Rabidfest 2025: Breaking Down The Bands #12: Æi-Fierlen!

“And with the new light there was young hope, To underline the meaning, And carve our names in, At the end of August, The end of, At the end of August, The end of, I’ll never replace the ones I first made, Jesus, does anyone?” ~ 36 Crazyfists

Who doesn’t like a bit of 36 Crazyfists?! It’s (almost) the end of August and so here we are talking about November. Specifically the 1st and 2nd of November. Why? We hear you cry? That will be Rabidfest season. Twenty bands playing the Devolution Magazine sponsored main stage at The Bullingdon in the heart of Oxford over two days of blood, sweat and beers with mosh pits and headbanging while raising money for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation at the same time! Sound good? Read on McDuff!

The Rabidfest team are so damn cool that they have announced a warm up show! Subtitled Sheri’s Birthday Black Mass, the event will see four bands on stage celebrating the birthday of Rabidfest Director and iconic scene queen Sheri Bicheno. As with the main event, all proceeds will be going to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation!

Saturday 20th September Sheri’s Birthday Black Mass at The Jericho Tavern:

Tribe Of Ghosts
Grove Warden
The Blade Itself
Kulan Gath

Here’s the line-up in full!:

Friday: The Fight Before Rabidfest on 31st October at The Jericho Tavern:

Confessions Of A Traitor
Ocean Planet
Imperial Avenue
Along The Pines

Saturday: 1st November at The Bullingdon:

Raging Speedhorn (headliner)
Kill II This
Raised By Owls
Arimea
Komatsu
Thrashatouille
Korrupto
Talassum
Break Them
R.P.C

Sunday: 2nd November at The Bullingdon:

Red Method (headliner)
Seething Akira
Redeemon
Froglord
Until 9
Collapser
Lethal Evil
Liquid Dogs
Æi-Fierlen
Mondegreen

You’ve read the line up, heard about the warm up shows, written the dates in the calendar and WhatsApp’d you mates to get them to go with you so now you’re wondering just who in their right mind Æi-Fierlen are? Well look no further! Hailing from the South of England, Æi-Fierlen are four piece who share a mutual love of Scandinavian music, seamlessly weaving elements of Black Metal with Shoegaze and Folk to create a sound which they describe as being as twisted as the branches of the oldest tree in the forest. You could even go on to describe that as Post-Black Metal and with bands like Forlorn also treading the path that Gods fear to, you could say their future is… as dark as the darkest of nights.

They released their first single in May last year in “To Sleep Eternal” and then followed that in the September with “Eðe” with both songs credited to the writing partnership of guitarist Rob Melville and vocalist Steph Moffatt before adding to that with a cover of “Like Humans” by Myrkur. The band are specialists at creating nuanced material with those three compositions making up no less than twenty three minutes of music, Moffatt’s delicate and yet lush clean vocal performances often floating in the ether, surrounded by tremolo picked guitars, rumbling bass and crashing drums.

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

Rabidfest will take place at The Bullingdon in Oxford over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd November 2025:

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

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