It’s that time of the year again. Damnation 2026 pulls together another varied bill with some heavy hitters topping the line up.
Photo: Andy Pountney
DAMNATION 2026
Getting the tram to Damnation Festival is a fun experience when it’s this time of the year. Whilst in the shadow of a certain football team’s stadium, there is only one match people are interested in in Trafford this weekend. It does have an air of going to the match, walking up to Bowlers Exhibition Centre. The strip is mainly black, with a few choosing alternative colours. A buzz fizzes around groups walking up, wide eyed and ready for the day.
Bowlers has become as much a home for Damnation Festival as Leeds University was for many years. It feels like the right place to hold a festival of this size, with ample space for breaking out and all bands placed in the right sized stage. The organisation of the event is something to be lauded massively, and that is even before a note is heard.
Photo: Dominic Walsh
THE KICK OFF
A foreboding swell of sound fills the third stage as the lights go down for Hundred Year Old Man. The screen flickers into life and the arena is full to the back. There is clearly a sense of anticipation for the band. When they strike the first notes; they create a typically immersive and claustrophobic atmosphere. Riffs turn the screw slowly, taking everyone down with them. As the five piece shift gears, there are smiles aplenty. With a band possessing so much weight and with a reliance on ‘the journey,’ Hundred Year Old Man do a remarkable job in the thirty minutes they have. They get a great reception and start the day superbly.
‘Greetings Damnation’ says singer Ryan Osterman before Holy Fawn open the main stage. Immediately, the band sounds superb. Their post rock soundscapes sweep through the arena. The added screens stage left and right give a close up look of the bands for the folks settled at the rear. Osterman moves through a wide vocal register as the band power through their set allowing the music to breathe and take over in dramatic fashion. Like many of the finest proponents of post-rock/blackgaze, they pack their music full of emotion. As an opening pair of bands, HYOM and Holy Fawn do a great job.
Photo: Dominic Walsh
THERE IS ALWAYS A RETURN
As is tradition with festivals these days, there are is always a reforming band in the mist. Gorerotted are one such example for Damnation 2026. With the bands logo flickering onto the screen, the familiar tones of Motörhead’s Overkill ramp up the excitement. Having played in Manchester on the previous night, plenty get a second dose. An old quote from Kerrang! flashes up on the screen before recent quote from Gavin McInally about the band reforming. It’s tongue in cheek and gives context to the booking. When the band take the stage, it is a brutal death metal beatdown. Put Your Bits In A Concrete Mix and Only Tools & Corpses give an idea of the content present. Solid.
Another veteran band that bring a level of complexity to proceedings are Car Bomb. Whilst having the math core label, the band are adept at a range of styles within their music. There is a clinical edge to the band that helps them live up to the destructive tone of their name. The ability to deliver this music at such a high level demands a great level of musicality and Car Bomb go full throttle with it.
Photo: Dominic Walsh
SATURDAY SLUDGE
For the next couple of hours, sludge metal is the order. Three bands, all from America, take to the stage. First up, Arkansas psychedelic sludge band Rwake return to the fold. Brittany “The B” Fugate is an imposing presence on keys and sharing vocals as the band power through a set that draws on their most recent record, The Return Of Magik; their first in 14 years.
From Arkansas, to New Orleans as Eyehategod and Crowbar serve up a double dose of NOLA sludge. First up are Eyehategod. Mike ‘Nine’ Williams signals the bands intention by entering the stage and hollering, “We’re from New Orleans…if you didn’t know!” It sounds like he warms up by gargling gravel. As part of the sludge/stoner/doom scene, Eyehategod are legends. They are aggressive and direct from the off and carry on the sludge selection started by Rwake. Now that the wheels are slightly greased from a few early drinks, the crowd are busy. Jimmy Bower’s guitar work is so distinctive; his tone through rhythm sections and solo work is a joy to hear. Through Williams’ interactions with the crowd and the way he works them, the band get a huge response.
Crowbar are next up on the main stage; another band from the Big Easy. In recent times, Crowbar have had a bit of a surge in the online world with their songs becoming famous on TikTok. An indication of this is the amount of younger fans gripping the barrier at the front and those surfing the crowd. It’s great to see and means that festivals like this have a new, younger generation coming through to keep things ticking. That being said, there are plenty of fans who have been around the block with the band who lap up hulking tunes from the bands earlier releases in the 90’s; Odd Fellows Rest, Broken Glass and their self titled LP. The Cemetery Angels closes out their triumphant set bringing a brilliant early run of bands to a close.
Photo: Andy Pountney
EUROPEAN INFLUX
In between the American sludge, there are two other stages showcasing some brilliant talent from Europe.
Karlsruhe natives Coltaine are an early highlight. In the more intimate third stage they enrapture the crowd. The sublime vocals sit atop an enchanting cauldron of post metal, sludge, doom and post hardcore. Their brand of extreme drifts around the room and the entranced crowd bang their heads in approving unison. One minute ethereal vocals, the next vitriolic guttural growls. An ornate decoration with bells adorns the mic stand and is used during solo vocal intros. As a group, they’re hard to label, and a band that will be on our radar going forward.
There is a caustic dissonance to Fange. The Breton quartet take no prisoners whilst bludgeoning the crowd. They’re energetic onstage and clearly win over some new fans during their performance. The percussive side of the band is electronically heavy. Singer, Matthias Jungbluth, bats about the stage like a fly trying to get out of the kitchen window. In a club environment, Fange would strip the paint of the walls and no doubt cause some structural damage.
INDUSTRIAL DANES
On the second stage, Cabal demonstrate a huge increase in energy and violence from both the crowd and the band. The five piece deathcore outfit throw themselves around the stage; this energy feeds into the crowd. “We’re Cabal from Denmark and we play heavy music for sad people.” In amongst the deathcore is a strong sense of industrial metal too. The reaction from the crowd is huge and they manage to get a good wall of death going amongst the crowd.
Another Danish band on the bill are John Cxnnor. They have worked in the studio with their fellow Danes Cabal before and have a revolving door of guest vocalists. Labelled ‘industrial doom rave’, they create an absolutely anarchic atmosphere. They rip the stage limb from limb with their sonic assault that has more in common with bands like The Prodigy and Pendulum than Crowbar or Carcass. It is a different kind of extreme music that clearly has a place at this festival.
Later in the evening, the brilliant MØL complete a trio of Danish bands. They help represent what is clearly a flourishing scene. A conversation with a punter who had travelled over for John Cxnnor remarks that the scene is in a good way with plenty of talent. representative of the flourishing scene. MØL are no strangers to these shores and devastate with their atmospheric black metal / post black metal. Their music is full of soaring, epic melodies sweeping behind a more direct, abrasive top layer.
Photo: Andy Pountney
DIFFERENT EXTREMES
Swedish black metal outfit Dödsrit have already blown festival audiences away on these shores at Fortress Festival. In short, they’re absolutely immense. Whilst being completely crushing and atmospheric, they write songs full of melody. There is a raw, crust laden edge to the sound that keeps things very exciting. Their set is a relentless sonic battery that is completely sublime.
Flying in from Queens, NY, Krallice offer a different take on black metal. First of all, they play on a fully lit stage; not masks, no corpsepaint, no candles, minimal fog. It is as stripped back and raw as it can be. Whilst they possess the chops to go full pelt with the black metal assault, they have lots of interesting quirks in their sound that are both technical and all consuming. Their latest album Scour Order, is one of our favourites of this year so to see and hear some of this played live was a real treat.
On the main stage, LA’s HEALTH were one of the weekends most anticipated turns. They possess an extra lighting rig that raises the impact on the retinas. There is a huge cheer as the band enter; it is once again clear that the electronic/metal crossover is hugely popular. When Jake Duzsik announces the band, the temperature ramps up further. Songs inspired by gaming and Anime have a huge draw, and when they’re delivered in such brutal fashion, it is hard not to be in awe. Trash Decade is an early highlight; it is absolutely pummelling in nature and one that makes a huge impact. This style of extreme might not be for everyone but it is extreme music nonetheless, and this is a celebration of all that is musically extreme.
Photo: Dominic Walsh
PSYCHOPOMP & CIRCUMSTANCE
For all the experimentation with ‘extreme’, Carcass are like a constant. Having written the book on melodic death metal, they always deliver a stellar performance. Jeff Walker throws his bass high as he walks on, and Bill Steer is still so effortlessly cool decked out in his customary bell bottom jeans. Having written so many classic death metal songs, Carcass have an arsenal of songs that many can only dream of.
They plunder Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious and Heartwork, as well as nods to Reek Of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness. It ensures a great spread of material. For all the classics, it is Dance of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No. 1 in B) from Torn Arteries that stands out a lot. Walker gets the crowd chanting along keeping up the energy of the day. He goads the front rows and throws out plenty of picks for a lucky few; quite a skill considering the gaps between the stage and crowd.
Photo: Andy Pountney
THE HEADLINERS
To round out day one of Damnation 2026, two acts that have storied histories.
Atop the second stage are The Berzerker. The Australian industrial death metal band haven’t played a show for a long period prior to the festival weekend. As you would expect from a turn like this, everything is turned up to 11. The music is heavy and intense and the lighting is utterly frenetic. A large proportion of the set is pulled from 2002’s Dissimulate. With the set nearly reaching its end and the night drawing to a close, placing Disregard close to the end of the set is a brutal piece of sequencing. The grind attack of the song lives up to its name. Closing out with No One Wins ensures that all sense are left corrupt by the end. Brilliant.
Closing the main stage are the Swedish masters, Cult Of Luna. It is a different kind of heavy watching this band. On the weekend that they release their latest album, In The Shadow Of Your Shadow (our review here), the band debut some of the material. The Rift is spectacular and with Sadness Will Reign, it sits perfectly in the set. The aura and atmosphere that Cult Of Luna create in their live shows is immense. It’s claustrophobic and all consuming. When they head into Cold Burn from 2022’s The Long Road North, the excitement starts to bubble over. The pounding drums are spectacular; in the same way that Hundred Year Old Man nailed the musical journey at the start of the day, Cult Of Luna close things out in similar fashion.
A truly brilliant day one of Damnation 2026.
Keep your eyes peeled for our day two review, as well as our huge gallery reviews.
Tickets for Damnation Festival 2027 are available now, here, with a handful of bands already announced.
