FESTIVAL FEATURE: Your Guide To Hardcore At 2000trees Festival 2019

Hardcore is all things to all people. A spin kick soundtrack to background music for crying with your headphones on. But that’s the beauty of punk music in all its offshoots, it’s as rich and textured as it is visceral and cathartic. And it’s fun or whatever as well, if taking things seriously isn’t cool enough for you.

This year, 2000trees has, in a totally unsurprisingly turn of events, put together another stellar line-up of the best rock and alternative music has to offer, including some truly exemplary bands from across the spectrum of hardcore music. Here’s our guide to the ones you need to catch at the weekend.

Palm Reader
Thursday – NEU

Palm Reader are as underrated as they are brilliant, and given they are the most underrated band in the UK, that makes them pretty good. Their emotive and visceral post-hardcore has gone a little art/noise rock of late, and it’s only enhanced the impact of their incredible songs. The only explanation for them not being bigger than they are, is that everyone wants to be fashionably late to their party. Shame on them for missing out on all the best tunes.

Check out: Internal Winter, A Lover, A Shadow, Inertia

Holding Absence
Thursday – NEU

Hardcore isn’t always about aggression. Holding Absence blend the raw aggression of hardcore with delicate, introspective and swelling melodies that bring an emotional weight to their music that most bands can only dream of. If you’re a fan of classic early 00s post-hardcore you need this band in your life.

Check out: Like A Shadow, Your Love (Has Ruined My Life), Wilt

While She Sleeps
Thursday – The Cave 

Photo Credit: Giles Smith

The riffs are pretty metal sure, but While She Sleeps are as punk as they come and riding high on the wildly creative and exciting SO WHAT? There are few bands out there right now who can match this band’s heartwarming spirit and wide-eyed intensity. If you like aggressive music of any description, you’d be doing yourself a massive disservice to miss them.

Check out: Haunt Me, Four Walls, Hurricane

Rolo Tomassi
Friday – The Cave 

Stalwarts of the UK scene for a while, there’s a reason Rolo Tomassi have outlasted so many of their peers: the craftsmanship that defines their music. The balancing act between chaotic mathcore and beautiful, cinematic ethereal sounds isn’t easy, and not a single other band has ever done it with this much class. The band’s latest album Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It is a masterpiece, if you miss them while they’re on this form you’ll regret it later.

Check out: Party Wounds, Aftermath, Contretemps

Cancer Bats
Friday – The Cave 

There’s not another band at this festival that has any more riffs than Cancer Bats. Big riffs, fast riffs, dirty riffs…they’ve got every riff you could want. They’ll play them with more energy than any other band playing, they’ll play them faster and they’ll have more fun than any other band on the whole line-up. You’ll have the most fun too, assuming you’re not daft enough to miss them.

Check out: Hail Destroyer, Road Sick, Gatekeeper

Möngöl Hörde
Friday – The Axiom

No offence to The Sleeping Souls, but we all know Million Dead were better than them and we also all know that Knee Jerk were even better than Million Dead. That being said, Frank Turner is great at everything he does and when he does hardcore it’s a thing of pure joy. It is guaranteed that 1) this band will rip and 2) they have the single best song about Natalie Portman’s tapeworm of anyone on the festival line-up.

Check out: Tapeworm Uprising, Make Way, How The Communists Ruined Christmas

The St. Pierre Snake Invasion
Saturday – The Cave

You might not have heard of this band yet, but they have released the finest album of 2019 so far, so you really should change that. If you want your music tastefully arched and wonderfully chaotic, with a sophisticated slice of melody on the side wrapped up in a delightfully raw sound, this is the band you’re looking for.

Check out: Remystery, The Safety Word is Oklahoma, The Idiot’s Guide To Music.

Every Time I Die
Saturday – Main Stage 

Every Time I Die are one of the best band’s there’s ever been and they’re coming to 2000trees to play one of their best albums in full. What more do you need? They might have a few more years under their belt than some of the other bands on this list, but that only means they’re live show is a well-oiled machine of riff-fueled chaos and scathing one-liners.

Check out: Map Change, I’ve Been Gone A Long Time, Decayin’ With The Boys

2000trees Festival takes place at Upcote Farm, Cheltenham between 10th-13th July. For further information, tickets and the full line-up head to the festival website HERE.

Written by: Calum McMillan