Getting Masters of Reality over has been a project in the works for Desertfest London since before the pandemic, and it looks like 2024 will be the year. The band burned a few bridges over the last couple years when frontman Chris Goss took a hardline right-wing stance on issues surrounding covid and whatever else (that kind of thing will win fans as well in some cases), but their work remains the stuff of legend and any time there’s a connection to OG-era Californian desert rock — as there is with Goss, who was there in his own band and as producer for Kyuss, etc. — that’s a boon and a good get for Desertfest generally, though even if you’re not a Masters of Reality fan owing to politics or just never having gotten on board, the entire line right under them on the poster is unfuckwithable: Godflesh, Monolord, Acid King and Ufomammut. Goodness gracious. And the next name is Brant Bjork. Gonna be Desertfest, to be sure.

Warms my cold dead ‘eart to see Stinking Lizaveta and Darsombra confirmed — I’ll put Domkraft in that sentimental-favorite category as well, and check out fellow Swedes Astroqueen doing some more traveling — and I look forward to the grandiose plaudits soon to be bestowed on Warpstormer and Goblinsmoker after their respective appearances, which is something Sergeant Thunderhoof should be able to help them through. With Clouds Taste Satanic traversing the Atlantic again, and others like Pijn and Duskwood, Mantar, Maserati and Monkey3, there’s a three-day fest’s worth of acts already revealed in this first announcement and probably two or three more three-day fests’ worth of names to come. I’ll tell you outright I’d shit a brick to see this. If you’re gonna be there, know how lucky you are.

From the PR wire:

Desertfest London announces 25 bands for 2024 edition including headliners Masters of Reality plus, Godflesh, Monolord, Acid King, Ufomammut & more

Friday 17th May – Sunday 19th May 2024 | Weekend Tickets now on sale

Desertfest London have unveiled 25 bands for their 12th edition, taking place across multiple venues in Camden next May 17th – 19th.

Following their pandemic induced cancellation in 2020, Desertfest is thrilled to announce desert rock pioneers Masters of Reality for the event. It will be the band’s first UK appearance in almost a decade. Masters of Reality is the brainchild of legendary producer Chris Goss (Welcome to Sky Valley, Rated R, Blues for The Red Sun, Dust, Songs for The Deaf). Their combination of hard-rock blues with a progressive tinge makes no apologies for not sticking within the stylised box listeners would expect, yet simultaneously provides the perfect lesson in the musical ethos and story-telling of the Palm Desert scene – all led by the man who laid its foundations.

Following an unforgettable performance at the New York edition of the Desertfest franchise a few months ago, industrial trailblazers Godflesh will return to London for a masterclass in sonic brutality. UK exclusive performances come in the form of Swedish doom masters Monolord, California stoner metal legends Acid King and the long-awaited return of Italian experimentalists Ufomammut.

Further Desert Rock royalty rolls into Camden Town, as Brant Bjork Trio will treat attendees to a back-catalogue few artists can compete with. Instrumental sound shifters Maserati, hard-hitting duo Mantar, introspective visionaries Cloakroom and heavy-psych rockers Monkey3 will take the concept of genres and set them ablaze.

Elsewhere the likes of Blanket, Domkraft, Pijn, Sugar Horse, Stinking Lizaveta and Darsombra will bring a captivating change of pace to the event. Whilst the stoner rock vibes remain alive and well with Astroqueen, Wet Cactus, Sergeant Thunderhoof and Duskwood.

If that wasn’t enough to get your teeth into, Desertfest rounds of its first announcement with Goblinsmoker, Clouds Taste Satanic, Warpstormer, Sonic Taboo & Wizdoom.

Weekend Tickets for the event are on sale now via www.desertfest.co.uk with much more to still be announced!

Full line-up:
MASTERS OF REALITY | GODFLESH | MONOLORD | ACID KING | UFOMAMMUT | BRANT BJORK TRIO | MASERATI | MANTAR | CLOAKROOM | MONKEY3 | BLANKET | ASTROQUEEN | DOMKRAFT | PIJN | SUGAR HORSE | STINKING LIZAVETA | WET CACTUS | DARSOMBRA | SERGEANT THUNDERHOOF | GOBLINSMOKER | DUSKWOOD | CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC | WARPSTORMER | SONIC TABOO | WIZDOOM

TICKETS ON SALE – www.desertfest.co.uk

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Godflesh, Live in Boston, Massachusetts, Sept. 15, 2023

This is going to be a very heavy couple of days. Put together by the reignited Lizard King Promotions and Riffolution Promotions, the upcoming 2021 edition of Cvltfest will follow on from September’s previously announced Riffolution Festival (lineup here) in Manchester. Booked at Cafe Indie in Scunthorpe — also in the relative north of England, east of Manchester and Sheffield, bit south from Leeds, etc. — on Nov. 13 and 14, there is some spillover between the two events, as Desert Storm, Pijn, Ritual King, Ohhms and Ten Foot Wizard will play both, but hell’s bells, can you imagine complaining about that? These are festivals. Happening on Earth! Wonder of wonders!

It’s been three years since Cvltfest was last held, but part of bringing back Lizard King Promotions from out of whatever cavern was trapping it is indeed breathing new life into the event, and you can see in the lineup below, they’re not half-assing it whatsoever. This and Riffolution together are complementary beasts emphasizing just how slammed and slamming the UK heavy underground is.

Fucking a:

Cvltfest 2021 – Nov. 13-14 – Cafe Indie, Scunthorpe, UK

This is the 3rd rendition of Cvltfest having seen both Elephant Tree and Witchsorrow Headliner respectively in 2017 and 2018, 3 years have passed since including the year of the Rona.

Now after a long break break away Lizard King Promotions which turns 10 years old this May, makes a return with its most ambitious line up of riff worshiping titans ever.

Working alongside Riffolution Promotions who’ve who’ve collectively seen Riffolution Festival now fully sold out 5 months ahead of the event we now bring you Cvltfest 2021.

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1155620918226438/

We’re so happy to have been working with Riffolution Promotions on such a heavy festival. Tickets are live now, so get them while they’re hot.

Tickets: lizardkingpromotions.bigcartel.com

Beautifully crafted poster artwork by Dominic Sohor Design and a line up consisting of:

SATURDAY – Black Tongue / Palm Reader / Ohhms / Pijn / Hundred Year Old Man / Gurt / Mastiff / King Witch / Ritual King / Mountain Caller / Barbarian Hermit / Blind Monarch

SUNDAY – Raging Speedhorn / Slabdragger / Ungraven / Ten Foot Wizard/ Desert Storm / Corrupt Moral Altar / Old Man Lizard / Battalions / Goblinsmoker / Voidlurker

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Raging Speedhorn, Hard to Kill (2020)

The UK being the hotbed that it has been for heavy acts over the last, say, 50 years, I guess you can do this kind of two-day festival there comprised mostly if not entirely of homegrown outfits and still have it be both a show well worth seeing — think the borders will be open by September? — and the kind of thing where you could easily add another day of bands. I don’t know what social-distancing regulations will be in place in Manchester come end of summer, and to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t care. Elephant Tree and Conan headlining a two-dayer after live music has been on pause for a year and a half? That’s a gig worth watching if the floor’s made of lava, never mind whether or not you’ve been vaccinated.

People gonna be d-r-u-n-k.

I probably don’t need to tell you how refreshing I find it to see a list of logos and band names on a poster, even one with a cartoon butt. Again, I don’t care. I’ll take what I can get at this point.

Friggin’ Sigiriya? Chubby Thunderous? It’d be like five years’ worth of the UK-based bands I’d love to see all piled onto one bill.

Alas:

Finally the day has come to release the line-up we’ve been so eager to share with you all.

We know it was a great disappointment not to be able to host shows in 2020, but this is set to be such a monster of a weekend to make up for it.

Special thanks to the support from our partners in Lizard King Promotions / Stonebaked Promotions / The Sophie Festival

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/192423792629484/

Tickets and other goodies can be found here: https://riffolutionpromotions.bigcartel.com/

Here’s our line-up:
Conan / Elephant Tree / Telepathy / OHHMS / Ten Foot Wizard / Desert Storm / Witchrider / Pijn / Tuskar / Under / Ritual King / Cybernetic Witch Cult / Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters / Sigiriya / Lacertilia / Morass Of Molasses / Everest Queen / Duskwood / Deltanaut / Orbital Junction / Mother Vulture / Trevor’s Head / SODEN / Son Of Boar / Pelugion / Torus

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Elephant Tree, Live at Buffalo Studio & The Preservation Room

Oh whatever, Roadburn. You had me at the poster.

Maybe there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing, but if so, nobody tell Roadburn 2020 that, because I wanna ride out the rest of this lineup and see where the hell it goes. Frankly though, if this was it and they were like, “Okay, we just gave you two Dungen sets including Ta Det Lugnt in full, that’s all you get,” you’d be hard-pressed to argue it wasn’t already pretty incredible. I don’t know how much more lineup is or isn’t coming, but the fifth announcement goes right for the heartstrings, and my understanding is there are less than 30 full-weekend tickets on sale now, as individual-day tickets also hit the market. Will it sell out? Yeah, it will. It’s Roadburn. That’s what it does.

The link for day tickets and splits are below. Click the posters to enlarge them (then click again to make them go back). The latest announcement follows:

Roadburn 2020: new names confirmed ahead of day ticket launch

Single day tickets will be on sale tonight, December 10 (at 18:00 CET) and priced €67 for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday tickets, and €60.50 for Sunday tickets. There’s still 4-day tickets on sale, but be warned, they’re running low now with 99% tickets sold already. More information about tickets and accommodation options can be found HERE.

DUNGEN

For almost two decades, Dungen, the brainchild of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Gustav Ejstes, has been liquefying the known boundaries of psychedelia by incorporating ‘60s pastoral folk, psych-pop, prog, free-jazz, instrumentalist ambience and soaring atmospheres. They have become one of the most revered psychedelic bands of their generation, and to honor their pushing the limits of art and genre, we have invited Dungen to play Roadburn 2020, not once, but twice.

One show will take in Dungen’s legendary Ta Det Lugnt (Sunday, 19 April), and the other will focus on Häxan, the band’s highly entrancing score for the 1926 animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, on Saturday, 18 April. Dungen is synonymous for our very being, and Häxan, and especially Ta Det Lugnt, fuel our late-night, psychedelic jams and unite the likeminded psych heads at the festival.

JAMES KENT’S CURATION:

ULTHA

A couple of months ago Ultha informed their followers that the band was taking a break in 2020, an unexpected turn which seems to cast an even darker shadow of melancholy and sorrow to their already bleak take on black metal. Roadburn and its co-curator James Kent have pulled Ultha back from the void where they were planning to hibernate in for a very special appearance at Roadburn 2020.

As the band tells us: “A ‘regular’ invitation would’ve already been a no-brainer, but receiving such a heartfelt message, by a prolific and passionate artist we all respect, telling us how much he admires our work, really made it that more special. So, we are more than thrilled to be part of James’ curation for Roadburn 2020, playing our Belong EP in full plus selected cuts from our other releases.”

ALSO ANNOUNCED…

CULT LEADER

We’ve admired Cult Leader from afar for some time now, but the stars have never quite aligned before. However, with the release of A Patient Man this time last year our eagerness increased, then earlier this year witnessing some live shows tipped us over the edge and we knew it was a done deal. Fortunately they felt the same way, and with that, we’re honoured to be bringing you a special Cult Leader treat for Roadburn – the band will play 2018’s A Patient Man in full for us.

JEROMES DREAM

A two decades long absence did little to dull the jagged edges of Jeromes Dream. They came hurtling back into our lives earlier this year with their newest album, titled LP, reminding us what we’d been missing. That angular anguish and skin scraping abrasion is still there, but there is admittedly more nuance and a few notable junctures of what could be described as atmospheric, almost shoegaze-esque passages. So, it’s with much joy that we welcome Jeromes Dream to Roadburn 2020.

PORTRAYAL OF GUILT

Portrayal of Guilt have been positively prolific over the past few years – and our lives are all the better for it. Two singles, two EPs, two splits, and one mighty album in the form of Let Pain Be Your Guide have cemented Portrayal Of Guilt as an essential band in the modern metal / hardcore lexicon. So it’s with huge pleasure that we’re announcing Portrayal of Guilt will be joining us at Roadburn 2020.

PIJN & CONJURER PLAY: CURSE THESE METAL HANDS

The underground metal scene in the UK is in rude health – and we demonstrated this at Roadburn 2019 by showcasing the best of what Holy Roar Records had to offer. Among the bands that played were Conjurer and Pijn – two bands that embody so much of what is innovative and exciting about British music at the moment. In 2018 the two bands united under the Curse These Metal Hands banner to create new, original music that was released via Holy Roar this year.

EARLY GRAVES

After an already massive initial greeting card by the name of We: The Guillotine, in 2008, the Californian quintet dropped their masterpiece in 2010. Goner was everything a moshpit junkie could ever ask for. Unfortunately, tragedy then struck Early Graves. Only a couple of months after the release of Goner, the band suffered a van accident traveling from Oregon to Nevada, which took the life of their firebrand vocalist Makh Daniels.

Though the band soldiered on for a while activity has dwindled during the last few years, and 2020 is set to be the last chapter for Early Graves. A celebration of their existence, which will naturally consist of their ten-year-old super classic album Goner played in its entirety, will therefor take place at Roadburn.

Already announced for Roadburn 2020 is: Emma Ruth Rundle and James Kent as curators, commissioned projects from James Kent & Johannes Persson, Jo Quail, and Vile Creature & Bismuth, the return of Julie Christmas, Red Sparowes, Russian Circles, Inter Arma, Alcest, Torche, Brutus, Bada (ft. Anna Von Hausswolff), David Eugene Edwards, Health, Boy Harsher, Lankum, She Past Away, and two Artists In Residence: Full of Hell and Lingua Ignota.

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Roadburn 2020 Fifth Announcement

Yeah, I put it at about three festival’s worth of bands added to Roadburn in this announcement. Maybe four. Consider Tomas Lindberg‘s curated event its own fest. Then you have the Holy Roar Records showcase with five bands playing. Then you have the announcements besides, and that’s enough for at least one fest on their own, if not two, so yes, at least three festivals happening here as Roadburn 2019 continues its let’s-be-all-things-to-all-people-and-actually-get-away-with-it push into new aesthetic territory, working to redefine and proliferate ideas of what “heavy” can and needs to encompass. If you don’t see this as an art project, you’re looking at it wrong.

I haven’t heard whether or not we’ll be doing the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch daily ‘zine as part of Roadburn 2019 next April, but of course I’m hopeful it happens. Hard to imagine a year without a Roadburn at this point. I’d prefer not to, actually.

Here’s the latest announcement in its yes-this-is-all-happening-at-one-fest totality:

MONO, MYRKUR: FOLKESANGE, MARISSA NADLER, AND MORE ADDED TO ROADBURN 2019

– MONO to perform Hymn to the Immortal Wind as part of Tomas Lindberg’s curation
– Myrkur: Folkesange set to captivate the main stage
– Marissa Nadler will make her Roadburn debut
– Holy Roar x Roadburn showcase to take over Hall of Fame
– Day tickets on sale December 13

Of the new additions to the Roadburn line up, Artistic Director, Walter Hoeijmakers comments:

“We’re incredibly excited to announce this latest group of bands to the Roadburn line up. As well as representing well established artists, we have also included a huge array of boundary-pushing performances which will continue to expand the scope of the festival. These are artists that we believe will shape the future of heavy music.”

MONO & MORE FOR TOMAS LINDBERG’S CURATED EVENT

Tomas Lindberg has added a clutch of new bands to his curated event, The Burning Darkness, topped off by MONO who will be performing a special anniversary show.

The Japanese post-rock four piece will celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, and the 10th anniversary of of their iconic album Hymn to the Immortal Wind with a full album set at Roadburn 2019. They will be joined on stage by the JO QUAIL QUARTET, adding another layer of lush instrumentation to their intricate tracks. Lindberg comments: “It is with great pride I present them as a part of my curation this year.”

In addition, Lindberg has chosen three further bands for his curated event. AGRIMONIA – who Lindberg loosely describes as “a more progressive Amebix” – plus Swedish dynamic prog outfit GÖSTA BERLINGS SAGA have also been confirmed. Rounding out the new additions is ORCHESTRA OF CONSTANT DISTRESS – a hybrid of Brainbombs and Skull Defekts.

MYRKUR: FOLKESANGE

MYRKUR: FOLKESANGE will bring some folk magic to the main stage as she is accompanied by musicians including Heilung’s Christopher Juul, and celebrated cellist Jo Quail. Folkesange brings together both traditional Nordic folk songs, as well as her own original compositions in a mesmerising swirl of ethereal darkness.

MYRKUR will be performing with her metal band at the 013 on December 16, with support from Jo Quail.

MARISSA NADLER

Darkness comes in many forms, and one of the most beautiful we’ve witnessed this year is on the tracks of MARISSA NADLER’s latest album, For My Crimes. We’re thrilled that she will bring these songs – and more – to life, on the Roadburn stage this coming April.

HOLY ROAR X ROADBURN

For 12 years now, HOLY ROAR have been quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) releasing a steady stream of incredible albums. The label has become home to some of the most exciting rising bands around and we’re thrilled to team up with the label to bring you five of their brightest stars for HOLY ROAR X ROADBURN.

On Friday, April 12, the Hall of Fame venue will play host to the unapologetic abrasiveness of SVALBARD, the sonic alchemy of PIJN, the nihilistic post-metal of CONJURER, the genre-bending delights of SECRET CUTTER, and the label’s newest recruit, the haunting A.A.WILLIAMS

ALSO CONFIRMED….
BLACK BOMBAIM & PETER BRÖTZMAN will see Portuguese psych masters team up with a free jazz legend
BLISS SIGNAL will be fusing the jagged edges of blast beats and black metal with the hypnotic tremors of dark electronics
BOSSK will perform Audio Noir in full
CRYPT TRIP are a righteous trip back to days when acid-tinged rock was both exciting and thriving on attitude and energy
DEAF KIDS combine D-beat, and psychedelia with their South American roots
DEAF KIDS X PETBRICK will team up to deliver audio chaos
MALOKARPATAN offer a mix of the best classic heavy metal with an oblique take on black metal
MORNE will deliver a crushing dose of sludge
MYTHIC SUNSHIP are poised to deliver a set as iconic as their Another Shape of Psychedelic Music album
PETBRICK mix together crushing electronics with grinding drum violence, featuring Iggor Cavalera
RAKTA bring post punk, death rock, psych and just good old noisy garage rock’n’roll
STUCK IN MOTION prove there’s vibrancy in classic forms
TERRITOIRE performing Alix in full
THE END is the new project of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bringing chaos and beauty to the Roadburn stage

TICKETS:
Single day tickets will go on sale on Thursday, December 13. Weekend tickets are on sale now

Tickets are be priced as follows:
3 days ticket (Thu-Sat) €181 + €4,50 service fee
4 days ticket (Thu-Sun) €204 + €4,50 service fee
Day ticket (Thu, Fri or Sat) €62 + €4,50 service fee
Sunday ticket €55,50 + €4,50 service fee

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Roadburn 2019 announcement video