FESTIVAL REVIEW: Dead of Winter Festival: The Trilogy 2026
Not many metal festivals happen in the first month of the year. Dead of Winter Festival in Glasgow bucks this trend by picking up the end of this eventless, dreary month with a rare exhibition of death metal in the UK. Now in its third iteration, Macho Records hosts this two-day showcase at the Ivory Blacks, emphasising the city’s rep for spearheading the UKDM underground scene. This deathfest provides a much-appreciated platform for lesser-known domestic and rare European talent, and its beloved attendees, too; this year’s fest is 90% sold out.
Friday, 30th January
France’s PUTRID OFFAL first breathed life in 1990, but split up five years later after a sprinkling of splits and demos. The grindy death metallers returned in 2013 and have played the likes of Obscene Extreme and Death Feast Open Air. Euro goregrind spliced with atmospheric modern grind sinks its teeth into frenzied violent cacophony, flattening the venue with decent sound engineering. The bone-snapping groove of Boning Hall, the blink-and-miss-it brevity of Ribcage Blues and the comparatively long Darkness Awaits promote the Frenchmens’ third album, released last year, leaving a positive impression on the crowd. Their carnage solicits headbanging, and the audience is clearly very receptive to the four-piece.
Rating: 8/10
Chaos of another kind is invoked by Italy’s FUNEST, bringing raw old school death metal to the UK for the first time. Conceived in 2012, their ’90s take on the subgenre points fingers towards Swedish legends DISMEMBER and ENTOMBED. Buzzsaw guitar leads and cudgel-blunt rhythms are the order of the day. Tonight, they play the vast majority of their only album, Desecrating Obscurity. While there are some delicious riffs scattered throughout the tracks, their music misses creativity, adding to the mountain of metallers turning back the clock to swedeath metal. Nonetheless, this doesn’t stop a current of stage divers from enlivening the atmosphere.
Rating: 6/10
The headliners tonight are ABRUPT DEMISE, from that stronghold of death metal, The Netherlands, enjoying their first date in Scotland. Meeting this cruel world in 2010, they harness what feels like a rare kind of meat-and-potatoes extreme metal, these days. Their take-no-prisoners death metal may lack vintage addictions, technical butchery or slamming brutality, but it’s rich with memorable and intriguing riffs (and given the preference for old school/tech/brutal death metal in modern troupes these days, the unflavoured, pure variety is a breath of fresh air). Rhythmic chugs, mid-tempo stalking and a barrage of stylistic changes in each track make it mandatory to get behind these Dutchmen.
Most of the show is pulled from their sole album, The Pleasure to Kill and Grind. Last year, the headliners released the single Sevastapol Fell (1855) and this thrash-traced anthem rolls through the venue like a tank in the streets during martial law. There’s an unrelenting surge of crowd surfers stealing the stage throughout the performance. Maybe it’s the booze flowing, but the set sprints by. Following the close of the self-titled number of their album wrapping up the night, the fans encourage ABRUPT DEMISE to return to the stage for an encore. Glasgow is treated to a final dose of scathing severity in Hate Me, concluding the meaty first day of Dead of Winter Festival: The Trilogy.
Rating: 8/10
Saturday, 31st January
Something different for this lineup is LOST BRETHREN, a technical death metal unit from Peterborough. They’ve been around since 2011 and have four albums to their name, so why are they so unknown? Their inspired extreme metal shares DNA with SPAWN OF POSSESSION, but it’s not quite as fast. Tasty sweep-picking, sinister spaced-out soundscapes and intricate but bellicose drums are all on the menu. The sound isn’t crystal clear, but it does improve as the show marches on. The trio flies through selections from their last album, The Abduction, and most recent EP, Dimensional Rift. There’s so much variety that the alien-focused music never stagnates or grows repetitive and always sounds inspired. When the song Dimensional Rift wraps up their set, this reviewer can only ponder again: why are these techies so unknown?
Rating: 8/10
Returning to the new school, Italy’s MIASMIC SERUM takes over the fest. Formed in 2022 and releasing their sole album, Infected Seed, in 2024, this appearance is part of their maiden UK tour. Musically, the band applies a respectable mid-era CANNIBAL CORPSE polish to their sound, with insistent guitars and drums pronounced by fair sound engineering. The growls are the weakest part of the ensemble, replacing the guttural vocalisations of death metal with a strained, bassy shout. Closer Mortal Training is perhaps the strongest facet of their set, featuring a blistering solo at the start of the song, comfortably whipping up audience frenzy.
Rating: 7/10
Today, the audience has been surprisingly static for a death metal festival, but that’s about to change. Birmingham’s DEATH COLLECTOR only formed in 2021, yet with one album to their name, they’ve secured a place on Prosthetic Records‘ roster. Initially, their drummer was Andrew Whale, formerly of death metal deities BOLT THROWER, but unfortunately, he left DEATH COLLECTOR in 2024. Vocalist Kieran Scott doesn’t take his time to command everyone to start moshing, and just like that, the venue is invigorated with a merciless pit and stage divers. The Englishmen’s assault is armed with sparingly used BOLT THROWER sinister melodic guitar leads, but there’s also contemporary death metal pummelling. It gets heavier than a 16-wheeler while evading tipping into brutal death territory. The frenetic crowd is a perfect backdrop for the menacing likes of Terrorizer, Metal Hedonist and Death’s Toll. The band revels in this enthusiasm, and Scott is the most entertaining frontman of the night.
Rating: 8/10
Glasgow favourites COFFIN MULCH were originally scheduled to amp the lineup’s excitement to 11, but sadly had to drop off two weeks before due to an injury. Macho Records didn’t seem too flustered by this and brought in BLASPHEMER as a worthy replacement. Despite old school death metal being all the rage, this band has somehow managed to escape attention. Formed in 1990, they’re almost the oldest act on the running order. They broke up in 1998 after a smattering of demos, only to reunite in 2014, and release their debut album in 2017. Opening with Marked for Death, their death metal gleams with a thrash influence, dark riffs and tempos that oscillate between mid and fast-paced. On stage, there’s headbanging aplenty from the quartet – dodging the plucky stage invaders before they fire into the mosh pit. Closing song, Blasphemer, has neck-breaking rhythms and a sizzling solo that amps the temperature in the pit – an excellent way to bid the crowd good night.
Rating: 7/10
Next up is more Italian madness from SELPOLCRO. They formed in 2011, split up in 2016, but reunited two years later. In terms of recorded music, they’re still a young collective with nothing more expansive than an EP wearing their name. Grimy old school death metal is the key ingredient in their Lovecraftian horror. Guitars are heavily distorted, blastbeats cause canyons somewhere and the vocals are perfectly putrid. There’s a nod to the Finnish death metal classics but they don’t use genuinely ’90s arrangements. Interestingly, this modern vein makes them slightly atmospheric. Once again, the audacious stage divers and mosh pits batter the venue with full force, underscoring the kind of feel-good live extreme metal factor the band has. Headbanging to Fetid, All Hope Consumed and Amorphous Mass with a beer in your grip is probably what these songs were written for.
Rating: 7/10
It feels too soon when headliners TOXAEMIA take the stage. This five-piece starts strong by unveiling Beyond the Realm, initially on their 1991 demo of the same name, but making a rejuvenated appearance on their 2024 album, Rejected Souls of Kereberus. Vocalist Dennis Johansson joined the band in 2019 but fits into the lineup so seamlessly that you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s one of the original members. His affable personality has the congregation eating out of his hand as he commands the Ivory Blacks to headbang and form circle pits.
While TOXAEMIA formed in 1990 at the summit of the Swedish death metal movement, their sound nowadays doesn’t resemble their compatriots’ typical style. Their songs have a modern slant, featuring plenty of chugging riffs, memorable guitar melodies and surprising solos. Hate Within literally gets half of the floor headbanging in unison, Ex Odio slows the tempo to a crunchy thrust and the punchy Pestilence painstakingly skewer themselves through everyone’s ears. Johansson announces that Rejected Souls of Kereberus is the final song, offering the metallers one last chance to scramble their brains this weekend. However, the punters’ response is so furious that the band returns for an encore featuring a new unreleased song that has never been played live before. Consequently, the horde loses its shit and collects bruises one last time, undoubtedly delivering exactly what these Swedes want.
Rating: 8/10
Once again, Macho Records has delivered a hyper memorable weekend of diverse death metal. Hopefully, Dead of Winter Festival returns next year with a beastly lineup featuring domestic faves, underrated up-and-comers and international acts debuting on these shores.
Check out our photo gallery of the action at Dead of Winter Festival: The Trilogy 2026 from Duncan McCall here:
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