Over on the Sophie Lancaster stage, Thursday headliners MADBALL are set to pulverize your opening night with 35+ years of pure New York hardcore under their belt. Freddy Cricien’s crew still hits as hard as they did back in ’89, no gimmicks. Friday’s closing slot goes to the mysterious GAEREA, black metal that’s grown more cinematic and crushing with every record. KANONENFIEBER march into Saturday’s top spot: Noise’s German war machine turning WWI diaries into blackened death metal, think trench warfare rendered in sound. And to close it out, as the very final band of the festival, DETHKLOK – born from the animated series Metalocalypse, now a real band tearing through brutally serious, melodic death metal live. They may have had cartoon origins but they bring dead-serious riffs you won’t want to miss. Here’s a few more you can look forward to seeing on the Ronnie James Dio stage over the festival… Friday special guests ACID BATH crawl from the Louisiana bayou, sludge metal pioneers blending doom, blues, and southern gothic dread. Saturday special guests GREEN LUNG conjure folk-horror occult rock, all Hammer-film atmosphere and fuzzed-out riffs… witchy, heavy, and a little unhinged. Sunday special guests CHILDREN OF BODOM return to honor the legacy of the late Alexi Laiho, celebrating the melodic death metal sound that made them Finnish icons. The patient are rewarded… DEVILDRIVER finally return, their dark, groove-laden California metal led by Dez Fafara’s signature growl and perfect for record numbers of circle pits. The legendary CORROSION OF CONFORMITY roll in, over 40 years deep into a sound that fuses hardcore punk roots with Sabbath-soaked southern metal. IMMINENCE bring Swedish alternative metalcore, all soaring choruses wrapped around crushing breakdowns. A booking set to delight many – WIND ROSE, Italian folk-power metal built for fantasy battles and beer-hall singalongs. SYLOSIS wield UK thrash-meets-melodic-death precision, courtesy of Josh Middleton’s relentless riffing. DECAPITATED offer up Polish technical death metal with riffs sharp enough to earn respect from the genre’s toughest critics. WITCH CLUB SATAN could be your new favourites, an all-female Norwegian black metal coven turning theatre training into confrontational, ritualistic chaos. HAMMERFALL bring the true steel – Swedish power metal at its most anthemic. Fellow Swedes, death metal originators HYPOCRISY are still delivering a masterclass three decades in. You can also see THE HALO EFFECT, ex-In Flames members returning to the classic Gothenburg melodic death metal sound that built the genre. Former BLOODSTOCK stage breakers (yes, we remember) TORTURED DEMON are set to give it another go with their pedigree thrash. Are you ready for GUTALAX? Czech goregrind degenerates who’ve built a career on toilet humor and blast beats. HUMANITY’S LAST BREATH also join the bill, Swedish deathcore architects of the crushing, low-tuned “thall” sound. And Liverpool’s self-proclaimed masters of “caveman battle doom” CONAN intend to heft riffs so heavy they practically have their own gravitational pull. The Sophie stage will be just as varied. Here’s three more treats you can expect in the big tent! DOOL slink in, in a haze of candlelight and doom, weaving in dark rock and post-rock into something hypnotic straight out of Rotterdam plus they’ve just finished writing a new album. Things get ugly (in the best way) with PIG DESTROYER, Virginia grindcore legends who’ll turn your skull inside out with blast beats and JR Hayes’ nightmarish lyrics. And if you haven’t discovered them yet, you soon will – FULCI rise from the grave with old-school death metal soaked in zombie-flick gore, every album a tribute to horror icon Lucio Fulci. And about 100 more bands yet to be announced… | 
