This year was the 25th in-person Infest – and also my 25th Infest (including the two online events, which I was involved in by DJing at one, and providing interviews for both) – and it was one of significant change.

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After the University of Bradford couldn’t host the festival any longer – the Student’s Union being significantly reconfigured due to changing student requirements – the festival made the move to the opulent surroundings of St. George’s Hall in the city centre for a couple of years. As a gig space, it was brilliant – a huge stage with a powerful sound system – but much of everything else had to be a compromise. Post-bands events were hosted at other venues in the city, which meant walking between venues late at night and a perception at least to some that it wasn’t particularly safe to do so – and at least one of those venues was so warm and so loud that half of the people that made it there spent much of the time outside. But to add to that, there wasn’t much in the way of socialising space, or space for traders, or just generally somewhere to sit down.

The fact that Bradford gained City of Culture status for 2025 kind of forced the hand of the Festival. It was clear that much-increased visitor numbers to the city would make hotels an issue, not to mention venues, and so moving the festival forward by a week, and about 40 miles to the southwest to Manchester, seemed like a sensible idea.

Even at the original announcement time, it seemed like the right choice, and by the time we arrived on Friday, it absolutely felt like the right one. The Manchester Academy complex is the University Student Union and also a nationally-known set of gig venues, and while the bar could have done with more staff at times (an issue mostly rectified on the Saturday), the performances in the Academy 2 upstairs, and the Club Academy downstairs, all proceeded without issue and mostly with good, clear sound and good sightlines too.

The one thing that was much commented on this year was the condensed nature of the Festival this year. Usually spread over three days, it was cut down to two days – presumably as a “let’s see how a slightly smaller festival works this time” – and with a similar number of bands. Which meant alternating upstairs and downstairs, with short turnarounds of fifteen minutes between sets, that meant a lot of dashing up and down stairs and a general feeling that even with the best of intentions, you were going to miss something.

I understand, however, that with the return to a three-day event next year, the timings will be relaxed a bit to give us a bit more time for everything isn’t just watching bands – and I for one welcome that!

Some things about Infest are intractable, though. Friends made over decades will still be coming along too – and some I’d not seen in some years at the festival returned this year, and those friendships will be toasted over a drink or two at some point or another. There will be stories of friends who made questionable choices the night before. There will be bands I love, bands I dislike, and some that genuinely surprise me. The festival proper will be opened by a band who are at least entertaining, and there will be an act from the HANDS stable.

Join me as I take a look at most of the bands playing over the weekend.

A note: we didn’t make the Thursday pre-Festival event this year – it just wasn’t possible for us to make it north in time – but I did try and see something of almost every band, as well as those at the Sunday night post-Festival event a bit further up the Oxford Road. This is, of course, an entirely subjective view of the weekend, from my point of view, and your mileage may vary on my takes on the acts. What you think is up to you.

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/Infest 2025 /Friday /Academy 2 & Club Academy

/Eisfabrik
/Auger
/Harpy
/William Bleak
/Junkie Kut
/Petrol Bastard
/The Royal Ritual

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A nice addition to the line-up was showing the much-commented upon Electronic Body Movie before the bands began each day, which was doubly useful as I’d not managed to see the film until this weekend. It turns out to be a relatively short (just under an hour), but tightly focussed look at the origins of EBM and its influence, in the words of those who created it and the DJs who helped to resurrect it again decades later. The music choices, naturally, are impeccable and it is a great watch for scene veterans and newcomers alike.

One thing that did improve later in the weekend was staffing at the bars, but when a stripped down set from The Royal Ritual began in the bar area, I was far too occupied with trying to get a beer to pay much attention to the set, I’m afraid.

The main artist lineup proper began with Petrol Bastard. Back in the distant past, I made comments about the band that were coloured by frankly appalling fan behaviour – and the band took a good amount of time to respond and debate, all-but-disowning said “fans” and their less-than-good T-shirts. Time, some thought and a bit of reappraisal has perhaps changed my mind somewhat.

Petrol Bastard still teeter on the edge of chaos, but it is clear to see it takes some skill to do vaguely synchronised dance moves, and create music that really does sound like a “Tesco Value Prodigy”, as the group dubbed it themselves some time back. It is relentless, rave-influenced music that less-than-gently sends up northern, working-class small-mindedness (and coming from the same area as the band, I certainly know those attitudes), and is perhaps laughing at themselves too.

Sure, I still probably wouldn’t listen to it much at home, but it was a lot of fun live.

Also familiar with the work of The Prodigy was Junkie Kut, who followed Petrol Bastard in the schedule. With a look that recalled Keith Flint, and a tempo that was mostly at the level of Gabba, it was exhausting to watch, never mind perform, but it was certainly entertaining. It was also the artist’s birthday that day, and they also sweetly announced that their mum was in the crowd: probably the cutest moment of the weekend.

I needed a sit down after that, so I missed William Bleak entirely, unfortunately – and thanks to the bruising schedule, not the last band I missed most of. Harpy felt a rather different show to the set at Resistanz in April, and that might partly be because it leaned rather more – unexpectedly – metal. Maybe it was just the mix, but the guitars were much more prominent, and something didn’t feel as great this time. But there were certainly moments: the brooding recent single Precious shows a bit of vulnerability that Harpy often does her best to conceal, while the other recent single Last Time is a scorching, X-rated track that stomps hard. Things closed again with what remains her best track: the thundering industrial metal of Slaughterhouse, the kind of track that would be equally at home in a metal club, industrial club or a fetish club. Which is probably exactly the point.

Being used to only three or four live bands on Infest Friday, I was perhaps keener on spending time with friends over a beer (or two), and so I missed Auger as well. I’m probably going to be told by some readers – as I was by some friends at the weekend – that I missed the show of the weekend, but I’m afraid they just haven’t done it for me in the past. They are certainly slick, and have a big following, but I wasn’t enthused enough to go downstairs and see for myself this time around. Maybe next time.

I saw a few songs from Eisfabrik, and perhaps was expecting more of a show, judging on the icy themes and the various publicity shots. Instead, we got a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance of the singer in a yeti outfit, quickly discarded, and some white netting over the synths. Their futurepop sounds were perfectly serviceable as I recall, but I couldn’t remember a great deal of it the next day, never mind a few days into the next week.

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/Infest 2025 /Friday /Academy 2 & Club Academy

/Project Pitchfork
/Lizette Lizette
/Blackbook
/Sans-Fin
/Heartlay
/Winkie
/The DSM IV
/Muta-scuM

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A relatively early night post-bands, and a more relaxed Saturday morning (we had tentative plans to go and visit Tails’ grave, as has been traditional in the years since his passing, but there just wasn’t time this time around – next year there will be), meant that we were refreshed and ready to go for a Saturday bill that began at 1500.

The opening act on Saturday was certainly one to blow away the cobwebs. Muta-scuM is the work of Infest regular Adam, and was an impressively supported, noisy set for an artist at such an early time, comparatively. That said, if you have no interest in breakcore-infused, rhythmic industrial-noise, Muta-scuM are not for you. Happily, I do very much like this kind of thing, and it was a confident set that showcased his skills well. I’m just glad I didn’t forget my earplugs.

I can’t say that I ever expected to see the one-time vocalist of The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster playing at Infest under his new guise, as a duo, under the name The DSM IV – but then, there’s been a number of unexpected artists at Infest over the years, particularly as genre lines have continued to blur. The sound of The DSM IV fitted in neatly at Infest, and at a festival in Manchester: seething, bass-heavy post-punk with a confrontational attitude to match. But unlike many bands of a similar ilk, lyrically they don’t seem to be looking back too much. Instead, with the nervy New Age Paranoia, and the raging takedown of older men who like younger girls at the bar that bit too much in Scumbag, this felt a very modern blast of blackened rage.

As I found out from in the photo pit, too, vocalist Guy McKnight has lost none of his intensity – nor his propensity to wander off over the barriers into the crowd (which probably gave the techs kittens as his mic lead trailed everywhere). I certainly won’t forget the set in a hurry.

That said, I’m not sure I’ll ever forget weekend highlight Winkie. A New York duo that play onstage in sharp white suits, but wearing mostly clear masks that have fixed, rictus grins, and by their own definition, play “music for drowning”. The effect is unsettling and at points, fucking terrifying. Actually, the music wasn’t much less unnerving, even as their sound gradually morphed across the set. The set began as if they were a Witch House act with a particular fascination with the Jesus and Mary Chain, and continued into a sound that shared elements with a number of other American acts of recent years (most notably Them Are Us Too): queasy, genderqueer shoegaze-inflected electronics that sounded both dreamy and nightmarish at the same time, and in that part, I understood their self-description utterly.

And then, out of nowhere, punishing drum patterns appeared, and it began to feel like Swans in the early eighties attempting a primitive form of shoegaze, but using the bones of their previous audiences to batter out the beats. It was quite, quite mad, and quite brilliant. I’d never heard of them before this week, and I’ve clearly been missing out.

Also somewhat confounding were Heartlay. I certainly wasn’t expecting industrial deathcore, but that’s what we got: relentlessly. It wasn’t subtle, it perhaps didn’t have too much variety, but they certainly stood out over the weekend by way of sheer heaviness compared to everyone else. That said, they really need to find a way to stop the drums overpowering everything else in the mix – in the front half of the cavernous space of the Academy 2, it was difficult to hear much else. As well as that, one friend reckoned they reminded him of Nu-Metal also-rans Adema…

Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it, but the HANDS act here this year, the techno-industrial noise of Sans-Fin, did absolutely nothing for me. On record I rather like it: but in a dark club room with so much dry ice that I could barely see my hands, never mind the artist onstage, I could have just been listening to a DJ.

Much better were Blackbook, who to these ears were the revelation of the weekend. My wife commented on the journey up how many of the modern synthpop/futurepop acts in our scene have rather forgotten the pop part of the description, instead delivering dour vocals that dampen any excitement and dynamics in their songs. Blackbook bucked that trend in spectacular fashion, delivering a set stacked full of joyous, roof-raising songs that weren’t trying anything too groundbreaking, but did the basics very, very well indeed.

I don’t think there was a bad song in the set: I’ve had the refrain to My Beautiful Witch in my head since Saturday night, and if it’s not that, the joyous Haunted Love or the sadness at the heart of I Dance Alone elbow it out of the way, while the bleak, future dystopia of I Am Not A Robot had me considering the impact of Mind.in.a.Box on synthpop: a band so unique that it has taken years for anyone to even dare trying to hint towards their sound. Perhaps one of the joys of this set is that this was not at all what I was expecting: not having been at Resistanz in 2023, I missed their appearance there and so didn’t realise that this black-clad, masked duo were not producing music with goblin vocals or boring synthwave. Instead, it was wall-to-wall (dark) pop hits that I could have happily listened to another hour of.

Maybe it was the comedown from Blackbook, but I just couldn’t get into Lizette Lizette at all. I felt like I wanted more from the show, and so the slower tempos of their songs just kinda drifted by.

I’ve seen Project Pitchfork a few times – not least at Infest, where they’ve now headlined three times – and having formed in 1989, they are remarkable survivors in a wider genre that seems to reinvent itself every few years. Their drum-heavy darkwave – and notably here, they used two live drummers, giving an impressive heft to their sound – has remained true to their origins ever since, and for this set, there was a feeling that they are currently looking back across their history, as the set went way, way back, even to the belting environmental fury of K.N.K.A. (from their first demo release!). Although, notably, there was nothing from Eon:Eon amid all the nostalgia, which seemed a strange omission, but seeing as I heard Conjure, too, for the first time in many years, I’ll forgive a lot.

In a weekend where, for the most part, experimentalism was in and dancefloor bangers were in short supply, the airing of the inevitable Timekiller was a reminder of the other side of industrial music. One where bands aimed for the stars, and very nearly got there – and as if to ram home the impact of the track, a bunch of people behind us in the crowd were singing the choral elements of the And One remix (at the right moments, and pretty much in the right key) that just added to the joy.

There was even time to abandon drinks and dance for a while in the bar area, where Richard and Mark reprised their years as Jilly’s DJs with a four-hour set that dipped into the sometimes random nature of their sets: any night where we danced to both Hardcore Motherfucker, Dirty Epic and Scooby Snacks is an enjoyable one in my book.

While condensed and everything feeling a tiny bit rushed, this Infest was, in the grand scheme of things, a triumph. A triumph over adversity, for a start: there was a feeling that time was running out for the festival in Bradford, with declining attendances and a sense that something needed to change. It turns out that change was moving it to Manchester, to a location at the University that allowed everything to be under one roof again, with more space and better ways of using it – the crew and staff were all a joy, despite the tight timings pretty much everything ran to time, and the sound was generally pretty good (important at a music festival, of course). Attendance was noticeably higher, and with yet more people pledging to be there already next year, Infest 2026 is already nailed on in our calendars too.

That said, the Sunday didn’t go unfilled, with the Strange Events team running an all-day event that saw DJs take over the Flour and Flagon (opposite the Deaf Institute) for the afternoon, before moving next door to the larger Bread Shed for the evening. Also well-attended, it allowed a chance to see a few more bands.

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/Strange Events: Infest 2025 Closing Party /Sunday /The Bread Shed

/Method Cell
/LLUMEN
/NOVUS
/Spire Circle
/Hexial

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I didn’t realise this before the show – although the logo design should have given me a hint – that Hexial is a side-project of Alex Herington of Method Cell. Not that you’d know from the music, which couldn’t be further from the parent band. A mix of whimsical electronics and elegant, intricate soundscapes, a set that might have been a trial to watch (I’ve long been on record that one man and his synths/laptops are not the most interesting to stand and watch for half an hour) was made fascinating by clever use of MIDI-linked LED light towers, built into a frame that surrounded Herington. I hear there are more grandiose plans for the stage show if they can find a venue to fit their ambition, and I’d love to see it happen.

Also confounding expectations somewhat were Spire Circle. A local – i.e. “from Manchester” – band, but with two members from overseas and another from Yorkshire, that definition may be debatable! Either way, on record they are a hard-edged darkwave band, but onstage they turned into an impressive, and loud, electronic rock band that aside from a slightly muddy low-end and a couple of technical issues, sounded very impressive indeed. Think darkwave meets synth-era Paradise Lost and late-90s Killing Joke, and you’re somewhere in the right ballpark. There aren’t many bands who can do such a pivot with their live show and make it work so well, I can tell you.

A warm venue and a desire to rest our feet for a while (the one thing lacking from the Bread Shed, until later on, anyway, was much in the way of seating) meant that I missed NOVUS, a band I last saw in 2007 (and I’m fairly sure I missed at Goth City a couple of years back, too, by faffing about in the pub). LLUMEN were on the Infest bill last year in Bradford, and for me – again, not helped by the sound in the venue – they didn’t have the emotional punch of last year’s performance. Maybe I was just absolutely fucking knackered after three solid days.

I had to check my records, but it’s twelve years since I last saw Method Cell (at Resistanz 2013), and I saw them a year before that, too, supporting Seabound at a London show that saw Seabound return after a long time away. Once upon a time, in those early years of the last decade, Method Cell were bubbling under as one of the hottest prospects in UK industrial/synth sounds: they had so many great songs that debut album Curse of a Modern Age didn’t even include some of their best songs that they’d been playing in their sets at the time – particularly perennial set closer The Fallacy – and when they vanished from the scene, it seemed that many of those songs would be confined to difficult-to-find compilations or memory.

Then, though, Last One Standing appeared, apparently out of nowhere, in 2023, and the duo began gigging again. This show vindicated that decision brilliantly, as frankly they were one of the best bands of the entire Infest weekend this year, playing a set stacked with songs that seemed to drive a good-sized crowd wild from start to finish.

There were the inevitable fan-favourites – the set closed with a fan-assisted, rampaging Push before The Fallacy, still their best song, was the perfect send-off. But the rest of the set was worth seeing, too, with the acid-tongued kiss-off of Drop Dead remaining as sharp as ever (and amusingly introduced as a song that they “couldn’t remember who it was about now”. Ouch.), while early single Scissors felt like it had received a polish and brush up in recent years, and we’ve all known the person depicted who seems incapable of avoiding poor life choices.

Whatever their reasons for being away, perhaps absence really does make the heart fonder: Method Cell were exceptional here, fully justifying their place as headliners for the evening, and unlike one of their songs, have no need to reinvent themselves. They are a brilliant, homegrown industrial-synthpop duo who are great songwriters, and just as adept live performers. I only hope I get to see them again sooner rather than later.

A final note: my wife asks me to count up the number of people in bands over the weekend, and how many women/non-binary people perform, and while the balance isn’t great each year, this year was the most unbalanced I can remember. Across the two nights of Infest proper, there were fifteen bands, with 29 people playing in them: just Five of them by my count were not men (one being a guest vocalist with Project Pitchfork for two songs). At the Closing Party, across five acts, there were 9 people playing, and just two were not men. There’s a lot of acts that don’t feature men in the scene, so why aren’t there more of them playing these festivals?