(We welcome back to NCS a Seattle-based contributor who goes by the moniker KAOS_Agent. He prepared the following preview of the next edition of Covenant Festival, which is scheduled to take place in Vancouver on September 24-26.)
There’s something special about a festival being able to enter into its second decade of existence while at the same time maintaining a high-calibre roster of underground and emergent bands. This year, Vancouver, Canada-based Covenant Festival has assembled an ensemble of black metal bands from corners of the earth both near and far, and showcases the organizing collective’s careful craft and artistic taste. What started as a group of friends spinning vinyl has now grown to one of the preeminent extreme and black metal festivals in North America, and considering the state of the world, there’s never been a better time to visit Canada. Covenant takes place September 24-26 at the venerable Rickshaw Theater, and both single and three-day passes are available here.
Because Covenant Festival is located a mere 2.5 hours away from Seattle, I’ve always viewed it as a sparring partner to the NCS-backed Northwest Terror Festival, but with an extra dose of blasphemy. This should come as no surprise, as the inception of the festival started with Shawn Hache and Sebastian Montesi from Mitochondrion, with promoter Abelardo Mayoral-Fierros soon joining the fold.
Since then, the ethos, complexities and ambitions of the festival have grown to now a 9-person collective, fueled by metal maniacism and operating in an entirely DIY, zero-sponsor capacity. Running a festival can be a soul-wrenching journey, but the expanded team allows them to build off of last year’s momentum to “always aim to create a world-class experience for both attendees and performing bands.” This year, the activities are centralized to the Rickshaw Theater, a venue well-known in the Vancouver metal community, and one I’ve always wanted to go to ever since seeing internet videos of Strapping Young Lad way back in the day.
Mitochondrion, Covenant 2019, photo by Tanner Ellison
A recurring phrase I kept hearing from the organizers is that this year’s lineup is one of their most ambitious ever. Since last year’s resurrection, Covenant has managed to assemble a lineup of acts that haven’t performed in around a decade, along with representatives from the burgeoning Icelandic scene. A festival is only as good as its bands, and if this year’s lineup is any indication, there will be a hellscape of talent unleashed at the end of the month.
If you have a Cosmic Void shaped…. Void in your blackened heart, or are missing an edition of Ascension Festival this year, delve deeper into the underground, and make sure you make plans for Covenant to bear witness! (Below you’ll find thoughts about a cross-section of bands who’ll be performing.)
-KAOS_Agent
Volahn
The North American metal scene as of late has had a rash of Indigenous acts that have been getting notoriety, providing a nice break from the standard woodland tropes that I appreciate, but am surrounded by as someone in the PNW. Last year, I went down a bit of a Mesoamerican rabbit hole after seeing Tzompantli for the first time and came across Volahn, a one-man project out of Los Angeles that has been at this longer than many of the newer bands dabbling in infusing cultural influences not commonly heard in the genre. Ten years after their debut at the second Covenant festival, Volahn makes his return, building off of the excellent 2025 release Popul Vuh, which combines some seriously violent vocals with beautiful Mayan interludes against a seething black metal backdrop.
Brazen Horde
Who are Brazen Horde? Where in the US did they decide to get inspired by Teutonic tropes? There is almost no information to be had of them, which is irrelevant, as their 2025 release Behold! The Ashen Cross is a gloomy, ethereal, authoritative debut that impressively speaks for itself. Vocalist Geistwolfe swaps between Scandinavian-style shrieks and excellent guttural growls, overlaid against a triumphant war tapestry of tremolo riffs and some of the most tasteful synths I’ve heard in underground black metal in a long time. Brazen Horde will be storming the ramparts of the Rickshaw Theater on the first night of Covenant, and the chivalrous thing to do would be to witness their medieval carnage front and center.
Egregore
Egregore is the lovechild of Covenant organizers Shawn Hache and Sebastian Montesi, and the child is certainly an odd one. Their recently released It Echoes in the Wild is a raucous and winding exploration in esoterica, and immediately reminded me of Pan.Thy.Monium from the ’90s, which is about as avant-garde as you can get. I’ll be excited to see how the twists and turns of their latest translates live, particularly the varied nature of the vocals, which cover the gamut from heavy metal falsettos to death hisses.
Spite
Without fail, whenever I attend a festival that spans three days or longer, there’s always a band that I’m woefully behind on, which this time around is Spite, the project of Stygian Black Hand founder Salpsan/Jesse Bagley. For over a decade now, Spite has put out a few quality high-production blackened metal releases that remind me quite a bit of Cloak out of Atlanta, with an element of Kabbalahic blasphemy not seen at Covenant since Gevurah in 2017. A drummer at heart, Salpsan brings a steady rolling rock-and-roll beat to the most recent 2024 release The Third Temple, and as a first time audience member, I’ll be curious to see which instrument he takes up on as the second-to closing band on the final night of Covenant.
Ruïm
When you spend over a decade in a genre-defining band, the only natural progression from the left hand path is to take yet another left turn. Ruïm of course is the solo project of Rune Eriksen (Blasphemer) who spent over a decade driving some of Mayhem’s most memorable releases. With Ruïm, Rune trades the frostbitten grim lands of Norway for a layered and mysterious visage encapsulated in the 2023 album Black Royal Spiritism – I. O Sino da Igreja, an endeavor that allows Eriksen to explore a full soundscape of black metal unbound by the conventions and tropes that he helped create. While Blasphemer showed off his chops as a guitarist with Mayhem, Ruïm shows his prowess as a musician, and I hear the live show lives up to his pedigree as a performer, which will be hotly anticipated as they close out the Friday night of the festival.
Full lineup:
Thursday, September 24
- Misthyrming
- Abyssal
- Brazen Horde
- Diabolic Oath
- Fire Magic
- Living Evil
Friday September 25
- Ruim
- Volahn
- Egregore
- Primitive Warfare
- Ahna
- Iron Firmament
Saturday, September 26
- The Ruins of Beverast
- Spite
- Barshasketh
- Lokabrenna
- Tsalal
- Zulxaxeku