This year’s Incineration Festival, spread across a range of venues in London’s Camden Town, grew even bigger and better. For the first time since 2022, the iconic Roundhouse returned to the lineup, hosting some of 2025’s biggest names in extreme metal. Giants like Triptykon, Decapitated, and Blood Incantation drew in hordes of eager metal lovers, officially kickstarting the festival season. Demand for tickets was so high that they sold out weeks before the event, leaving organisers brainstorming ways to let more people in on the experience. A limited number of additional tickets was released for smaller venues only, which ensured those spaces remained tightly packed throughout the day.
The vibe was almost that of a street festival, with metalheads spilling out of the venues across nearly 12 hours of relentless music. The entire area pulsed with energy as thousands wandered up and down Camden High Street on that sunny Saturday. MetalJunkbox was there, right at the heart of the action—read on for our full report.
No slow burn: Incineration Festival 2025 starts strong and hits hard
Naut opened at The Black Heart, setting the tone with brooding gothic vibes. The start felt unexpectedly glamorous—perhaps because the vocalist wore a sequined blazer, or maybe just because they were that fabulous. The small room quickly filled with fans nursing their first beers of the day, including the event-exclusive Triptykon Aurorae IPA, on tap only at this backstreet venue. In the pitch-black, listening in, the space felt more like 3 AM in a Berlin goth club, with synth rhythms luring people into a slow, dreamlike sway—than midday in the heart of London’s chaos.
Stepping outside, you could see people hunched over tables, flipping through timetables and set lists, trying to plan the perfect path through the chaos. Each venue featured unmissable gems, and unfortunately, some of them clashed: the painful truth of any festival-goer. Tough decisions had to be made.
I jumped across the road to catch the end of Iniquitous Savagery‘s set at The Underworld, who brought their bouncy death metal from Scotland. As usual, we all hotboxed each other in the basement with our beaming energies, released through the first shy little mosh pits of the day.
With our heads spinning and a mini dose of death metal now running through our veins, the next stop was the Electric Ballroom. Every set I attended was packed to the brim and buzzing with intense energy. Lamp of Murmuur appeared on stage, submerged in red light, slowly building into their elevated black metal riffs, full of melodies and goth lullabies. The number of people squeezing their way into the standing area was borderline insane, and more kept coming, pushing in. But it was worth it, as we all swayed together, left to right. Their music felt like Joy Division colliding with The Cure, reborn as black metal. It was a hypnotic, unforgettable blend. But there was no time to dwell; more bands awaited.
Back at The Underworld, the next set came from Carnation, the death metal dream. Parkouring across extreme genres is part of the fun at Incineration. Their fast and garage-y drumming stirred up the crowd, and the harmonious, beautifully crafted breakdowns beat us all down. Red face paint dripped from the vocalist onto the crowd below, the stark whites of his eyes gleaming—piercing, terrifying.
People seemed happy and content, and traffic between venues flowed smoothly through the first part of the festivities. Around midday, though, we found ourselves unable to make it into the Electric Ballroom for Spectral Wound. The long line outside the doors was the only real disappointment of the day. So we started heading towards the Roundhouse to catch the opening act there—Mur. Camden High Street was packed; on that bank holiday Saturday, the crowds were so dense, it was hard to get through to Chalk Farm. But the excitement for the beautiful sounds from Iceland kept us going. The band released one of the most exciting debut albums in December 2024. The biggest venue on the roster this year hosted the more atmospheric bands, and as the crowd started to arrive, Mur opened to just a few and finished to a full and excited audience. Their songs were delicate yet powerful, like the raw, raging Icelandic landscapes. You could see those painted on stage with their sound, accentuated by perfectly timed pyro bursts echoing volcanic eruptions locked in a fantastic blend of prog and post-rock. Their sound was made for big rooms like this, allowing for the depth of their songwriting to expand.
Múr – Nick Davarias
Headliners shine, set times hard to keep up with
The Roundhouse felt relaxed, offering space to refuel between sets and the frantic ping-pong runs between venues. We entered headliner territory with Batushka, who transformed the stage into an Orthodox church with their powerful fusion of ceremonial worship and black metal. Everyone’s heads tilted up, eyes wide (some with mouths open, gasping) in complete awe and focus. It felt like a spiritual experience, as these metal sermons played out before us. Like the rhythms and flows of weekly liturgy, the band’s performance followed a traditional and settled structure.
Many, myself included, snuck out a bit earlier to head back to Camden Town to catch Cryptopsy, and the “extreme” of extreme metal started to show, covering the full spectrum of sounds—the duality of the day was evident. Going from fully atmospheric to absolutely chaotic was like a slap in the face, and that’s exactly what Incineration Fest is about. Cryptopsy added fuel to the wildfire. The Ballroom felt like a heart, beating and pulsating with pure, ravenous energy. The riffs were so meaty and juicy you could bite into them, and the crowd went feral. Everyone around seemed to be having a great time. You could feel the festival atmosphere had left a beautiful imprint. Even tourists got a treat by witnessing Camden’s true alternative side, usually tucked away behind the daily capitalist circus.
I wasn’t the only one on our team eagerly awaiting to experience Blood Incantation, and it would not be fair to speak on behalf of our talented photographers, Nick & Diana, who relentlessly shot the event. Here is how Diana felt during the band’s set at the Roundhouse:
There are shows, and then there are gigs that feel like the fabric of music history is unfolding in real time. Blood Incantation’s UK debut of their 2024 opus, Absolute Elsewhere being performed to a sold-out London crowd at The Roundhouse was solidly the latter. To witness it live was to partake in a transmission from beyond the veil, one where sound bled into starlight and time folded in on itself. When Absolute Elsewhere dropped last year, it stunned listeners by favouring synth-drenched ambience and meditative space. It topped nearly every end-of-year list I came across. Yet, it was only now that this album truly revealed itself to me.
From the photo pit, I felt a low-end rumble in my chest and saw fingers glide across keys and strings with reverence rather than rage. Moving through the crowd, I found myself dissolving into the moment, and as I drifted through the venue, from floor to balcony, the music seemed to reshape space around it. For a brief moment, the Roundhouse became a vessel adrift in orbit. What felt endless became fleeting. I left feeling cheated out of time, unsure of whether I’d watched Blood Incantation become something else entirely or whether they were just there to remind us of what metal can be when unbound by form. Absolute Elsewhere live didn’t expand my understanding of the album. It collapsed it, rebuilt it, and sent it soaring into deeper space. I walked out into the night, realigned: disoriented, grateful, and somehow more here than ever before.
I would summarise their set as LSD in a music form – organisers made sure it got the spotlight it deserved.
The endings were just a beginning
When you boil something in water on high heat for long enough, it’s bound to burst — and that’s exactly how people seemed at the Ballroom during Decapitated’s set. The death metal headliners’ discography is full of beautifully crafted riffs, guitar solos, and tempos that make you lose your mind. I was left in complete awe and admiration, not just for their skill, but for how meticulously crafted their sound is. Polish people are always proud of homegrown talent in the spotlight of international stages. We hold them to the highest standards — often criticising or humbling them for any little missteps (and honestly, some of that chatter can be painfully harsh), but they are our pride, and nobody complained that night. I swear, fellow Slavs were partly responsible for the sold-out signs all over the festival’s socials just because of Decapitated. It felt like pure wartime chaos. The mosh pit was so unruly that I was knocked over the barrier by its sheer impact.
The entire Incineration Festival — and extreme metal as a whole — wouldn’t exist without the Swedish originators, Celtic Frost, whose legacy lives on through Tom G. Warrior’s solo project, Triptykon. It was a truly special moment, one that every individual in the room absorbed in complete serenity. A beautiful, almost sacred time for those who thought they’d never hear these songs again after the band’s breakup. It was a space for contemplation and catharsis. After such an intense day, we came full circle, back to the beginning of everything we now call extreme. Back in 1980s, during their songwriting process, the band “fucked around and found out” that there is an appetite for the new and brave sounds that changed the trajectory of metal music forever. We all felt connected in our thoughts about the band’s legacy, its genre-defining impact, and quietly wondered: who will we see here next year?
