Top 10 bands you must see at Damnation Festival 2026
Ah Damnation Festival, the metalhead’s equivalent of Christmas. As the nights draw in and temperatures plummet, the November-held indoor metal provides ample solace for those craving long days packed to the brim of live, top-tier heavy music. And year after year, Damnation delivers. Last year’s event, 2025’s milestone anniversary edition, boasted quite possible one of the strongest festival bills we’ve seen in recent memory, but just like a well-oiled machine, 2026’s lineup is stacked once again, reflecting the strength and depth of heavy music’s vast and eclectic ecosystem. Here’s bands you cannot afford to miss at Damnation Festival 2026!
HEALTH – Pins & Knuckles Stage – Saturday, November 7th
Los Angeles’ HEALTH have been forging their own unique blend of industrial racket for just over two decades now and given Damnation‘s appetite for hosting heavy music adjacent acts from the world of industrial and darkwave, it’s somewhat surprising that the band have yet to perform here. But, as the saying goes, good things happen for those who wait, and we’re in for a treat when HEALTH obliterate the Pins & Knuckles Stage and kick off Saturday evening in style. Riding high on the back of last year’s stellar CONFLICT DLC (the natural continuation to 2023’s Rat Wars), expect a set laden with cuts from the band’s latest records as they provide us with an overload of distorted electronics, pulsing rhythms and haunting melodies that will be shorting short of exhilarating.
GROZA – Cult Never Dies Stage – Sunday, November 8th
Bavarian black metallers GROZA have enjoyed consistent traction in the contemporary European black metal scene in their first decade as a band. Epic compositions, razor-sharp tremolo riffs and wholly immersive atmosphere, their sound is rooted in traditional black metal with splashes of post-black that allows for a cathartic listening experience. With three albums under their belt, most recently 2024’s excellent Nadir, we can anticipate a solid offering from the Germans, especially when they have the likes of Elegance of Irony and The Redemptive End in their locker. The stage is set for a band to showcase a sound that is as beautiful as it is aggressive.
WORMED – Holy Goat Brewing Stage – Saturday, November 8th
By its very nature, the world of technical death defies logic but WORMED take it to another level. For pushing three decades, the Spaniards have built a reputation as one of death metal’s most extreme and aurally dizzying acts. Obtusely heavy but intellectual in their compositions, WORMED push their sonics beyond the final frontier, rather fitting given their sprawling narratives that explore the limits of human existence and cosmic evolution. It’s intense and next level stuff, although being billed to kick off the Holy Goat Brewing Stage takes any notion of a easy-going beginning to Damnation Festival 2026 and jettisons it into our nearest star.
WALLS OF JERICHO – Lou’s Brews Stage – Sunday, November 8th
Every year, Damnation has a habit of booking bands that just incite pure bedlam. Whether it’s NAILS or STAMPIN’ GROUND, RAGING SPEEDHORN or DISCHARGE, huge breakdowns and moshcalls while massive pits collide and crash is always present at Damnation Festival. This year there’s ample bands capable of delivering in that department, but WALLS OF JERICHO are the cream of the crop. Since 1998, the Detroit-based band have been influential in the early development of metalcore, and fronted by powerhouse vocalist Candace Kucsulain, the band are a force to be reckoned with. Their arrival at the festival, their debut no less, arrives after a period of sporadic activity but with new album System Error: Humanity arriving a week after their Damnation performance, it feels the stars are aligned for aural chaos.
DÖDSRIT – Holy Goat Brewing Stage – Saturday, November 7th
Blending the ferocity of black metal with the urgency and infectious beats of crust and d-beat, Swedish outfit DÖDSRIT are a wicked band and have been turning heads aplenty this decade. Balancing that juxtaposition of blistering speed and melancholic melodies to wondrous effect, there’s an infectious allure to the band’s output, as the likes of Irjala and Nocturnal Fire (both taken from 2024’s sublime Nocturnal Will) can attest to. They’ve blown us away once before, on their long-awaited UK debut at last year’s Fortress Festival, and we fully anticipate them to do so once again at Damnation Festival 2026.
THE BERZERKER – Holy Goat Brewing Stage – Saturday, November 7th
Damnation Festival has long made it a habit of curating special, once in a blue moon moments over the course of its celebrated history. BOLT THROWER in 2014, CONVERGE performing Jane Doe in its entirety in 2022, there are so many special moments we can choose from. And in keeping with tradition, 2026’s offering has several special exclusive sets but THE BERZERKER might just be the pick of the bunch. The Australian industrial death metal outfit are cult heroes in extreme music circles and infamous live performances up to their breakup in 2010. Now, 16 years later and Damnation is poised to be the band’s battleground for their return. In their first European performance since 2008, coincidentally at that year’s Damnation, this will be a rare chance to experience of of extreme metal’s most visceral acts. Bring a neckbrace, you’ll need one.
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM – Cult Never Dies Stage – Sunday, November 8th
Although black metal is commonly associated with the Nordic cold, across the Atlantic, North America has spawned many a heavyweight that go toe to toe with their European counterparts. WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM are one such band. Since 2002, the Olympia, Washington-based band have spearheaded the Cascadian black metal alongside the likes of AGALLOCH and FALLS OF RAUROS and as such, they have spawned a discography that has helped redefine black metal in the 21st Century. Four years from their last performance at Damnation, and hot on the heels of this year’s superb new album Estuary, prepare to bask in black metal brilliance from one the very best to do it.
CULT OF LUNA – Pins & Knuckles Stage – Saturday, November 7th
CULT OF LUNA are already etched in the lore of legendary sets at Damnation Festival. Ten years ago, CULT OF LUNA & JULIE CHRISTMAS‘ rendition of Mariner flawed us, and become one of the festival’s defining moments. Here in the present, we witnessed that set once again at this year’s ArcTanGent, but for this year’s Damnation – and their third appearance – we’re in for a seismic victory lap through one of post-metal’s heavyweights vast discographies. Whether it’s from 2013’s Vertikal, 2019’s A Dawn To Fear or 2006’s Somewhere Along The Highway, expect a set that is as immersive as it is meticulously crafted. And with their headlining set coming the day after new album, In the Shadow of Your Shadow, releases to the world, we can expect some hefty new compositions to make the cut too. For a lesson in post-metal majesty, look no further to CULT OF LUNA when they close the Pins & Knuckles Stage on day one.
WORM – Cult Never Dies Stage – Sunday, November 8th
Florida’s WORM bring vampiric delights to Damnation Festival 2026! Emerging at the beginning of the 2010s, their sound has mutated and evolved considerably in the years since. Today, they offer a sound that is fuses the haunting oppression of doom with elements of blackened fury and gothic grandeur. The result? An immense and quite astonishing listening experience. Their momentum has been steadily rising too, with this year’s Necropalace seriously impressing thanks its breathtaking ambition, we can anticipate a thoroughly theatrical and immersive offering from a band that is increasingly carving their own place in the extreme metal world.
CROWBAR – Pins & Knuckles Stage – Saturday, November 7th
NOLA kings CROWBAR are royalty when it comes to sludge. Alongside the likes of DOWN, ACID BATH and EYEHATEGOD – the latter also gracing Saturday’s afternoon for a double billing of sludge – the band have helped drive a particular flavour of heavy music for over 35 years. And just like a fine wine that gets better with age, CROWBAR still possess enough potency and ample stank face-inducing riffs to keep you satisfied. Still riding high on 2022’s hench Zero and Below, and a locker full of killer material to draw from, we’re more than confident that Kirk Windstein and co. will deliver the goods and provide a damn fine rifftastic performance.
Damnation Festival 2026 takes place at BEC Arena, Manchester from 7th-8th November 2026. Tickets are available now and can be purchased here.
For more information on Damnation Festival like their official page on Facebook.
