A full 16 bands will play Doomlines VIII this July in Sheffield, UK, with France’s Slift and the heavy-meets-aggro Heriot headlining and support from the not-slouching-either-in-the-pissed-off-department Slabdragger and Bismarck (making the trip from Norway), as well as Ba‘al, Gozer, Volcanova (from Iceland), among others. It’s an all-dayer, and I’m not sure it’s actually possible to watch 16 bands in a span of 10 hours, even across two stages, but don’t quote me on that because some crazy bastard might just do it. Given the acts involved, it would be fun to try.

I know these days aren’t exactly short on fest news — this isn’t even the only post today about a festival lineup adding bands — but in addition to having that little foot kicking the back of my brain to force the memory of live-music-less lockdown out of the corner into which I’ve repressed it, I’ll say too that these events are worth celebrating because they show how much heart and passion goes into supporting this music.

Even ‘successful’ festivals can be a non-lucrative nightmare to book, and pretty much the only reason ever to engage the process of putting something like this together is because you believe deeply in it. So yeah, while there’s about a zero percent chance I’ll be there to see Doomlines VIII in July, I’m glad to support the support. And hey, it’s a big internet. Maybe you’re somewhere on the planet where buying a ticket makes sense, be it in or around Sheffield or in a place from which you might be up for traveling.

Tickets are on sale, and here’s the announcement from the fest:

DOOMLINES 2023 – 23rd July

Doomlines enters its eighth year with our biggest lineup yet – the only place to be for fans of heavy during Tramlines 2023.

Ticket link: https://corporation.org.uk/event/doomlines/
Venue: Corporation, Sheffield, UK
Date: 23rd July 2023

We have stunning international talent alongside the best of the Sheffield and wider UK underground, covering doom, sludge, stoner, psych and more. Without further ado, feast your eyes on:

Psych rock titans, SLIFT (France) perform their only Northern UK date of the year. Alongside them witness meteoric British newcomers, Heriot. That’s on top of Slabdragger, Bismarck (Norway), The Infernal Sea, Thank, Longheads, Crepitation, ATVM, Volcanova (Iceland), Ba’al, Lowen, Gozer, Bodach, Chapel Floods and Le Menhir.

Doors open at 12:30 on the Sunday of Tramlines (23rd July), meaning wall to wall bands across two stages until 10:30pm, no clashes, no BS. With food stalls (plant-based options included) and merch, you won’t need to leave Corporation for anything. Situated within walking distance of Sheffield’s train and bus stations, we look forward to welcoming fans from outside the city. If visiting, it’s recommended to book accommodation ASAP.

We also have the Warm Up Show on Friday (21st July) featuring Diploid (Australia), Dead In Latvia, Casing and Void Maw. Damn son.

See you there.

FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/3420066691566268/

https://www.facebook.com/churchoftheholyspider
https://www.instagram.com/holyspiderpromo/
https://holyspiderpromotions.bigcartel.com/

Heriot, “Demure” official video

Staring at the poster of the finished lineup, there’s nothing more to do than congratulate the Desertscene crew on Desertfest London 2023. You could spend an entire day at any single stage in any single venue and call it front-to-back a good time. I’ve been posting festival lineups for Desertfest since it started in 2012 and this is the biggest and best it’s ever been. If you’re going, I’ll tell you flat out I’m jealous. It looks like it will be an amazing experience, and right up to the last lineup announcement, it’s quality as much as quantity when it comes to who is playing, on what stage, and when. It is the heavy festival ideal; a lineup that crosses generations and geographies to give those fortunate enough to be there something they’ll never forget.

So that’s it. Go if you can. Here’s the reportedly final update:

Desertfest London announces final bands and day splits for 2023, including Nebula, Dozer, Fatso Jetson + more

Friday 5th May – Sunday 7th May 2023

Weekend and day tickets on sale now via www.desertfest.co.uk

Desertfest London have announced the final bands and day-splits for 2023’s line-up, which will be taking place across Camden from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th May and promises to be heavier than the King’s coronation crown.

The final few bands to join the already stellar line-up includes the heavy groove rocking trio Nebula, Sweden’s stalwarts of stoner Dozer and the godfathers of the Desert Fatso Jetson. French post-metallers Year Of No Light will also be playing their first London show since 2013.

Also joining the line-up is Antwerp’s Gnome who will bring their dirty riffs, anarcho-punks Bad Breeding to get everyone fired up and acclaimed virtuoso Cellist Jo Quail to bring another dynamic to proceedings.

Electric Funeral will also be keeping the party going with a Sabbath covers set at Friday night’s after party and the festival is completed with Elder Druid, Kurokuma, Firebreather, Earth Moves, Untitled With Drums, Graywave, Mountains, Rosy Finch, Lowen, Homecoming, Wall and Death Wvrm.

Weekend and day tickets are available via www.desertfest.co.uk

The final additions join festival headliners and cult heroes Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats who will be playing the Roundhouse for the very first time. As one of the most widely-requested bands in the Desertfest-sphere, Uncle Acid’s trippy and melodic riff-driven hard-rock is uniquely original, yet an utterly timeless beast and will close Desertfest 2023 in a mystical cloud of doom and awe.

Friday’s headliners are none other than Swedish heavy-blues maestros Graveyard who will draw out raw emotion with their lyrical prowess & introspective compositions whilst Saturday welcomes back Corrosion of Conformity who have not been on UK soil since 2018 so expect big, loud and memorable things from their appearance at the festival!

Full Line-Up for Desertfest London 2023:

FRIDAY 5TH MAY
ELECTRIC BALLROOM
GRAVEYARD
KADAVAR
CHURCH OF MISERY
VALLEY OF THE SUN
SPACESLUG
ELECTRIC FUNERAL (AFTER PARTY)

UNDERWORLD
DISCHARGE
BAD BREEDING
DAWN RAY’D
KUROKUMA
TERROR COSMICO

POWERHAUS
YEAR OF NO LIGHT
SUM OF R
EARTH MOVES
WYATT E
IRON JINN

BLACK HEART
ECSTATIC VISION
PLAINRIDE
LONGHEADS
VINNUM SABBATHI
GNOB
MARGARITA WITCH CULT

THE DEV
DOMMENGANG
UNTITLED WITH DRUMS
MOUNTAINS
TROY THE BAND
DEATH WVRM

SATURDAY 6TH MAY
ELECTRIC BALLROOM
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY
CROWBAR
WEEDEATER
DOZER
FASTO JETSON

UNDERWORLD
UNSANE
INTER ARMA
GRAVE LINES
STAKE
TUSKAR
WREN

POWERHAUS
CHURCH OF THE COSMIC SKULL
TELEKINETIC YETI
THE NECROMANCERS
DEATHCHANT
EARLY MOODS

BLACK HEART
SAMAVAYO
HIGH DESERT QUEEN
MR BISON
OUR MAN IN THE BRONZEAGE
TREVOR’S HEAD
TONS

THE DEV
ELDER DRUID
OREYEON
ROSY FINCH
LOWEN
HOMECOMING

SUNDAY 7TH MAY
ROUNDHOUSE
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS
BORIS
KING BUFFALO
NEBULA
BLOOD CEREMONY

UNDERWORLD
SOMALI YACHT CLUB
GAUPA
MARS RED SKY
GNOME
WEEDPECKER
ACID MAMMOTH
GREAT ELECTRIC QUEST (AFTER PARTY)

POWERHAUS
BIG|BRAVE
JO QUAIL
ZETRA
EVEREST QUEEN
GRAYWAVE

BLACK HEART
CELESTIAL SANCTURY
MORASS OF MOLASSES
WARREN SCHOENBRIGHT
VENOMWOLF
BLOODSWAMP
BLACK GROOVE

THE DEV
THUNDER HORSE
FIREBREATHER
THE AGE OF TRUTH
EARL OF HELL
WALL

http://www.desertscene.co.uk/support
https://www.facebook.com/DesertfestLondon
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_london/
https://twitter.com/DesertFest
https://www.desertfest.co.uk/

This looks utterly doable. You get into London maybe Friday morning, find your way to Hackney and the Oslo venue in time for the start, check out a few killers on Friday, then spend Saturday and Sunday fully immersed in the front-to-back, digging on the variety mostly of London’s own heavy underground, but certainly from some outside as well. I kind of feel like every time Slomatics book a show at this point I end up writing about it one way or the other — they mostly play fests, so it’s almost true — but along the top line here with them is Gnome — as seen on many 2023 lineups — Conan and Esoteric. That’s a strong argument already, but with the likes of Josiah and Desert Storm and Old Horn Tooth further down the bill there’s more to dig into than headliners to be sure. If you haven’t heard Goblinsmoker yet and want a tutorial on UK sludge, they’re glad to offer.

If I had more money than gawd and fewer responsibilities than I do, this would be the kind of thing I’d pop over to hang out at. It’s not about big bands or any kind of pretense or whatever. It’s just a killer assemblage playing out over what’ll be a good weekend for those fortunate enough to see it. Some familiar, some newer acts, just the way it should be. Nothing more to ask.

Tickets are available, and the venue’s right by Hackney Central train station and there’s a Travelodge there and a Tesco down the road, so if you’re looking to set up shop coming in from out of town, it’s doable. Full lineup follows:

We’re back in the ring to take another swing!

London Doom Collective are proud to bring you the best of the underground doom/stoner/sludge with Master of the Riff II

Get your tickets here: https://www.wegottickets.com/f/12938

Friday
-Gnome
-Josiah
-Dvde
-Sky Valley Mistress

Saturday
-Conan
-Slomatics
-Wallowing
-Dessert Storm
-The Brothers Keg
-Old Horn Tooth
-Warpstormer
-Troy the Band

Sunday
-Estoteric
-Pantheïst
-Goblinsmoker
-Purple Kong
-Blood Wolf Moon
-Lowen
-Gévaudan
-The Day of Locusts
-Flamebearer

Door Times:
Friday – 5:30pm
Saturday & Sunday – 1:00pm

10pm Curfew

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/411310671167720

Josiah, We Lay on Cold Stone (2022)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Nina Saeidi of Lowen

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I am the front-person and manager of the Middle Eastern prog doom band Lowen. I sing in Farsi, Sumerian, Akkadian and English using traditional Iranian techniques and instruments amidst crushing guitars and bass.

The band started when I met our now-guitarist in the front row of an Akercocke show in London and told him I’d always wanted to make heavy music that was rooted in the eastern music I grew up hearing. Nine months later we found that we had written our debut album A Crypt in the Stars.

Describe your first musical memory.

I was three years old and my chubby legs were dangling off a piano stool as a teacher splayed my awkward child-hands out across the keys. I was overwhelmed by the size and distance of everything about the piano and the way the stool engulfed me in the plain white practise room above a music shop that smelled like rosin and fresh instrument cases.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I simply can’t pick a single moment that stands out as I have so many incredible memories. All of them share a single theme of feeling immense connection with others, be they other musicians or people who I have met at shows. The uniting force of music is something for which I am incredibly grateful.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I never believed someone like me could be in a heavy metal band. I didn’t think anyone would care about Middle Eastern prog doom. My belief in that has been fully tested and flipped around, and I am so glad for it.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hopefully it leads to more art.

How do you define success?

In the context of music I would define it as having the means to produce your work with less financial and psychological stress and resistance.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

People defending racism in music.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I would love to make an extended music video that functions as a short film in the style of Jodorowsky.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Alain de Botton describes art as advertising for what we really need, for the most important ideas in the world. I think his definition is the closest to the truth of what it is and how it functions.

I believe that art is expression captured and then distorted through the interpretation of an audience. The essential function of this is the creation of connection. All communication contains distortion through some loss of intended meaning, yet art is the purest attempt to do so. It can supercharge empathy, compassion, healing and understanding. Essentially this can change the mind and change the world.

The most important function of art is to communicate the essence of what it is to be human, as well as what it is to be a better human.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I absolutely cannot wait for the new Wheel of Time series and the next instalment of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson! It has been such a great year for fantasy and science fiction. With the next Dune film coming out in 2023 it feels good to know that there are a lot of great things coming to keep us enthralled until then.

https://www.facebook.com/Lowenband/
https://www.instagram.com/lowen_band/
https://www.lowen.bandcamp.com

Lowen, Unceasing Lamentations (2021)