\nYou can trust Louder<\/p>\n
Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n There\u2019s a big part of me that doesn\u2019t want Ithaca<\/a> to take the stage today. That\u2019s because I know, the second they step back off in 30 minutes, I\u2019ll have to deal with the emotion of knowing I\u2019ll never see them again. I\u2019m not ready.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s most forthright bands. They\u2019ve stood up to Nazis, racists and sexists<\/a> and never done anything to compromise their values. Last year, they backed out of the show of a lifetime at Download, protesting the festival\u2019s then-sponsorship from Barclaycard, who have ties to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After announcing their breakup in late 2024<\/a>, the five-piece gave their final headline performance in February. If that was the funeral, then their swansong festival set at Bristol\u2019s Arctangent is the wake: less formal, more celebratory, but every bit as sad.<\/p>\n Robbie Williams\u2019 Angels blares over the speakers \u2013 establishing the lighthearted tone, in contrast to frontwoman Djamila Azzouz<\/a> emerging in a widow\u2019s veil at the February gig \u2013 then the band burst into In The Way. Fast, crammed with squealing guitars and unloading plenty of feminine rage (\u201cI\u2019ll wash your blood down the sink, \u2019cause I don\u2019t keep souvenirs\u201d), it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n They Fear Us offers the biggest dose of communal catharsis, everyone in the heaving main-stage tent singing \u201cBow to your blood, your queen and your god!\u201d, 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\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n