Desertfest has announced that American band Earth – known for their simmering minimalist sound and – will be joining Zeal & Ardor and Elder as headliners for the annual, Camden based, heavy rock festival next summer. They will headline Sunday at the Camden Electric Ballroom.

The festival, which takes over Camden for a late spring weekend each year, will be hosted at five iconic venues – The Roundhouse, The Electric Ballroom, The Underworld, The Black Heart, The Devonshire Arms – between 16-18 May 2025. 

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Alongside the headliner announcement 20 new artists have been booked. These include some new experiences such as the UK debut of live art experience Chöd, an audio, visual, and spiritual collaboration between Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless), featuring original animated projections by Arik Moonhawk Roper (known for his artwork for Sleep, High on Fire, Earth, Cathedral, and more) and guided meditation by Doc Kelley (Psychedelic Sangha). They pay homage to Tibetan meditation practice through their combined arts. 

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In a more traditionally true to form style, perhaps, Arkansas quartet Pallbearer will top a heavy duty Saturday at the Roundhouse. Known for hits like ‘I saw the end’ and ‘Love you to death’ the band is touring their current album Mind Burns Alive, a stripped back exploration of narrative, the band has moved away from its historical use of intense vocals and waves of guitar, making for a well rounded sound that will be sure to impress.

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Familiar faces are also making a reappearance at the festival. The local heroes Conan are a heavy hitting trio focussed on drums, bass, and guitar. Their sound will be joined by another group of London locals: the gloomily atmospheric bops of Elephant Tree.

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Full List of New Additions to Desertfest Line Up 2025:

• Earth headlining Sunday at Electric Ballroom
• Pallbearer
• Conan
• Elephant Tree
• Chöd
• Hippie Death Cult 
• Castle Rat
• Avon
• Greenmillk from the Planet Orange
• Servo
• Mr Bison 
• Kind
• El Moono
• The Hazytones
• King Botfly
• Lust Ritual
• Slump
• Witchorious
• The Summit Fever
• Dresden Wolves   

Weekend tickets are currently available for purchase through the Desertfest website. 

Having long been an event for those with more extreme palettes, Damnation Festival 2022 features a whole host of exciting heavy artists. First and foremost, headline sets will be performed by legendary industrial metal outfit Ministry, and the highly influential hardcore punk/metalcore titans Converge. In addition to this, the long-standing and well-revered American grindcore band Pig Destroyer will be playing at the festival, as well as death metal/grindcore group Full Of Hell, a band well known for encompassing almost all aspects of extreme music in their catalogue of work, including hardcore punk, powerviolence, death metal, sludge metal and noise rock. The band hails from Maryland, USA, and recently released their eighth full-length studio album Garden of Burning Apparitions, which sees the ambitious group taking their established sound in a more noise-rock driven direction. Check out the album here.

For those who gravitate towards the slower, more droning side of heavy music; the festival has you covered with a selection of some of the best doom/sludge metal bands out there, including Arkansas-based riff-masters Pallbearer-who will also be playing at ArcTanGent festival next year-as well as a collaborative set between Bell Witch and dark folk artist Aerial Ruin, who recorded an album together in 2020, entitled Stygian Bough Volume I.

Also on the bill are Canadian deathcore outfit Despised Icon, progressive/psychedelic rock band Elder, German thrash group Destruction, and renowned American black metallers Wolves In The Throne Room.

The festival is not all pummelling riffs and demonic growling however, as Australian post-rock band We Lost The Sea were recently added to the roster, joking on Twitter: “In fact, looks like we’re the only band that uses a clean tone”.

The announcement of the event comes mere weeks after Damnation Festival 2021 occurred, meaning that more acts will likely be announced in the coming months.

To re-iterate, Damnation Festival will take place at Bec Arena in Manchester on the 5^th of November 2022. More information about the festival can be found here, including the line-up, tickets, official Damnation Festival merchandise, and a link to the festival’s very own podcast, which features special guests such as band members and festival organisers. According to a tweet from Damnation Festival themselves, 2,000 tickets have presently been sold.