Much to Electric Wizard‘s credit, they spell ‘magic’ correctly in the title of their live album, Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1. Of course, it comes from a song on 2007’s landmark Witchcult Today (discussed here), and I could go on about how it fits with the aesthetic of the NSFW-via-nipple 1960s-fetish-mag cover art — nobody spelled magic with a ‘k’ in that era of print media — but you likely get the point. Like a lot of what’s happening here, it makes sense in the context of Electric Wizard. More importantly, and more impressively, this eight-song/76-minute live album might just be the filthiest the long-running lords of Sabbathian-inheritance doom have ever sounded. Stiff competition in that regard, I know. Since solidifying in the early 1990s, Electric Wizard have been responsible for some of the rawest, stonedest heavy cultistry ever produced. Genre figureheads, they’ve been an influence on two generations of bands running, and Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 is them in their element.

The band have never been short on lore, be it the great pants debate in the stonerrock.com days, that time I had Oborn‘s name wrong in an entire Metal Maniacs cover feature — oof — or their lyrical affinities for Saturn, Satan, drugs, violence, exploitation horror, and so on, and Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 has a narrative element as well in how it was put together. It’s their lockdown album, essentially. And it could hardly be more appropriate that, going on five years after the covid-19 pandemic album, the heavy underground has seen release after release, scores and swaths of albums made between ’20-’22 where the story is the same: “Oh we really took the time to work on the songs this time.” Well of course you did. You couldn’t leave the house for a year. Plenty of time to sweat the details recording on that laptop when you’re dissociating and can’t leave the house.

What could be more fitting than for Electric Wizard to go completely the other way? You have to understand, Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 is full-nasty. Reportedly, Oborn, fellow guitarist Liz Buckingham, and drummer Simon Poole went into their rehearsal space in 2020 after touring the US East Coast at the end of 2019 and put the set to tape because they felt like the band was in a good place sound-wise and they wanted to preserve that somehow even if they couldn’t play live. Fair enough. So Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 is a live album in the sense of being performance-based — not that Electric Wizard‘s studio albums are hyper-produced, mind you, but there are concepts explored, instrumental themes of riff, and stories being told — there’s no audience. The 10-minute crash-soaked, feedback-drenched, sample-topped wretchfest that “Witchcult Today” becomes fades to silence after its writhing assault of nod has concluded, and that’s it. No response, no applause. It is nigh on claustrophobic.

Imagine being stuck in a humid, musty-smelling box with Electric Wizard blaring the noisiest rendition of “Black Mass” you’ve ever heard, Oborn gnashing and screaming, the whole band just tearing into the song. So loud and so dank you’re thinking of taking one of those nuggets of weed that magically showed up in your jacket pocket and using it as an earplug. As with some black metal, Electric Wizard have been able to make the sonic rawness of their recordings part of their aesthetic. This has been a purposeful, conscious choice on the part of the band for at least the better part of the last 20 years, and Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 is perhaps their most naked display of the ethic in being as stripped down as possible — not quite audience bootleg, but soundboard — and understanding that, for them, such a thing is actually Electric Wizard at their most realized. Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 plunges deeper into the aural pit the band have hollowed out over their time, and represents them in a way that neither a studio or on-stage live release, or even a demo tape, which is probably the closest analogy for the sound here, could.

A 76-minute runtime gives them plenty of time to dig into “Incense for the Damned,” the wailing wah solo of “Dopethrone” at the outset, or “The Chosen Few” later on, and the cacophony of “Black Mass” with Oborn up against the mic to invoke the devil, and for fans, the setlist itself is part of why it works. Electric Wizard wouldn’t be a band likely to produce a ‘best of’ anytime soon — though if they did, no doubt it would be with a suitable twist somehow, as is the case here — but Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 culls highlights from their catalog like “Satanic Rites of Drugula” and “Scorpio Curse,” caps with permacloser “Funeralopolis,” and in “The Chosen Few,” “Witchcult Today,” “Dopethrone” and “Black Mass” seems to be like a mother bird opening its mouth to vomit sustenance to its children. In this case, it’s Electric Wizard‘s listenership eating a particularly vehement puke.

But again, the key consideration with Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 is that this is who Electric Wizard are. Distortion as flag for disaffection. Extreme cult stoner downerism. An excuse to feel bad. As it will, “Funeralopolis” offers scathe as much as catharsis with its abiding fuckall and wash of lumbering noise, and in the atmosphere resulting from the straight-to-tape nature of the recording, the finale emphasizes the intention underlying so much of what the band does. Yeah, Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 sounds like what they say it is; they went into the room and hit it.

But it also ties into the persona the band have crafted. Any group with a lineup and a tape machine could theoretically do the same thing, but few of Electric Wizard‘s notoriety would dare to be so exposed to their audience. Electric Wizard, on the other hand, revel in it. As a collective, they’re no strangers to basking in chaos or throwing aural mud, and Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 brings a substantial dose of both. It is Electric Wizard at their utmost.

Electric Wizard, “Black Mass” live Walpurgisnacht 2020

Electric Wizard store

Electric Wizard on Facebook

Electric Wizard on Instagram

Spinefarm Records on Facebook

Spinefarm Records on Instagram

Spinefarm Records on Spotify

Spinefarm Records website

A live double-album recorded to a tape machine in Electric Wizard‘s rehearsal room apparently four years ago tucked away at the end of the year with a December release? I look forward to people saying Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1 sounds like shit as though that isn’t the point. Founding guitarist/vocalist Jus Oborn himself declares the intention in the press release below, and I take him at his word when he says it sounds like a demo, since the process of making it sounds like a classic demo process. I also believe the band was in top form after a few years of not-constant-but-definitely-active road time and wanted to capture that while they could.

But Electric Wizard are a big enough band for people to have Opinions About Things™ as regards them, so yeah, some will get on board and some won’t. And I’ll admit that for me too there are times where an outfit presenting themselves with as much nastiness as possible hits home more than others, but the tracklisting is all-killer here and I firmly believe there’s room in my heart for a tape hiss alongside the riff of “Witchcult Today.”

No audio yet, which is kind of funny considering, but this info and the characteristically-exploitative NSFW cover art came from the PR wire Friday afternoon:

ELECTRIC WIZARD to Release Double Live Album ‘Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1’ on December 13, 2024 via Spinefarm

Pre-Order HERE: https://electricwizard.lnk.to/blackmagicritualsandperversionsvol.1

Spinefarm has confirmed that legendary British doom outfit, ELECTRIC WIZARD, will release ‘Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1,’ their new 2-disc live-to-tape album, on December 13, 2024. Pre-orders are now live HERE: https://electricwizard.lnk.to/blackmagicritualsandperversionsvol.1

Recorded onto a 16-track tape machine, capturing their essence and malevolence, ‘Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1’ is as heavy as can be expected from The Wizard.

“It’s raw as f**k,” boasts Jus. “It’s like a lost ’70s black metal demo rehearsal session or something. It’s raw, nasty, screaming in your face. I always promised ELECTRIC WIZARD was like rats in your face. This is verging on it.”

‘Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1’ Track List:
1. Dopethrone
2. Incense For The Damned
3. Black Mass
4. Witchcult Today
5. Satanic Rites of Drugula
6. Scorpio Curse
7. The Chosen Few
8. Funeralopolis

Formats available for ‘Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1’ will be two ltd. edition 2-disc vinyl pressings – one transparent green, one hot pink – as well as CD and digital. There are also two exclusive shirt designs.

As the COVID pandemic took hold in 2020, ELECTRIC WIZARD wondered if they might ever play live again. Out in the wilds of the English Westcountry where singer/guitarist Jus Oborn and guitarist Liz Buckingham live, the band descended into their crypt-like jam space to make a live album like no other.

“We’d been gigging for two years at that point, around America three times, going to Japan and Australia, and we were sounding pretty good by the end of it,” adds Jus. “When the pandemic happened we thought, ‘F**k it, maybe we’ll never play again.’ So we went into the jam room and played the songs to get them on tape to capture how we were playing at the time.”

Opening with the enormous “Dopethrone”, and taking in signature apocalyptic doom staples like “Witchcult Today,” “Satanic Rites of Drugula,” and the ever-destructive “Funeralopolis,” the set here shows how powerful and dominating The Wizard can be.

Jus says he wanted to capture a feeling like that of Motörhead’s classic ‘No Sleep ’til Hammersmith’ (1981), or the sense from ‘KISS’ ALIVE!’ (1975) that you were getting a window into something, a world the band created. It’s also, he says, an opportunity for a band as big and cult-like as ELECTRIC WIZARD to bring something from metal’s dirty underbelly into the light, if only to freak out the unprepared.

“We’ve always been trying to drag the underground into the overground,” offers Jus. “Rather than pretending to be playing some big stadium, arena show.”

A soundtrack to the end of the world? Come this way, my fanatics. Electric F**king Wizard awaits…

http://electricwizard.merchnow.com/
https://www.facebook.com/electricwizarddorsetdoom/
https://www.instagram.com/electricwizard.official

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https://www.instagram.com/spinefarmrecords/
http://www.spinefarmrecords.com/
https://open.spotify.com/track/5gG15aEI4zv1hohsjFBhtD

Electric Wizard, “Black Magic Rituals and Perversions” from Witchcult Today (2007)

Dorset stoner doom magnates Electric Wizard released Black Masses (review here) on Nov. 1, 2010, through Rise Above Records, and their mere doing so was something of an event. The by-then-already-long-running band had undergone a sea change in 2007’s Witchcult Today (discussed here) that resulted in an emerging new generation of listenership timed well with the beginning of the spread of mobile internet, the explosion of mobile social media, and so on.

And with Black Masses, the UK outfit led by founding guitarist/vocalist Jus Oborn continued to leave behind their sludgier, rawer beginnings in favor of a swirling and dark psychedelic doom rock, Oborn‘s sneering voice calling out to Satan in the opening track “Black Mass,” “Hear me Lucifer/Black mass, black mass/Take me higher, higher/Black mass, black mass,” in a one-man chant that would become a landmark in their career. That song, and this record in combination with the one before it, helped set the stage for the stoner-doom delve into cultism of the heavy ’10s, happening before the ascent of bands like Uncle Acid and Ghost, Monolord, etc., but informing and influencing those and countless other acts along the way. It was a record that wound up being as ‘important’ as it was catchy and listenable, and those things don’t always coincide.

While pushing deeper into the atmosphere of threat and VHS horror and remaining always very, very stoned in sound, Electric Wizard — then comprised of Oborn, guitarist Liz Buckingham (ex-13), bassist Tas Danazoglou (now of Mirror, Friends of Hell, etc.) and drummer Shaun Rutter — offered eight songs across a dank, willfully lo-fi 59-minute 2LP, and brought listeners with them on their journey through various miseries and terrors.

It was also a direct sequel to Witchcult Today in that many of the Black Masses songs spoke directly to the record before, whether it was “Satyr IX” on Black Masses taking up the mantle of “Saturnine,” which closed Witchcult Today, or Black Masses‘ eight-plus-minute noisefest closer “Crypt of Drugula” answering “Satanic Rites of Drugula” from Witchcult Today. Certainly, Electric Wizard had long since been making references to horror flicks and various occult texts all along, but to turn that pastiche inward was a fresh take, and their doing so helped reinforce their own cult following. If you knew, you knew. I interviewed Oborn in 2011 and he had this to say about it:

It’s not always conscious at first, but the references slip themselves in. We’ve created a few of our own elements anyway – “Drugula” and stuff like that, and “We Hate You.” It’s easy to become self-referential at this point – we’ve got seven albums for fuck’s sake. Not many bands do that, to a degree. It’s inevitable, possibly. I’ve hopefully created a sort of iconography for Electric Wizard. That’s more important than the band sometimes, than the lineup or the instruments (laughs). 

That iconography, the drugs, the murder, the grueling chug of “Night Child” as it turns through another chorus, and Oborn‘s vocal delivery — able to convey melody while still sounding like an embodiment of ‘fuck it’ as a defining life course — there and elsewhere helped to make Black Masses a pivotal outing for Electric Wizard, sealing their place among the UK’s foremost riff purveyors of their generation and setting them out on a years-long cycle of touring and festival appearances. Shit, Jus Oborn curated Roadburn in 2013. It was quite a time to be alive.

To be nasty without sounding nasty in a caustic sense. Yes, Black Masses was still pretty barebones in sound, and that’s something Electric Wizard would continue to foster on 2014’s Time to Die (review here) and 2017’s Wizard Bloody Wizard (review here), but that rawness becomes the world the songs inhabit. It is an atmosphere suited to the material, an aesthetic choice. Instead of going bigger after the success of Witchcult Today as many other acts might’ve done, Electric Wizard dug in, and working with Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios, conjured a scathing and molten sound. Would “Venus in Furs” have the same effect if its strut and layered-on midsection solo didn’t come across so rough? Maybe, I don’t know. But the point is it works as it is, and with the production as an asset.

Plus, the songs. Whatever else Black Masses is or however one might feel about Electric Wizard generally, the album is a parade of memorable hooks and riffs. The lead cut was already mentioned but it’s worth underscoring “Black Mass” as a brutal earworm. And from “Venus in Furs” through the Mellotron-laced “Night Child,” through “Patterns of Evil” and the slow unfolding of the especially-wretched “Satyr IX” with a procession that would seem to inform Uncle Acid‘s “Valley of the Dolls” a few years later, followed by the speedier churn of “Turn Off Your Mind” and the coming apart of “Scorpio Curse” which declares the world dead and gives over eventually to the drones and noise that hypnotize in “Crypt of Drugula.” It is a full-album linear flow, and it lasts even through the purposefully unpleasant morass — there are drums deep in there, you know — of “Crypt of Drugula” at the finish, individual pieces adding to the whole each in their turn, the band standing over all of it, swaying, probably high.

Black Masses captures the ideal form of what it is. It is defined in part by Witchcult Today in theme and style, but it also demonstrated how to internalize a self-influence and use one’s past work as a springboard for the next thing. If you believe in due, Electric Wizard are due for another full-length with Wizard Bloody Wizard turning six later this year, and it would suit them to drop a record with no notice — thud, there you go — as well as for a stylistic shift like the one that took them to where they were in 2010. I don’t know if that’s possible, or what they’d be going for in their first album of the 2020s, but to be sure, their place waits for them. Perennial demand for fest appearances and other live shows is probably a decent way to fill the interim.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.

—

Oof. I guess I made it to the end of the week. We got back from Connecticut on Monday morning. Last weekend’s memorial-service-and-wedding one-two punch between Saturday and Sunday certainly kicked my ass, and kind of defined the start of this week still. Tired as shit, in other words. Continuously.

We also had a window put in in the kitchen after doing the floors last week, and so the house was all taken apart and covered in dust and it was blazing hot and all the more overwhelming for that. As if the sensory input from that and a visit with friends on Tuesday wasn’t enough — and for The Pecan especially, it wasn’t — we went to Six Flags, which was just called Great Adventure when I was a kid, on Wednesday, and it was sunny and sweaty and I told The Patient Mrs. that one of the rollercoasters shifted a kidney so that now I have two on the same side, and so on. It was a lot. After a lot. With a lot happening otherwise.

Thus I took a couple lighter days at the start of the week. I said I intended to do so on social media — this week was one of a couple this summer with no camp for the kid, so it was full-on, all-go, all the time — and got a bunch of nice answers from people who probably thought I was taking more of a break than I intended, but honestly, not reviewing anything until Wednesday and doing two or three posts a day for a few days was a break for me in terms of time, and with the July 4 holiday it wasn’t even that unreasonable to do. It’s weird that I feel guilty and anxious about having done it. A federal fucking holiday.

Compulsion.

We’re not in CT this weekend — it took us four and a half hours to get up there last Friday; we just don’t have it in us again at this point — but we’ll be working more on the kitchen with cabinets and maybe installing the sink and so forth. Whatever you’re up to, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Watch your head, drink all the water, tell someone you love them. Back Monday with more.

FRM.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

I don’t know how many of these posts I’ve done by now. Fewer than actual episodes, the number of which I do keep track. But it always feels a little weird. Yeah, guess what? I think it’s a cool show. Of course I fucking do. I made it. What, I’m going to try to suck?

So hey, this is a pretty good show. You should listen.

In all seriousness, I want to express my thanks to Gimme Metal for allowing me to continue to do this. Their platform has gotten huge in the last few years and they need my ass taking up two hours of precious air time like they need a reminder of traditional radio’s downfall, so it really means something to me that I get to weird out and share music for a new show every two weeks. I can’t even turn my playlists in on time. My voice tracks weren’t submitted until Tuesday! Terrible.

Bottom line though is Gimme doesn’t at all have to let me keep doing a show. In my embarrassing number of years, I’ve seen outside-the-genre interest in heavy rock, psych, doom, sludge, and so on wax and wane, and my experience is that if you’re not all the way in it, you’re eventually going to move on to something else that speaks to you. Nothing wrong with that, of course; it’s how life works. It’s why I’m not catholic. But for a company with their hands in so much other shit to allow someone like me to do my thing in my own way and my own time is pretty god damned rare and viscerally appreciated.

That’s all I’ve got to say about it, except that, again, this show is pretty good.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 09.16.22 (VT = voice track)

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Sept. 30 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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I hadn’t necessarily planned on doing a tribute to Desertfest London 2022. Not that it doesn’t deserve it, just that it didn’t occur to me until last week’s lineup announcement happened to hit at the right moment for my brain to connect the two things: the show and the fest. Sometimes you get these impulses and it’s a good idea to follow.

In the voice tracks here I mumble a couple times about doing a second installment because this is so packed and there’s still so much more that got left out because the show is only two hours long. I may get around to doing a second one, or I might do a Berlin one, a New York one, or a Freak Valley one, Krach am Bach, Stoned From the Underground, etc. There are many, many options, and that’s not to mention Roadburn, which is also happening in two weeks.

But god damn the lineup for Desertfest London 2022 is sick, and I’m happy to report that the playlist below follows suit accordingly.

Thanks if you listen, thanks if you’re reading. Thanks in general.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 04.01.22

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 15 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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Tickets are on sale as of today for Desertfest Berlin 2022, which will be headlined by Electric Wizard, Kadavar playing a hometown show and Witchcraft. The rest of the lineup is a thrilling combination of mainstays — which somehow feels extra comforting — and upstarts, plus Stöner, who are kind of both, I guess, being a new band but with Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri at the helm thereof. You’ll note Lowrider and Orange Goblin — the latter celebrating their 25th anniversary, delayed of course — and Elder and Ufomammut (debuting their new lineup), 1000mods and Truckfighters and My Sleeping Karma. Could hardly get more Desertfest than that. Like a reaffirmation of the festival’s core mission. Plus YOB, for extra life-giving vibes.

And with those, you get acts like Slomosa, Slift, Polymoon and Villagers of Ioannina City, underground celebrants like Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and Samavayo and Dhidalah and MaidaVale and 24/7 Diva Heaven as well as Love Machine, Los Bitchos and Huntsmen. There’s reportedly more to come — and by that I mean that’s what it says on the poster below — but for real, if this was the four days, I can’t imagine wanting to see any less than all of it.

Announcement follows as per the PR wire:

Desertfest Berlin – 26-29 May 2022

www.desertfest.de

LINEUP:
Electric Wizard
Kadavar
Witchcraft
Orange Goblin
YOB
Truckfighters
Elder
1000mods
My Sleeping Karma
Ufomammut
Stöner
Lowrider
Villagers of Ioannina City
SLIFT
MaidaVale
24/7 Diva Heaven
Samavayo
Slomosa
Los Bitchos
PigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigs
Dhidalah
Polymoon
Enigma Experience
Huntsmen
Love Machine

+ more to be announced

After two years without our beloved Desertfest happening, we need you more than ever. We can’t wait to see you all again to party, have some drinks and enjoy the finest of stoner, psychedelic, doom and heavy rock music!

Thank you so much for your continuous support and for holding on to your tickets. We want to give a little something back to you…

Existing weekend passes (3-days tickets) from 2020 will remain valid for the full 4 days in 2022 automatically. Yes, you will be granted access to ONE MORE FESTIVAL DAY ON TOP, FOR FREE!

We hope you’ll understand that there are logistical changes to the original 2020 line-up. Due to these challenges, existing 2020 single day ticket holders will be refunded for their chosen day. More info about our ticket-policy: www.desertfest.de/information

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www.desertfest.de
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Desertfest Berlin 2019 official aftermovie

SonicBlast Fest announced its 2021 edition was being postponed at the end of the month, and already they’re turning around and making a first announcement for 2022. That’s kind of comforting. Some of these acts — looking at you, Psychlona — have been waiting to play the Portugal-based festival since being announced for 2020 — but barring disaster, there’s a reasonable expectation that 2022 might be a return year, so in addition to them, SonicBlast Fest 2022 is rolling out the formidable likes of Green Lung, Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Weedeater, 1000mods, The Machine, Samavayo, The Devil and the Almighty Blues, Tia Carrera, Slift, and a ton of others with more to come. If you’re going to do a thing, get in there and do it.

Tickets are on sale now, or if you’ve already got them either for 2020 or 2021, they’ll carry over. 2020 was supposed to be my year to hit this fest, as well as a whole bunch of others. So it goes. If you make it to Âncora for the three-dayer next August, you go with my respect and admiration, and no shortage of jealousy.

Lineup info follows here, as per socials:

Come fanatics, come to the sabbath

We’re totally psyched to announce Electric Wizard, Weedeater, Pentagram (official), 1000mods, W.I.T.C.H We Intend To Cause Havoc, Night Beats, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Meatbodies, SLIFT, The Devil And The Almighty Blues, BALA, Mythic Sunship, GREEN LUNG, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Psychlona, Toxic Shock, The Machine, Tia Carrera, The Goners, Samavayo, Rosy Finch, We Hunt Buffalo and 24/7 DIVA HEAVEN to SonicBlast Fest 2022.

*** more to be announced soon***

SonicBlast Fest 2022
11, 12 and 13th August
Praia da Duna dos Caldeirões
Âncora, Portugal

Tickets bought for the 2021 edition are automatically valid for 2022.

Tickets are now on sale at BOL (Fnac, Worten, Ctt’s…)
or at https://garboyl.bol.pt/Comprar/Bilhetes/92523-sonicblast_festival_2022_full_festival_ticket-garboyl_lives/Sessoes
and Masqueticket https://www.masqueticket.com/entrada/835-sonicblast-fest-2022

Artwork by Branca Studio
Supported by Antena 3

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Psychlona, “Resin” official video

It’s good to see you again, Desertfest London. The 2022 lineup of the esteemed British edition of Desertfest brings some returning presences who were to have been at the 2020 edition, then the 2021 — both of course gone the way of corona. But we see Electric Wizard, Shellac and Witchcraft in headlining spots, while Corrosion of Conformity will bring their delayed 25th anniversary of Deliverance to Camden Town, and returning kingpins Orange Goblin will play, along with YOB, Truckfighters, Earthless, My Sleeping Karma, Mos Generator, Conan, The Obsessed, the reunited Josiah, Lowrider come for a Refractions victory lap well earned, along with Elephant Tree, Elder, Steak, Deathrite and a ton from the UK’s own ever-blossoming underground scene — Blind Monarch, The Brothers Keg, King Witch, the more established Alunah and Trippy Wicked, and so on and so many.

Note Slomosa. Note Wolftooth. I would expect both to be touring Europe around this time. Green Lung too, for that matter.

There’s no way this isn’t going to be one to remember and it is my sincere hope to be there for it. Maybe I’ll see you there. Maybe we can hug.

Kudos and thanks to the Desertscene crew — Sarika, Jake and Reece — on and for a job well done.

Here’s looking forward:

DESERTFEST LONDON ANNOUNCE FULL LINE-UP FOR 2022 ·

A DECADE IN THE DESERT
CELEBRATING TEN YEARS WITH THE BIGGEST & MOST DIVERSE LINEUP YET

EXCLUSIVE UK PERFORMANCES FROM
WITCHCRAFT
(FIRST UK SHOW IN OVER A DECADE)
and
SHELLAC

As the home for all the things truly heavy, leading independent UK festival Desertfest have announced their full line up for 2022, which will take place in Camden, London from Friday 29th April – Sunday 1st May.

Celebrating their tenth year, next year’s festival promises to be their biggest and most diverse yet. Covering six venues across the heart of Camden and now including a full line up at The Roundhouse on both Saturday 30thApril and Sunday 1st May.

Founding owner of Desertfest Reece Tee comments, “Desertfest is 10 years old! I’m so proud that our independent festival has stood the test of time. What we have created is special, a decade of great bands, great friends and amazing memories. This year’s line up is a true reflection of how diverse Desertfest has become and with such a loyal audience, Desertfest can champion the underground for decades more to come.”

Headlining the Friday will be Swedish heavy rock masters Witchcraft, with a UK exclusive performance and their first UK show in over a decade.
Saturday’s headliners are none other than Chicago’s Shellac, who in another UK exclusive will be bringing their experimental post-hardcore sound to the Roundhouse. Fronted by the iconic Steve Albini, Shellac are one of those bands we all need to experience live, at least once. Whilst closing the festival on Sunday will be UK doom legends Electric Wizard, whose heavy sound encompasses the spirit of Desertfest.

Other acts confirmed include the likes of Corrosion Of Conformity, Orange Goblin and Truckfighters who all played the festival in its debut year in 2012 and there are further UK exclusive performances from hardcore-punks Integrity and the Ukrainian psych space rock trio Somali Yacht Club.

The festival will also see desert legends Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri’s new band Stoner, who will be playing the Electric Ballroom and doomed heavy metallers Khemmis making their UK debut at The Underworld.

Please see below for the full Desertfest 2022 line up / stage splits.
Tickets are on sale now and are available at www.desertfest.co.uk

NEW TICKETS FOR 2022
Weekend Ticket (all venues) – £132 +fees
Friday Day Ticket (all venues) – £45 +fees
Saturday Day Ticket (all venues) – £50 +fees
Sunday Day Ticket (all venues) – £50 +fees
Saturday Roundhouse only – £35 +fees
Existing ticket holders from 2020’s postponed event have a number of options as the festival is now larger, with an added Roundhouse line-up on Saturday 30th April & Sunday 1st May.

EXISTING WEEKEND + DAY TICKET HOLDERS OPTIONS
Full refund
Weekend roll-over to 2022 without Roundhouse upgrade (access only to Electric Ballroom, Underworld, Black Heart & The Dev)
Weekend roll-over to 2022 with Roundhouse upgrade – £15 +fees
Day ticket holders can upgrade to a full weekend ticket – £92 + fees – or will be issued a refund. Upgrade options only available until May 7th ’21.
For any ticketing enquiries please contact sarika@desertscene.co.uk

Desertfest 2022’s artwork is hand drawn by legendary artist Arik Roper who has created illustrations for the likes of Sleep, Earth, Sunn O))), High on Fire, Kvelertak, Windhand and many more. As always, posters and other merch will be available to buy at the festival.

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Electric Wizard, Live at Desertfest London 2016