12 Unmissable Bands at ArcTanGent 2025
From post-rock pioneers to the fiercest names bubbling up in the UK underground, ArcTanGent’s 2025 lineup is stacked with artists pushing heavy, intricate, and emotional music into bold new territory. These are the 12 acts we think you need to catch this year.
Underdark
Underdark’s concept album Managed Decline (out via Church Road Records) turns Thatcher’s destruction of Britain’s industrial towns into a seering emotional landscape of volume and purpose. Fusing black metal’s blast beats and cathartic roar with the towering, sky-splitting chord sequences of post-rock as vocalist Abi Vasquez prowls through the crowd, unleashing a howl that could strip paint from the walls, this performance will be an early highlight.
Battlesnake
Battlesnake are a fast, silly and shamelessly fun whiplash dose of joy. Twin-guitar heroics out of the Iron Maiden/Judas Priest playbook, crowd surfing, clambering onto each other’s shoulders, and refusing to stay still, if you want an antidote to the festival’s darker tones that’s pure entertainment, don’t miss Battlesnake.
Pelican
Two decades deep, Pelican remain untouchable. Their latest album Flickering Resonance is massive, with fuzz-drenched riffs, soaring cinematic melodies, and a tight and expansive sound that distills everything ArcTanGent fans crave. Serious guitar music delivered by absolute pros, this is the gold standard for post-metal’s melodic side.
Melvins
Sludge royalty. Grunge godfathers. And absolutely one of the most relentlessly creative heavy bands on the planet. Melvins have been crushing for decades, with a constant output of weird, groovy, heavy music that’s impossible not to love. Their influence stretches far beyond ArcTanGent’s usual niches, and they’re a formidable live act. Miss this and you’ll be kicking yourself.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Few bands have shaped the DNA of ArcTanGent like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and they’re still at a creative and political peak after decades. Their latest release “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD” is a searing, cinematic response to the genocide unfolding before our eyes. Sprawling crescendos, and a trance-inducing intensity that’s urgent and timeless, Godspeed You! Black Emperor at ArcTanGent is an unmissable experience.
Coilguns
Post-hardcore that’s frantic, tight, and unrelenting, Coilguns marry razor-sharp technical precision with explosive, heart-on-sleeve stage energy. Louis Jucker is a livewire presence screaming in the middle of the crowd, if you miss them then you’re missing one of the festival’s purest adrenaline rushes.
Car Bomb
A total anomaly in extreme music, Car Bomb twist metal into mind-boggling shapes with elastic tempos, polyrhythmic chaos, and dizzying skill that somehow still remains groovy as hell. Their latest EP Tiles Whispers Dreams reinforces their status as the sole band operating in their strange and exhilarating lane. Intricate, fascinating, and completely unhinged, Car Bomb are an essential watch for fans of experimental metal.
Future of the Left
Longtime stalwarts of the UK underground, Future of the Left’s members are currently active in reunion tours and other influential projects, which gives this band the weight and punch of a supergroup. Face-kicking rock that’s never chased trends, they’ve nothing left to prove, just a concentrated blast from one of Britain’s most respected cult acts.
Burner
Swaggering grindcore with groove, Burner are pure energy onstage. Harry Nott works the crowd like a prizefighter, while the band whip between sludge-thick riffs and whiplash grind assaults. Extreme metal that makes you grin and get down, Burner are impossible not to love. With live shows that convert first-timers into diehards, and a new album on the horizon, Burner are key players in the UK’s next wave of underground metal.
Sugar Horse
Sugar Horse take a doom/sludge template and fuse it with the shadowy grandeur of ‘80s synth pop with riffs that could level buildings. Their 2024 album The Grand Scheme of Things was a crushing record of laser-focused songwriting, eschewing flashy playing for sheer impact, and it was one of our favourite records of the year. The ArcTanGent main stage is very much home turf, but the broader music scene needs to catch up to what Sugar Horse are doing. It’s extremely special.
Waldo’s Gift
Bristol’s Waldo’s Gift are a live jam trio who treat the stage like a laboratory with wild, pedal-soaked solos, looping wizardry, and improvisation that swings from math-rock precision to freeform chaos in a heartbeat. Every set is a one-off, stitched together in real time with fearless creativity. Waldo’s Gift are set to be one of ArcTanGent’s most unpredictable and exhilarating live experiences.
God Is An Astronaut
Music that feels like a long, cathartic hug, God Is An Astronaut’s newest album Embers is a sweeping, deeply emotional tribute rooted in the deep personal loss of the bandmates’ father. With intimate, introspective passages that bloom into thunderous, thrashing crescendoes, the music of God Is An Astronaut has been a lifelong companion for the ArcTanGent crowd on solo headphone walks, and the opportunity to witness that powerful music in communal bliss will be ecstatic.
