Festival Review: Slam Dunk Festival South // Hatfield - May 2025
It’s that time of the year again. The start of festival season for many, it’s time to put on your eyeliner, shove on your raincoat, and return to Hatfield once more: it's Slam Dunk 2025.
Opening up the Kerrang! Stage — and the first pits of the day — came the Brighton-based duo of Alice Guala and Blake Cornwall, otherwise known as Lake Malice. With their electronic-tinged metalcore raining down on the hapless crowd, much like the grey clouds had been promising to do since the wee hours, and buoyed by the dystopian, futuristic appearances of the silver-adorned dancers of Kaos Kreatives, the likes of ‘Bloodbath’, ‘Mitsuko’ and ‘Stop The Party’ got the day off to a deliciously deadly start.
Over to The Key Club stage next, for the Irish duo Greywind. Fronted by siblings Steph and Paul O’Sullivan — no relation to myself! — you could see just how excited they were to be there for the first time since 2016. But, with the stage running a good half an hour behind already, even with the stage only having had the one act in Kid Bookie, there was a brimming sense of frustration in the crowd. Not Greywind’s fault of course, but it made their job that much harder. But not insurmountable — and the loud, in-your-face buffeting of opener ‘You’re My Medicine’, Steph’s soft vocals washing over (and occasionally being drowned out by) the pounding drums behind, certainly helped them recover. ‘Glimmer’ saw the front of the crowd bouncing up and down, powerful, soaring vocals washing through the tent, while the acerbic, half-shouted ‘Here’s Your Deathwish’ saw the tent start to come alive. A great set, considering.
And then it was time for the Slam Dunk debut of the ferocious, ethereal and generally mesmerising Swedish quintet Imminence. With frontman Eddie Berg strolling on stage in a striking trenchcoat before immediately breaking into guttural growls, all while his countrymen of Barrett, Arnoldsson, Höijer and Hanström delivered some of the most bone-shaking, teeth-clenching, headbang-inducing, breathtakingly-heavy instrumentals of the day, Imminence could not have been more perfect for an already stacked heavy stage boasting the likes of LANDMVRKS and Electric Callboy. Heavily shaped by recent album ‘The Black’, the set was somehow as profound as it was mildly terrifying — and who doesn’t love a bit of strings in their metal, with Berg’s violin taking centre stage almost as much as his alternately beautiful and terrifying vocals. Even Barrett was trying to get into the string game, shredding his guitar with a bow before handing it off to a shrouded, smoke-wafting acolyte. So, when Berg’s vocal effect on his violin leaves his anguished screams echoing as if from some far-away, unreachable, and desolate place, you know you’ve witnessed something special. Catch them with a string quartet this December at Camden’s Roundhouse: it's sure to be truly unmissable.
Next up on the list were Californian rockers (and Slam Dunk favourites!) Movements. Opening with last year’s ‘Afraid To Die’, the band were quick to cement their rightfully earned place on the main stage, lead singer Patrick Miranda singing and shouting his heart out. ‘Lead Pipe’ and ‘Fail You’ from 2023’s ‘Ruckus!’, or latest single ‘Where I Lay’, helped ease the crowd into their more recent offerings, while the likes of fan favourites ‘Full Circle’ and ‘Colorblind’ reminded everyone present what makes ‘Feel Something’ such an influential album; they might not have been as heavy as some of the bands they’d been slotted between — although closer ‘I Hope You Choke’ could probably give some a run for their money — but few bands can both tug at the heartstrings and get the crowd moving like Movements.
Hearing the drums from clear across the festival grounds, the next band could be none other than French metalcore mainstays LANDMVRKS. Tracks like ‘Sulfur’ or ‘Blistering’ drew abyssal roars from vocalist Flo Salfati, inhuman growls and snarls echoing over the verable tide of crowd surfers and the riotous, crowd-wide pit, while numbers like ‘Blood Red’ offered a different view of the group, frantic French rap descending over the engrossed Hatfield group. Closer ‘Self-Made Black Hole’, though — originally recorded with fellow countrymen Resolve — cemented the set as a firm highlight of the day, if as much from the group of kids going wild in the pit as it was the monstrous Marseilles group themselves!
After the heart-palpitating destruction of LANDMVRKS, it was time for a bit of a breather — and who better than the beautiful tones of Rain City Drive? Rocking up to the stage, you wouldn’t be remiss in expecting a much heavier band, given the uniformly noir wardrobe on display, but you’d be wrong — instead, the throngs of people bearing witness were graced with the group’s signature melodic, alt-pop-rock-metal hybrid sound. With the Kerrang! stage feeling distinctly too small for the group — if you’d seen someone dangling from the tree in the middle of the crowd in an attempt to get a good view, you wouldn’t have been surprised — the quintet were blessed with a legion of fans, all too happy to scream along to each dulcet word emerging from Matt McAndrew’s mouth, particularly the likes of ‘Wish You the Best’, ‘Concrete Closure’ or the mighty ‘Medicate Me’, with Dayseeker’s part happily sung by the ecstatic crowd. And if you didn’t know the songs? You’re in luck — catchy, anthemic, and most importantly discernible lyrics occupied every second of the set.
Expect a much later and greater slot whenever the Floridians return.
Coming on stage to the iconic sound of Hannah Montana’s ‘Best Of Both Worlds’, NOAHFINNCE wasted no time in jumping into ‘I KNOW BETTER’, his brand of alt pop punk getting the crowd moving, and loving every second. ‘I don’t give a shit if your knees hurt’, he cried, laughing at the slight grimaces gracing some of faces of his older fans — it was time to move.
One of the best things about a NOAHFINNCE show is just how much of a family feel it has. You get faces from every shade of life, and every single one is smiling. The shows are pure, unadultered fun. Plus, it’s always great just seeing an artist have such a blast on stage. Never mind the distanced decorum of some more established artists — Noah’s just as much of a fan as he is an icon in his right.
With a Slam Dunk-perfect blend of happy pop punk and the more oppressive, rocky sounds of ‘ALEXITHYMIA’, NOAHFINNCE had a little for everyone.
“We’re Hot Mulligan! Banter is hard! So am I!” came the shouts of front man Nathan "Tades" Sanville, and the band were off. Seemingly with the aim of cramming their entire discography into their heartbreakingly short set, Hot Mulligan delivered nothing short of frantic, unpredictable, and generally unhinged fun. Whether it was the anthemic ‘Drink Milk and Run’ or ‘Shhhh! Golf Is On’, last year’s ’Fly Move (The Whole Time)’, complete with the otherwise sinister-looking hand movement, as if the foursome were cartoon villains discussing nefarious plans, or the casual call for to political activism — “no politician has ever cared about any of us… You can look up where they live’, the group injected mayhem straight into Hatfield’s veins, leaving the crowd as breathless as Sanville and Freeman.
All too soon, it was time to head over to the other side of the ground for post-hardcore group Finch. Blending nostalgia and aggression, their set leaned heavily into biting emotion and controlled chaos. Classics like ‘Stay With Me’, Letters To You’ and ‘Bitemarks and Bloodstains’ set a tone of cathartic heartbreak, even as Nate Barcalow geared up for a scattering of vitriolic screams, and there was even a taste of new material by way of both ‘Horror Island’, distorted, almost unintelligible, but utterly captivating vocals over the Rocky instrumentals — and the somewhat impromptu l ‘Palpatine’. Finally, of course, came ‘What Is It To Burn’, and the unified voices of thousands simultaneously screaming along and left speechless at the emotions washing across the terrain. Beautiful.
2025 sees 25 years of Utah emo-rock group The Used — and with it comes a world tour celebrating their first three albums. Every city got a handful of shows, each separately celebrating a different period of the group’s start. The UK, however, had to work for it: 2004’s ‘In Love and Death’ would be played in Hatfield, 2002’s self-titled ‘The Used’ up in Leeds, and 2007’s ‘Lies For The Liars’ at a special little underplay in London a few days before.
Hatfield, then, got the sophomore album. ‘Take It Away’, ‘Let It Bleed’, ‘Sound Effects and Overdramatics’… some of the tracks hadn’t been played since the first anniversary shows back in 2016, and the crowd refused to let the opportunity pass them by — particularly given how long the process has been in getting The Used back to Slam Dunk, having pulled out of the last few iterations they were scheduled for — as they sang, sobbed, and surfed over the barrier in their excitement. Welcome back Bert.
As one of the headliners, there was always a certain bar that Electric Callboy had to hit, high expectations they had to fulfil.
Whatever the expectations were, though, the wacky German ‘electronicore’ quintet smashed them. Effortlessly and eternally.
Returning to Slam Dunk once more after 2022’s shows — upgraded from 2022’s cardboard cutout to legendary Frank Zummo behind the kit — and this time, with a big ol’ budget to play with, Electric Callboy hit the stage like a glittery fever dream — strobe lighting, pyrotechnics and confetti cannons exploded before a note was played, or even anyone had actually come on stage. For most bands, such theatrics might seem like overcompensation. For Callboy, it’s standard practice, and merely a glimpse of what was to come: bedlam. Blistering, bewildering, beautiful bedlam.
From the neon samurai of ‘MC Thunder II (Dancing Like a Ninja)’ to gym-themed confetti for “Pump It,” everything was over-the-top — and gloriously so. New track ‘Revelry’ made its live debut, the sickly sweet ‘Hurrikan’ erupted into a face-melting maelstrom, and their twist on Eurovision favourite ‘Everytime We Touch’ turned the crowd into a karaoke-esque choir; there was even time to fit in acoustic renditions of Linkin Park’s ‘Crawling’ and Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’ (though with a disappointingly low percentage of the crowd changing the lyrics to the now canon ‘Now Number Five’ in the chorus).
By the time ‘Tekkno Train’ had led into a crowd-wide chugga-chug chant or ‘We Got The Moves’ showed off the group’s dancing prowess, it felt almost superfluous — between the disco-ball helmets, costume changes, and sheer mania overtaking the field, Callboy’s first fest of the summer set the bar absurdly high.
As the final blasts of Electric Callboy faded, a mass exodus predictably began as fans surged across the Hatfield ground — just in time for the proof ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’ to swell triumphantly over the speakers.
Then, carnage.
Kicking things off with ‘The Downfall of Us All’, inciting a two-stepping stampede towards the stage, A Day To Remember refused to pull any punches. Between the iconic ‘I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?” a live debut of ‘Bad Blood’ (jokingly attributed to Taylor Swift), or the brutally heavy “2nd Sucks”, fans were thrust kicking and screaming into motion: even lighter numbers like Marshmello’s ‘Rescue Me’ (black-and-white emo beach balls blanket bombing the crowd) or a Cookie Monster-led crowdsurf during the band’s cover of the iconic Kelly Clarkson tune ‘Since U Been Gone’ couldn’t stem the outpouring of energy-spewing adoration.
Speaking of spewing, fans weren’t alone; between the soon-to-be-anthemic ‘All My Friends’, which saw Mario himself race on stage with a T-Shirt cannon, spewing shirts into the night sky before confetti cannons unloaded their hapless contents onto the raving crowd — which led straight into the crowd-killing breakdown of ‘Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End’ — or the weather-defying ‘Miracle’, which saw geysers of flame blasted into the sky, everyone present was keep on letting go of everything they had left in the tank.
Even newer tracks were met with wild abandon. ‘LeBron’ saw the band’s signature crowd-surfer-surfing, fans literally using other fans as platforms to ride while the security trepidatiously looked on, ‘Feedback’ saw the crowd tear open as a chasmic circle pit trapped what felt like the entire festival, and ‘Flowers’ saw the group rage through their final minutes on the stage… but, unsurprisingly, it was the oldies that gave the set its final hurrahs.
‘If It Means A Lot To You’, crowd lit up both by flashlights and phone screens as people captured the magic of the acoustic classic, was if anything better live than on record, the sudden onset of drums giving the final chorus a truly lasting impact; ‘All I Want’ saw one of the biggest sing alongs of the day.
And then, of course, ‘All Signs Point To Lauterdale’. It’s a classic for a reason: it’s a damn good, and damn fun, song — even if, having overrun, a lot of the crowd had had to start making their way out. Still, always better to have too much live music than too little!
Slam Dunk 2025 was fantastic. Despite a few mishaps — look up how New Dawn Security and Training handled crowd surfers in the Key Club Stage, if you’re curious — it was phenomenally good, spearheaded by one or two sets that will be talked about long into the future. And who were those few sets? Well, everyone’s favourites will be different, and that’s the beauty of it. Bring on next year and the festival's 20th Anniversary -- it's sure to be a big'un!
But, for now, it's clear to see: screw Lauterdale! All signs instead point to Slam Dunk being an easy highlight of the year.
Words by James O’Sullivan
Photography by James Kirkland
