Don’t tell Keep it Low, but I’ve had a secret crush on the Munich-based Fall fest from Sound of Liberation pretty much since its outset. The look has gotten a little different over time, a little more in line now with the likes of Up in Smoke or Desertfest Belgium, but the vibe has always struck me as laid back even on the scale of pro-shop Euro heavyfests, and once again I find myself looking at the poster, seeing the bands getting added — in this case: My Sleeping Karma, Mondo Generator, Psychlona, Ritual King, Kant, Bikini Beach and Thra — and daydreaming of an absconding that’s not to be. Another year, another Keep it Low as my loss.

But it’s a win if you’re headed there, from Graveyard and Bongripper and Colour Haze‘s annual hometown throwdown to Blue Heron and Hidas and whoever’s still to come. You’ve got Conan and Lowrider and Kanaan and High Desert Queen and, well, yeah. Imagine taking two days of your life and dedicating them to the purpose of experiencing this thing. Just for a minute, think about it. Here’s the poster with the full list of names as it stands and the latest short announcement from the festival, which is set for Oct. 10 and 11 at Backstage, again in Munich, which does have its own international airport:

KEEP IT LOW 2025 – ⚡️NEW BANDS ANNOUNCED!⚡️

Hey Keepers,

More sonic firepower incoming – 7 new bands are joining the Keep It Low Festival 2025 lineup!

My Sleeping Karma
Mondo Generator
Psychlona
Kant
Ritual King
Bikini Beach
Thra

Prepare for psychedelic journeys, desert grooves, and crushing heaviness! 🔥

Hosted by Sound Of Liberation (Desertfest Berlin, Up In Smoke, Lazy Bones Fest a.o.), Keep It Low will be taking place between 10. – 11. October 2025 at Backstage.

Join the Facebook event for more updates at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1200732624331625

Tickets are on sale at: www.sol-tickets.com

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/
http://www.sol-tickets.com

My Sleeping Karma, “Ephedra” live at Desertfest Berlin 2025

Five more names for the 11th edition of Munich’s Keep it Low Festival, set for this Oct. 10-11 as part of an always-busy Fall fest season in Europe. You can see the full lineup as it stands on the poster below — pretty gosh-darn sweet; good to see Colour Haze making their regularly scheduled hometown appearance at the fest; they’re kind of the unofficial house band, which is a major part of the reason I’ve always sweated attending this one — and the latest to be added to the mix are Lowrider, Bongripper, High Desert Queen, Blue Heron and Kanaan.

It’s ultimately a small contingent of the larger lineup, but a lot of fun to consider on its own, from a veteran act like Lowrider who don’t really tour at this point to the delightful contrast between Bongripper‘s malevolent crush and High Desert Queen‘s posi-outreach vibes, the jazzy instrumental prog of Kanaan and Blue Heron‘s imported-from-New-Mexico heavy desert vibes. Again, it’s part of the greater story of the diverse sounds Keep it Low has on offer for 2025, between Graveyard and The Obsessed and Siena Root and Conan, on and on, but emblematic of the whole just the same.

Confirmation came via the PR wire:

KEEP IT LOW FESTIVAL announces HIGH DESERT QUEEN, LOWRIDER, BONGRIPPER & more new band names for 2025!

Keep It Low – THE annual stoner, psych, rock, doom and sludge metal event in the heart of Munich, Germany, has announced new band names for its exciting, 10th anniversary edition in 2025!

High Desert Queen, Lowrider, Bongripper, Blue Heron and Kanaan will be joining previously-announced acts such as Graveyard, Masters Of Reality, Conan, Colour Haze, The Obsessed, Siena Root, Vintage Caravan and many more!

Hosted by Sound Of Liberation (Desertfest Berlin, Up In Smoke, Lazy Bones Fest a.o.), Keep It Low will be taking place between 10. – 11. October 2025 at Backstage.

Join the Facebook event for more updates at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1200732624331625

Tickets are on sale at: www.sol-tickets.com

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/
http://www.sol-tickets.com

Lowrider, Live at Hellfest 2022

If you’re the type who likes to take care of things early, well, you’re apparently in good company with the Munich-based Keep it Low Festival. The two-dayer fest, which is one of many under the umbrella of Sound of Liberation booking, is held annually in October, and that’s when it’s set to take place in 2024 as well, at Backstage in Munich on Oct. 11-12. Tickets, however, are on sale almost 10 full months early.

Why? I’m not sure, but I have a definite answer in “why the hell not?,” and I find that when I try to answer that question, I come up blank. So yeah, it seems like that’s really early, but on the other hand, why not put tickets for next year on sale while people are at the fest this year? It’s different, I don’t know if it’s been done before, but doesn’t that just make it a new idea, and is that something so terrible to be chasing down in a climate where live music is trying to draw people out of the entertainment hotbeds we’ve built in our homes?

I’ve gotten sidetracked from this lineup announcement, which came out the other day from Sound of Liberation and hints toward Fall 2024 European tours for at least Fu Manchu, Monolord, Truckfighters, Greenleaf, Messa and Psychlona, but I like to keep an eye for how things evolve from year to year and for all I know, Keep it Low has been doing this every year for the last decade (happy 10th anniversary, by the way) and I’m just picking up on it now because, well, I’m kinda slow sometimes, but it stood out to me as something you might not see all the time. And maybe you like to make early travel arrangements. I know I do.

From social media:

KEEP IT LOW 2024 – ⚡️FIRST BAND ANNOUNCEMENT & TICKETS ON SALE!⚡️

Hey Keepers,

we are super excited to present you the first bands for next year’s edition of the Keep It Low festival!🔥

Please welcome:

FU MANCHU
TRUCKFIGHTERS
MONOLORD
GREENLEAF
MESSA
WOLVENNEST
PSYCHLONA
APTERA
DJIIN
ZERRE
HECKSPOILER
MINDCRAWLER
& MANY MORE!

🎫Weekend tickets are available in our shop.
www.sol-tickets.com

Keep It Low Festival
10th anniversary
🗓️11 & 12 October 2024
📍Backstage Munich

Artwork by Sebastian Jerke

Cheers,
Your Keep It Low Crew

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/
http://www.sol-tickets.com

Greenleaf, Live at Desertfest Berlin 2023

The lineup for Keep it Low 2023 is finished with the last additions of Zeal and Ardor, a stopthrough from the Howling Giant and Heavy Temple tour, as well as a trio of bands from Germany in Morast, Instrument and Einseinseins. The former rest atop a wild bill, and anyone who would accuse heavy underground music of all sounding the same should go ahead and listen to the first five bands listed here in succession. Zeal and Ardor, Colour Haze, Mantar, The Obsessed and King Buffalo — it wouldn’t work as a Spotify playlist, or maybe it would, but it will make for a killer festival.

This is the ninth Keep it Low Festival, the vibe of which I’ve always found particularly alluring from a distance, and for what started as a kind of humble event, this looks pretty huge. It’s still at Backstage in Munich, so the amount of tickets available will be the same as ever, but even as the names get harder to read on the poster below, there’s good stuff to be had. I see The Moth and Lucid Void and Swan Valley Heights down there. It would be far too easy to do worse.

Sound of Liberation sent the following down the PR wire:

Hey friends,

We’re super stoked to present you the last bands for our beloved Keep It Low festival in Munich 2023, including the last headliner! (#128121#)

And alongside we must warn you: our 2-day-passes are almost sold out and you need to be fast if you want to enjoy the full weekend experience!

Please welcome:
ZEAL & ARDOR (CH)
HOWLING GIANT (US)
HEAVY TEMPLE (US)
MORAST (DE)
INSTRUMENT (DE)
EINSEINSEINS (DE)

We can’t wait for October to come!

Two days of heavy rock music, aftershow DJs, outdoor beergarden, “Doom Frühschoppen” & more!(#128640#)

06. – 07. Oct 2023
Backstage
Munich (DE)

Grab your tickets at:
www.sol-tickets.com

This is our last call for weekend tickets!

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/
http://www.sol-tickets.com

Howling Giant, Glass Future (2023)

And so the Fall tourscape continues to unfold. King Buffalo heading abroad again is news, I think. They’re playing RippleFest Texas at the end of September, and between Keep it Low 2023 on Oct. 6-7 and the also-Sound–of–Liberation-affiliated Lazy Bones Festival in Hamburg, for which they were confirmed last week, it looks like they’ll once more spend at least the better part of a month on the road. Good to know these things.

Joining them in this whopper of an announcement is the e’er aggro Mantar, reinvigorated doom legends The Obsessed — who seem to be hitting the touring circuit that much harder with their revamped lineup — the reliably-unhinged Eyehategod, upstart rockers Slomosa, and Humulus, Dirty Sound Magnet, The Moth (who rule and hopefully have a new record coming), Eremit, Lucid Void and masked marauders Iron Walrus. It’s a busy one, but check out the generational blend between the likes of Colour Haze, The Obsessed, Eyehategod and Alabama Thunderpussy and the likes of Slomosa, King Buffalo, and Lucid Void.

Seems to me like we’re in a pretty killer moment of established acts still getting out and releasing quality material (The Obsessed have a new album that hopefully will be out concurrent to this tour) and newer bands on the rise. As the 2020s play out post-pandemic, this may be the shape of the next few years. Let’s learn from the past and support the shit out of the next generation of bands, hmm?

Here’s the latest:

NEW BANDS ADDED TO KEEP IT LOW FESTIVAL 2023

Hey Keepers,

we’re super stoked to present you the latest additions to our Keep It Low line up!

Please welcome to the bill:

MANTAR
The Obsessed
King Buffalo
EYEHATEGOD
Slomosa
Dirty Sound Magnet
Humulus
THE MOTH
Eremit
Lucid Void
IRON WALRUS

FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1511616365992301

Complete line-up:
COLOUR HAZE – MANTAR – THE OBSESSED – KING BUFFALO – EYEHATEGOD – ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY – BELZEBONG – SLOMOSA – THRONEHAMMER – DAILY THOMPSON – DIRTY SOUND MAGNET – HUMULUS – THE MOTH – EREMIT – LUCID VOID – IRON WLARUS

& MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED

Weekend tickets are available in our shop.
www.sol-tickets.com

Keep It Low Festival
6. & 7. October 2023
Backstage Munich

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/
http://www.sol-tickets.com

King Buffalo, “Firmament” live in St. Louis, MO, Jan. 15, 2023

The ninth edition of the of the Munich-based Keep it Low Festival will be held on Oct. 6 and 7 at Backstage, and it has unveiled the first five acts who will take part. At the top of the bill is hometown heroes Colour Haze, who’ve been a steady presence through the years and are as close to a given as Keep it Low gets. Belzebong, Thronehammer and Daily Thompson between them showcase a range of heavy styles within the genre sphere, none unwelcome on any of Europe’s many, many festival bills. The big surprise of the bunch is Alabama Thunderpussy, who join the lineup for Keep it Low 2023 after playing a reunion show in December of last year (review here) in their native Richmond, Virginia.

I don’t know whether the resurgent ATP will tour Europe or are flying over for this one show, but I wouldn’t be surprised either way. Keep it Low is early in announcing for the Fall season — though it’s not the first to do so; Høstsabbat in Norway has been unveiling its lineup and Desertfest Belgium has been moving toward doing so as well, as it and Switzerland’s Up in Smoke have their dates set — so we’ll see in probably the next two months or so how it’s all going to shake out, who’ll be on tour and when, and so on.

The start of that process is always exciting, though I’ll note that we as a species are moving closer toward a time when festival season doesn’t exist and there’s just something happening every weekend somewhere throughout Europe. I won’t complain when we get there.

Word from Sound of Liberation follows:

Hey Keepers,

we are super excited to present you the first bands for this year’s edition of the Keep It Low festival!

Please welcome:

Colour Haze
Alabama Thunderpussy
Belzebong
Thronehammer
Daily Thompson

& this is just a little glimpse of what we are cooking.

Get ready for a mighty 2023 line up!

Stay tuned!

Weekend tickets are available in our shop.
www.sol-tickets.com

Keep It Low Festival
6. & 7. October 2023
Backstage Munich

Cheers
Your Keep It Low Crew

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Alabama Thunderpussy, Live in Richmond, VA, Dec. 3, 2022

I have said so many times in the past, but of all the festivals throughout any given ‘normal’ year in the sphere of Sound of Liberation‘s booking itinerary, I always wanted to go to Keep it Low in Munich. Yeah, part of that is because Colour Haze regularly shows up — kind of the house band — and any opportunity you can take advantage of to see them in your life is a thing worth doing, but also the general vibe of the artwork, what seems like kind of a laid back feel and intention. At this point it’s been going on long enough (without me in attendance) that I’m sure a community of familiar faces has been built up, and as the first lineup announcement for Keep it Low 2022 on Oct. 7 & 8 comes out, I’m in the same boat as ever thinking that if this was the complete festival, done, one shot, blamo, then you’d say it was looking to be a killer couple days in Germany.

That Friday lineup is unstoppable, and Saturday is more populated but right behind it with Fu Manchu and Unida at the top of the bill so far and a reunion slot for The Great Escape (feat. members of My Sleeping Karma), as well as US imports like The Heavy Eyes, High Reeper and Hippie Death Cult (waiting for that tour announcement any minute now). Maybe they’ll all go together and call it the Triple-H tour, thereby proving that they too remember pro wrestling in the mid-1990s.

Alright, maybe not. Either way, with more to come, here’s what the fest has to say about its own badass doings:

KEEP IT LOW – LINE-UP NEWS & SINGLE DAY TICKETS ON SALE

Dear Keepers,

today we’re happy to reveal the first bands for our upcoming Keep it Low festival 2022! Additionally, Single-Day Tickets are now on sale!

Check it out:

FRIDAY 7th OCTOBER

Orange Goblin
UFOMAMMUT
Sasquatch
Naxatras
Slomosa
hellamor

SATURDAY 8th OCTOBER

Fu Manchu
Unida
The Heavy Eyes
HIGH REEPER
Hippie Death Cult
Vvlva
The Great Escape
Mindcrawler
The Kupa Pities
Dead Taste

EVENT
https://www.facebook.com/events/975025036197960/

TICKETS
http://www.sol-tickets.com

We can’t wait to see you all!

Cheers,
Your KIL Crew

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Orange Goblin, Live at Hellfest 2022

Calling it right now: there’s gonna be a new Samsara Blues Experiment album out by the time they get to Munich for the 2020 edition of Keep it Low Festival. Do I know that? Hell no. Not at all. I have no such knowledge, and even if I did — mind you I don’t, at all, really; that’s not me being coy, I actually don’t fucking know — but they’re not a band who just get out and do fests on a whim. Now, I don’t necessarily know if they’ll be on tour for four weeks and hit all the Euro fests happening at that time, whereas I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Yawning Man pop up on other lineups in addition to this one — I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a new record out too, while I’m thinking about it — but it was late-2018 when they said they were getting to work on a follow-up to 2017’s One with the Universe (review here), so it doesn’t at all seem unreasonable to think that record will come to fruition by this Fall.

I don’t know that. But I’m calling it now. If it doesn’t happen, I probably won’t remind you that I said it would. Ha.

Greece’s Last Rizla and Germany’s Chang and Mindcrawler have also signed on to play, and you’ll find the full announcement from the fest below. You’ll note there’s no mention of a new Samsara Blues Experiment album. Nothing: that’s exactly what they would say if it was going to happen.

From thee social medias:

Keepers,

We know that October is quite far away, but we just can’t help it! It’s our pleasure to welcome 5 more killer acts to Keep It Low Festival 2020!

Samsara Blues Experiment (GER)
Yawning Man (US)
Last Rizla (GRE)
Chang (GER)
Mindcrawler (GER)

We hope you like this announcement as much as we do!

2-day tickets are selling fast and there aren’t many left, so don’t sleep on that and get yours here:

Tickets available here:

https://www.sol-tickets.com/produkte/51-tickets-keep-it-low-festival-2020-feierwerk-area-muenchen-am-09-10-2020

https://woolheads.com/product/keep-it-low-festivalticket-weekend-2020

https://www.eventim.de/artist/keep-it-low-festival/

https://www.facebook.com/events/975025036197960/
https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Samsara Blues Experiment, One with the Universe (2017)