The new year has begun, and we only have the festival on our minds. Therefore, we’d like to announce 18 more names, so you know exactly what we have lined up for you when we meet.
“There’s a party in my head,” sings Peter Tägtgren in the chorus on one of the latest Pain songs – and we couldn’t agree more. The Swedish scene veteran is to dock in Gdańsk at the helm of Pain precisely to pump you full of the energy of his signature mixture of metal, industrial and electronic music. The Polish project H.EXE walks down a similar path, though they tread closer to the black metal abyss, and you’ll also get to see them. Then there’s the American duo Youth Code who will whip you with an equally captivating and creepy EBM.
From the Northern English fog emerges Arð, the doom project of Mark Deeks from Winterfylleth, in which the clang of medieval warfare reverberates between the notes. A different, entirely modern face of heaviness will be presented by a Polish post-metal power Tides From Nebula, which returned recently to a four-member line-up and in its hypnotic music, always inhabits four dimensions.
Caskets third album, The Only Heaven You’ll Know, premiered last autumn and though the title speaks of heaven, the album offers a full amplitude of emotions – from hellish torment, through purgatory angst, to ecstatic elation. You can expect a similar full spectrum of feelings from the performance of this metalcore band from England. The homebred Czerń also takes inspiration from hardcore, but to a different effect, as they immerse it in the swampy waters of sludge.
Not dark enough? Belphegor will crush you with the clamps of their powerful, diabolic death and black metal. The Austrians are working on a new album, you may expect then some new bloodcurdling curses. Yoth Iria, unwaveringly faithful to the best traditions of the Hellenic black metal, will complete the fantastic representation of the Greek scene that we will get to welcome in Gdańsk this year. The American Hulder will offer some black metal reminiscent of the past – both its own, when this music was entirely raw and uncompromising, and the Old Continent’s pagan heritage.
The German band Avralize is a growing power of the metalcore scene and a brave new vision for the future of the genre. They caused quite the stir with their 2025 album liminal, which somehow is both sentimental and futuristic. Rap and nu-metal, chaos and noise – that’s the sound of Blackgold coming back to our festival to get the party started – a party you will remember for a while. If, however, you’re seeking the exact opposite of this experience, look no further than to their fellow countrymen, the duo Zetra, who will bring gloomy yet grandiose gothic shoegaze.
Not everyone wants melody in their metal; there are some only interested in sonic violence. Damnation, the legend of Polish death metal, have come back recently to demolish everything and everyone in their way. Have ye courage enough to face them?
Ciśnienie makes skulls explode with ultraheavy, trance music with a post-metal armour but jazz control panel. Quantum Trio also play jazz, or maybe jazzcore, with an intensity that will whet any extreme metal fan’s appetite. But can they stomach so much sonic freedom? Dola seems to be asking the same question, with their hateful and avant-garde black metal taking them on many a fascinating voyage into the unknown. Wønder: Games x Anime Show is a one of a kind project, combing gaming, anime and guitar heaviness, of the vocalist Carolin “Wonder” Mrugała.
Mystic Festival will take place in the Gdańsk Shipyard from June 3 to 6, 2026.