It was like two weeks ago that The Knights of Doom 2026 — the inaugural edition of a two-dayer put on by JB Matson and the crew from Maryland Doom Fest, which ended its decade-plus run in 2025 — announced the first names for its lineup. The full bill has been revealed since, and if you’re getting mini-MDDF vibes off the list of names, many of whom are veterans of past years, I don’t think that’s unfair, but there are some newcomers as well. And if you do some quick division on 35 bands over two days, you know that’s 17.5 per day — actually it’s 16 on June 20 and 19 on June 21; yes I had to count — so those days are probably going to start early, go late, and be jam-packed in a spirit that should be familiar to anyone who hit MDDF during its time.

You can see how this might go, right? Folks show up for the family reunion — and MDDF was very, very much that; a more loyal crew would be hard to find on the Eastern Seaboard if you even deigned to look — and bands get added. This year is two days. It’s got room to grow, and I don’t know if it will — on some level, these folks have been-there-done-that in terms of building a festival culture and vibe, let alone managing four days’ worth of logistics with 50-plus bands shuffling about — but this will be the starting point one way or the other. It can only happen first once, and with love and respect for many in that family from a little ways north, I hope it goes off without a hitch.

The announcements were made on social media:

💀KNIGHTS OF DOOM ‘26 final band dump / rosters / complete lineup!!!

Early bird discounted ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mddf-knights-of-doom-early-bird-discounted-tickets-tickets-1980654877055

Lets go!!!!!!

June 20:

Wolftooth, Vanishing Kids, Foghound, Crop, Moonsinger, Uga Buga, Clamfight, Sun Voyager, Locust Pointe, End of Age, Thunderbird Divine, Black Manta, Bog Wizard, Faith in Jane, Black Night, Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf

June 21:

Lie Heavy, Borracho, Stone Nomads, Curse the Son, Bloodshot, Stormtoker, Hovel, Mourn the Light, Thunder Horse, Kulvera, Born of Plagues, Dreadstar, Professor Emeritus, Strange Highways, Gravedigger’s Biscuits, Grave Next Door, Double Planet, Bleak Shore, Burn the Martyr

2 Days of Nonstop Music
More Than 20 Bands

www.marylanddoomfest.com
https://www.instagram.com/marylanddoomfest
https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/

Wolftooth, Wizard’s Light (2025)

Let’s do an oldschool ’90s rock radio ‘shout out’ to any and everybody at Ripplefest Texas 2025 this weekend in Austin, Texas. If you’re seeing this and you’re there, I hope you’re having the time of your life (and hope it’s in between sets; put your phone down) and I have little doubt that you are. Stay hydrated and enjoy yourself.

Even as this year’s fest is underway, however, the event headed by Ryan Garney of Lick of My Spoon Productions (also vocals in High Desert Queen) throws down the first names for 2026 perhaps as an invite in advance. I haven’t looked to see if as of posting this the 100 tickets are gone, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if 100 people there now for 2025 decided to pick them up ahead of time for next year. You’ve already got Greenleaf, Kal-El, Freedom Hawk, High Desert Queen, Solace, Blue Beron, Borracho, Thunderhorse, Plaindrifter and Robots of the Ancient World. It is not lost on me that this is more than the entire lineups of some festivals.

And that’s okay too, mind you.

But it is obviously suitable that Ripplefest Texas 2026 should go big from the start, and it goes without saying that one looks forward to seeing how the lineup shakes out over the next however-many months before all is revealed.

Whatever else the next year brings, knowing it’s going to bring Greenleaf to US shores is heartwarming. Once again, if you’re at Ripplefest, enjoy. If you’re anywhere else, this might have you thinking of different plans for next year around this time. From social media:

RippleFest Texas 2026 Sept. 17-20, 2026 at The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush.

Only 100 4 day passes available! Get yours now: www.lickofmyspoon.com

2026 First Bands Announced

Greenleaf
Freedom Hawk
High Desert Queen
Daily Thompson
Kal-El
Solace
Robots of the Ancient World
Thunder Horse
Borracho
Blue Heron
Plaindrifter

https://linktr.ee/Lickofmyspoon
http://www.lickofmyspoon.com/
https://www.instagram.com/LOMSProductions/
https://www.facebook.com/LOMSProductions

Greenleaf, Live in Nantes, France, April 1, 2025

With no Desertfest New York this year (and, let’s face it, maybe not next year either), I don’t have the luxury I’ve enjoyed throughout the 2020s thus far of consoling myself at missing Ripplefest Texas by seeing some of the same acts coming through without having to fly out to do it. Not so much this year. In unveiling its full lineup for this September, Ripplefest Texas 2025 lays out an absolute dream of a bill — from Weedeater to Suplecs to Mothership to Author and Punisher (new record by then?) to Sundrifter and Mr. frickin’ Plow and Lake Lake — it’s the most imperative US festival lineup I’ve seen pretty much since Ripplefest Texas last year.

I’ve never been to Ripplefest Texas and it’s been over 15 years since the last time I set foot in Austin, but I’d be there in a hot minute for this one. Gonna start a GoFundMe for the flight and lodging (more likely, beg my wife). If you get there, congratulations on your life.

Check out the new adds and the full lineup below. It’s a beautiful thing:

The best family reunion of the year is back! The lineup for RippleFest Texas 2025 is now complete and you will not want to miss your chance to see the best music at the friendliest festival in the world. Lick of My Spoon Productions brings you the only open air festival in the US with ABSOLUTELY ZERO BAND OVERLAPPING! New bands added to an already stacked lineup are ASG, Author & Punisher, Mondo Generator, High Desert Queen, Bronco, Rainbows Are Free, The Absurd, Volume, Gran Moreno, Karma Vulture, and Desert Suns.

The festival will once again be held at The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush in Austin, TX on September 18-21, 2025. Get your tickets now at www.lickofmyspoon.com.

Full List of Bands:
Weedeater
Whores.
Mothership
Author & Punisher
Mondo Generator
ASG
Unida
Wo Fat
Valley of the Sun
Left Lane Cruiser
High Desert Queen
Mos Generator
Telekinetic Yeti
Human Impact
Mountain of Smoke
Thunder Horse
Suplecs
Kind
Bronco
Sundrifter
Rainbows Are Free
Fostermother
Mr. Plow
Kupa Pities
Luna Sol
Shun
Gran Moreno
Stone Nomads
Volume
The Absurd
Desert Suns
Karma Vulture
Lake Lake
Sons of Gulliver

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LOMSProductions
https://www.instagram.com/LOMSProductions/
http://www.lickofmyspoon.com/
https://linktr.ee/Lickofmyspoon

Author & Punisher, Krüller (2022)

The sun hadn’t even set on this year’s Ripplefest Texas this past weekend and the Austin-based festival announced its dates for 2025. No headliners have been revealed yet — and fair enough; it’s a year away — but Unida return to top the thus-far bill, and along with Mos Generator, Left Lane Cruiser and Kind, the first of no-doubt-several international acts has been announced, with London’s Steak making the trip over.

You may recall Steak recorded in the California desert in the past, and they may have done a couple gigs around that, but I’m assuming there will be a more substantial stint of touring around their slot at Ripplefest. I haven’t seen dates for Desertfest NYC 2025 yet, but the two fests were closely interlinked in terms of lineup this year, somewhat akin to the on-the-same-page togetherness Europe will see between various events on successive weekends next month, and given Steak‘s connection to Desertscene London, the team from which is also behind Desertfest New York, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see that relationship continue to develop as Ripplefest Texas 2025 adds more bands building on the initial names here.

And if you saw the lineup for 2024 or — congratulations on your weekend if this is the case — you were there to actually see the show, you know Ripplefest Texas packs its four-day expanse front to back at a scale that few outside of Maryland Doom Fest could hope to, and with an increasing reach to boot. If you’re not yet looking forward to the next Ripplefest Texas, here’s a cue to do so:

RippleFest Texas 2025 dates are officially announced! We are selling 100 4 Day Passes only at a ridiculous price of $100! That is worth seeing these bands announced so far and we haven’t even announced our headliners yet! Get them while you can!!!

Tix at www.lickofmyspoon.com

Lick of My Spoon Presents:
Ripple Fest Texas 2025
September 18-21
The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush Austin, TX

First announced bands:

Unida
Left Lane Cruiser
Mos Generator
Steak
Mountain of Smoke
Thunder Horse
Kind
Sundrifter
Fostermother
And Many Many More!

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LOMSProductions
https://www.instagram.com/LOMSProductions/
http://www.lickofmyspoon.com/
https://linktr.ee/Lickofmyspoon

Unida, “Thorn” live at Ripplefest Texas 2023

This is one of the best lineups I’ve seen for a US-based heavy fest in the 15-plus years I’ve been running this site. I don’t know what else to say about it, honestly. For the fact that Ripplefest Texas is bringing Dozer over alone, let alone any of the other Euro acts involved who have, say, been to North America in the last 20-plus years, it’s astonishing. And not just bigger bands like Dozer and Truckfighters or Mars Red Sky and Belzebong, but Domkraft and Kal-El, bands you know if you’re into this thing but that haven’t been around as long and aren’t as ‘huge’ in the whatever sense that applies in underground music.

And it’s not like they’re skimping on within-US geography either. Of course the desert is well represented, and Texas has a significant presence as it invariably would, but with Gozu and Leather Lung headed out from Boston, Borracho traveling from D.C., Temple of the Fuzz Witch from Michigan, Robots of the Ancient World from Portland, Oregon, and so on, they’ve got all the corners and between pretty well covered. La Chinga coming from Canada. Demons My Friends giving Mexico a nod. It is extensive.

And quality. I don’t know that I’ll be there to see it, but I’d imagine that for most who get to be, it’ll be the stuff of legend. Congrats to Ryan Garney and Lick of My Spoon for bringing it into the world, and safe travels to all involved:

Here it is! The lineup for RippleFest Texas and the amazing art by Simon Berndt @1horsetown 🤘🔥❤️

We still have a few surprises left but this roster is stacked! Don’t miss your chance to see the world’s best heavy music at the largest family reunion of the year. Plus this is the ONLY premier festival that has absolutely ZERO OVERLAPPING so you can see every second of every band! Get your tickets now and we will see you in September!

Tier 2 tickets are almost sold out and the price increases on Monday so get your tickets now:

www.lickofmyspoon.com

DOZER
TRUCKFIGHTERS
BONGZILLA
MARS RED SKY
BELZEBONG
DOMKRAFT
LEGIONS OF DOOM
FATSO JETSON
GOZU
HOWLING GIANT
THE HEAVY EYES
HIGH DESERT QUEEN
KAL-EL
20 WATT TOMBSTONE
THE OTOLITH
TEMPLE OF THE FUZZ WITCH
LEATHER LUNG
THUNDER HORSE
HASHTRONAUT
BONE CHURCH
BORRACHO
SUN CROW
CRYSTAL SPIDERS
TIA CARRERA
ROBOTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
MR. PLOW
LA CHINGA
FOSTERMOTHER
BLUE HERON
TEMPTRESS
FORMULA 400
DEMONS MY FRIENDS
VERMILION WHISKEY
VIOLET RISING
HUDU AKIL
BUZZ ELECTRO
SHADOW OF JUPITER

GRAND FINALE w/ MARIO LALLI & THE RUBBER SNAKE CHARMERS “Desert Jam Session”

Plus the best light show in the business by @themadalchemistliquidliteshow

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LOMSProductions
https://www.instagram.com/LOMSProductions/
http://www.lickofmyspoon.com/
https://linktr.ee/Lickofmyspoon

Mars Red Sky, Live at Rock in Bourlon 2023

Look at the blue text below and you know what you’re gonna see? Yes, a whole lot of skull emojis. Like a lot. But it happens that each individual one corresponds to a demonstration of the labor of love and community that is the Maryland Doom Festival. From Abel Blood through Zekiah, Maryland Doom Fest 2024 celebrates its 10th anniversary edition with its standard sans-bullshit glut of heavy. Once more the Frederick-based event looks your square in the eye, drops for absolutely immersive days on you and asks if you’re up for it. Well, are ya?

I’m not sure what my summer travel plans are yet — this and Freak Valley have overlapped the last couple years for me — but it’s been since 2019 that I was last down there and oh I’d be so eager to show up and have the three or four people who recognize me (and thus make it feel like an absolute family experience; love love love everywhere you go down there) quietly think to themselves I’ve gotten older and fatter en route to obliterating myself with volume for about 96 hours straight. Fuck. King. A.

Oh, and I hear Thunderbird Divine have new stuff in the works and it’s amazing. So that’s a thing too.

Social media had it like this:

We are super stoked to share with you the Maryland Doom Fest 2024 rosters, schedules, and lineups!!!

#4daysofdoom

THE MARYLAND DOOM FEST 2024

✝️Thursday June 20

Cafe 611-

💀 Thunderhorse
1115-1230
💀 The Magpie
1010-1055
💀 Born of Plagues
905-950
💀 Stone Nomads
800-845
💀 Pyre Fyre
700-740
💀 Dirt Eater
600-640

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Spellbook
920-1000
💀 Strange Highways
820-900
💀 Bailjack
720-800
💀 Stone Brew
620-700
💀 Abel Blood
520-600

✝️Friday June 21

Cafe 611-

💀 Diggeth
1215-120
💀 Shadow Witch
1110-1155
💀 Red Beard Wall
1010-1050
💀 CROP
910-950
💀 Almost Honest
810-850
💀 Cobra Whip
715-750
💀 The Crows Eye
620-655
💀 Stereo Christ
525-600

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Ten Ton Slug
915-1000
💀 Thousand Vision Mist
815-855
💀 Crowhunter
715-755
💀 Asthma Castle
615-655
💀 Bonded by Darkness
515-555

✝️Saturday June 22

Cafe 611-

💀 WHORES.
1150-115
💀 AGE/S
1040-1130
💀 Bloodshot
935-1020
💀 O ZORN!
830-915
💀 Double Planet
730-810
💀 Sun Years
630-710
💀 When the Deadbolt Breaks
530-610

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Black Water Rising
915-1000
💀 Switchblade Jesus
815-855
💀 Wyndrider
715-755
💀 Indus Valley Kings
615-655
💀 Vermillion Whiskey
515-555
💀 Doctor Smoke
415-455

✝️Sunday June 23

Cafe 611-

💀 Cirith Ungol
1200-110
💀 Mythosphere
1055-1140
💀 Conclave
955-1035
💀 Compression
855-935
💀 Sons of Arrakis
755-835
💀 Curse the Son
655-735
💀 Kulvera
555-635
💀 Old Blood
500-535
💀 Cloud Machine
405-440

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Thunderbird Divine
920-1000
💀 Black Manta
820-900
💀 High Noon Kahuna
720-800
💀 Unity Reggae
620-700
💀 King Bastard
520-600
💀 Zekiah
420-500

52 bands over a 4 day weekend at 2 venues across the street from one another!!
#4daysofdoom

WEEKEND PASSES: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-maryland-doom-fest-2024-tickets-732298202637?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Thunderbird Divine, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe” (Barry White cover)

With headlining performances slated from a soon-to-retire Cirith Ungol, noise crushers Whores., mostly-local melodic heavy proggers Mythosphere, Switchblade Jesus, Conclave, Ten Ton Slug (from Ireland; I got to see them one time; way burly; they’ll do well in Frederick), and plenty of other returning acts and newcomers alike, the lineup for Maryland Doom Fest 2024 could hardly be more appropriate a celebration of the annual Chesapeake gathering’s 10th anniversary. Based in Frederick, the four-day ultra-consuming sensory assault of volume will once again take place at Cafe 611 and Olde Mother Brewing, and if you’ve never been, I’ll tell you outright there’s nothing quite like it.

I mean that. Maryland Doom Fest goes harder than the average festival. A day might start at 1PM and not end until 2AM. And now more than ever, as the fest has grown with the two venues running alongside each other, the bill is packed. I think this year was 50 bands? Well, they’ve got 52 for 2024, and while next June is a while out, there’s a tradition to uphold of Halloween announcements, and festival honcho JB Matson (Bloodshot, War Injun, Outside Truth, etc.) pays tribute to his regulars — Shadow Witch, Bailjack, Thunderbird Divine, Thousand Vision Mist (congratulations to Danny Kenyon of Thousand Vision Mist on recently kicking cancer’s ass), among others here — while also giving showcase to outfits like Pyre Fyre, O Zorn! (whose very moniker heralds weirdness), WyndRider and more.

Congrats to Matson and all at Maryland Doom Fest on their 10th anniversary. To do something of this scope once is a lot. To do it across 10 years, well, aside from being fucking crazy, it’s also deeply admirable.

The aforementioned announcement — brief as ever; the poster lands heavy enough to cover any lack of verbiage — follows, courtesy of socials. Ticket link is there too:

WE ARE EXTREMELY PLEASED TO PRESENT TO YOU, THE MARYLAND DOOM FEST 2024 LINEUP!!!!!
THIS WILL BE OUR 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!!
(#128128#)(#129304#)(#128128#)

52 bands over a 4 day weekend at 2 venues across the street from one another!!
#4daysofdoom

WEEKEND PASSES: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-maryland-doom-fest-2024-tickets-732298202637?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Ten Ton Slug, Live at Red Crust Festival 2022

As they make ready for an apparent threepeat appearance at Ripplefest Texas next month, having also played in 2021 and 2022, San Antonio’s Thunder Horse are at about six weeks’ remove from the release of their third album, After the Fall (review here). My understanding is the weeks after release are something of a comedown for bands. You’ve put everything into making this work the best you can, from writing and arranging to recording, artwork, singles, videos, social media labor, on and on and on. Then it’s out, and release week is a big ‘hooray!’ leading to Friday’s release — in Thunder Horse‘s case, it was July 21 — and then the next week the fickle internet is on to that Friday’s thing and you’re suddenly in the position of trying to chase down distracted ears. Kind of sounds like a bummer, even with a fest to look forward to.

But as After the Fall demonstrated, Thunder Horse have no trouble translating downerism into heavy, semi-aggro vibes, and the band present a lyric video for  side B opener “Apocalypse,” in which they do that very thing. Some of the lyrics lean toward right wing conspiracy theories — there’s a line about eating children, which it seems absurd to say but is a Republican talking point about Democrats being cannibalistic devil worshipers, and the lyrical perspective is christian — but I don’t know the political positions either of the band or anyone in it, so I won’t speculate whether it’s professing an ideology or critiquing a particularly ridiculous example of why America should pay teachers more.

I wouldn’t bring up the politics, if only because it’s so fucking exhausting and exhausted a subject, but, well, it’s a lyric video, and so one might consider the lyrics relevant to it. In any case, it’s kind of funny how the left and right in the US both think the world is ending, blame each other for it, and then change nothing. You’d almost swear the entire thing was rigged to make sure the same five people stay rich and the rest of humanity hates each other for no reason until we die and our kids learn in school that capitalism is the natural order like no animals ever teamed up. A pack of wolves awaits with counterpoint.

Whatever the band’s individual and collective politics may be, I’ll risk actual honesty and tell you it doesn’t matt, and talking about it either way will do nothing to upset the trajectory that both sides and those in between seem to think the country is on. But what caught me about After the Fall was the organic interpretation of rhythms born out of guitarist/vocalist Stephen Bishop‘s time in Pitbull Daycare, riffs that otherwise might be electronica turned to densely distorted guitar. It’s an interesting blend, and after you check out the video below, the other two they’ve done from the record are down near the bottom of the post, along with the album stream. Plenty to dig into if your interest is piqued.

PR wire info follows “Apocalypse” right here. Please enjoy:

Thunder Horse, “Apocalypse” lyric video

Texas-based doom metal foursome THUNDER HORSE release their brand new “Apocalypse” video today. The song is taken from their third studio album “After The Fall”, out now on Ripple Music.

Texas-based THUNDER HORSE has a genre that is hard to pin down, but there are definitely influences of doom, psych, occult, and a smattering of classic rock and NWOBHM. Their third studio album and second Ripple Music release “After The Fall” cements the band’s reputation of delivering titan-sized songs in the form of a refined formula: doomier, sharper, but also stronger. Finding the perfect balance between their timeless and masterful southern-baked heavy metal and a strongly emotion-driven purpose, “After The Fall” unwaveringly stands as THUNDER HORSE’s turning point and should drag more and more heavy music lovers in their path in their fierce conquest of the underground doom scene. Watch their latest videos “New Normal” and “After The Fall”!

US orders – https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/products?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=thunder+horse

European orders – https://en.ripple.spkr.media/

Bandcamp – https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/after-the-fall

TRACKLIST:
1. After The Fall
2. New Normal
3. Monolith
4. The Other Side
5. Apocalypse
6. Inner Demon
7. Aberdeen
8. Requiem

THUNDER HORSE is
Stephen Bishop — guitar and vocals
T.C. Connally — lead guitar
Dave Crow — bass
Jason ‘Shakes’ West — drums

https://www.facebook.com/ThunderHorseOfficial
http://www.instagram.com/thunderhorse_tx
https://thunderhorse.bandcamp.com/
http://www.thunderhorseofficial.com/

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Thunder Horse, “After the Fall” official video

Thunder Horse, “New Normal” official video

Thunder Horse, After the Fall (2023)