ArcTanGent 2025

18 Aug, 2025

@ Fernhill Farm, Somerset

Thursday

The Fall of Troy

Went with my best friend to ArcTanGent like I did on the one day of the festival back 2 years ago, and I just started writing this on the Monday following the whole festival... We got there especially early, and I actually underestimated how much I would be able to manage all the walking around, sensory pollution and so on, even within the first hour or so of us being there.

We basically still had to wait about 4 hours for The Fall of Troy to start. Saw bits of Maud the Moth and As Living Arrows beforehand. The Fall of Troy I figured would be exciting to see live, but this was even more than I expected! They are way fast and full of energy! With them playing what I personally think is their best album in full as well, regardless of not having room to play other tracks like Ex-Creations or any debut album cuts which would've also been awesome, it's kind of a no-brainer that this turned out to be as great a set as it did.

Awesome!/10

Melvins

'Hag Me' into 'Honey Bucket' was definitely the highlight of the set for me personally! Just about not enough time for 'Your Blessened' and 'Night Goat', which they've also had on their other setlists this year/tour... I'm also fairly indifferent to their later stuff, at least the more straight-ahead Melvins-type rock/metal stuff, but I was still into this! Awesome to see two drummers... very much a Leiacore sorta thing to have either more than one drummer or at least an extra percussionist or so. Coady Willis' drumming was especially full of fire! I hope the next band I plan to see is also keeping their two drummer format!...

Good/10

Kylesa

Damn, only one drummer... mind you though, the drums themselves are bigger! Those are the biggest toms I've seen on any drumkit in particular!

Good/10

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

'BBF3' is a track that I recently listened to in hyping myself up for this festival and thought "damn, this would make a great set closer", very much like with 'The Sad Mafioso' which they closed their set with the first time I saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor live. They only played tracks from their most recent album and Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada, and even that alone was enough to make this go from great to incredible! This definitely cements their most recent album as being my favourite reunion-era GY!BE album, especially with this particularly loud performance of 'Pale Spectator Takes Photographs' and its accompanying, harrowing backdrop! I fucking love this band and count myself as lucky that they decided to do stuff within the last decade or so and thus open up the chance for me to see them for real, especially with this set!

9/10

Friday

Papangu

Biggest surprise of the festival... and I'm already very much familiar with this band's music and love it! This was a lot of fun, and even with their brief, early time slot, a festival highlight for sure! A live band to keep an eye on for sure!

Very fun!/10

Car Bomb

On record I honestly feel like I get less and less on board with Car Bomb's music per release they put out, their first album still easily being my favourite of theirs. When I saw them open for Meshuggah, it was about 90% second album stuff and they closed their set then with 'Pieces of You', and here there's nothing before Meta, yet I think I definitely prefer their set here. Car Bomb do especially well here to make such calculated and constantly rhythmically warping music bring about as much kinetic energy as they do here... I wish I could convey this point while sounding a lot less like a fucking journalist, but whatever, you get the idea anyway.

Good!/10

Emma Ruth Rundle

Couldn't see Emma past the crowd and the enormous water-y backdrop hypnotizing the entire audience including myself into needing to take a piss. I liked how it sounded from where I was standing or sitting! Just her and her guitar. Nice gloomy slowcore vibes.

Good/10

envy

I have qualms about their latest album that just amount to "it's too short", but the good tracks on there are really good imo, and 'Beyond the Raindrops' aside, they picked the best tracks from that album methinks... Otherwise, I personally wouldn't have made this such a post-rock heavy set (which is also me allowing myself to think very selfishly here, since Envy have been more about that Post-Rock than anything else for most of the time they've been around), but this was still another good set! Three guitarists I think is a good call for them as well... I wasn't and still am not really familiar enough with the band's lineup or history to know if it's been like that with them for a while now already, but whatever.

Good!/10

Between the Buried and Me

Bad stomach + bass frequencies being way too loud = :c

I also had to rush off to see Mew, which meant missing out on the last stretch of 'White Walls'... Brutal as that is, I've at least already had my one live experience with BTBAM playing 'White Walls', and I hadn't seen them play any of the other tracks on Colors live before. You gotta pick your battles.

Still pretty awesome/10

Mew

I'd been getting especially obsessed with this band in the run up to this festival, in particular their albums Frengers and And the Glass Handed Kites. Love to see them play tracks like 'Special', 'Apocalypso' and the last two they played here in particular. For what I'm pretty sure is their last show, at least in this country (they already did their farewell shows in their native country of Denmark around the end of May), it felt kinda brief to me to be honest. Still very glad I got to catch them live regardless!

Very good!/10

Saturday

Sometime in February

More or less expected their music to be par for the course with contemporary instrumental prog metal (Scale the Summit, Plini, etc), but there's plenty of, of course lead guitarwork, but also even actual riffs that make me think that I can see exactly why BTBAM chose this guy to be their live guitarist around this time! I quite like the bass as well, as much as I would be eager to ask for MORE bass. Looking forward to giving their music a proper listen at home as well!

Fun!/10

I also caught a bit of a band called Love Rarely a little while before this band who sounded decent and kinda interesting from what I caught. Strong touch of Math Rock in the jangly guitars, plus some other stuff... I'm curious enough to maybe check out some of their music at home as well.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Not much to say here. Nils seemed to have some trouble with his amp, and 'Helpless Corpses Enactment' was missing that extra oomph in the guitars that I felt was needed to really make that song hit... Great set all the same!

Great!/10

OMO sounded pretty cool from what I could tell from a distance. They pretty much have fuck all released in the way of music atm though, hardly much to check out of theirs right now.

Between the Buried and Me

Didn't feel too achey, ill, or hot today to get into some pit action (stop laughing!) for this set. Lucky me! Already lucky enough that we get to see them play 'The Double Helix of Extinction', the one track from Colors II that I most wanted to see of the ones I didn't get to see them play last time, and that they didn't cut 'Alaska' out of the setlist on this one. I'd definitely had picked different tracks elsewhere, but me and Leo have already been lucky enough with live BTBAM experiences, neither of us can really complain, and it was still a good time all around anyway.

Great!/10

Rolo Tomassi

Wrote "play Ex Luna Scientia pls :)" on a tissue in permanent marker and held that up for everyone on the stage to see. James Spence shut me down quick way before they even started. Boooooo! I wouldn't have done that if I didn't already know that they didn't play it at their special Brighton show a couple of days prior, and I suppose they did have less time than they had at that show as well to basically play the same sorta set, and hey, I'm very glad to have been there at ArcTanGent for it. I hope y'all got the Brighton show professionally recorded for a future live album/video release.

Entirely especially worth it for the Time Will Die... tracks alone, with a string quartet no less. The way those tracks being performed in that setting would hit emotionally, especially 'A Flood of Light', basically goes without saying.

Very good!/10

Kayo Dot

Similar enough to the set of theirs that hate5six recorded and uploaded, Moss Grew... heavy set and all. I just about missed out on them playing Choirs of the Eye in full in London a couple of years back, so I could've just as easily protested for them to play 'The Manifold Curiosity' (my favourite from that album) here, but they did play 'Wayfarer', which is I reckon the most beautiful track on that album... I mean, any track from that album would be a good pick basically. Gotta love seeing the Choirs of the Eye lineup (most of maudlin of the Well basically) as well.

Good!/10

God is an Astronaut

I'd heard really good things before about God is an Astronaut live. I like them anyway, but I'm only really enthusiastic about select songs of theirs, like their live rendition of 'From Dust to the Beyond', which they didn't (have time to) play here, and 'Suicide by Star' and 'Embers'. The latter there is my favourite off the latest album, and it was a pleasant surprise to see them play it here! Damn, I was real worn out at this point.

Good/10

#arctangent #btbam #car bomb #godspeed you black emperor #kayo dot #kylesa #melvins #mew #papangu #rolo tomassi #seen live #sleepytime gorilla museum #the fall of troy