Heavy metal is a genre crammed with overly worn cliches. Every other lyric dictates the pros of necrophilia, every other frontman screeches in cheap corpse paint and every other band logo is as legible as tea leaves. The exceptions, however, are on show at ArcTanGent, which has returned to Fernhill farm after a Covid-warranted hiatus to showcase the best of loud yet convention-shattering music. A reputation for quality bookings has seen the three-day event grow to five stages and a capacity of 10,000 in less than a decade, and the 2022 edition accompanies that growing scope with the best lineup yet.
Fes make for a vibrant start on Thursday. The math-rockers prove intellectual tunes needn’t skimp on a good pop hook, as frontperson Pollyanna Holland-Wing sings while playing guitar like a virtuoso. A sombre counterweight comes from instrumentalists Pijn, who accentuate their devastation with sorrowful violins. They’re the first of a legion of post-metal bands to decimate this weekend. The genre shines brightest – ironically – with the hellish density of Thursday headliners Cult of Luna. The sextet could be the world’s heaviest band, and hearing behemoth songs such as Blood Upon Stone blast out of fog thicker than John Carpenter could conjure up affirms that idea. It’s the apex of the festival, their closest rivals being Amenra. The Belgians are an existential crisis in sonic form, casting dread-laden post-metal against panicked shrieks to curate the most perfect kind of horrible.
