By Kerry-Lee Christensen
Slam Fest 2026 on 7 March highlighted the talent within South Africa’s often underrated heavy music scene, showcasing bands like We Kill Cowboys, Facing the Gallows and Sunken State. Held at the Daisy Jones Bar, the event drew metalheads and music lovers alike, with a larger turnout than the previous year.
According to Reegan Du Buisson, lead vocalist of Facing the Gallows, events like Slam Fest play an important role in growing the alternative music community. Du Buisson said, “They are giving us another platform to kind of showcase to a much broader audience. […] And it generally attracts people of […] slightly broader music interest because we’ve got […] a little bit of rock and roll, a little bit of metal, a little bit of hardcore. So it’s pretty cool. Sometimes people don’t really know what they want until they see it. So I think, in a nutshell, that’s what they’re doing. They’re bringing all the different communities that actually form part of alternative music together to […] experience something new.”
When asked what makes the South African heavy music scene unique, Alex Muller, lead singer of We Kill Cowboys, pointed to the resilience required to be a musician locally. “We are hard workers. We don’t have it easy. We don’t have a wide variety of venues; […] it’s a very small country. So you really have to work hard and you really have to put in a lot of effort,” Muller said. “You have to have a lot of grit, a lot of passion. And I think […] what makes the South African metal and hardcore scene seem so beautiful, is that you really see that passion”.
Sean Gaisford, bassist of Sunken State, described the band’s sound evolution and influences. Gaisford said, “We have a lot of different influences. […] If I had to kind of put us in a box, it would be like modern groove metal with a bit of core added. Our sound has changed quite a lot over the past couple of years. […] We can kind of accommodate […] quite a lot of different metalheads in the scene.”
As the performances at Daisy Jones Bar made clear, the energy and dedication of bands like We Kill Cowboys, Facing the Gallows and Sunken State are a powerful reminder that South Africa’s heavy music scene may be underrated, but it is far from lacking in talent.
