The summer season is coming to an end with a celebration of all things melancholy. For music lovers who have been looking for a place to experience the feeling of doom, Somerville has another opportunity to do so – in the form of the Somergloom festival. Now in its fourth year, the event promises to give audiences a healthy dose of hard-hitting underground sounds. Spanning multiple genres from dark folk to post-metal, Somergloom will take place August 22-24 at the Center for Arts at the Armory and will induce wonderfully moody vibes.

“The phones are off, they’re engaged. People are listening so intently and so focused. They know the music and they love the music – or they don’t. It’s really complex music,” said JJ Gonson, the founder of ONCE, the mobile music space that organizes Somergloom. “This stuff is practically orchestral. You don’t have to love screamo, you don’t have to love punk. People come from so many different places and I see so many different people at our festival and similar shows. It’s a really friendly atmosphere.”

This year’s Somergloom will be the festival’s biggest edition ever, according to Stephen LoVerme, who developed the concept and helped launch it in 2021. Seventeen bands and artists will perform, playing in the Armory’s main performance space as well as the venue’s Rooted Café. Groups like Royal Thunder will come from as far away as Atlanta, Georgia, and even an international band, Big Brave from Montreal, Canada, will be on the bill. Artists like Spiritual Poison will experiment with cinematic drone to explore different mindsets and worlds, while others like singer-songwriter Kira McSpice will explore the beauty that can emerge in dark moments. Nearly a dozen vendors will be in attendance, including multidisciplinary artist and designer Ivonne Blanco and Leather Pixie, who will sell bracelets, guitar straps and more.

Somergloom was born during the pandemic after ONCE’s Somerville storefront closed. Gonson was hosting a summer festival series and LoVerme had the idea to organize an event that honored heaviness, taking inspiration from shows in the Netherlands and Vienna. The first event took place in an empty parking lot at 0 Windsor Place in Somerville and has continued to grow over the years. The original space bordered train tracks, and passing trains provided lively performances. LoVerme and Gonson both spoke of the palpable energy of that first festival.

“The atmosphere was electric. At that point, a lot of people hadn’t been to a show in a long time,” LoVerme said. Gonson added that she felt many thought they would “never see live music again” and that it was a relief to come together to listen to music.

Mlny Parsonz is the frontwoman and bassist for Royal Thunder, a hard rock band that blends influences from ’90s classic rock and grunge with elements of progressive and psychedelic rock. In June 2023, the band released its first album in six years, Rebuilding the Mountain. Listeners exploring Royal Thunder’s discography will come across songs like “Time Machine” and “April Showers,” which feature Parsonz’s powerful voice and haunting themes, often dealing with painful topics. Parsonz said when she writes a song with the band, she tries to find a silver lining in the storm of life experiences.

“You go through these things,” Parsonz said. “I really believe there’s some good in the bad. You take that, you spread it out, you look at it, you break it down, and then you walk away with a spark of hope, a lesson, a change for the better — that’s what I believe. When you tell your story, it’s someone else’s story somewhere. It’s liberating to hear someone tell your story.”

The Infinity Ring is a Boston band that explores dark folk and drone and noise elements. Spirituality and mysticism play a role in the group’s music, and the voice of lead songwriter and vocalist Cameron Moretti has been compared to that of Leonard Cohen. Moretti has said he draws inspiration in part from the Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash albums he listened to as a child.

“It’s almost like when I listen back to the songs, even in their simplest forms, I hear different elements and overtones,” Moretti said. “I think the urge to create something that has that timeless feel… that’s something that resonates with me, music that I can’t necessarily put my finger on exactly when it was made.”

LoVerme said he hopes Somergloom will give audience members an understanding that it’s OK to experience deeper feelings and provide them with a place to sit. The festival aims to be inclusive and welcoming, fostering an appreciation for music that, despite the melancholy, still brings joy.

“Sadness and dark feelings are legitimate emotions,” LoVerme said. “They are part of a whole range of human emotions and experiences. We have been experiencing tragedy for thousands of years. You need the darkness and the light, and we focus on the darkness.”