The most outspoken British metalcore band of the decade just played their last show

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There’s a big part of me that doesn’t want Ithaca to take the stage today. That’s because I know, the second they step back off in 30 minutes, I’ll have to deal with the emotion of knowing I’ll never see them again. I’m not ready.

Since debuting with 2019 album The Language Of Injury, and especially following the release of 2022 magnum opus They Fear Us, these London dissidents have been lauded as one of the UK’s most forthright bands. They’ve stood up to Nazis, racists and sexists and never done anything to compromise their values. Last year, they backed out of the show of a lifetime at Download, protesting the festival’s then-sponsorship from Barclaycard, who have ties to the Israeli military.

After announcing their breakup in late 2024, the five-piece gave their final headline performance in February. If that was the funeral, then their swansong festival set at Bristol’s Arctangent is the wake: less formal, more celebratory, but every bit as sad.

Robbie Williams’ Angels blares over the speakers – establishing the lighthearted tone, in contrast to frontwoman Djamila Azzouz emerging in a widow’s veil at the February gig – then the band burst into In The Way. Fast, crammed with squealing guitars and unloading plenty of feminine rage (“I’ll wash your blood down the sink, ’cause I don’t keep souvenirs”), it’s classic Ithaca, despite being merely three years old. Ed Gibbs of Devil Sold His Soul and Kate Davies of Pupil Slicer guest-scream on The Future Says Thank You and Cremation Party respectively, reaffirming this as a powerhouse victory lap.

They Fear Us offers the biggest dose of communal catharsis, everyone in the heaving main-stage tent singing “Bow to your blood, your queen and your god!”, before Impulse Crush sends the moshpit into a frenzy one last time. Azzouz is in tears as the final chords ring, and who can blame her? As Ithaca walk backstage, the UK metal scene has become one principled and heavy-as-fuck band poorer. I don’t like it.

Ithaca setlist: Arctangent festival, Bristol, UK – August 15, 2025