Live Review: Incineration Fest 2023 (13/05/23)

Taking place on Saturday May 13th in Camden, London, and spread across four venues (The Electric Ballroom, The Underworld, The Black Heart, and The Dev), Incineration Fest is the premier extreme metal one-dayer in the capital.

This was the third time we attended and the first time we really understood what you need to do to enjoy the festival to its fullest. Which is to take it easy. Putting it simply, there’s no possible way to see every band. Not just because of clashes, but because of the size of the venues. How can a packed out Electric Ballroom, which was certainly the case for Rotting Christ, fit into the Underworld for Suffocation directly afterwards? Many will have missed out because they couldn’t get in!

The trick is to accept this fact, get to a venue early if there is a band you particularly want to see, and just roll with it. It was a mistake we made in 2022, resulting in a lot of missed bands and frustrations. This time around, we got to see every band we wanted to, aside from one.

Kicking off the day, is the worst band in the world (their words, not ours), PaRtY-CaNnOn who have the ungodly task of getting the festival underway at 12:20 in The Underworld. A task they seem to relish as they spit, snarl, and scree their way through a set that can be best described as slam chaos. Who else could start a pit with beach balls and a slowly deflating shark at lunch time in The Underworld and keep that shit going for most of the show? The whole rule about not going too hard and heavy at the start of the festival is thrown out the window for a lot of people in the crowd here.

It’s something more serious but just as enjoyable over in The Electric Ballroom after as the ever-growing brilliance of Urne is on display. This band are rising, and rising fast, having become an even tighter unit on the stage. They have a new album out on August 11th and batter the ears of those in the Ballroom with two tracks from the new album right away. Becoming the Ocean sounds damn heavy live. It’s over so quickly though, 40 minutes is never enough to time enjoy and appreciate Urne, but you can tell everyone who watched, did.

We took our time here to make sure we were in the Dev for blackened symphonic metal band Veiled. A new and young band really making waves, especially off the back of their EP, The Black Rite. They’ve got 30 minutes to impress the gathered masses (and in The Dev there isn’t much room to gather) and they do deliver. A resounding wall of ear-aching brutality with atmosphere and ambience, that admittedly doesn’t always shine on this stage. Regardless, it’s a strong showing that screams bigger stages and there is no denying they will get them going forward.

We went to grab some food at this stage. Massive sarcastic shoutout to Brewdog Camden for taking a booking for food only to tell us when we got there, that they couldn’t do food. Even bigger shoutout to Taco Bell for filling our bellies with something other than booze.

Right, back to the bands as we packed ourselves in with seemingly everyone else at the festival for the mighty Rotting Christ. There’s a reason why everyone is here for this band and why the venue stays rammed right up until the very end. Rotting Christ don’t put on bad performances and might be the most ‘epic’ band of the entire day. Their brand of black metal is uniquely captivating and they pummel the ears for 50 minutes straight. Barely pausing for a breath, their music is made for big stages and loud crowds, which is exactly what we get here. It’s so satisfying that there’s a palatable sense of disappointment when it ends.

No matter though, as a wait around in the Ballroom means we’re well placed for the next band on that stage, the blackened progressive metal of Enslaved. A band that continues to defy expectations with their music and certainly bring forth the modern Enslaved experience with this show. Yet, something just isn’t clicking. It’s not them though, Enslaved sound great with the Ballroom really letting the nuances of their music soar. It’s the Rotting Christ hangover. We’re still buzzing about the Greek metallers, that focusing on Enslaved is a problem.

Though that is certainly not an issue for King Dude over in The Underworld. We left Enslaved early so we could make sure we were in The Underworld for the enigmatic artist. The real odd one out of this festival, King Dude can best be described as Satanic folk and country rock with a lot more thrown in. It’s exceptionally unique music, dangerously captivating and deliciously wicked. With King Dude now ‘dead’, it makes the chance to see the man (TJ Cowgill) in the flesh rare, so this does feel special.

Although, with a strong sense of showmanship, a willingness to really connect to the audience, and plenty of ‘bants’, it ends up having quite a ‘jam’ style feel to it. Which, alongside the mellow acoustic-driven music, is to much for some and there’s no denying the fact that The Underworld is getting quite empty come the end of the show.

We didn’t care though, so engrossed as we were in the King Dude experience. One we won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Which brings us to the end of the festival and a brief check-in with the black metal maestros that is Marduk. It’s loud, it’s intense, and it’s evil sounding. It’s Marduk and chances are, if you love them already than you came away super-satisfied by what you saw and heard here.

With that, we staggered into Camden Town tube station to head home. Ears ringing, heads pounding, feet aching, plenty of finger scissoring, and smiles a-plenty. It was an incredible day of music and we can’t wait for 2024’s edition!