Rabidfest 2023: Breaking Down The Bands #11: Monasteries!

As the clock ticks down to the fifth anniversary of Rabidfest at The Bullingdon in Oxford on 4th and 5th November, we’re here to tell you why its the hottest ticket in town. Not only does buying a ticket mean getting to spend the weekend in Oxford listening to some top notch bands from the United Kingdom Metal scene, enjoying a few beverages of choice and being surrounded by beautiful people. Oh no. The Sophie Lancaster Foundation also gets a wedge of cash as the event is run for charity. So you get to feel good about doing your bit while having a good time! Ticket links are at the bottom of this article but before we get to that, here’s whose been announced so far…

Blaze Bayley
Absolva
Ward XVI
Mortishead
Tribe Of Ghosts
Gutlocker
Imperium
From Her Ashes
Draconian Reign
Monasteries
Reveller
LestWeForget
Johanna Rey

A common theme in recent Rabidfest line ups and a total coincide is the presence of bands with releases on Seek & Strike Records. For those not in the know, that’s the label home of Upon A Burning Body, Orbit Culture and The Dialectic as well as 2021 headliners Exist Immortal. This year will see Midlands Technical Deathcore Masters Monasteries burying the label flag into the Devolution Magazine sponsored main stage after they distributed the heavy hitters EP “Silence“. That vicious little beauty was mixed and mastered by Myroslav Borys at Jigsaw Audio (Confessions Of A Traitor, Last Hounds) and dropped in 2021 to be followed by single “Lilac” last April. So what will Monasteries be bringing to Oxford? Well that ain’t gonna be our first rodeo with those dudes after we witnessed them decimate the weak at Tech-Fest last summer and reduce Suburbia in Southampton to rubble in December. So our anticipation would be razor sharp technical riffs galore, percussion that registers on The Richter scale and vocals from Josh Davies that can shatter glass at fifty feet. He’s been lending his throat to cuts from everyone from Suffer to Darkest Point of late so might even drop a cameo on a cut from Draconian Reign…

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