UK metal festivals are finally booking the next generation of headliners, but not every gamble has returned on investment. Where Sleep Token’s turn atop last year’s Download bill catapulted them to even greater heights, Architects seemingly played their 2024 Bloodstock showcase on autopilot. Green Lung closing the Saturday of London psych weekender Desertfest seems set for the ‘win’ category: the announcement of the hometown doomers was met with universal excitement (a white whale in the internet age), and you can barely go to a gig in this city without seeing someone sport their merch.
The fivesome formed at this very festival 10 years ago, their early music asking the question, “What if Black Sabbath but folk-horror?” Then – as they shot up the ranks of the stoner scene, before outgrowing it entirely – they cultivated their own occult universe. They dress like the coolest 70s band which never existed, they bring a gigantic Dorset Ooser to all of their shows, and their last album, 2023’s This Heathen Land, emphasised lush keyboards, acoustic guitars and the kind of choruses most peers would sell their souls to have.
