ArcTanGent Festival 2026: The Review – Saturday

With so many bizarre and progressive bands competing for your attention at ArcTanGent, Swedish instrumental prog collective Gösta Berlings Saga might take the prize for the “most ATG band of the year”. Making their debut on the main stage after over twenty-five years together, Gösta Berlings Saga manage to sound expansive and progressive without ever resorting to self-indulgent noodling. Despite having only five members on stage, all clad in futuristic white jumpsuits, Gösta Berlings Saga barely fit on the main stage amid their scattered piles of instruments. With both a percussionist, keyboard player, guitarist, bassist and drummer who all also play a variety of vintage synths, the band’s stage setup is as dense as their sound. Flowing one song into another seamlessly with manic energy and phenomenal musicianship, Gösta Berlings Saga are worth a watch for both the spectacle and immersive yet unexpectedly concise sound.

Back on the Yohkai, it’s time for one of the best names in UK post-rock. Returning to Fernhill for a third time and with their phenomenal new album still warm off the press, Din of Celestial Birds give a triumphant display of soaring post rock with some meaty chugs and lush guitar harmonies thrown in for good measure. As they plough through choice cuts from the new record, it’s clear to see they’re having the time of their lives up there. Guitarist Tom Hazlehurst especially is giving it full beans, bounding and whirling across every inch of the stage, while his partner in axe Andie Gill is visibly moved to tears. It’s impossible not to share in their joy, having witnessed such a powerful and life-affirming display of musicianship.

Following that, it’s time for arguably one of the weekend’s biggest draws; an eagerly awaited return of the experimental metal Belgians Oathbreaker, playing their dearly thought-of record Rheia in full. A record that lives in the collective minds and fabric of the scene surrounding ATG. A slight delay in entering the stage only builds excitement from certain heads in the audience with whoops and cheers for Oathbreaker’s tech soundchecking. The tension and atmosphere only builds more when a singular light focused on vocalist Caro Tanghe as she delicately delivered the intro to ‘10:56’. Barely a murmur from the crowd now as they saw the start of 50 minutes of intense beauty take place. Every single member of the band locked into their own parts and delivered on their returns. Genuinely a set that more than lives up to the months of anticipation.

Photo Credit:

Derek Bremner

While ArcTanGent has plenty of options for those looking for post-rock and progressive metal, there are few acts that offer something completely different. Clashing layered dance-punk with pedal-based noise exploration, Denzel Curry-style hip-hop aggression and avant-funk rhythms, Leeds-based experimental solo artist Hang Linton manages to be something totally new for the ATG crowd. Despite clashing with the long-awaited return of iconic post-metal act Oathbreaker, an enthusiastic crowd gathers as Hang Linton opens with ‘BADBADBUTGOOD’, a mish-mash of synth drums and confident indie rockstar swagger. While the festival’s dedicated fans may claim that there’s no room for fun at ATG, tracks like ‘MAD DOG’ and ‘Radiator’ keep the crowd joyfully shaking their hips to the joyful, noisy beats. While lacking the prestige of some of the more miserable acts of the year, Hang Linton’s set might be the most enjoyable thing this year.

“They should make a movie of this festival” vocalist Raygun Busch quips after he and his crew have just laid down the law with the hefty opener ‘I Am Dog Now.’ It’s the beginning of a bit that he will keep up for the rest of Chat Pile’s set, as he punctuates each slab of nihilistic noise rock with sardonic rants about various music movies including Woodstock, Gimme Shelter and Wayne’s World. During these bits, he has the delivery of a jaded stand-up comedian, but during colossal tracks like ‘Why?’ ‘Slaughterhouse’ and ‘Funny Man’ he paces the stage barefoot, topless and in shabby grey shorts like a patient in a correctional facility. Their blend of sarcastic social commentary, twanging nu-metal riffs and oppressive dissonance taps into a sense of millennial disillusionment, connecting with the audience on a visceral level. Whether you leave their set with an impulse to punch a politician, or just a list of movies to watch when you get home, one thing is for sure: it’s not a set you’re going to forget any time soon.

Despite ArcTanGent 2026 having so many tearful goodbyes with Heck and Svalbard playing their final ever sets, at least fans can celebrate that math rock legends TTNG have made their triumphant return to the festival. Last playing a special anniversary set for their album Animals in 2019, the Oxford band had their plans for a full comeback cut short the following year and have been relatively silent since, but with a surprise new EP, a slot at ArcTanGent and more live dates coming soon, TTNG are well and truly back. Greeting the crowd with “we’re a band called TTNG, it’s been a while” before launching into almost an hour of shimmering math rock spanning two decades, the quartet take intricate tracks like ‘Chinchilla’ and new single ‘Goosestepping’ in their stride. Rousing a crowd with complex math-rock isn’t an easy feat, but hits like ‘Gibbon’ and set closer ‘If I Sit Still Maybe I’ll Get Out Of Here’ get the overflowing tent jumping and singing along. It’s been a while, but TTNG are very much back and still in their prime.

Photo Credit:

Joe Singh

After Chat Pile and Oathbreaker pulling some of the biggest crowds non-headline acts ArcTanGent has seen, the crowd for Eivør feels somewhat bare. That doesn’t stop the Faroe Islands star from offering one of the most immersive sets of the weekend, mind you. Whilst she might be known outside these circles for her work on the soundtracks for God of War and The Last Kingdom, here, Eivør delivers a set that feels tailor-made for this audience. Bound by a sense of esoteric Nordic mythology, as the Faroese singer-songwriter floats through a setlist featuring material from her wide-ranging discography, there truly feels like there’s something for everyone tonight. Motifs of neo-folk reminiscent of ATG alumni Wardruna and Heilung are prominent. Aurora-like synth flutters pacify the electronically inclined. Immersive post-rock instrumentation courtesy of her backing band quells all the chin-stroking spirits. Sure, some of the delivery may come across a bit Eurovision-esque at times, but come the end of ‘Falling Free’, it’s hard to see anyone with teary eyes have any qualms with such sentiment. There’s no nil pois for Eivør from anyone this evening.

The atmosphere is crackling in the Yokhai tent as the Eastern flavours of intro track ‘Karanlik Yol’ build, every eye transfixed on the mountains of Orange cabs piled on the stage as they wait for High on Fire to come bounding onto the stage. The place erupts when they do, and they rip into a rendition of ‘Burning Down’ that hits like a stampeding herd of elephants. Matt Pike is customarily topless, his gut and arse crack representing the peak of riff-worshipping male performance, and that stack of cabs matches his burly power in pushing out his monstrous guitar tone. Converge drummer Bill Koller is on kit duties for this iteration of the band, his furious footwork really shining through on faster Motorhead-esque numbers ‘Rumours of War’ and ‘Fury Whip’. It’s when the trio get stuck into low and slow grooves in the likes of ‘10,000 Years’ where the magic really happens, bassist Jeff Matz’s rumbling tone providing a bass for Pike’s seemingly improvised solos to soar straight from the pit of his soul. ‘Snakes For The Divine’ has to be one of the most glorious examples of pure, white-hot heavy metal to be written in the last couple of decades, and to witness it performed here with such ferocity is an honour and a privilege.

Photo Credit:

Derek Bremner

If Eivør was the starter of the banquet of music on Saturday night and Cult of Luna with Julie Christmas is the grand dessert we’ve all been waiting for, A.A. Williams is very much the main course. Much like Chelsea Wolfe (who, incidentally, they will be supporting in London in December) A.A. Williams brings a hauntingly dark yet wondrous hum to ArcTanGent. Clearly honoured at headlining a stage here, they perform one of their best sets, inclusive of a handful of songs from this year’s stellar record Solstice. After days of being in a field listening to various levels of noise and brutality, the need for music such as this to wash over you and heal the body is well needed.

And so, we arrive at the final ever set at Fernhill Farm, and what a set to end on. An extremely rare performance of one of, if not the best post-metal albums ever written, in full – Julie Christmas and Cult of Luna celebrating 10 years of Mariner.

The sheer power, drama, and mind-bending scope of the five songs that make up Mariner cannot be denied on record, but to see it performed live is something akin to a religious experience. Julie and the six members of Cult of Luna are shrouded in smoke throughout and backlit with blinding lights, creating seven eerie silhouettes that move like ghosts across the stage. From the bludgeoning riffs and soaring shrieks of opener ‘A Greater Call’ it’s clear we’re in for something special this evening. The crushing space doom of ‘Chevron’ creates a sense of tension that almost becomes unbearable and the intensity doesn’t let up until the crescendo of ‘The Wreck of SS Needle’, with Julie’s repeated yells of “Put me down where I can see you run!” being punctuated by frantic strobes.

The brooding ‘Approaching Transition’ provides some respite but is no less mesmerising. It was always going to be the 15 minute epic closer ‘Cygnus’ that would steal the show though, Julie returning to the stage in a besparkled helmet looking like some kind of alien siren waiting to send a fleet of astronauts to their end. Across the next half an hour the band build to a thrilling finale, the strobes and riffs combining to create the feeling of being hurtled through space into the burning belly of a supernova. It’s monumental, awe inspiring and utterly thrilling to the point it’s difficult to believe it’s just a bunch of musicians and a clever lighting engineer creating this experience.

Whatever James Scarlett and his team put together for the next iteration of ATG, it’s going to be difficult to top what we’ve just witnessed. But for now, this is without question the best send-off Fernhill Farm could have possibly received.