It's Glasto week, people! The world's most famous music festival touches back down at Worthy Farm this Wednesday for another five days of music, art, creativity and chaos, with Pyramid Stage headliners The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo heading up another stacked bill of the very biggest and best in pop, rock, dance, hip hop, reggae and just about everything in between.
'But where are the 'proper' alternative bands?!' I hear you yell. Don't worry: peel back the layers just a little and you'll find plenty of hard rock, metal and punk acts making a big, fat racket around the lineup this year. Because I'm nice, I've gone and picked out 12 of the very best alt artists you should go out of your way to catch live - or at least watch on TV if you're one of the unlucky gazillions that lost out on tickets this year.
Native James (Thursday, Greenpeace, 17.30)
It was only a matter of time before grime metal was officially A Thing, and few current artists have so perfectly crystallised the urgent, visceral impact of both those components into one fluid sound as Aaron "Native" James. The Ipswich-based, MOBO-nominated rapper moulds scrappy, Ghetts-indebted bars around nu metal riffs and propulsive percussive blasts, merging the two styles that have most strongly defined his own musical journey growing up.
Playing the politically-bent Greenpeace tent late on Thursday afternoon, James is perfectly placed to make an early mark as one of the first heavy artists to play this year's lineup. Once you've seen what he's all about, you'll be quickly converted - go check out his set while he's still confined by such small surroundings.
Osees (Friday, The Park, 18.00)
If there’s any festival to experience bands that are a little more unconventional, it’s Glastonbury. Habitual name-changers (they’ve previously gone by The Ohsees, Thee Oh Sees and Oh Sees, among other aliases, as an attempt to confuse the music press), Californian heavy psych rockers Osees are also unique in that they have two drummers. When experienced live, the two full-sized kits make as much racket as an elephant falling down the stairs; meanwhile, their fuzz-drenched, oddball garage rock never fails to stir crowds into sweaty, clashing masses.
In 2024, they released their 28th album, SORCS 80, a manic, entirely electronic work that doesn’t include a single lick of guitar. But don’t let that put you off: samplers and technical distortion buzz and bleed out with all the ferocity of a real six-string, producing an offbeat medley of Idles-reminiscent punk, jittery garage rock and funk, complete with unexpected honks of saxophone. Weird, but it works - so be sure to catch them.
Alt Blk Era (Friday, BBC Introducing, 19.30)
The nu gen sister duo who give so little of a shit about genres that they've smashed through about ten of them across one EP, some standalone singles and an acclaimed debut album, Alt Blk Era decided to settle into a more drum 'n' bass-oriented groove for this year's Rave Immortal.
Even there, though, there were enough sprinklings of grunge, emo, metal and pop to mix things up, meaning that by the time Nyrobi and Chaya hit the BBC Introducing Stage on Friday, you'll have no idea exactly what to expect. This writer even witnessed his first ever rock show catwalk when the girls played the Underworld in Camden. Slaying and serving in equal measure.
Biffy Clyro (Friday, Pyramid, 20.15)
So assured is Biffy Clyro's status as national treasures of British rock music that it's easy to forget what a weird, angular and surprising force of nature they are. The trio's gorgeous, thematically-linked double-header of 2020's A Celebration Of Endings and 2021's The Myth Of The Happily Ever After helped us through the pandemic era, while new single A Little Love is another slice of bittersweet beauty to guide us through the absolute slop that is Planet Earth 2025.
They've only got an hour, so back this to be just about as taught and perfect a set of emotional rock ragers as you're likely to find anywhere across Worthy Farm this weekend. And if you see me crying during A Hunger In Your Haunt, no you didn't (yes you did).
Bob Vylan (Saturday, West Holts, 14.30)
The lairiest double-act to hit the scene since Kane and Undertaker teamed up to whack on Stone Cold, Bob Vylan's mash-up of furious punk and throttling, bass-y grime has been rattling skulls for almost eight years now. Deserved winners of the first ever MOBO award for Best Alternative Music Act in 2022, the critical clout that has come their way hasn't damped frontman Bobby's razor-wired tongue one iota.
Put short, if you're looking for the rowdiest, most rawly politicised hour of power at Glasto this weekend, look no further: West Holts at 14.30 on Saturday is where you need to be. I'm not quite sure if they'll be able to pull off their traditional, show-ending stage invasion, but I'd love to see them try.
Weezer (Saturday, Other Stage, 15.30)
Kings of nerd rock, it's taken an astonishing thirty years for Weezer to make their grand Glasto return, but judging by their stunning, hits-stacked showing at Download a couple of weeks back, back Rivers Cuomo et al to make up for lost time and then some in the Pilton sunshine (may have just jinxed it there but the weather's looking good! Keep the faith!).
Weezer's own fanbase will be the first to admit that their discography runs the gamut from the pitch-perfect to the straight-up rubbish, but when they stick to the big anthems, there are few in all of rock music that can hang with them, and a mid-afternoon slot on the Other Stage feels like the perfect way to warm everyone up for what's on the way (more on that in a mo...).
Nova Twins (Saturday, Woodsies, 16.30)
Genre-meshing two-piece Nova Twins have managed the curious achievement of playing Glastonbury four times...despite only appearing at two editions of the festival. Pulling a triple-header in 2022 with three separate sets before a follow-up one year later, the duo decided to take a break from Pilton in 2024, but will be back with a vengeance when they hit up Woodsies on Saturday.
Shoving rock, punk, edm, grunge and plenty more into their blender of a sound, they've garnered critical praise, award nominations and collaborations with the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, Sam Smith and Pussy Riot. Basically, everyone loves them, and so should you.
Amyl & The Sniffers (Saturday, Other Stage, 17.00)
Melbourne's premier pub punks just got announced as main support for their heroes AC/DC on the rock 'n' roll titans' upcoming Australian tour, so if their star wasn't already rising fast, it may well be about to get strapped to a rocket. Angus Young's crew and fellow Aussie heroes Rose Tattoo have certainly had some influence on Amy et al's snotty, no-nonsense racket, but really it's the raw, guttural energy of punk OGs like Iggy And The Stooges and The Damned that has sewn the most DNA into their sound.
The four-piece and former Louder cover stars will be making their third appearance at Glastonbury having previously kicked its ass in 2019 and 2022, and with last year's brilliant Cartoon Darkness still ringing in our ears, we can't see their late afternoon, Other Stage set being anything other than a lairy, sweaty triumph.
Deftones (Saturday, Other Stage, 20.30)
Compared to Weezer, Deftones have only left it a breezy twenty-six years between Glasto sets (Christ, we're all getting old), but the alt metal icons are back, bringing those luscious, tidal riffs to the Other Stage as the perfect warm up for...let me just check my notes here...erm, Charli XCX. Anyway, one of the single most idiosyncratic and influential heavy bands to come out of the 90s, Sacramento's finest have been remarkably consistent across their three-decade career, 2020's Gore appraised as another high mark and voted Metal Hammer's album of the year.
With no new material currently out, expect an all-killer, no-filler* set of nu metal-adjacent bangers from the back catalogue, starring big grooves, bigger hooks, even bigger emotional punches and Chino Moreno still being the coolest fucker in any given field he happens to turn up to play in.
*Not that Deftones actually have many fillers, mind.
![Deftones - Genesis [Official Music Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fbp0bET06wc/maxresdefault.jpg)
Sprints (Sunday, Woodsies, 14.00)
We were only three days into 2024 when Louder writer Vicky Greer suggested that noisy post-punk Dubliners Sprints had just dropped the album of the year with their long-awaited debut full-length Letter To Self. It's wasn't hyperbole: the four-piece's urgent blend of grunge, indie, punk and alt-rock feels quite unlike anything else in the scene right now, and they'll surely be amassing their biggest Worthy Farm crowd yet at their third Glasto appearance this Sunday.
If you're looking for a raw, intense but deeply cathartic burst of emotional anthemia to shake off that Saturday night bangover and prepare you for Glastonbury's final lap, get yourself to Woodsies early on Sunday afternoon and prepare to be blown away.
Turnstile (Sunday, Other Stage, 16.30)
Comfortably the biggest thing to ever emerge out of the US hardcore scene, Turnstile channelled the shimmering sounds and expansive songwriting of 2021's Glow On into something even more grandiose and bold on this year's excellent Never Enough. Between their knack for a killer riff and relentless ability to draw the biggest hooks possible out of everything they craft, it seems almost impossible that they won't steal the show on the Other Stage on Sunday.
Judging by the band's headline set at Outbreak Festival earlier this month, they are primed for bigger stages, and few come bigger than this. Mosh pits are a rarity at Glasto, and Turnstile have left most of their heavier side behind, but if they decide to drop an old school rager like Keep It Moving?, who knows what could happen?
![TURNSTILE - SEEIN’ STARS / BIRDS [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/a95G2GzB3t0/maxresdefault.jpg)
Bambie Thug (Sunday, Shangri-La, 23.00)
You likely know Bambie from their brilliantly devilish, conservative media meltdown-inducing turn representing Ireland at Eurovision last year. Don't get it twisted, though: there's far more to this nu gen singer-songwriter's unique arsenal than Satanic gimmickry and elaborate stagecraft.
Their calling card is a mixture of dark alt-pop, grinding metal and propulsive r'n'b, 2023's Cathexis EP - featuring the Doomsday Blue track that made its way to the Eurovision stage - a career highlight so far. You'll have to be in it for the long haul to catch them (they hit Shangri-La at 11pm on Sunday night), but it'll be a delectably bewitching way to see Glasto 2025 out for the year.
Glastonbury 2025 takes place this week, June 25-29, at Worthy Farm in Somerset
