I was lucky enough to witness a few badass CMJ showcases back in the day that are imprinted as fuzzy memories on my frontal cortex, but for the life of me I can’t think of another NYC-based heavy-fest lineup that can step to what Desertfest New York has in store for Queens next month. Look at those day-splits. The outside stage along on that Saturday, with Dozer and Truckfighers, Hippie Death Cult, Gozu and Kadabra, while inside you’ve got Spaceslug, Eagle Twin, Green Lung, Acid King and Russian Circles? God damn. Plus a Texas (the smaller) stage with, suitably, High Desert Queen alongside NYC mainstays Tower, the punishing industrialism of Trace Amount, Benin and The Infinity Ring.

And that’s following up on the brutality the day before that starts with Guhts in the small room and ends with High on Fire trampling the main stage with Domkraft and Deathchant and Primitive Man and Blackwater Holylight and Spirit Mother and Abrams and Belzebong and Amenra between. As one might otherwise say about Desertfest London, bloody hell that’s a good bill.

A big question, of course, around NYC-heavy-anything in 2024 has been what’s happening since the Saint Vitus Bar got shut down. If you had your fingers crossed the city’s most famed metal venue — which has hosted Desertfest New York‘s pre-show as a point of tradition for the last few years — would be open in time to do so again, you can go back to using your hands. With Legions of Doom, Satan’s Satyrs (including Sean Saley on drums; he’s ex-Pentagram and a bunch of others), Mirror Queen and Mustafina will be at The Meadows. I’m sure it’ll still be a good time, if tinged with some bittersweet aspect in light of the context.

But one way or the other, this is nigh on unfuckwithable, and a festival that NYC should consider itself lucky to host. Yeah I fucking said it. I meant it, too.

From social media:

** DESERTFEST NYC ANNOUNCES STAGE SPLITS, ADDITIONAL 3-DAY PASSES AND FINAL 3 ARTISTS. PLUS PRE-PARTY VENUE DETAILS**

Alright Desertfesters, the time has come for our final announcements ahead of the festival – stage splits are here and so are some tasty final additions to our 2024 lineup. Unfortunately, True Widow have had to pull out of the festival due to illness.

HOWEVER, taking their place is none other than Salt Lake City’s duo of doom Eagle Twin !

We also warmly welcome New England drone/dark folk collective THE INFINITY RING and Brooklyn’s own experimental harsh industrialist TRACE AMOUNT to Saturday’s compelling ‘Vitus Presents’ curation on the Texas stage.

::PRE-PARTY UPDATE:: aka, the news you’ve all been waiting for…

We can now confirm our 2024 pre-party will take place at The Meadows in Brooklyn. This means we can release a limited amount of additional 3-day passes thanks to The Meadows’ larger capacity. We know a lot of you were bummed to miss out on the 3-day passes, so we’re stoked that we can now accommodate more of y’all for the full DF experience!

With just over a month to go til the festival, we couldn’t be more excited to start counting down the days til showtime this September.

Day tickets, 3-day & 2-day passes for Desertfest NYC are available at https://link.dice.fm/desertfest2024. JOIN US!

Stage times, info on this year’s vendors and after parties will be released in the coming weeks.

Desertfest NYC ↠ Sep 12th -14th, 2024
The Meadows (Sep 12th)
Knockdown Center (Sep 13th – 14th)

Tickets ↠ https://link.dice.fm/desertfest2024

https://facebook.com/Desertfestnyc/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_nyc/
http://www.desertfestnewyork.com

Eagle Twin, The Thundering Heard (Songs of Hoof and Horn) (2018)

I had already nestled into my not-going-to-Roadburn-this-year melancholy, but a couple weeks ago, I actually got invited to go. And I’m going. It’ll be my first time in Tilburg since 2019, my first Roadburn of the post-pandemic heaviness-redefining era, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. Not knowing most of the artists isn’t a big deal — Roadburn delights in ground-floor introductions and is happy to make them without judgement — but I’ll be in a place that I used to very much think of as a kind of home for the first time in five years. What if it doesn’t feel like home anymore?

I have no logical answer for why it wouldn’t — usually an invitation is a decent sign you’re wanted somewhere, and I’ll say outright that neither the Roadburn Festival as an entity nor any individual or group involved with it has any need of me there — I edited the daily fest ‘zine for years with Lee from The Sleeping Shaman, but that’s long gone and I figured I was with it. Even having that as a place to contribute felt pretty tertiary to the experience of being there, but it was part of the thing. Do you think they’d still let me in the 013 office at 10AM each morning to drink coffee and shoot the shit? Yeah, probably not.

It will be an adventure in where-to-put-myself, but Roadburn‘s got pockets for even the most misanthropic of us to dwell for a few days, and I know once I get there and the music starts everything will be okay. I very much look forward to that. Thank you Roadburn for having me.

Their latest announcement follows. Also note that Inter Arma, whose New Heaven LP was announced today, were already confirmed to play the album in full at Roadburn 2024:

Roadburn adds 16 new names to the 2024 lineup including King Yosef, Lord Spikeheart, HIDE, Brigid Mae Power, Hilary Woods and more

Roadburn has today announced the final names for the main musical programme of the 2024 edition of the festival. The festival’s side programme, art exhibitions and Paradox jazz club artists are still to be announced for the festival, which will take place between 18-21 April in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers, comments:
The line-up for Roadburn 2024 is finally complete. We are immensely proud of the diverse array of artists that we have gathered, and we feel that we are channeling past, present and future artistically, musically and spiritually. We can’t wait to explore and discover everything that is in store and celebrate our beloved underground together with all of you.

—

Brigid Mae Power will deliver alchemical incantations and dreamy folk-pop melodies.

Channeling intensity and vulnerability, deathcrash’s slowcore will be a welcome addition.

Fear Falls Burning will premiere new music in the form of their new album, The Principle Flaw.

Gros Coeur are set to bring a psychedelic rainbow of sound to Roadburn.

With a new album on the way, Habitants will make their Roadburn debut this year.

Den Haag’s Heath promise “odd time signatures, blazing harmonica and hypnotic guitars” and more!

HIDE will bring their uncompromising live performance to Roadburn for the first time.

Fresh from the success of her latest release, Acts of Light, Hilary Woods will perform at Roadburn 2024.

Bringing a heady blend of industrial noise, hip hop to Roadburn is King Yosef.

Lord Spikeheart will make his Roadburn debut as a solo artist, performing music from his brand new album.

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys have been highly praised for their live show which will make its way to Roadburn this April.

Tilburg’s own Mirusi Mergina will present an experimental mix of whispers and soundscapes.

Neptunian Maximalism will present their ambitious and expansive new album Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu.

Having previously performed at Roadburn with his band, Tau and the Drones of Praise, Seán Mulrooney will return for a solo performance.

The Infinity Ring will head to Europe for the first time and perform at Roadburn 2024.

Throwing Bricks seek to find joy in heaviness and combine elements of punk, black metal, screamo and sludge.

The Spark, Roadburn’s Wednesday night pre-festival party, was recently announced featuring performances from Final Gasp, Sonja, and Riot City.

The above artists join a line-up that includes The Jesus And Mary Chain, Khanate, Chelsea Wolfe, Lankum, Clipping., Blood Incantation, Health, Royal Thunder, Hexvessel, Dool, Inter Arma, Agriculture, Fluisteraars, and many, many more. More artists will be announced in the coming weeks. For all information including tickets, please visit www.roadburn.com

https://www.facebook.com/roadburnfestival/
http://www.instagram.com/roadburnfest
http://www.roadburn.com

Gros Coeur, Gros Disque (2023)