Slam Dunk 2015: Monster Energy Stage

Here’s everything you need to know about Slam Dunk 2015’s Monster Energy stage, headlined by Architects…

**ARCHITECTS **There are few better live bands from Britain than Brighton’s Architects. They’ve been together over a decade now, but they have as much energy onstage as they ever did. Not bad for a bunch of vegans, eh?

**WHILE SHE SLEEPS **Battling it out for the title of Sheffield’s finest alongside Rolo Tomassi and Bring Me The Horizon, While She Sleeps are beasts, both on record and on stage. New full-length Brainwashed is a brilliant, powerful and inspiring album about the state of the UK today, so don’t miss the chance to see them bring it to life.

FINCH Don’t just go see Finch live to belt out that one song, because there’s much more to them than Letters To You. That said, make sure you are there for it, because it’s bound to be one of the biggest singalongs of the weekend. All together now: “I want you to knooooooow…”

**CROSSFAITH **This Japanese six-piece are deliberately difficult to define, mixing metalcore, electronics and a whole host of odd – and loud – noise together for their idiosyncratic sonic experiments. It’ll definitely be one of the more unique and intriguing performances of the weekend.

**THY ART IS MURDER **If you fancy a bit of deathcore, look no further than this Australian five-piece. Their vocals will put hair on your chest, the drumming will rip it all off. Painfully. But don’t let that stop you.

**BEARTOOTH **When Caleb Shomo (yes, that’s his real name) left Attack Attack! (the American band of crabcore fame, not the Welsh rockers with the same monicker), he formed Beartooth. It should be a wild and crazy set, and one devoid of crabs, thankfully.

**THE COLOR MORALE **Rockford, Illinois’ The Color Morale might refute the label of being a Christian band, but they nevertheless offer up slices of self-help advocacy inspired by their Faith in the Big J. It’ll be a bit like listening to Everybody Hurts ten times, if that song were a lot louder. And more Christian.

**SHVPES **They rival PVRIS in terms of spelling (and USING ALL CAPS), but this Birmingham five-piece are a lot heavier. They used to be called Cytota, but that was presumably too difficult to (mis-) spell. Though they’re yet to release their debut album, they’re already gaining a reputation as an awesome live act.

**Special guests: BURY TOMORROW If you want blasts of heavy noise tempered with moments of more melodic melody, then make sure you check out this stage’s special guests. Almost 10 years old now, they’re veterans of the scene, and are guaranteed to show the young ’uns how it’s done. Plus: frontman Dani looks exactly like Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad. **

For more information on Slam Dunk, click here.