Ok, I admit this Dammnation Festival poster was a little hard to read at first. Those death metal logos love the best fonts. But let us dissect this epic lineup for you here on RAMzine.
Walls of Jericho and sludge veterans Eyehategod are leading the charge for this year’s Damnation Festival, bringing some serious heavyweight credibility to Europe’s biggest indoor metal festival. The two day event takes place at BEC Arena, Manchester, on Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, 2026.
British death metal legends Benediction return after an 18 year absence, while Belgian shoegaze standouts Slow Crush add a different flavour to proceedings. But it’s the reunion of deathgrind heroes Gorerotted that has tongues wagging.
The band issued a “Public Health Warning” alongside the announcement, promising to bring the unholy racket of ‘Mutilated In Minutes’ and ‘Only Tools And Corpses’ to Damnation. Joining core members Goreskin, Fluffy, and Junky Jon will be the Reverend Trudgill from The Rotted on bass and screamed vocals, stepping in as the natural successor to Wilson (RIP).
Fluffy explained the shock return: “We had a couple of beers backstage at Damnation, spent about 30 seconds catching up, and then they said, ‘you played the first ever Damnation, you gotta reform and do it again.’ It feels like the right time to exhume Gorerotted from the grave. From the Dead to Damnation, see you there for our only UK show!”
Also making their way back to the live circuit are UK underground thrash and hardcore favourites Medulla Nocte, who will play their 1998 cult classic A Conversation Alone in full. Paul Catten said: “It’s taken me years to feel comfortable about putting Medulla Nocte back together, but now is the right time. Playing A Conversation Alone in its entirety, in tribute to the ones who have left us. And where better to conclude the story than Damnation?”
The festival debuts are stacked too. Danish deathcore outfit Cabal, US blackened shoegaze trio Holy Fawn, Swedish post metallers The Moth Gatherer, US progressive metallers Rwake, German black metallers Ultha, US black metallers Lamp of Murmuur, Dutch and Swedish D beat group Dodsrit, and French industrial exports Fange all make their first Damnation appearances.
Meanwhile Black Sheep Wall and Intercourse cross the Atlantic for their UK debuts, bringing post metal, doom, and noise metal to Manchester.
Organiser Gavin McInally confirmed this is just the beginning: “Although this is an opening salvo of artists we’re hugely excited about, it’s a fraction of our main stage bill, and all six headliners over the weekend have still to be announced. So the next 32 bands are also going to be very, very special.”
More than one third of tickets are already gone.