The big review: Incineration 2025

Increasingly unmissable as a fixture right at the start of festival season, London’s Incineration is the celebration of all things extreme that sees thousands of underground devotees descending on Camden Town for a weekend of indoor debauchery before they spill out into muddy fields for the rest of the summer.

In 2025, it's bigger than ever, having completely sold out. It's not hard to see why, building on their well-earned reputation for killer line-ups with one of the most special bills you'll see all year. In the likes of Blood Incantation, Blackbraid and Spectral Wound they fans are able to catch some of heavy music’s most exciting rising outfits, while a headline set from the mighty Triptykon revisiting the finest moments from Celtic Frost is the stuff that dark dreams are made of.

So, never mind the sunshine: here's five venues of metal mania, evil vibes, deafening volume, and at least one trip beyond the stars…

Camden's streets may be overflowing with early drinkers in the Saturday sun, but it might as well be midnight deep in the windowless depths of The Black Heart – the perfect proving ground for Bristol post-punks NAUT. All throbbing rhythms and piercing guitars, choice cuts Unity Of Opposites and Nightfall would be best enjoyed far into the small hours, swaying on on some sticky goth club dancefloor, but despite their idiosyncrasies with much of what's on the bill they sound pretty great kicking off a fest such as this, too. The contrast between their metronomic drum machine and the theatrical flailing of the flesh-and-blood players only adds to their power. And although it’s hot enough in here for frontman Gavin Laubscher to abandon his sparkly dinner jacket – somewhere between Austin Powers and Cat from Red Dwarf – just a few songs in, they're very much one of the coolest acts of the day. (SL)

“Alright guys,” sighs the barman at The Dev, “close the doors and windows, the band are about to come on…” Although draconian noise-pollution laws mean that the iconic pub needs to be sealed up like a packed lunch for every band this weekend, never does that feel more punishing than with the arrival of midlands madmen DeathCollector. Rattling the windows with their thunderous, Bolt Thrower-indebted attack (one-time drummer Andy Whale was part of the Coventry legends) this crew of underground veterans seem unable to do anything but mercilessly crank the brutality with the tank-track attack of bangers like Death’s Toll and Internal Expansion. Impressively, although punters are packed in right to the pongy toilet-cubby in the back corner they still find space to incite a vicious pit down the front. (SL)

Is it ever too early for the more theatrical end of black metal? Absolutely not, and so here's U.S. diabolists Lamp Of Murmuur at half past two on a sunny afternoon. With robes, corpsepaint, gauntlets and a particular love for the '90s Scandinavian second wave, they're on particularly evil form, even at late-lunchtime, thrashing through Reincarnation Of A Witch and Dominatrix's Call with a genuinely violent air. Behind the veil, though, there's no hiding how clearly jazzed they are to be facing such a packed and up for it crowd – although not much surprise given the murmuurings about them in the underground – and dark and evil as it all is, they also provide a thoroughly headbanging good time. (NR)

With massive crowds having come down early doors and security checks holding up the line in, Spectral Wound are something of a victim of their own success, with an enormous queue snaking down the street outside the already rammed Ballroom as they arrive. It actually adds to possibly the most charged atmosphere of the day, with the Montreal menaces’ bloodthirsty, groove-inflected black metal – evoking the infernal energy of heroes like Watain, especially in the live arena – igniting something particularly sinful in everyone here. Not least maniacal, frontman Jonah Campbell, chugging at carious bottles and cans throughout (a diabolic thirst, indeed), and the mayhem for heretical anthem Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal, is enough to guarantee they’re on the ‘best of fest’ lists for everyone who managed to cram in. (SL)

Celestial Sanctuary are everywhere right now. Having just played main support on Employed To Serve’s cracking Fallen Star UK tour, they’re a well oiled machine ready to lay waste to The Underworld. ETS’ Sammy Urwin and Justine Jones are amongst a host of Brit-metal luminaries shouldering out space to cheer on the rising Cambridgeshire crew. Not that anyone has the time to turn their attention from the annihilation happening onstage, mind. The only stars most of those tumbling through the fray are seeing result from the concussive impact the viscera-laden Glutted With Chunder and Trapped Within The Rank Membrane. Disgustingly good. (SL)

Icelandic post-metallers Múr open the Roundhouse stage with a gargantuan display of frost and fire. The huge room is still filling well into their set, but those who’ve made the trek up the Chalk Farm Road are rewarded with one of the most compelling sets of the festival. There might be bigger names on some of the smaller stages, and their glacial songwriting is anything but immediate, but compositions like Heimsslit and Holskefla arrive with monolithic heft and a gravitational pull. Kaleidoscopic visuals and bursts of flaming production add to the sensory overload, but it’s brilliant, bruising closer Frelsari – a craggy masterwork reminiscent of peak Gojira – that ensures this performance will echo long in the memory. (SM)

Death metal can take many forms. For Glasgow's excellently-named Coffin Mulch, it involves a good deal of punky energy that puts them not a million miles from the same graveyard as Entombed or Gatecreeper. There's no room to move inside The Black Heart, a situation in which they are absolutely in their element, tearing through their fat, catchy riffs in a manner perfectly suited to such a raw, in-your-face sweatfest, with no bullshit and loads of headbanging. Taking a moment to shout-out a fallen friend who was meant to be here this weekend (and who was "all about Blood Incantation and their Terry Nutkins haircuts"), they do him proud as they whip up a pit and frontman Alistair Mabon leaps on top, his face one of pure ecstatic joy. Oi, Outbreak, get this lot on board for next year. (NR)

Blackbraid are one of the most exciting bands in black metal right now. Subverting Eurocentric genre stereotypes with their incorporation of Native North-American mythology and occasionally courting controversy with their abrasive, unbowed attitude, mainman Sgah'gahsowáh and his able acolytes are normally the talk of every show at which they rock up before they’ve even played a note. Often, though, their performance has struggled to match the hype. Not so, today. Backlit in flickering red and spurred on both by the sardine-canned crowd and the quality of the bands around them, it’s all-out attack in the Electric Ballroom. The lack of tribal accessories or accoutrements surprises some of the uninitiated who know the band by reputation rather than experience, but the elemental power of As The Creek Flows Softly By and Barefoot Ghost Dance On Blood Soaked Soil leaves no-one wanting for more. Their dark ascension continues. (SL)

Incineration's all about the blastbeats, right? Psych! Ahem. With their flares, '70s shirts, suave leather jackets and stoned-out space rock, Minami Deutsch are both the coolest band of the day, and (on paper) the most out of place. But for half an hour, the Japanese quartet – on tour with Blood Incantation – give a satisfyingly busy Underworld a moment to relax and vibe out to their enormous grooves and hypnotic, repetitive melodies. It helps, of course, that they're absolutely brilliant in their own right, but given the opportunity to stand out like this, the irresistible jam of Futsu Ni Ikirenai and I've Seen A UFO's greasy, garagey solos become even more far-out. (NR)

A cavernous cathedral for the performing arts, ex-railway shed The Roundhouse should be the perfect place to experience Orthodox Church-inspired heretics Batushka. Initially, however, it feels like that might not be the case. Dialling back the patience-testing theatricality, bells and smells of ex-frontman Bartłomiej Krysiuk’s other, more ceremonial version of the band (now known as Patriarkh following the legal fallout of their internal schism), Krzysztof Drabikowski’s iteration is far less of a visual feast. There's a few candles, robes and an eerie churchyard backdrop, but they are also resolutely more focused on sounds than sights. Gradually mesmerising a huge crowd with a set poised on the knife-edge between extremity and exaltation, they still eventually sublimate even the more booze-soaked and excitable in the congregation into their inky black magic. (SL)

Ragdolling around the pit and slumped over bars, many of those who turn out for Cryptopsy are looking worse for wear. Thankfully, the Canadian death metal icons deliver the sonic equivalent of a slap in the face. Part of a broader UK tour, and playing right before the mighty Blood Incantation hit the stage half a mile up the road, there’s less buzz about their appearance than one might expect. And many of the more stubborn gatekeepers still lament the absence of iconic vocalist Lord Worm. But from a live debut for excellent fresh cut Until There’s Nothing Left to the stomach-churning weight of tried-and-tested classics Slit Your Guts and Phobophile it’s yet another brutally efficient lesson in violence from the veterans. They do it rather well, don’t you think? (SL)

Even on a bill with so many treats, it's Blood Incantation's first UK show since the release of last year's staggering Absolute Elsewhere that makes them the most anticipated turn of the fest. And rightfully so. Playing the album in full – with frontman Paul Riedl noting that it's time to turn the vinyl over at the halfway point – in order to match the brain-frying trip through death metal, '60s psychedelia, prog, synth and moments of doom, they've brought with them two enormous Egyptian obelisks, and backed themselves with visuals that look like Dune done through a '90s screensaver. All of which is fantastic, obviously.

Already being hailed as this decade's answer to pioneers like Nile and Morbid Angel, they embody the musical fearlessness and otherworldly atmospheres of both while also standing tall, proud and conqueror-like as travellers in a universe all of their own. What you're hit by, even more than on record, is how expertly they traverse the complex library of sounds: when The Stargate dips from brutality into an acid-y, David Gilmour-ish solo and back again, it's seismic. Ditto the way the melodic heaviness at the start of The Message builds into a storm. Absolute perfection, at Incineration or elsewhere. (NR)

While it's admirable and very nice that Tom Gabriel Fischer is perhaps the most humble and grateful man in metal, it's also true that without him, things like Incineration and its constituent bands simply would not exist. In Celtic Frost (and with predecessor Hellhammer), in the 1980s he helped build the foundations of this music, both in terms of extremity and heaviness, but also in fearless artistry and pushing at metal's frontiers to take it to a place of morbidity and darkness not seen since the opening of Black Sabbath's debut. Here, he and Triptykon host a celebration of some of that band's finest music, for a show that's so good, so special, that Tom almost looks like he's about to smile...

They arrive to an enormous hero's welcome (complete with chants of "Ough! Ough! Ough!") and rip into the twisted thrash of Circle Of The Tyrants and banging The Usurper. Four decades old, both retain their haunting magic perfectly, as do the furiously dark Into The Crypts Of Rays, the ungodly heaviness of a slowed-down Procreation (Of The Wicked), and lusciously doomy Necromantical Screams, as well as being absolutely banging.

Which would be special enough to chalk this up as a win. But they also delve into a more recent (ish) past, with songs from 2006's Monotheist comeback record, the last music recorded with Tom by iconic bassist Martin Eric Ain, and a record that still stands as a piece of genuinely dark art. Ground, with its simple, sludgy riff and cries of 'Oh God, why have you forsaken me?' is like being sucked into a black hole, while A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh – its first airing by Triptykon, and only second time ever played – finds Tom jokingly admitting he's "shitting myself". The power it builds up, however, is genuinely overbearing.

As the hammering power of Synagoga Satanae seals another Incineration into its coffin, it's the perfect end to a perfect salute to one of the greatest bands ever to walk the Earth. And, it turns out, still the darkest, bringing another incieration to a fittingly lightless finale. Are you morbid? Always.

Incineration 2026 takes place on May 2.

Read this next:

• Celtic Frost: “We hated these unwritten limitations in the metal scene… Music should be adventurous”
• Blood Incantation: “You don’t need to have drugs to take a trip with our music. But if you do, it’ll be even crazier”
• Celestial Sanctuary: “This new breed of UK death metal boasts something grimier: a disgusting edge”