It’s a perfect name for the one-dayer: Homegrown. Bringing together established and rising stars of the stoner doom underground, this is an event that feels as cozy as it is electric. This is how bands became Bands back in the day: you tour for five people, then you tour for 50, then you tour for 100 and so on and on until maybe you play Wembley one day. Events like these, for fans new and old alike, put together by the community for the community remains the single best way to discover great new music.
Many of the bands performing have already cut their metaphorical teeth on the Black Heart stage, some at Desertfest London, and the confidence of being on home turf shows, as both new and old material is tested out on the eager crowd. Again, just like you’d play for your friends before you go play to terrifying strangers, this was a safe space for all sorts of weird and wonderful experiments.
There is a risk when constructing a genre mini-festival that the specific sound of the genre will soon saturate its listeners and bands will begin to blend into each other, less like colours of the wind and more like repeating the same word until it loses all meaning (a phenomenon called semantic satiation, I’ll have you know). It’s testament to Civil War’s mission to bring in as diverse a lineup as possible that at no point in the evening did I feel like that. Everyone brought their own flavour, flair, spin on things and most importantly their voices, be they vocal or on their instruments.
Superseed made their Desertfest debut earlier this year and they turned up the vibes here immediately with their hard-rock stoner blend. Playing songs off their electric 2025 album Tremor, they woke up the early crowd with their relentless drive and some well-honed belted screams. Theirs is by far the most rambunctious music of the lineup, something that would fit a video game boss fight perfectly, and it’s only further elevated by their stage confidence and energy.
Glaswegian The Rhubarb seemingly came out of nowhere and landed right in that sweet sweet spot my brain is addicted to, where doom meets psych meets deliciously bluesy country blues. They’re in an early timeslot, but I’m sure this won’t take long to change, as I speak for everyone when I say they blew the Black Heart away with their sound. Stoner rock rarely offers male-female vocal duets, but with The Rhubarb we hear how it opens up completely new emotional and sonic registers. Particularly a yet-unreleased song, with its spiralling repeated “my hand touches yours” growing in intensity before breaking under riffs and drums, was a much needed wave of emotion. Their final song built up a moshpit, as it combined bluesy melody with double-pedal bass drums to get even unbelievers moving.
Borehead, the only full instrumental ensemble of the day, didn’t hold back. Theirs was a set the kind you run into at Desertfest that makes you wonder where the hell have they been all along. Part psychedelic journeying, entirely heavy bone-crushing melody, the London trio are just what you need when you need a steady hand to guide you through your tangled thoughts. They captured some of that OM mystique I’m always chasing in doom music, that slow build-up that seems to take over you, while incorporating electronic effects and overdubs to hypnotising effect. I’ve had their debut album Vita est Morte est Vita on repeat since.
It was also my first time catching Wolves in Winter and they continued on the doom path, but with a sprinkle of reflective post-rock and the added effect of Jake’s vocals to both mellow and enrage. I particularly liked ‘The Cord that Ends the Pain’ off their debut 2023 album The Calling Quiet, which felt soaring in its emotional honesty and got us all moving. Super fun set right before intermission.
Prog-rock ineffable Teiger are on a roll this year. They followed up their Desertfest 2026 debut (read more HERE) with the release of the single ‘Bloodwork’, recorded in collaboration with the inimitable Jo Quail, and are now hard at work touring throughout the autumn. As their set expands and evolves, it’s wonderful to see the changes. Talie’s siren voice has never been stronger or more precise, moving effortlessly between breathy whispers and raging belts, Phil has never abused his bass more and Jon’s drums bring a whole new world of restrained chaos and steady forward movement.
Erronaut, in matching outfits as befits their aeronautical brand, have been teasing a new album for months and tonight they bring out their psychy-est guns, unleashing an unreleased mammoth 10+ minute long epic right at the start, moving between planets to the rhythm of the bass groove. It may be the rawest and heaviest set I’ve seen from them yet, fuelled by a packed room, with Mikey giving 120% on vocals and everyone in the band enjoying their solo moments with gusto. ‘Way Down Below’, off their debut album, with its rousing galloping drum intro, drew out answering lyrics from the crowd and they pushed the limits of their timeslot with a headbangy jam that could have easily gone on for another hour.
The Kryss Talmeth Experience started with wordplay and proved to be an experience from the moment Craig on guitar stepped up. Barefoot and sporting a kilt, it painted an image far beyond the dreams of any of the rock icons of the 70s and 80s, yet every ounce as iconic. The Edinburgh trio leant into their grooves like jumping off a cliff with no hesitation. Mixing hard driving rock with psychy improvisations, it’s hard to tell where a song ends and where the jam begins, but isn’t that what makes life so fun?
This wasn’t my first time seeing Sergeant Thunderhoof (they too are Desertfest alumni), but while before I’d park my brain at the door and absorb naught but the chug and the riff and the rock’n’roll of it all, this time I was struck by its melancholy. Lead singer Dan Flitcroft stands fully at ease on stage, with some of that Neil-Fallon-from-Clutch swagger, but there is a real ache, a true nostalgia tingeing even the macho-est of their choruses. The effect was only made more real by the fans chanting “hoof hoof hoof” in between songs. Apropos of nothing, did you know they recorded an amazing cover of Pink Floyd‘s ‘Time’ for the Best of Pink Floyd Redux compilation?
What’s warmer than the Black Heart at the end of a gig? That fuzzy feeling that people keep showing up for these shows, to discover new bands and supports their friends and favourites. It’s a running joke that most of us there play in bands (making me the exception, I guess), but the in-group knows that the people making the music are just as important as the music. That it’s a community effort to keep the underground scene alive and thriving, and that we all win by that work. And so, despite having to share Camden with Metalfest happening right next door in The Underworld, Civil War’s Homegrown one-dayer brought its people together, hugged them tight and gave them all the music to enjoy.