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UK metal festivals are finally booking the next generation of headliners, but not every gamble has returned on investment. Where Sleep Token’s turn atop last year’s Download bill catapulted them to even greater heights, Architects seemingly played their 2024 Bloodstock showcase on autopilot. Green Lung closing the Saturday of London psych weekender Desertfest seems set for the ‘win’ category: the announcement of the hometown doomers was met with universal excitement (a white whale in the internet age), and you can barely go to a gig in this city without seeing someone sport their merch.
The fivesome formed at this very festival 10 years ago, their early music asking the question, “What if Black Sabbath but folk-horror?” Then – as they shot up the ranks of the stoner scene, before outgrowing it entirely – they cultivated their own occult universe. They dress like the coolest 70s band which never existed, they bring a gigantic Dorset Ooser to all of their shows, and their last album, 2023’s This Heathen Land, emphasised lush keyboards, acoustic guitars and the kind of choruses most peers would sell their souls to have.
They graduated to academies in 2024, when they crammed the Forum in Kentish Town, and vocalist Tom Templar instantly flaunts his confidence in big venues. He opens tonight’s set by rushing to the barricade and wailing The Harrowing in the faces of his fans. After his Ozzy-Osbourne-pinching-his-nose vocals fill Camden’s Roundhouse, the stage behind him lights up, his bandmates walk out, and they burst into the mid-paced riffery of Old Gods.
All of the trusted anthems make the setlist. Maxine (Witch Queen), Woodland Rites and One For Sorrow are already crowd-popping favourites, each darkly fun in the same way as your favourite horror flick. Plus, the band mark the occasion by bringing Into The Wild out of the crypt for the first time since 2019 and giving new, hulking single Evil In This House its live debut. No track feels like filler, and each is performed with a tightness that shows how hard they’ve worked for this moment.
There’s a fine line between a well-rehearsed live band and a great one, though, and Green Lung do everything in their power to cross it. Not only is their Ooser just standing there, menacingly, all night; they have an Eddie-style ‘Manotaur’ who strides out and nearly loses its own head (twice), as well as a video backdrop full of folkloric images. During Song Of The Stones, it shows stars over an ancient monument, and the venue’s twinkling white spotlights make the effect even more dazzling.
The most theatrical moment is final song Let The Devil In. Founding bassist Andrew Cave returns to the lineup for one night only, current bassist Joseph Ghast switches to saxophone, the Manotaur comes back, and the Roundhouse’s voices unite for one last singalong. This seals it: Green Lung are easily more Sleep Token than Architects as far as first-time headliners go, and they’re probably a bit better than that, as well. In fact, this has been the most fiendishly flamboyant good time London’s had since Ghost came through.
Green Lung setlist: Desertfest, London – May 16, 2026
- The Harrowing
- Old Gods
- Evil In This House
- Templar Dawn
- Call Of The Coven
- Maxine (Witch Queen)
- Hunters In The Sky
- Song Of The Stones
- Graveyard Sun
- The Forest Church
- The Ritual Tree
- Woodland Rites
- Into The Wild
- Mountain Throne
- One For Sorrow
- Let The Devil In
