Once again, Monochrome presents a defiantly uncompromising programme that puts extreme metal and abrasive experimental music in the same room, gaffer tapes the door shut and asks them to play nicely.

So while you will certainly find a good deal of metal on the bill, let's not let "genre" get in the way of a good time. Monochrome is a broad church, welcoming folks that might not necessarily feel at home at a conventional "metalfest".

Now expanded into a 2 day event, Monochrome will open on Friday 11th April at the Moor Brewery. Increasingly the venue of choice for Bristol’s DIY scene, Moor is the perfect place to cut the ribbon on a weekend of sonic excess.

On Saturday 12th, we return to Strange Brew for a full day of relentless back-2-back ugliness across 2 stages, before retiring to The Gryphon for a nightcap / to dance to gnarly music until 3am (delete as appropriate).

There's stacks more still to be announced, but the first names for Monochrome 2025 are:

CONCRETE WINDS - Deathgrind (FN)
https://concretewinds.bandcamp.com/
CONCRETE WINDS have always gone further than any recent extreme metal outfit and leave out everything that's established in music, cut off what became comfortable in metal, and blow away what still feels "appropriate" in extreme metal.

BLACK CURSE - Blackened Death (US)
https://blackcurse-svr.bandcamp.com/album/endless-wound
Combining ripping, violent rhythms with razor sharp riffing and trancelike pulses, Black Curse creates true malevolence. The band rips open (un)holy portals to times when Black and Death Metal shared the same principles, the same aesthetics, and the same diabolical wrath.

PETRONN SPHENE - No-Wave Rave (UK)
https://arcanepariahrecords.bandcamp.com/album/exit-the-species
Also known as one half of the Leeds xenofeminist crisis energy rock duo Guttersnipe along with her other solo project The Ephemeron Loop, Petronn Sphene is the singular manifestation of queer punk cyborg convulsing body music known as “No Wave Rave”.

COFFIN MULCH - Death Metal (UK)
https://coffinmulch.bandcamp.com/album/spectral-intercession
Known for their heavy, old-school sound influenced by the classic death metal of the late '80s and early '90s, the band has quickly gained attention for their brutal riffs, guttural vocals, and relentless energy.

ZBIGNIEW CHOJNACKI - Noise Accordion (PL)
soundcloud.com/zbigniew-chojnacki/zbigniew-spy-thoughts
With his accordion and heaps of live electronics, Zbigniew Chojnacki is out for musical risks without a lifebuoy. hIS fiery improvisations pulsate between sinister drones and intense noise assault. Truly one of a kind.

VICTIM UNIT - Queercore (UK)
https://victimunit.bandcamp.com/album/if-not-y-not
Cyber-grind queercore duo Victim Unit's amalgamation of harsh primal noise and disturbingly fierce riffs will leave you breathless and questioning how this sound can come from two gays and a drum machine. Their ethos is building a space for queer folx, SA survivors and people afflicted with mental health to collectively and safely come together to grieve our traumas and celebrate our identities.

GORGON VOMIT - Death Metal (UK)
https://gorgonvomit.bandcamp.com/album/skeng-down-jah
North London's Gorgon Vomit's peddle a ferocious and bestial death metal. With lyrics mixing British and Jamaican Patois, vocalist Black Mane's Jamaican background is an ever present theme in their music. Still, the true metal laws of satanism, power, and punishment flow through the blood of the band undisturbed.

KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE - Power Electronics (UK)
https://knifedoutofexistence.bandcamp.com/
Founded in 2013, Knifedoutofexistence makes emotionally charged, feedback drenched soundscapes using tapes, guitars, synths, vocals, microphones and feedback.

TRAIDORA - D-Beat Punk (UK)
https://metadonarecords.bandcamp.com/album/un-cuerpo-trans-lleno-de-odio
A dangerous discharge of Latin American d-beat punk. Formerly a one-woman-project, Traidora is now on the road as a vital and ferocious four piece. They talks about migration, about queerness and especially about trans liberation. The songs are short, fast, and full of rage and fury.

SEVENYEARWAITINGLIST - Grind Selecta (UK)
https://pleasanthouses.bandcamp.com/album/transition-goals
To listen to Sevenyearwaitinglist's releases will only give you a hint of what their live set has in store. Yes, you'll be treated to intense bursts of chaotic cyber-grind, but you'll get them weaved together with snatches of pop bangers, hip hop anthems, and whatever else they feel like screaming their way through.

CONQUEROR WORM - Moog Grind (UK)
https://conquerorwormuk.bandcamp.com/album/hack-job-split-2
Conqueror Worm are Bristol's own grinding noise outfit, featuring members of Human Cull and Atomçk. Bass, synth, drums and shrieks welded into a cacophony of blasts, sci-fi diatribes and wall of noise riffs. Like The Locust meets Bastard Noise trapped in a bin.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions — Read more — Read less