Into The Shadow Festival 6.0 - Day 3
Festival | Day 3 | stoner | €75,-
Upupayãma (IT)
Upupayāma was founded in 2021 with the aim of creating rhythms, dances and rituals to communicate with the trees. Music is something psychedelic that travels through the ages and across places, starting from the most mystical parts of the East, moving on to the Middle East, reaching Anatolia, and then soaring into the most tribal parts of Africa, all thanks to instruments from various parts of the world, such as the sitar, the bansuri flute and tribal percussions. It is like a single collective ritual that connects various places across the planet, eventually taking the sky by storm. The common thread is dance, whether slow, frenetic, gentle, sensual or eternal.
Their influences range from 1970s psychedelic rock to the krautrock of bands such as Can, GuruGuru, Neu! and Embryo, right through to traditional African and Anatolian music – with a dash of Italian library music thrown in. File under: Goat, Kikagaku Moyo.
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell (UK)
Based in the picturesque fishing town of Hastings (a drinking town with a fishing problem) on the sleepy South Coast of England, old school good-times rockers Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell have ripped into the hearts, skulls and nightmares of the heavy rock populous since their inception way back in 2006. Initially starting life as a hard-rock covers band, the Shovell rapidly replaced the incessant riffing of numerous golden-age hits (and misses) with their own tunes, heavily influenced by whatever was on the turntable at the time (Bang, Buffalo, Groundhogs, Sir Lord Baltimore, Crushed Butler and Hard Stuff provide a brief insight of what to expect).
Signing to Lee Dorrian’s (him of Napalm Death and Cathedral fame) Rise Above Records in 2010 for an initial single, but sticking around (like a bad smell) for a fistful of albums, the Shovell have become an unavoidable presence at festivals, both large and small (Desertfests London and Antwerp, Roadburn, Freak Valley, Black Deer, and Hard Rock Hell for starters), as well as support slots a-plenty. Being personally “headhunted” for several main supporting shows with Orange Goblin, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Blood Ceremony, Church of Misery and Danko Jones has cemented the Shovell’s standing as a “band’s band”, and they now have the reputation for being a consistently dynamic headlining act.
Labelled as “grease-rockers” (a throwback to the band’s diet, hygiene routines, and skin problems) the Shovell’s sound is predominantly an influence of old-fashioned hard-rock (from that golden age of 1968 to 1973) focusing on hammering riffs, but with the “can do” essence of NWOBHM. Loud as you want and sometimes louder, singer and guitarist Johnny Gorillar is forged of purloined riffs, sweat and denim, just don’t approach him during one of his mid-solo trances as he wields that axe like a whirlwind, and you’ll end up worse-off than a victim of Pete Townsend’s onstage rage. The Shovell’s newest arrival is drummer Glen Mitchel, who’d sooner rip a 3-piece kit to splinters than to eat, sleep, breathe etc., albeit beating somewhat erratically and dangerously heavy most of the time. Louis Wiggett plays lead bass, spends more time in the air and provides a deep growl to underpin the Shovell onslaught.
Following 2019’s prophetic Very Uncertain Times album and a European tour with Japanese doom rockers Church of Misery, the Shovell was moth-balled in a mass of greasy “lockdown” cotton wool, but re-emerged in 2021 with tracks tributes to Alice Cooper’s Killer and Budgie’s Never Turn Your Back on a Friend albums (both on Pale Wizard Records), a handful of shows with new boy Glen Mitchel, culminating in headline slots at Oslo’s Høstsabbat 2023, Riffolution (Manchester) 2023, and Masters of the Riff festival (London) 2024. In 2025 the band recorded their fifth long player: The Trouble with the Shovell, described by some as the band’s best work to date, it’s a veritable feast of all things
Besvärjelsen (SE)
BESVÄRJELSEN take their name from the Swedish word for "conjuring", a fitting description for their spellbinding approach to stoner-doom-influenced heavy rock. Besvärjelsen was co-founded by guitarists and vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Vinrot in 2014. Surrounded by the vast Dalarna forests, a region known for its lore, mysticism, and dark, droning musical heritage, the musicians had grown up on old Norse and Finnish grounds in Dalecarlia, and envisioned a band inspired by this geography and infused with its traditions.
Andreas and Staffan initially shared vocal duties, then made the decision to add a full-time singer. Lea Amling Alazam arrived with a passion for punk and stoner rock honed at the local skate park, bringing with her a distinctive voice that summoned the charisma of singers like Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone And Dorthia Cottrell.
Besvärjelsen released their debut EP Villfarelser in 2015, followed quickly by the Exil EP in 2016, just as founding DOZER drummer Erik Bäckwall joined the group. Debut full-length Vallmo arrived in 2018 as bassist Johan Rockner (DOZER) completed the lineup. Vallmo merged crushing riffs and storming drums with increasingly sophisticated melodies and thoughtful themes, and was greeted with regional acclaim and national radio play, even earning the band a festival slot opening for DEEP PURPLE.
Mini-album Frost arrived in late 2019, and saw all five members now contributing to the creative process. Forced into involuntary hibernation like every band other during 2020, the Swedes kept busy with intensive songwriting toward their next LP. In 2022, Besvärjelsen released their second full-length Atlas. The carefully-crafted record employed melancholic harmonies from the Alice In Chains playbook, gravity that would make Windhand proud, and irresistibly intimate vocal lines that hearkened powerfully to their Dalarna homeland.
Receiving Sweden’s prestigious Manifestgalan Award for Best Metal Album, Atlas earned Besvärjelsen an invitation to perform at the highly-curated Freak Valley Festival in 2023. In 2023, the band invited Marcus Lindqvist to fill in for live gigs following the departure of Rockner. By the end of 2024, his temporary status had become permanent. The newest album Till Glömskan – Ad Oblivionem was released in August 2026 and Besvärjelsen is back on the road in Europe in 2027.
TankZilla (NL)
TankZilla is a high-energy, two-headed heavy rock and "swamp boogie" duo from Eindhoven. Formed in 2017, the band is known for creating an incredibly massive wall of sound that defies the fact that they are just a two-piece act. TankZilla consists of two prominent well-seasoned musicians from the Dutch underground rock scene. The band famously sums up their own explosive origin story with the raw, tongue-in-cheek tagline: "Satan fucked a Panzer and the offshoot is TankZilla”
STOÑAPE (FI/DE)
Three musicians, three nationalities, three sets of influences - meeting amidst an ocean of heavy grooves, hypnotic riffs and a whole lot of fuzz. At Into The shadow 6.0 they will make their first live appearance on stage.
Sound Of Smoke (DE)
Sound Of Smoke from Freiburg im Breisgau play a hip mix of soul, blues, stoner, psychedelic, and krautrock with a healthy dose of vintage vibe. The quartet, which has been rocking the Freiburg concert scene for 10 years and has long since earned a reputation both regionally and internationally, describes its sound as Black Forest Psychedelic Soulrock. Stylistic elements and sounds from the golden era of rock 'n' roll, the 60s and 70s, form the foundation of Sound Of Smoke: hypnotic and driving drums, a thunderous bass with AMPEG growls in the style of a guy called Lemmy K., an electric guitar with California twang paired with atmospheric echo and fuzz sounds, and oscillating synthesizers à la Hawkwind. Last but not least: lead singer Isabelle, whose vocals bring many a soul legend back to life for a moment. The show is rounded off by Isabelle's unique stage performance, which is truly one of a kind and captivates the audience! Sound Of Smoke invites you on a journey back in time to days long past.
The psychedelic soul-rock quartet from Freiburg im Breisgau has been around for a whole decade. The band, in its current lineup, had its first jam session in March 2016. In 2017, still with a second guitarist, they released their first EP, ELEUTHEROMANIA (November 2017), which was more influenced by hard rock and metal. However, the band already knew how to highlight the defining element of their style: Isabelle's soulful voice. From 2018 onwards, they performed in their current lineup with a bluesier, more psychedelic sound. Intensive touring throughout Germany and parts of Europe followed, and Sound Of Smoke earned a respectable reputation as a live band with a captivating stage presence, thanks to their charismatic lead singer.
In 2022, the band signed their first contract with the label Tonzonen Records and released their first full-length album, TALES (February 2022). A year later, PHASES followed (February 2023). With MIRAGE (March 2026), the band released their third studio album on Tonzonen Records, coinciding with their 10th anniversary.