July 24th – 26th
Custard Factory
Birmingham, UK
Words by Marek Steven

When it comes to the musically minded, curated ‘progressive’ music festivals in the UK, All Tomorrows Parties gets most of the attention. And no two-ways about it, ATP is fantastic in almost every way. However, there is another! A comparable gem of a noisy weekend has been happening every July for a number of years. It’s name is Supersonic, it takes place in Birmingham, and this year they have their best line-up ever.

Supersonic started as a music and art showcase by the award winning pair of ladies that run the successful promoting team Capsule. This year it once again takes places at the appealing, three stage venue, The Custard Factory in Birmingham. As well as some fantastic films art and cakes, they have specialised in the musical crossroads where the heaviest metal, avant noise and folk meet. Supersonic has gone with the flow over the years and they have increasingly booked heavier bands as true metal becomes cooler and more popular. Whatever bands they choose it’s has a fantastic atmosphere and is one of the best weekends out there for music lovers. Capsule’s amazing reputation has allowed them to book some insanely rare acts and persuaded a variety of legends out of retirement.

Here are some highlights:

Robed, drone legends Sunno))) are playing a rare, raw set of early material, The Grimm Robe Demos, as a core member only, two-piece. A stripped down Sunno)))? See you at the front (with thumbs down and ear plugs in).

The Accüsed guitarist and founding member Tommy Niemeyer has resurrected his massively influential ‘crossover’ thrash band which he formed in the very earliest ‘80s. Promoting their face devouring new album The Curse of Martha Splatterhead we can expect brutal throat shredding and riff laden madness.

Amazingly, Sunno)))’s Greg Anderson & Stephen O’Malley have also reformed their earliest act – the classic raw black doom of Thorr’s Hammer. The band features the gutteral vocals of Norwegian goddess Runhild Gammelsæter. She contrasts the heavier sounds with some hauntingly beautiful and atmospheric singing.

Italian legends Goblin bring their classic and much imitated soundtrack-prog to the UK for the first time in 20 years. Their popularity is bigger than ever – this should be a mammoth show. Supersonic also sees the reformation of the original line up of Head of David, who bring their own driving bombast to proceedings for the first time in 23 years. Most of my friends are particularly excited to see the notorious Japanese doom band Corrupted play their first ever show in the UK.

If you’re into heavy music then the Supersonic line-up is literally beyond belief. Some other bands to look out for are the 60’s influenced song-writing genius of Caribou, the insane live antics of Israel’s Monotonix, the mind expanding drone-noise of Growing, Brighton’s talented prog youngsters, Diagonal and the super tight psych-riffing of Earthless.