Ahead of SoundArt 2025: Spotlight on UK Instrumental Visionaries Five The Hierophant
- Noel Mifsud
- 17 hours ago
- 2 min read
The upcoming edition of SoundArt Festival Malta is already stirring curiosity, and one of the most enigmatic names on the 24 October lineup is London-based instrumental collective Five The Hierophant, who will perform at St Aloysius Theatre in Birkirkara. Known for crafting sprawling, otherworldly soundscapes that merge post-metal, doom, dark jazz and ambient ritualism, the band has long defied conventional genre boundaries — and their arrival in Malta promises one of the festival’s most immersive live experiences.
Formed in 2014 and currently signed to Agonia Records, Five The Hierophant operate entirely without vocals, preferring to let layered instrumentation serve as their narrative voice. Saxophone, bowed guitar, percussion, drones, horns, effects and unconventional textures like gongs, zithers and music saws form the core of their sonic palette. Rather than adhering to traditional song structures, they build evolving atmospheres that shift from meditative haze to devastating intensity. As one reviewer on Encyclopaedia Metallum remarked, even a casual listener might be tempted to label them a jazz act at first, but once the saxophone gives way to darker undercurrents, their music transforms into something far more ominous and undefinable.
Their earlier releases gained underground attention, but it was 2021’s Through Aureate Void that cemented their status as masters of cinematic doom-jazz. Though praised for its hypnotic textures and ambitious layering, some critics noted that its extended passages occasionally drifted without resolution. That sense of looseness, however, was reined in on their latest album, Apeiron (2024), a record that both Angry Metal Guy and Everything Is Noise describe as a maturation of their sound. Electronics now pulse more distinctly beneath the compositions, basslines occasionally surge into distorted frenzy — as heard in the latter half of “Uroboros” — and melodic motifs emerge with greater clarity. Still, for all its refinement, the album does not sacrifice their sense of vastness. Its title, taken from the Greek word for “boundless,” proves fitting.
Live, Five The Hierophant are said to be even more potent. Those who have seen them at European festivals such as ArcTanGent and Mystic Festival often describe their sets as rituals rather than concerts. Without vocals to tether the audience to verse and chorus, attention is instead drawn to movement, texture and dynamic tension. It is music that breathes, expanding and contracting like a living entity — sometimes drifting in silence, sometimes roaring like thunder. In previous interviews, the band has acknowledged that touring is exhausting, yet the hour spent onstage is what makes the travel worthwhile.
For attendees at SoundArt Festival Malta, their performance on 24 October is likely to serve as both meditative journey and sonic assault — music for sinking inward rather than singing along. Those expecting catchy hooks may be confounded; those willing to surrender to slow-building mood may find themselves completely absorbed. In a lineup filled with art, experimentation and genre fusion, Five The Hierophant may well stand as the most mysterious presence of the weekend — and perhaps the one most likely to linger in memory long after the final note fades.
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