VARIOUS CAMDEN VENUES, LONDON 

Electric Wizard, Yob and Orange Goblin help resurrect London’s riffastic three-dayer

FRIDAY

In an increasingly saturated festival market, the Camden-crossing Desertfest continues to thrive by taking the acolytes of the riff from the fringes and putting them front and centre for experiences fans just won’t find anywhere else. A decade since its first event, the 2022 line-up features a kaleidoscope of acts covering stoner, doom, psych and just about everything in between – with ribald afterparties to boot – to fully satiate even the most ardent devotee.

To whit, Japan’s BLACKLAB flit back-andforth between fuzz-drenched grinding doom and adrenaline-laced punk at The Underworld. Drummer Chia clatters the kit so hard she breaks it. “She’s got too much power,” vocalist Yuko says with a grin. Dingwalls might have changed its name to Powerhaus, but it still holds true to its punk legacy, as newcomers SHOOTING DAGGERS electrify with hardcore punk ferocity.

LOWRIDER are still channelling the psychedelic, desert rock of Kyuss, albeit with a heavy dose of early QOTSA, Josh Hommestyled vocals. The packed Electric Ballroom crowd lap it up, reaffirming the enduring power of the scene, and the loyalty it inspires. Discontinuity can be just as thrilling, as Iggor Cavalera and Wayne Adams, aka PETBRICK, mash d-beats, electronics and ritual, brain-freezing clatter into a state of delirium as cameos from Integrity’s Dwid Hellion and a faux-pro-Trump cowboy suggest a homemade Ministry on a whole new set of psychoactive drugs.