After an eventful first day, I eagerly anticipated what Saturday at Radar Festival would throw at me. With a number of less familiar bands to me on the line up today it was the perfect opportunity to listen to some new bands and explore the festival a bit more!
The first act of the day were Manchester four-piece locals Crushed By Waves opening up the second stage. Their music was a mix of post-hardcore, metalcore and alt rock, akin to the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, You Me At Six and Architects. Charismatic frontman Arran had the crowd nicely warmed up for the day’s proceedings and the band carried themselves well. A personal favourite of their set was “Won’t Get Out Alive” which featured a powerful and expansive chorus!
In between several of the sets during the day I spent some time wondering around the various breakout areas at the festival. There was an old school arcade area, with 20 odd arcade machines and an F1 simulator which made for light entertainment when my ears needed a rest. The Music Market upstairs from the main stage was a really nice touch. Booths of guitar, amp and tech brands was a great addition to the festival – getting to try out new plugins, guitars and even video games provided a great spot to mingle with others at the festival!
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A band I’d got into recently were Thornhill and my expectations of their set were blown away. The four-piece band, dressed in quite suave shirts and trousers, looked like they’d come straight out of a business meeting, but don’t let that fool you. Their set was very heavy. The band opened off with “Reptile” off their debut EP Butterfly with that down tuned bouncy riff kick starting mosh pits within the crowd. Vocalist singer Jacob Charlton, kept switching between sweet clean vocals and high-pitched hardcore screams. 
He prowled about on stage, flicking his hair about, and definitely making the crowd swoon! The Aussie band featured tracks such as “Arkangel” and “Casanova” off their latest record Heroine. The band had the crowd dancing along to the cleaner sections, and engaging in a wall of death before heavy breakdowns. Thornhill ended their set with “Where We Go When We Die” off The Dark Pool ending their set with the same high levels of energy they kicked it off with!
Welsh post-hardcore band Dream State took to the second stage and Jessie Powell’s vocals took me by complete surprise… her low screams were by far some of the most impressive I heard all weekend. Their music featured a mix of poppy choruses, with layers of synths, contrasted with heavy riffy sections. Favourites of mine during their set were “Hand in Hand” and “Primrose”. They’d gained a new listener in me!
Saturday certainly had the most varied line up in terms of genres, as next up on the main stage were French heavy metal EDM outfit Perturbator. Yes, you read that right, heavy metal electronic dance music. Having never heard of them or their music before, I had no idea what I was in store for, so I decided to make use of the balcony to give myself a view of the set that was equally visually impressive as it was sonically. The room was transformed into an industrial, European night club setting and up on stage was DJ James Kent alongside a drummer to add to the live music experience. Behind them was a massive LED pentagram which was programmed to put on a hypnotising light show. The music was very intense, with everlasting drones, pulsing synths and some crazy drums. It was nice to see the crowd jumping about and having a bit of a dance.
Back to something a bit more traditional. Heart Of A Coward headlined the second stage to yet another packed to the brim room. Their style of metalcore, featured very powerful low screams, drop tuned bouncy riffs and a plethora of breakdowns. I spent the first half of their set deep in the pits, before eventually succumbing to a whack on the head from the endless stream of crowd surfers. Their set featured tracks new and old, including “Monstro” and “Deadweight” off Deliverance, an album I listened to a lot back in 2013/14. Again, Heart Of A Coward, found themselves in a similar situation to Monuments the day earlier, where perhaps they could have benefited from performing on a much larger stage – giving the crowd ample room for activities! Overall, the band did not drop energy levels throughout their set and appear to have made a bit of a resurgence since covid.
To finish off a day largely of discovery, I was fortunate enough to witness Igorrr headline the mainstage, in what could be simply described as a set of experimental chaos. This act could not be contained to one label or genre. Gautier Serre, the man behind the whole project, opened up the set behind a DJ setup blasting a typical dance beat, however, that was short lived with a whole range of sounds and genres quickly thrown at me. We’re talking black metal, opera, breakcore, baroque with two juxtaposing singers carrying us through this set – a female opera singer and a male screamer. It all seemed to somehow work out, with the complexity, sudden tempo changes and conflicting passages of tracks all resolving in the end. You could describe their music as carefully curated chaos instead… Igorrr finished their set as they started, with Gautier blasting more dance beats, but this time the crowd fully engaged and having witnessed a mind-bending set!
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Header image of Igorrr and photographs of the Music Market, Thornhill and Perturbator by Rubén Navarro Martín
Photograph of Heart Of A Coward by Oli Duncanson
