Still getting bigger, better and harder to leave every year, Damnation Festival 2026 came and went with a gloriously disturbing, extremely noisy bang.
Damnation Festival 2026
BEC Arena, Manchester – 7/8 November 2026
Words: Paul Hutchings and Lucy Dunnet
Photography: Paul Hutchings
On the ear-ringing success of 2026, organiser Gavin McInally said it was the most successful Damnation Festival they have ever hosted. With a lineup spanning Post-Metal legends Cult Of Luna, Australia’s Industrial-Death Metallers The Berzerker, horny noise rockers HEALTH, and English Death Metal veterans Carcass, it is easy to see why. And that is just Saturday.
Now cradling post-excessive headbanging necks rather than pints of Holy Goat Brewing’s Damnation IPAs, we bring you the highlights from Damnation 2026’s blackened madness.
Hundred Year Old Man – Eyesore Merch Stage
More effective than a dark roasted cup of black coffee or a Damnation Sour – the smell of which is currently permeating the venue – Hundred Year Old Man wake up Damnation Festival 2026’s attendees with a Post-Metal celestial trudge into oblivion.
The festival’s smallest stage is positively heaving for this midday rise-n-shine slot. Their slew of sludgy riffs and anguished screams hammer in harrowing layers to the overwhelming feelings of “fuck yeah, what a great start to the day” in the crowd.
Accompanied by background visuals slowly weaving through black-and-white forest-esque imagery and bursts of galactic colour and patterns, Hundred Year Old Man are sonically and visually entrancing, and leave to a huge applause from the crowd who will be under the Hundred Year Old Man soul-searching effect for as long as it takes one of the day’s many skull-crushing bands to knock it out. (LD)
Holy Fawn – Pins & Knuckles Stage
It is not something that happens to every band who plays at Damnation Festival, but the opening slot on the main stage is becoming a prime one to secure.
Surely with many fans not even out of their pits after going hard at Night Of Salvation, there should be room to move. But it is a testament to Gavin McInally and his team that as Holy Fawn take the stage, the Pins & Knuckles Stage is full. Just like Overhead The Albatross and Conjurer last year, Damnation fans show once more that they are there primarily for the music.
Holy Fawn take the stage and deliver an assured, confident yet slightly disjointed set. There’s some great stuff here. Their combination of Shoegaze, Post-Metal and Post-Black Metal brings a slightly calmer style after the huge riffs of HYOM on the Eyesore Merch Stage and the frenzy of Wormed on the Holy Goat Brewing Stage.
They seem a little hesitant but soon get into their stride and deliver a six-song set that hits all the right notes. They may not have the crunch of some of the bands to follow, but songs like Dark Stone prove why they are perfect for this slot. (PH)
Gorerotted – Holy Goat Brewing Stage
The return of Gorerotted, apparently booked a year ago and given that amount of time by Gavin to get their shit together, according to the quote on the screen, anyway, is not for the faint-hearted.
Immensely anticipated by many, their set is a mallet across the back of the head for 40 minutes as the reformed UK Death Grind legends roar back to one of the receptions of the day.
For many, this is a flashback to the early Damnation Festivals, whilst for huge swathes of younger fans, an opportunity to see if these legends are up to it. Answer: They are. Oh yes.
An explosive 11-song set sees them rip through opener Zombie Grave Rape Bonanza before punishing everyone brave enough to stand in front of them. It has been a long time, but the band have offers for several festival appearances in 2027. On this showing, they will be tough to beat. (PH)
Intercourse – Eyesore Merch Stage
A quick skip back to the Eyesore Merch Stage finds Intercourse bringing the noise in some disturbing fashion. Singer Tarek Ahmed is the obvious attraction, with his shock of green hair and shirtless, toned physique as he rages around the stage.
The energy on stage for their noise-rock and Hardcore blend is impressive, and their ability to summon up a feisty mosh pit in quick time sees the crowd move in unison, some of us away, others drawn to it as the rage from the stage churns up the temperature. (PH)
Car Bomb – Pins & Knuckles Stage
If you like having your head act as the replacement for a ball in a baseball match between the opposing sides of a space invasion, Car Bomb’s personal brand of disorientation and distortion is where it’s at.
Vocalist Michael Dafferner even takes a moment to ask the crowd how far up his legs he should hike his joggers (because it’s hot), thus turning them into a scruffy black pair of baseball knickers.
They end up above his knees, eliciting lusty whoops from the main stage Car Bomb enthusiasts.
Each sliding riff, carved from a lucid night terror, is as unpredictable as the last, made even more face-slappingly shocking by the occasional moments of melodic ambience that veer into Deftones territory.
Michael starts up a chant for guitarist Greg Kubacki, which the crowd eagerly gets involved with to show their love for the nutter responsible for all the “pew pew” pitch shifts and disturbing laser-battle tones.
The tempo changes are more thrilling than the world’s most erratic rollercoaster, but by the time Car Bomb cut the chords to their debut Damnation Festival appearance, you more than feel like you have ridden a frantic cart into the sky and back. (LD)
Rwake – Holy Goat Brewing Stage
Rwake are like a warning, but the monstrous combination of Chris ‘CT’ Terry’s gutturals into spoken (yelled) word passages with Brittany The B’ Fugate’s venomous shrieks makes it impossible to tell what about. And that is exactly the way it should be.
All the vengeful witches and misunderstood goblins have gathered to hear the sludge veterans fly through a set of intensely atmospheric, doom-infested southern sludge.
The B swigs from her water bottle in between screams with impressive speed, before returning to hunching over her Moog synthesiser like one of the ominous creatures they sing about in their despairingly gothic stream-of-consciousness.
“When a man sticks a gun in your face, you’ve got two choices. You can die, or you can kill the motherfucker,” says the soundbite intro to Forge, which slams out of the speakers like a brutal wave of destructive nihilistic intent. Dark, desperate, and great for deep headbanging, Rwake better not disappear off into the abyss again anytime soon. (LD)
Coltaine – Eyesore Merch Stage
Coltaine from Germany bring a blend of Doom, Black Metal and Post-Rock in one intriguing and captivating package. Singer Julia Frasch opens their set with some percussion, and all eyes fall swiftly on her as the song begins.
She stands under golden lighting, a diminutive figure with 2,000 pairs of eyes on her. She does not blink as she starts her parts. As her fellow bandmates join her, Coltaine changes tack, and suddenly the elfin singer is unleashing roars of gargantuan magnitude.
It is a compelling 40 minutes that draws everyone watching in deep. (PH)
Eyehategod – Pins & Knuckles Stage
There is a huge crowd gathered for the first of a double whammy from New Orleans on Pins & Knuckles. The fat sludge of Eyehategod is always welcomed on these shores, and the band are regularly found touring the UK.
They leave Damnation Festival in pieces after a huge set to complete shows with Intercourse and Rwake. With their usual disdain, they start with Jimmy Bowers giving the crowd the middle finger before hitting the crowd with some of the dirtiest riffs of the weekend.
Mike Williams’ tortured screams linger long in the memory every time this band performs, and tonight is no exception. It is uncompromising. The audience love it. (PH)
Dödsrit – Holy Goat Brewing Stage
Delightfully coined crusty Black Metal or blackened crust punk band, Dödsrit, are one of the weekend’s most exciting discoveries. The Swedish-Dutch outfit take the foreboding intensity and shrieking horrors of Black Metal and sew it together with D-beat-fuelled crust punk to drive a relentless hurricane of awe-inspiring slaughter.
Their freshly tortured roars and soul-splitting melodies over the, at times bouncing, at times blasting, rhythms paint a deeply emotional texture over this Extreme Metal fever dream.
Irjala and Celestial Will, over 10 and 8 minutes respectively, are monolithic journeys through bleak landscapes, but with an unyielding beauty to every melancholic torrent of decay and despair.
Some of the crowd rage it out in the pit while others have their necks threatening to seize up from all the headbanging, all while gazing up at the enormous Dödsrit logo being held up by two wolves, one bearing a sword and the other a noose. More, more, more. Please. (LD)
Fange – Eyesore Merch Stage
It is something of a theme appearing recently that some of the best bands now are coming out of France. Fange prove that point with a punishing set on the Eyesore Merch stage.
It is a misery-filled set, as their Sludgy Black Metal screams across the room. Utilising the lights to great effect, the room is full as they provide a rare appearance in the UK.
Even from the back, Fange were intense. One to catch again for sure. (PH)
Crowbar – Pins & Knuckles Stage
Earlier in the year, Crowbar had somehow gone from filling 300-capacity venues to rooms over 1,000 in size. Apparently, it’s a TikTok thing.
Regardless of social media, the second outfit from NOLA make a huge impression with one of the most impressive sets of the day. It is raining riffs when Kurt Windstein gives the nod, under the watchful eye of Ben Ward from Route One Booking (OH, and Orange Goblin!).
They throw in an enormous Planets Collide second song, and the day could be complete then and there. Technical challenges are swatted aside with ease by Kurt, and a ten-song set concludes with a thunderous Cemetery Angels from Sever The Wicked Hand.
If you wanted riffs, then Pins & Knuckles and NOLA have already delivered. (PH)
The Moth Gatherer – Eyesore Merch Stage
There is limited Post-Metal at the 21st Edition of Damnation Festival, but those that fit the genre are top class. Stockholm’s The Moth Gatherer, for instance.
Vocalist Victor Wegeborn is the central focal point, his angst-ridden vocals towering above the shimmering walls of riffs that combine with more delicate passages of play.
The band are tight, the audience appreciative, and there is a combination here that allows both respite from the carnage as well as an intensity that is absorbing.
Records suggest it is the Swedes’ first-ever UK show. A major moment for the band, but more importantly for the audience, who are fully respectful of such a superb performance. (PH)
Health – Pins & Knuckles Stage
Anime clips fill the main stage screen as the poppy, upbeat theme tune to Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Cruel Angel’s Thesis, all but giggles out of the speakers. It is not often this stage, and this festival, will look or sound like this.
“Damnation [pronounced dam-nay-shee-on, because this is bassist Johnny Famiglietti speaking]. Prepare yourself for castration [ca-stray-shee-on].”
That is all the warning you get before HEALTH, aka Damnation Festival 2026’s cum Metal offering, rip into the booming industrial riffs of VIBE COP.
Some of their tracks are slower, wistful moments where vocalist-guitarist Jake Duzsik’s eerily delicate vocals envelop you in a soft, weighted blanket of synth-pop. Others are deeply penetrating electro-industrial noise experiments that unleash the raver in even the most grizzly-looking old-school Metalhead. It is a great sight.
When asked by Craig Reynolds on The Downbeat Podcast what a HEALTH fan looks like, Johnny fumbled around and eventually came up with the answer that they just give off a feeling of sexual deviancy.
Anyone can be a HEALTH fan. There could be a HEALTH fan in anyone. That’s the beauty of HEALTH’s horny noise rock. Although hopefully not also the reason why the disabled loos were so popular with couples and throuples at this year’s Dam-nay-shee-on.
There are pits, crowdsurfers, headbangers, fist-pumping ravers and slow, trance-like wavers, and when the darkwave, pulsating beats of ORDINARY LOSS kick in, the party climaxes. HEALTH are a shockingly good fit for 18:10 on a Saturday at Damnation. (LD)
John Cxnnor – Eyesore Merch Stage
Danish electro-industrial noise duo John Cxnnor pick up where HEALTH left off, but this time, it is all skull-smashing rave with the intensity knob turned to red.
Brothers Ketil and Rasmus G. Sejersen of post-apocalyptic Metal band LLNN formed John Cxnnor during COVID, and have been hitting up festivals with their potent doom rave sets ever since.
With many Damnation Festival attendees still due a trip outside to the food stalls for a post-7 pm snack, they prove it is never too early for a Terminator-inspired rave. Also that it is totally acceptable to use a festival performance as an excuse to invite all your favourite vocalists on stage with you for a totally chaotic blast of vicious techno pulses, jungle breakbeats, and god-knows-what-of soundbites.
Throughout the set, Kim Song Sternkopf (MØL), Andreas Bjulver (Cabal), David Ashley Duxbury (Hundred Year Old Man), Chad Kapper (Frontierer) and Selma Bahner (Feral Nature) lead the John Cxnnor collective with their respective abrasive, harsh, unhinged vocals. And it is addictive.
Rasmus and Ketil are as charismatic as they are furiously intent on warping out the gnarliest dystopian sound attack that their fingers will allow. Surely everyone finishes this set with one thought in mind. “I’ll be back.” (LD)
Krallice – Holy Goat Brewing Stage
If Technical Black Metal is your thing, then Krallice may be for you. The New Yorkers are making only their third UK appearance after shows in Bristol and London the nights before.
It is a challenging listen with not a lot to watch as the three string-wielding members of the band are focused on their instruments. Their music is avant-garde in style, with lots of time changes.
An interesting band, the members tend to shift instruments, with Nick McMaster holding centre stage as he wrestles with a giant six-string bass.
It is focused, very focused. But there is something quite hypnotising about this performance. (PH)
Carcass – Pins & Knuckles Stage
They may be regarded as the “house” band, and Jeff Walker does name-check Gav during the set, but Carcass are not as regular here as one might think. Their last appearance was the epic headline set at the final Leeds Damnation Festival in 2021, and this was only their fourth appearance overall.
Their first in Manchester sees the main Pins & Knuckles arena very full as the legends demonstrate their quality with a blistering set. These guys even blew Kreator out of the water in March, and they continue to be essential viewing.
Alongside Walker, whose dry, Liverpudlian humour comes across throughout the set, Bill Steer, James Blackford and Dan Wilding provide a formidable force.
They are incredibly tight, fluid, and roll through their set with ease. It is 41 years since they formed, yet their vibrance is still strong. From the opener Unfit For Human Consumption, via Dance Of Ixtab and the Heartwork medley that closes out the set, this is a masterclass in Death Metal.
The young pups will have to wait a bit longer. (PH)
Frontierer – Holy Goat Brewing Stage
Horrible music for wonderful people. That is about as basic as you can get trying to describe the hyper-charged turbulence of a Frontierer live show.
Warning: Epileptics Enter At Your Own Risk would be another.
The Scottish-American mathcore unit are an all-kills, no-frills sonic battering ram out to rearrange your brain matter in a matter of seconds. They are a tunnel of suffocating speed and stinkfaces, except for when guitarist Pedram Valiani, aka the band’s benevolent dictator and primary songwriter, is skipping across the stage like a kid that has just been given an extra-large ice cream from the nice ice cream van man.
When they have had enough of just splitting your eardrums, vocalist Chad Kapper demands a room splitter (Wall Of Death) that crushes almost as hard as their new album, Ultraviolet Parasite.
“Listen to it. Spin it. Throw it out the fucking window, someone will pick it up,” Chad says to the crowd, before resuming his place at the front of the barrier where he has been almost all set, screaming directly into the faces of the adrenaline junkies craving the kind of dopamine hit only a 45-minute Frontierer assault can give. (LD)
Cult Of Luna – Pins & Knuckles Stage
Two headline sets in the UK this year have proven how much Cult Of Luna are loved. Their performance of Mariner with Julie Christmas mere months earlier at Arctangent was a standout highlight in a highlight-packed year for live music.
Tonight the Swedes focus on material from their new album, In The Shadow Of Your Shadows. Only released the day before the festival, it does not make any difference to them, and they demonstrate with a glorious set immersed in atmospheric lighting and dry ice that there are few bands who can touch them.
Johannes Persson is the dominant force, his growling roars ringing around the cavernous arena, but his bandmates all do their part in a set that is mesmerising and enchanting.
Their first visit in a decade, this is a performance of magnificence, intoxication and seismic soundscapes. Cult Of Luna are welcomed back with all embracing arms. (PH)
The Berzerker – Holy Goat Brewing Stage
After 18 years, The Berzerker are back, with technology finally having caught up with the “sonic and visual onslaught” founding mastermind, producer and vocalist Luke Kenny had always envisioned.
After seeing them headline Friday night’s A Night Of Salvation and close Damnation Day 1, it turns out sonic and visual onslaught is an understatement.
The Berzerker live is like five brutal bands playing at once with a swarm of medically enlarged wasps trying to escape out of the amps, while your eyes feast on the worst inhabitants of hell’s browsing history. From lava-flowing caves and bugs to cannibals, medical torture, and hot women covered in blood, a whole stream of flashing chaos fills the screen behind the Australian Industrial Death Metallers.
Lest you dare forget where you are, The Berzerker logo also continuously flashes across the screen and is emblazoned across Luke’s shirt. If anyone dared tell the chief Berzerker that some people do not think it is cool to wear your own merch on stage, he has a whole song to respond with: Shut The F*ck Up.
It is one of the few shout-along moments of the set before it is back to the bombardment of thick, violent riffing and guttural growls at tempos so obscene that headbanging becomes a form of self-mutilation.
“I’m not as young as I used to be,” laughs Luke. “This is exhausting.” It certainly looks it. (LD)
Attention now turns to Damnation Festival 2027, which returns to Manchester’s BEC Arena on 6–7 November with Zeal & Ardor announced as the first headliner.
Reunited Black Breath and returning The Red Chord join the opening line-up, alongside Bell Witch performing Mirror Reaper in full for its tenth anniversary and Pestilence delivering an exclusive old-school set. Panopticon, Lamp Of Murmuur, Cult Leader, Unsane and Rome are also confirmed, with early bird tickets on sale now.
