Preview by Emily Castles
On Saturday 13 May, Camden Town plays host to the UK’s blackest of festivals. Holding all of North London’s venues hostage; the Electric Ballroom, the Underworld, the Black Heart and the Dev; in its short nine years of life, Incineration Festival has quickly established itself as the festival for those inclined to the darker side of the metal sphere.
We can expect some huge names this year. Over in the Electric Ballroom, Norwegian giants Enslaved are hotly anticipated having just released their brand-new album Heimdal. They are joined on the same stage by Sweden’s Marduk, returning to Incineration after headlining in 2016 and after selling out their most recent visit to London. Following 2018’s glorious Viktoria, Marduk have also brought us a new record this year Memento Mori – which fans will hopefully have the chance to get a first taste of.
Interrupting the Scandi-assault, Greek titans Rotting Christ will haunt the Ballroom stage with their Benedictine chanting and blackened riffs. Opening the same stage, London locals Urne released their inspired debut album Serpent & Spirit only a year or two ago but are quickly establishing themselves as key players in the UK underground scene – heading off on a European tour supporting Gojira this year.
Holding up the lair that is the Underworld, Profanatica will join us from New York, minus the coffee and bagels. Key players in the American black metal scene, there will be many metalheads eager to see this blasphemous concoction in action.
Travelling down from Fife in Scotland, Party Cannon will be adding a friendly of death metal/grindcore cocktail to the Underworld this year – for those who caught them at Damnation in Leeds a few years ago, you’ll know to expect a party like no other. Keeping the death metal vibes going over at the Electric Ballroom, Dutch crew Asphyx are sure to cook up as storm, as well as Suffocation who will be smashing up the stage in the Underworld, as part of their European tour.
Bringing us back to hell over at the Underworld are Lamp of Murmuur from sunny LA, following a sold-out show in London last year and having released their new album Saturnian Bloodstorm last month.
In the depths of the Black Heart, Hampshire’s Witchsorrow take up a key spot with their doomy tales of witch trials, also joined by Manchester’s Visions of Disfigurement – for an intimate display of vicious death metal.
With many more bands on the bill, hailing from all across the world, we are set for another fantastic year – full of inverted crosses, corpsepaint and a hella-a lot of Satan.
