On the (too) gloriously sunny Saturday in late May fans of sounds of the post- variety gathered in front of Electric Ballroom to attend what could be best described as the post rock convention – an evening with Aussie legends We Lost The Sea supported by two of the most exciting names in the genre. Despite early doors and stage times, there was an impressive queue of people swirling in front of Electric Ballroom in Camden, eager to disappear inside and get lost in the noise.
Dimscûa
Appearing promptly after doors, Berkshire post metal outfit Dimscûa had the room neatly packed from the get go, many already set with the band t-shirts. Around this time last year, Damnation Festival’s Gavin McInally named them “the best extreme music to come out of the UK in 2025” on the Two Promoters One Pod podcast. The podcast is co-hosted by James Scarlett who booked them for his ArcTanGent last year, and a huge portion of the audience was also sporting ArcTanGent merch. We Lost The Sea delivered two incredible sets at last year’s ATG, so when they decided to do a European tour promoting their new album, and the tour was promoted by Two Promoters, One Pod – it made perfect sense to book one of the breakout acts from last year’s festival as the opener.
They started the night beautifully – heavy, slow, gnarly. Performing tracks from their debut LP Dust Eater, they delivered a perfectly honed set full of powerful riffs and vocals full of anguish. Suffice it to say, those who were not wearing their merch in the queue to the venue promptly formed a queue to the merch table. They are definitely ones to watch and having chatted with a fan who saw them rise from pub stages to festival favourites, I don’t need a crystal ball to predict an exciting future ahead of them.
Overhead, The Albatross
Dubliners Overhead, The Albatross are definitely one of the most exciting post rock voices – and it’s a genre that hasn’t seen many noteworthy newcomers in recent years, so to see Overhead, The Albatross breathe new air into the post rock lungs feels really special. I first saw them in a much more intimate setting, headlining a Portals show at The Lexington back in 2024 and seeing a packed Electric Ballroom reacting with such an emotion to them felt really special. They have since opened the main stage at ArcTanGent 2025 and will return this year as part of the Thursday line up – also known as ‘the best of previous editions’, and it’s well deserved.
Post rock as a genre has this unique quality of allowing the listener to project their internal monologue onto the music – the absence or sparseness of lyrics creates a canvas which is sometimes entirely blank, sometimes has a vague pencil sketch acting as a guide. It is rare to have a sing along moments – but Overhead, The Albatross achieve the rare feat of having a whole room scream back to them their extremely emotional lyrics to ‘Paul Lynch’ to them.
I’m split in two
I left my home
To be with you
His broken bones
So toss my coin
Into that lake
And when I’m done
You’ll have your wake
There is a clear, overarching theme of death, loss and grief, which I resonate with deeply – grief has been my North Star the past five months – and it’s weirdly uplifting to be in a room full of people feel deeply around me. We all came there to feel release and Overhead, The Albatross provided the catharsis we needed.
We Lost The Sea
Aussie legends of the genre We Lost The Sea came on stage to an audience well warmed up for their own brand of post rock tinted with hues of grief and loss. Their 2015 album Departure Songs has become an undeniable classic of the genre – one that they often play in full, and they were fresh from doing it again, a decade since the first full play through, at Belgium’s dunk!festival (and I was very lucky to have been there the first time around). This tour was to promote their latest LP A Single Flower, and being the masters of a full album play through, We Lost The Sea opened their set with the first three songs from the new album – and the 1500-strong venue was instantly swept away into their sonic world.
There was a nod to their previous, critically acclaimed album Triumph & Disaster in the shape of ‘A Beautiful Collapse’ before dipping their toes into Departure Songs for ‘A Gallant Gentleman’ – which has earned its place on the pantheon of the greatest post rock songs of all time – and ‘Bogatyri’. They bookended their set with the finale to A Single Flower – and we filtered out of the venue with our hearts full, even though it felt wrong to be leaving such an emotional show to the last minutes of daylight.
We Lost The Sea
Set 1
- The Eve of the War
- If They Had Hearts
- A Dance with Death
- Everything Here Is Black and Blinding
- A Beautiful Collapse
- A Gallant Gentleman
- Bogatyri
Encore
- The Gloaming
- Blood Will Have Blood