate an impressive moshpit frenzy with their ferocious fusion of tempo-twisting math rock and unrelenting metalcore. Tightly drilled and technically precise, these
New Yorkers rage like a machine.
Anyone seeking mellow melodic interludes between ear-pummelling eruptions has plenty of alternative options on Saturday. Making their ATG debut, Indiana sextet The Contortionist are an increasingly pleasant live prospect nowadays, smoothing down their former prog metal edge with crisp, manicured harmonics. Bostonian post-rockers Caspian also stay on the mellow side with their spangled churn and motorik grooves, surging and swelling like Sigur Rós on a budget. Though listenable enough, both could use a little extra punch. Especially when up against headliners like Cult Of Luna, whose symphonic post-metal anthems fill the festival’s largest marquee with cinematic drama and Nordic Noir intensity. Impressive stuff, but they are just laying the groundwork for fellow Swedes Meshuggah, whose world-class mix of weapons-grade complexity, occult imagery and howling doomcore brutality brings the heaviest ATG yet to a suitably bruising climax. Ouch.