Dark Arts Festival is a must for fans of metal

The Groove Tube

Now in its third year, The Galway Dark Arts Festival comes to The Loft at Seven, Bridge Street this Saturday, August 19.  Bringing together bands from niche genres like doom, death and black metal, the festival is curated by Hexen Haus, who are Marius ‘Ragas’ Ragukas, Seán Sullivan and Ciarán Creedon.

“I always thought the Galway Arts Festival never catered for metal,” Ciarán says of the decision to run a festival. “We just tried to find the most extreme bands in Ireland, in death metal, harsh noise, and doom metal as well.”

Dark Arts hit something of a stumbling block last year when the venue that had been booked pulled out with only three days’ notice.  But a bastion of the Galway metal scene was at hand – Sally Long’s Pub stepped in and the 12 bands that were booked all got to play.

“It was great, the atmosphere was amazing,” Ciarán says. “It was fairly stressful alright, with three days to go and no venue. We were lucky really. It wasn’t what we had planned, but it turned out really well. All the bands enjoyed the day, and the people who came along too.”

Ciarán will be playing at this year’s festival himself, as a member of Coscradh.

“We’re a death metal band based in Dublin, but with members from Galway, Belfast and Castlebar,” Ciarán says. “A lot of the metal bands in Ireland who are serious about it have to venture outside their hometown to find people who are into that kind of music.”

Hailing from Manchester, Inconcessus Lux Lucius will be headlining this year’s Dark Arts Festival. Their name is difficult to pronounce, but does it have a meaning?

“I don’t know what it means, actually!” Ciarán says. “They’re on the same record label as us, Invictus Records, who are based in Dublin. They’re one of the biggest underground death metal labels in Europe, they’ve been going for about 20 years.

“Inconcessus Lux Lucius play a strange sort of black metal. There’d be a bit of 1970s rock to it, and good craic heavy metal. But there’s a still a good heavy, underground vibe to it as well.”

The Dark Arts Festival delves into sub-genres of metal – Ciarán’s own band play a mix of death and black metal. He offers an explanation of these genres for the uninitiated.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.