Damnation Festival 2026
Venue: BEC Arena, Manchester.
Date: 7th November, 2026.
Review By: Ben Harris-Hayes
In typical “Me” luck, I got hit by the lurgy a day or so before the festival kicked off, and that almost ruined the whole weekend for me by activating a ‘non-attendance mode’ in favour of just staying in bed…
However, your big brave boy dragged himself on a train and two trams across Manchester (taking 2 hours!) to attend at least one day…
Sadly, I was totally done after Saturday’s shenanigans and missed Sunday…
But I enjoyed what I heard and saw on the first day… So, let’s dive in, shall we?
Saturday
The aforementioned “grimness” meant I had a slow start to the day, missed a few connections, and even got on the wrong tram; so I missed a bunch of bands, much to my chagrin…
I was still looking forward to seeing some bands I’d never heard of, as well as acts I wanted to check out…so, that motivated my tired, ol’ ass to soldier on…haha
Arriving just after the magical “pew pew pew” of CARBOMB trailed off, I spent the first hour or so getting my bearings, catching up with friends, and trying not to collapse from the grimness.
I sadly missed RWAKE and COLTAINE, but I am assured by others that I missed something special, typically.
However, after a beer and a sit-down, I headed indoors for EYEHATEGOD, NOLA’s favourite sludgy sons, who delivered a scuzzy, fuzz-driven ramp-ride through nihilism and enough drug references to make Mary Whitehouse blush.
I’m no expert with their material, but I did recognise a few tracks from ‘Take As Needed For Pain’.
I enjoyed the way they just got on with it and played song after song, cramming in a lot of material from across their back catalogue, before departing with vocalist Mike IX Williams addressing the crowd with “Thank you, Damnation. We’ll see you again.”
With the festival format of having a main stage band play and then two smaller stages play, I popped my head into the 2nd stage to watch some of Swedish/Dutch 5-piece, DODSRIT, blastbeat’d and guitar-harmonised the heck out of us with their take on blackened metal.
I noted the extra guitarist onstage, which allowed for those lush, flowing guitar melodies to flow through while their vocalist/guitarists howled hymns to the night.
It did remind me of a tonne of bands, but they put on a show and left enough of an impression for me to want to check out their latest record on Bandcamp.
I shuffled my tired body over to the 3rd stage to catch some of the French sludge-meisters, FANGE, with their crushing take on the genre.
A bit of a ropey sound initially, but that settled into a chest-pounding low-end assault on the senses.
The lack of a live drummer and the industrial beats added an extra weight to things, which was interesting.
I don’t really speak, nor can I translate “French screamed song-titles” but I believe they were playing some material from their new record, and that we need to buy it from their merch table…haha
They certainly made me want to check out more of their material; that’s for sure.
Another NOLA stalwart of the scene, CROWBAR, was up next on the main stage and dropped some more down-tuned, sludgy vibes with tracks from ‘Odd Fellows Rest’ and ‘Broken Glass’.
One of those bands that I’ve always wanted to catch, and they didn’t disappoint.
Sadly, the photos I took came out awful…so imagine some older, beefy, bearded men hitting you with chunky riffs, and you’ll be close to what happened!
Danish deathcore stalwarts, CABAL, hit the second stage next and went straight for the jugular with their hefty, brie-driven vocals and breakdowns.
Subtlety is not what these guys do, and the constant call for more energy from the crowd got a little tiresome, but their blend of electronics and deathcore certainly left an impression.
I wanted to catch THE MOTH GATHERER after being recommended them, so I shuffled back to the 3rd stage to enjoy their take on post-metal.
Reminding me a fair bit of fellow Swedes, CULT OF LUNA, this band’s glorious use of dynamics was a welcome change from the continual pounding my poor ears had taken up until this point.
The shared vocal duties offered a contrast in delivery, and the spacey, delay-soaked riffage lent itself to an enjoyable set for my first interaction with the band.
I did hear one crowd member grumble that they were not “heavy enough”, but honestly, that was their charm when compared to the assault of other bands so far.
The interesting visuals on the back screen nicely complemented their sprawling, epic songs and made this scribe want to check out their music further.
With my head pounding somewhat at this stage, I chanced a couple of painkillers and another beer (classy, I know) and pootled over to the main stage to check out HEALTH.
The Los Angeles band is one of those strange enigmas to me that I should, in theory, completely adore…but I’ve never really been able to get into them when compared to similar acts I like, such as Carpenter Brut, Gunship and Perturbator, etc.
However, it all sort of clicked during their live set at Damnation, and despite feeling rough, I caught myself grooving along and smiling to their dance-fuelled rock tunes.
The subtle Placebo-esque vocals that rang throughout their set made for a perfect accompaniment to the bass-heavy synthwave electronica-meets-industrial assault of tracks like ‘Trash Decade’.
What I did appreciate is that they didn’t just pound us with everything all the time, and the more subtle tracks with the strong emphasis on melody were most welcome.
Probably my most surprising band of the Saturday because they finally won me over….
Damn them.
Not being too sure my poor, fragile little mind could take any more big beats after HEALTH, I still put on my big boy pants and wandered across to catch Danish noiseniks, JOHN CXNNOR, to get an even more visceral ear-pounding!
From what I understand, the duo in this project are also in LLNN and enlist various guest vocalists to work with them, including EYES, WITCH CLUB SATAN, and many more.
The new release, ‘Jijitsu’ is a twisted dark DnB-vibe featuring FRONTIERER/A DARK ORBIT vocalist Chad Kapper, which goes waaaaaayyy hard.
Their insatiable groove and heaviness are brought by crushing synths and massive beats that kicked me in the face repeatedly.
My poor, poor head…haha
After being thoroughly beaten for a while, I mooched across to the 2nd stage to catch avant-garde black metallers, KRALLICE.
I really wanted to catch these guys because, well, Colin Marston…
However, I won’t lie, after the previous one-two of HEALTH and JOHN CXNNOR, I needed to sit outside and rest my ears for 20 minutes, so I missed a lot of their set.
I needed to recharge a little/sit down before finally catching CARCASS for the first time.
Liverpool’s finest are one band that has eluded me over the years, despite being a big fan growing up with their death metal vibes.
Being a fan of their material across the years, I was looking forward to catching them, and they didn’t disappoint.
It’s f**king CARASS, innit!?!?
Blastbeats, melody, raspy vocals and THOSE iconic harmonised riffs sailed across the main arena, with a solid mosh pit kicking off and a lot of people air-guitaring!
The newer material sitting nicely with the older tunes was great.
Dan, on drums, is a monster who just seemed to smile throughout the whole gig…which was great to see.
I slinked off toward the end of the CARCASS set to get myself to the very front of the 2nd stage for a band that I specifically needed to see at the festival…
Transatlantic sonic-terrorists, FRONTIERER, are quite a proposition on record, with some of my favourite audio production in recent years.
It’s just unrelenting, unnerving and, dare I say it, dangerous-sounding.
Not since prime-Dillinger Escape Plan have I felt a band with the potential to set a venue alight for the hell of it with their energy and incessant audio assault.
Needless to say, this fanboy was not disappointed as the band laid waste to Damnation with their mathcore brutality, hefty riffage, and driving grooves.
The 5-piece are quite a thing to behold in the live arena, as they are on record, and despite feeling rough, I snapped my neck repeatedly to their set, including pulling a muscle in my back during the closing track, “Bleak”, but it was all so worth it!
Before that closer, they ploughed through material from their new record, ‘Ultraviolet Parasite’, smashing the crowd into the ground, and I cannot recommend seeing them enough.
Guitarist Pedram even ended up in the crowd (à la Ben Weinman from DEP) for a crowd-surf at one point, which was a smile-inducing moment…especially when he was trying to point the crowd to take him back to the stage…but they just took him further away!
Tight, heavier than a bag of snooker balls being smashed around your head, and just simply fun to watch…I briefly forgot being ill.
It was 45 minutes of face-melting ferocity wrapped up in technical precision…and I am slightly biased because I love this band, but they are absolutely vital.
Vocalist, Chad Kapper ended the set with a simple “Thank you, Damnation, we are FRONTIERER…”
Yes, sir. You damn well are!!
Due to my need to soak in FRONTIERER’s unrelenting assault, I didn’t get a chance to see MØL on the 3rd stage…
Just enough time for a quick drink before slinking into the main arena to bear witness to a band I’ve wanted to catch for a LONG time.
Headliners: CULT OF LUNA have been on my “Need to see” list ever since I heard ‘The Watchtower’ from 2003’s ‘The Beyond’ when I was still tape-trading with a friend from Sweden back in the early 00’s.
(Yes, kiddies…tape trading was a thing!)
I still listen to the earlier albums because I’m stuck in the past, seemingly, but they are a force of nature live, and like many others in attendance, we’re witnessing a band at the peak of their powers.
Heavy when needed, dynamic control that most bands would love to have, and just pure atmosphere backed up by a crushing, clean live sound.
I can’t quite explain what finally seeing them meant to me, but words like KFJAKJFGKASFJSAFKA! and HFLAHLFHASFHL! (which aren’t actual words, of course) aptly sum up witnessing the Swedes deliver a punishing, emotive live set.
The amount of dry ice used was phenomenal, with a reported shortage around the World because CULT OF LUNA siphoned it all for this set.
Hearing tracks like “Leave Me Here” and “Cold Burn” sitting perfectly alongside newer material like “Sadness Will Reign” was almost too much to take in…but we all endured, coming out of it emotionally drained and throats raw from screaming along.
Alas, the double-hit of those last two bands was the end of the day for me, as my headache/grimness forced me to head away for the 2-hour trek home and the eventual comfort of one’s duvet.
The mist/fog that had descended outside the venue was a perfect eerie setting to head home in, having just watched CULT OF LUNA deliver one of the best live sets I’ve seen from a headline band, or any band, for that matter.
Well done to all the crew, attendees, and all involved with Damnation Festival.
That was a heck of a day.
(5 / 5)
