FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Desertfest London 2019

May 1, 2019 James Weaver

Desertfest has grown into one of a cherished festival in metal’s underground. For lovers of doom, sludge and fuzz, the three day event in the heart of Camden, London has year on year provided lineups of staggering quality and 2019’s lineup is no different. With a mammoth billing of bands set to perform on the stages of The Electric Ballroom, The Roundhouse, The Underworld, The Black Heart and The Devonshire Arms, deciding who to watch at this year’s festival can be a tricky task indeed. Fear not, as we here at Distorted Sound have dissected this year’s festival to give you our essential pickings for Desertfest London 2019!

Friday

Day one of Desertfest London kicks off to a raging start as each of the four stages boast a plethora of phenomenal talent. Spiritual stoner-drone force OM top the billing of The Electric Ballroom as part of Old Empire‘s stage curation whilst performances from WOVENHAND and GRAVE MIASMA will surely be highlights of the day. Elsewhere, Riding Easy Records takeover the The Underworld and boast a billing of ELECTRIC CITIZEN, R.I.P, ZIG ZAGS and more, and both stages at The Black Heart and The Devonshire Arms have plenty of gems to discover.

Take The Black Heart for example, as their billing for day one of Desertfest has a diverse roster of bands that are bursting with quality. Sweden’s SKRAECKOEDLAN offer an interesting blend of psychedelic rock and stoner rock, LA-based doom trio HIGH PRIESTESS will bring the riffs, 1968’s retro-rock will get the heads banging and BLANKET‘s charming and warm post-rock will soothe those in attendance.

Saturday

If you were anticipating that the Saturday of this year’s Desertfest London would lower the intensity following the musical onslaught of day one, then you’d be wrong. Saturday’s billing of this year’s festival not only matches the quality of the previous day, but boasts some of the absolute must-attend sets of the entire weekend. Let’s start with the big boys shall we? In what can only be described as one of the most anticipated performances of the entire festival, AMENRA headline The Electric Ballroom on the Saturday as part of their 20 year anniversary celebrations. Their rich soundscape, rooted in post metal, has been a roaring success and their headlining set at Desertfest will be utterly spectacular.

Whilst AMENRA may steal some of the spotlight, to disregard the rest of the day’s billing would indeed be doing Desertfest and the bands themselves a mighty disservice. Before AMENRA‘s headlining performance, KADAVAR, STONED JESUS, MONKEY3, DVNE and ELEPHANT TREE grace the stage of The Electric Ballroom whilst The Underworld‘s HDP/WPC stage takeover at The Underworld boats the likes of the sludge-tastic BLACK TUSK, doom merchants THE SKULL, riff ‘n’ rollers ACID CANNIBALS and more.

Similarly, The Black Heart and The Devonshire Arms impress once again with a bountiful crop of killer bands. The Devonshire Arms will features the likes of the brutal COILGUNS, Miami noise rockers WRONG (featuring ex-members of KYLESA, TORCHE and CAPSULE), trippy psych proggers MOTHER’S CAKE and more. The Black Heart will showcase ZED, WORSHIPPER, who make their Desertfest London appearance straight after a stop at sister festival Deserfest NYC (check out our premiere of their brand new song here), HIGH FIGHTER and stage-toppers WE HUNT BUFFALO.

Sunday

The final day of Desertfest may be a tall order, especially given the quality of the festival’s previous two days, but rest assured, the Sunday of this year’s festival intends to end on an almighty high. Nashville’s blues/psych kings ALL THEM WITCHES, EARTHLESS, WITCH, COLOUR HAZE and stoner rock legends round off the stage of The Roundhouse whilst punk/metal hybrid MONDO GENERATOR, Norwegian rockers THE DEVIL AND THE ALMIGHTY BLUES and SABBATH ASSEMBLY will all give performances of glittering quality over on the stage at The Underworld. Sunday will also play host to host to the intimate CHVE x SYNDROME at The Underworld as part of AMENRA‘s 20 year celebrations. This special event sees the solo projects of the band’s founding members – Colin H. van Eeckhout (vocals) and Mathieu Vandekerckhove (lead guitar) – collide; leaning more heavily into droning tones and much more personal and delicate than their work as a band – it will be quite the spectacle!

The Black Heart boasts a lineup that will live up to its namesake as there are plenty of bands that are set to bring their filthy sonics to Desertfest. From HIGH REEPER‘s doom driven onslaught, the Steel City’s own KUROKUMA , the musical racket of WREN to the blackened swagger of VIDEO NASTIES, expect to leave The Black Heart in shell-shock. And if all the downtuned riffing gets too much, then the Black Deer Stage takeover at The Devonshire Arms might just be for you! Four hand-picked choice cuts appear on the stage, including headliners for the night THE VANGUARDS, who will bring a taster of traditional bluegrass after a hefty dose of heavy-riffs all weekend. They’ll be joined throughout the day by the likes of Sheffield’s THE FARGO RAILROAD CO., letting loose a swampy dose of southern rock, THE SOUTHERN COMPANION and THE OUTLAW ORCHESTRA.

And that rounds off our preview for this year’s Desertfest London. With so many quality bands gracing a multitude of stages across Camden, this year’s festival is going to be an absolute blast! We’ll see you down the front.