Rabidfest 2023: Breaking Down The Bands #5: Draconian Reign!

It’s all high fives and stage dives with March approaching and the fifth week of celebration of the forthcoming fifth anniversary of Rabidfest in full swing. Forget diet Tuesday. This is full fat, high caffeine, adrenaline pumping, mosh pit inciting stuff. You should already know that Rabidfest will take place at The Bullingdon in Oxford over the weekend of the 4th and 5th November 2023 and there are thus far no less than nine bands announced to play. Given that’s nine months away, it gives you plenty of time to get an excuse in to slack off your aunties birthday and attend because lets face it, two days of wall to wall riffs beats a solitary slice of stale birthday cake all day long! Your line up so far is…

Blaze Bayley
Absolva
Ward XVI
Mortishead
Tribe Of Ghosts
Gutlocker
Imperium
From Her Ashes
Draconian Reign

Let’s be honest for a minute; we wrote one of these introduction articles for Nottingham Dark Symphonic Deathcore brutes Draconian Reign ahead of last years Rabidfest, but sadly they were forced to pull out at the 11th hour and were replaced by the almighty To Obey A Tyrant courtesy of Unearthed Music. Bringing them back this year on the strength of their debut EP “Necromantic” would be very much worth while however the quintet are going up in the World. They’ve announced their signing to Seek & Strike Records, the label home of Upon A Burning Body, Exist Immortal and Orbit Culture to name but a few for the release of a sophomore EP “Tragedy Eternal” with a gut punch of a new single in “Infernal Requiem“. Inspired by genre pioneers Carnifex and Lorna Shore their debut EP was without a doubt the reason that the label inked a deal in blood with them, especially as they are joined by Alan Grnja of Downtempo Deathcore titans Distant for “Crown of Despair“ which takes pride of place upon it. Hell, Seek & Strike may have even been Unique Leader Records to the signing, the band having shared stages with Death Metal supergroup Viscera in the not so distant past.

We’re proud to be a Media Partner of Rabidfest again this year alongside Red Death Media, Moomin Merchandise, Metalplanetmusic, Moshville Times, GraphicsFix, Unearthed Music and main stage sponsor Devolution Magazine. The Festival is all for charity and this year the profits going to the The Sophie Lancaster Foundation!

Rabidfest will take place at The Bullingdon in Oxford over the weekend of the 4th and 5th November 2023:

Get your tickets here -> https://www.rabidfest.co.uk

Get your merch here -> https://shop.rabidfest.co.uk