Hordes X, Scotland’s longest-running metal festival, returns to Dundee for its 16th edition this September, and has confirmed the first three bands for the bill.
Taking over the Hidden and Music Hall Dundee venues across Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September, the festival promises two days spanning established names and newer bands making waves, with Scottish exclusives, Scottish debuts and Dundee debuts throughout. Early bird tickets are on sale at £15, covering the Friday warm-up at Hidden and the Saturday main event across both stages with no clashes.
Topping this first announcement are London death metal masters De Profundis, returning for a third Hordes X appearance and their first in a decade. Having marked their 20th anniversary in 2025 with a rejuvenated line-up and the EP The Gospel Of Rot, the band step up to a Scottish exclusive headline set. “It’s been a decade since we last played Hordes,” they said. “Four releases later, we’re back and spreading the Gospel of Rot further north than ever before.”
Joining them are Scottish black/folk metal favourites Cnoc An Tursa, back after nearly a decade away, newly signed to Apocalyptic Witchcraft and touring their acclaimed album A Cry For The Slain. Their set marks a Dundee debut. Completing the trio are Northern Ireland’s blackened doom/sludge outfit Owlcrusher, making their first ever Scottish appearance ahead of their second album and promising, in their words, “gut-rupturing low end, subterranean vocal utterances, and an overwhelming sense of disquiet and unease.”
For a festival reaching its 16th edition on the strength of the underground, that’s an exciting opening salvo, and we’d expect plenty more to come.
Hordes X takes place at Hidden and Music Hall Dundee on 18 and 19 September 2026. Early bird tickets are £15.
