According to my records, including this year, I’ve seen 372 live sets at Infest since 2000 (not including the two online Infests in 2020 and 2021), with 342 of those unique artists. That’s a lot to cover as a writer and regular reviewer of the festival: I’ve reviewed every in-person festival from 2005 onwards (2005-2008, 2010-2019, 2022-2026), as well as briefer coverage of 2003, making this one the twentieth time that I’ve reviewed it.

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/amodelofcontrol.com now has a Patreon page, at this stage purely as a potential way of helping to cover the running costs of the site. There is absolutely no compulsion to do so: if you feel you can chuck a small amount to the site each month, that would be appreciated.

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I’ve not loved every artist, indeed there’s always some that do absolutely nothing for me, but frankly I prefer that. I want to be challenged, I want to have to think about the artists that I watch onstage, and the sheer variety of music that is played at the festival means that some of them I’ll be there to watch in a shot, and others I’ll perhaps be actively avoiding.

My last shot at reviewing Infest this year was perfect example of the variety that the festival brings, but also reminded of my own changing tastes. I am not remotely the same person I was twenty years ago – let alone twenty six years ago when I first came to Infest – and to think that my musical tastes would be the same as then would be folly. So I liked some, I didn’t like others, some I wanted more from.

One notable change this year was how many women featured – just four artists all weekend, by my count, didn’t have women onstage. It perhaps made for an even more diverse lineup than there has been in some time, and the festival is all the better for it.

This then, as usual, is my take on the weekend. Others will have different opinions, others will love bands I really didn’t. Some might hate the bands I loved. That’s your call, and as it should be. Click on the links above for the photos of both bands and people.

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/Infest 2026 /Friday /Academy 2 & Club Academy

/LOUISAHHH
/Lovelorn Dolls
/Ghostbells
/Wavepeak
/O₩LS
/FIST ING

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Like last year – and hopefully this will become a regular thing each year, now there’s the space and capability to do it – a film opened the festival on the Friday, this year being an airing of the excellent B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989. I didn’t make the film showing – I own it on DVD anyway – but I did catch the fascinating Q&A with filmmaker/DJ Mark Reeder afterward, and it was intriguing to get a little more insight from him.

Friday’s music did less for me than I hoped: and part of this might have been down to the fact that for the four artists that I saw, at least, were all mostly rooted to the spot behind their kit. As a gig photographer, sure, that offers little opportunity for decent photographs, but as a punter…there’s not a lot to keep my attention.

And so it proved with FIST ING. Sure, two women providing thumping industrial techno is great, and that name certainly got some attention, but after two tracks, I felt I’d seen enough. Also, as my wife noted, it’s a wonder that the duo managed to a) get their website URL and b) haven’t been offered good money by an, er, less reputable site to take it off their hands.

There was a lot of excitement when O₩LS were announced for the festival, and their dramatic, gloomy darkwave is certainly an impressive sound on record: there’s something a bit more than many of their peers to their sound, with a gothic grandeur that seems to be shrouded in dry ice even when coming out of the speakers. But onstage, it’s another person behind a table and a mass of kit, and I really found it hard to stick with it.

That said, a lovely touch was the waving of Longford flags in the crowd from the Irish contingent in the crowd that seemed to bowl over O₩LS somewhat when they appeared a couple of songs in.

It turns out that one of Wavepeak – Jason Becker – had played Infest back in the mists of time (2003, in fact!) as part of much-loved noise artist scrap.edx. My first response when I heard Wavepeak earlier in the year was “2005 called and it would like it’s presets back”, and there was something of that feel at Infest this time, too, with a distinctly old-time noisy crunch to the sound that seemed to have one foot in noise and one foot in the rhythmic industrial stylings. But despite the defiant retroness of the set, it was still enjoyable, and it was nice to see Jason again after so long.

Time got away from us for much of the rest of Infest Friday, as it usually does, and as a result I missed both Ghostbells (whom I’m told were very good), and Lovelorn Dolls, who have continued despite the sudden death of founder member Bernard Daubresse late last year. I must confess that I hadn’t been sold on their somewhat similar sound to The Birthday Massacre on tracks I’d heard previously, anyway, so I took the time to regroup a bit.

Friday night headliner LOUISAHHH had mostly come to my attention doing collaborations with others, particularly the fantastic 2023 album Sustained Resistance with Maelstrom. Here LOUISAHH was on their own, once again behind a table of electronics, and from what I saw, it felt a bit like watching a caged tiger: I wanted to see them let loose, to bare their teeth, but it never happened, at least as long as I was there.

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/Infest 2026 /Saturday /Academy 2 & Club Academy & 532 Bar

/Utah Saints
Aux Animaux
NNHMN
Human Steel
The Gospel
The Dirt
bein-e

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One interesting side-effect of the new venue and making best use of what they have is that there are perhaps more bands playing, but also that the day now stretches that bit longer than before, with bands starting earlier in the afternoon than they used to in Bradford, leaving a bit less time for R&R or even exploring our host city first.

Such as it was on Saturday, with the opening band playing in the bar at 1500, before things started on the main two stages at 1600. Playing in the bar was bein-e – or Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand in full, a German compound word that means “the thing that is almost the thing that you want, but it is not quite…”. I’ve seen bein-e (I’ll be here all day writing this if I do the whole phrase again) a number of times over the years, but this was the first time I’d seen them with their new second vocalist Tom. Across their dark ambient drones and unsettling atmospheres, Tom added a new dimension entirely, pacing the area in front of the stage before barking his vocal contributions, very different to Tiffanie’s nightmarish whispers that we’re already familiar with.

We’d already earmarked Saturday as perhaps the day with the most interesting bands across the weekend, and so it proved. We headed downstairs for The Dirt to find a Japanese guitarist Sachiko – with a Rickenbacker guitar and an arsenal of FX and loop pedals – and gruff, northern vocalist Jack, who has another parallel career as a Beat Poet under the name Leon the Pig Farmer.

My first, perhaps lazy, thought, was that this was The Fall gone Darkwave, but the more I watched, the more fascinated I was: particularly as everything they did was live. Sachiko would tease out a riff, then loop it, play another, loop that, and then get into the meat of the song, while Jack would pound out a drum rhythm and loop that, so that he could concentrate on the vocals. Seeing bands like this for the first time is one of the reasons I keep coming back to Infest: I want new, I want exciting, I want something I’ve not seen before.

Speaking of which, I certainly wasn’t prepared for The Gospel. I mean, if you’re going to commit, go all in, and we were rewarded with one of the most notable sets of the weekend. They call themselves “cinematic goth”, and they certain appreciate staging and making an impact: a five-piece band (a male vocalist, two female floor-tom drummers either side, and female bassist and guitarists), backed with a black-hooded choir of five behind them.

As their name suggests, all of the songs that they played had religious connotations of some way or another, and among the five songs they played in half-an-hour (at least as far as I could tell) there were two original songs and three striking, unexpected covers. I certainly, in all my years of attending this festival, ever expected to hear Spacemen 3, Madonna and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel songs, let alone in one set.

Frankly the entire set was one of the most astonishing things I heard all weekend, but the stately, desperate grandeur of Lord Can You Hear Me? will stay with me forever. But then, I’ve been a fan of Jason Pierce’s work in both Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized since I was a teenager. Likewise, the slow-paced, dramatic take on Like A Prayer, one of those life-affirming songs that it is impossible to fuck up, was done in such a way that the mighty breakdown in the middle was retained to allow it to nearly take the roof off.

There was no doubt that this set wasn’t for everyone – afterward, opinion seemed to be divided on it either being genius or utterly terrible – but I suspect most bands would prefer to be remembered, as I’m sure this set will be for some time.

Another new band to me were Polish-German duo Human Steel, whom, it turned out, play the kind of industrial I’ve loved for a great many years. Onstage they are a vocalist and live drummer, which makes for a powerful sound, particularly on the smaller downstairs Club Academy stage. If you know your industrial history, their sound will at least be vaguely familiar – there’s something of the rhythmic, metallic force of Die Krupps, the sloganeering of Nitzer Ebb, and the rich synths of Front Line Assembly – but they deliver enough onstage to allow the various nods to their past to make it an enjoyable, entertaining show.

I struggled somewhat with NNHMN – not least pronouncing their name, until a friend pointed out it is “Nonhuman” with the vowels removed. Not for the first time this weekend, I’ve quite enjoyed some of their recorded material in recent times, but there’s this nagging feeling that they are yet another artist – and there’s a number of them out there – that are following the template set by Boy Harsher and others, with pounding beats and breathy vocals over the top. At least there was some movement onstage, at least when you could see them amid dim lighting.

There was no such trouble seeing Aux Animaux onstage (unless you were at the back and missed the ritualistic elements on the floor that involved a goblet and a candle to begin with). I realised over the weekend that I’d actually seen them before, when they supported Then Comes Silence in London three years ago, but they certainly didn’t make as much impact then as they did here.

Turkish-Swedish artist Gözde Düzer augments their dramatic darkwave sound with an image that suggests that they’ve just stepped away from Black Metal rituals and are about to sacrifice at least some of the audience as part of the show. Unlike so many darkwave artists that all seem to use the same sounds and same ideas, the banshee howls and hyperactive, unsettling performance certainly makes Aux Animaux stand out.

The Saturday headliner raised some eyebrows when it was announced, but with the longstanding and obvious crossover between the goth/industrial and dance music scenes, the booking of Utah Saints made a whole lot more sense than it first appeared. Especially when the Academy 2 was absolutely packed from when they took to the stage – indeed the biggest crowd I’ve seen for a headliner at Infest in years and years.

It wasn’t a live band performance per se, more a live DJ/mash-up/sampling set that was an absolute masterclass in playing to the crowd in front of them. There were the obvious hits – their best-known hits What Can You Do For Me and Something Good to an extent bookended the set – but across an hour and a bit, they took us all over the map, referencing Manchester (A Guy Called Gerald) and industrial hits (Nine Inch Nails, Nitzer Ebb and more), classic 90s dance music (The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers and a sensational interlude of Underworld’s Cowgirl), even Faith No More and Queens of the Stone Age barged in during a final, breathless ten minutes.

We were still discovering other tracks dropped into the mix the following day, as a friend pointed out even elements of Radiohead were dropped in there somewhere too (and there was doubtless more besides that we missed). This was a brilliant hour-plus of music that kept us dancing for the whole time, as our smartwatches/smart rings/fitness apps told us later, and it was hugely enjoyable – and it was lovely to hear, when they spoke near the end, to pay tribute to the friendly nature and community of Infest that they’d experienced across the day, just hanging out and soaking up the atmosphere (and doubtless being unrecognised while doing so!).

Saturday night was our first taste of post-gig entertainment, but we got distracted outside by the return of the Doof Wagon (in it’s umpteenth new form, upgraded once again) as Tes blasted out half-an-hour of mostly great club classics for a bunch of supposedly serious goth/rivetheads to let their hair down a bit. I still hate Pretty Green Eyes, mind.

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/Infest 2026 /Saturday /Academy 2 & Club Academy & 532 Bar

/IAMX
Agnis
Nexus Fitz
Potochkine
Sylvgheist Maëlström
Holy Braille
Pretty Addicted
tr4nsients

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As we moved onto Sunday – after a leisurely stroll in the sunshine through the vast expanse of Heaton Park to the north of Manchester City Centre, and our traditional Sunday lunchtime curry at mylahore on the northern fringe of Rusholme with friends – we were a bit late getting to the venue, so missed the Tea Party, a Q&A with Nick Soulsby about recent book Viva Negativa! The New Blockaders: The Noise of Art and Nothing, but also the first couple of bands, tr4nsients and Pretty Addicted.

We first saw Holy Braille in Whitby a few years back, in the tiny confines of Crafty Cove (or Raw, as was, if you’re a certain age!), and whose self-titled “Harshwave” styling was a bracing experience to say the least, culminating in vocalist Steph prowling through the crowd, anointing most of them and doing a shot at the bar.

I was straight on to the Infest organisers to suggest they were booked, and after being unable to play last year due to illness, were back this time around, and impressed once again. Their sound is still vicious and uncompromising – think mutated synthpop with a side-interest in rhythmic noise – with Steph commanding attention at the front, while Elliot on electronics seems happy to take a back seat. Well, until late in the set, when Steph took over on the electronics, and Elliot starting doing a workout on a previously unnoticed table at the back.

If you missed them here, make sure you catch them elsewhere live, as they are well worth your time.

I wanted to like Sylvgheist Maëlström more than I did in the live environment: his thoughtful, noisy industrial work on record is concerned with political and social issues and is quite fascinating, but I just couldn’t connect with it here.

As I’ve noted before, there’s an awful lot of darkwave artists about at the moment, and they tend to dominate festival billings too – and Potochkine were another such artist on the Infest lineup this year. This French duo are certainly striking, and at least are trying something a little different to most of their peers, particularly with the ecstatic, thumping beats that pepper many of their songs: there’s a whole lot more energy to their sound than some other, dour duos who mumble through their sets as if we need to hear another wannabe Robert Smith.

In my look back at Infest last week on /Tuesday Ten /648, a notable loss to the wider Infest family earlier this year was Fitz, a Manchester-based musical artist and DJ who was a friend to many, but also was a great source of advice and support to other budding artists over many years. There was a tribute gig in Manchester the week before the festival, and here, Jay from Deviant worked with members of Fitz’s live band for Skinjob (who played Infest themselves many years ago) to play a handful of songs as Nexus Fitz, and allow friends and fans alike to pay tribute

It was just two songs, but to a packed bar area, it was a striking, generous tribute to our late friend Fitz. I’d already heard the upcoming release of Jay’s version of Beauty Is Your Toy, which is Jay adding his own touches to the song, rather than just slavishly sticking to the original, and I can’t help but feel that Fitz would have appreciated that. But the track that really brought the house down was the second: a nod to Fitz’s love of Blade Runner, in the form of a cover of Covenant‘s glorious Like Tears In Rain that had pretty much everyone in the room either wiping away the odd tear or leaving a lump in their throat.

Jay is releasing both tracks, alongside a stacked roster of remixes, with proceeds going to an MND charity, in the coming weeks.

I needed time to reflect and recharge after that emotional hit, which meant that I had to miss Agnis, an artist I’d been quite keen on seeing. All the reports were good, so I’ll look out for another chance in future.

The last time I saw IAMX was a tetchy and rather flat performance in Chicago at Cold Waves, devoid of recognisable songs unless you really know the recent albums and a general feeling that it wasn’t for me. Which was a shame, as I have been following Chris Corner’s music for thirty years or so, first as Sneaker Pimps then the early IAMX material, which was mostly really quite great.

So it was something of a surprise here to find them rather more engaging live, and finally, they are playing the old songs again and are all the better for it. The sense of theatre is still there, too, with Corner wearing a costume and mask outfit that brought to mind the mutant, goth younger brother of Frank in Donnie Darko, while Aux Animaux playing bass also cut a striking figure again.

It wasn’t all about the old songs, either, as the much-newer Disciple had a gut-punch of a sound, but really, I was there for the old stuff, and when The Negative Sex soared, followed by the thundering club-pulse of Nightlife, I couldn’t have been happier. A closing rush through Kiss + Swallow, a song I’d not heard in some years, was just the icing on the cake.

For an artist that thanks to that other recent show I wasn’t especially keen to see as the headliner, I came away pleasantly surprised and happy to say that I was wrong.

Post-live bands on the Sunday night – as is often the case – meant for tough decisions in terms of which dancefloor to head to. Downstairs was DJs Gillywoo & Ared & RLex, but I ended up sticking around upstairs for the Miss Jinny and Bedlam Brian set, a nod back to the days of the Miss Jinny Show and 90 minutes, or thereabouts, of old-school dancefloor fun – I don’t think I left the dancefloor for more than about five minutes.

After that, we were pretty much done. My lesson is that I can’t party as hard as I used to – I’m 48 now, and trying to push things as much as we had done in the past is clearly no longer possible, as I found out paying for this long weekend physically over much of the following week.

But I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love this festival and the community that has built around it over the years. Not everyone I first knew here either comes anymore, or indeed is even part of the scene nowadays, or has sadly left this world, but we’ve also made more friends over time – and this is better community than ever.

Infest itself feels like it has found it’s feet again, too. It felt busier than it has done since before COVID, and now we’re settled into the new Manchester venue, it feels the right place for the festival. There’s enough space, the set-up with two (sometimes three) stages is great, and being in the heart of a buzzing city certainly makes for more to do away from the festival, too (if you have the time!).

The only slightly negative comment I heard over the weekend was the excessive use of strobe lighting for a number of artists, which as I understand it triggered migraines in a number of people attending who are sensitive to them – there didn’t appear to be much in the way of warning that this would be the case, and even as someone who is used to them, it did seem to be a bit much even for me, too.

I will, of course, be back next year, but as I’ve trailed previously, this will be my last report back from Infest in this form, as I begin the process of winding down /amodelofcontrol.com over the next six months or so. Collecting my thoughts and records together – not least the masses of photos I take over the weekend – takes a considerable amount of time each year, and while I still love doing it, I look forward next year to a perhaps less fraught visit to Infest, where I can enjoy the bands without having to consider what I may write about them.

See you all at Infest 2027, back on the Bank Holiday weekend.