SPECIAL FEATURE: Desertfest Belgium - the build up

Tomorrow I will be heading to Belgium for a few days in Antwerpen, my old city of residence for some five months back in the first half of 2003. My primary reason for returning is that I have a ticket to a stoner metal festival that has become something of a "movable feast" over the course of the last few years, having originally set up in London, then following suit in Berlin and Antwerpen. I am of course talking about Desertfest. 

I'll level with you: Doom, Stoner, Sludge and Southern Metal is by far my favourite form of the heavier side of music by miles. It started for me as a student when I had become acquainted with the music of Monster Magnet and Kyuss for the first time. From there, it gradually evolved into all corners of the genre: Fu Manchu, Clutch, Orange Goblin, Electric Wizard, Goatsnake, Crowbar, Eyehategod and many, many others along those lines made their way into my music collection, never to leave. I had also started to take cursory glances at line ups for music festivals that catered exclusively for bands like this; here in the UK, there is Desertfest and Temples, in Italy, there's Duna Jam (which apparently takes place on a secluded beach. Sounds fantastic), Germany also has Desertfest and Freak Valley, Belgium has Desertfest and Yellowstock, while Holland has the crown jewel of stoner doom music festivals at the 013 in Tilburg every year in the form of Roadburn. Were it not for the fact that tickets for this festival fly out of the blocks every single time from the minute they go on sale, I would have got myself to it a long time ago - the line up is always outstanding, from the pre-show right to the afterparty.

I was initially attracted to the Belgian Desertfest after having seen a poster for it in Antwerpen last year. The line up appealed to me instantly: Blues Pills, Jex Thoth, Bevis Frond, Pallbearer, Fu Manchu, Electric Wizard, Yob, Truckfighters and Brant Bjork, to name but a few. This year the first band on stage at the venue it takes place at (a place called the Trix in Borgerhout, a suburb of eastern Antwerpen) is the band Planet of Zeus. All in all, a pretty epic way to start proceedings.They don't get any smaller, either; Monolord, Stoned Jesus and Dozer complete Friday's picks, while Saturday hosts Belzebong, Greenleaf, Mars Red Sky, Causa Sui, Orange Goblin and Earth among others, and Sunday rounds things off with the likes of Glowsun, Valient Thorr, Ufomammut, Siena Root, Bongzilla, Fatso Jetson and Goatsnake. (Believe me, if you spend as long trawling Spotify as I do for bands like this, you'll know those last five are a big deal, and not just them.) Not only that, Antwerpen has one of the finest independent record shops I've ever been to (Fat Kat Records on Lange Koepoortstraat, hidden away on one of the backstreets). Its Stoner and Doom section speaks for itself - my most recent finds from there have been Siena Root, Electric Citizen, Mountain Witch, Blood of the Sun, Black Rainbows and Mos Generator, all of which I've thoroughly enjoyed.

When I return, a review of Desertfest will be incoming. It'll be able to convey my excitement much better than I would be able to tell people about it. But that's because I have one of those voices, and even when I am being hugely enthusiastic about something, everyone still thinks that I'm taking the piss.

See you on the other side!

TD (Hear & There)