Down will destroy you with their riffs, Ice Nine Kills will take you on a rollercoaster ride through the lands of horror, Evergrey will bewitch you, and Martyrdöd will knock you out – behold these four new additions to the line-up of Mystic Festival 2026.
Down
Mighty, sabbathesque riffs, covered in slime from the New Orleans swamps; poser-repellent, primitive, sludge drive; the sweet trance of stoner metal and this voice! Down will come to Mystic Festival to melt your black hearts and the steel dockside cranes with their music. A supergroup that has earned the moniker not just with their stellar line-up – Phil Anselmo (Pantera), Pepper Keenan (Corrosion of Conformity), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), Jimmy Bower (Crowbar, Eyehategod), and Pat Bruders (Goatwhore) – but, first and foremost, with their music. It doesn’t really get better than this in this neck of the woods. And since Down teased that they’re working on new material recently, we can hope for entirely new music to pair the classics from their repertoire.
Ice Nine Kills
Their two live albums are entitled I Heard They Kill Live – with the second instalment being released in the middle of this year – and it’s hard not to appreciate that title’s double meaning. On one level, it highlights the fascination of the Boston band with horror, slashers and classic gore films; on another – that’s the truth itself of what Ice Nine Kills concerts are like, they take no prisoners live! They formed a quarter of a century ago and since then, have been perfecting their formula, relying on the marriage of horror-laden lyrics with a thrilling form composed of melodic metalcore, the intensity of hardcore and anthem-like, heavy metal choruses. Prepare for the American bogeys in the centre of Gdańsk.
Evergrey
The Swedes’ latest record, released in 2024, is entitled Theories of Emptiness, but Evergrey are proficient in more than just theory. For over three decades now, they’ve been making music that, on the one hand, is technically advanced and that marries under the vast category of progressive metal the influences of both the sublime of power metal and the sombre of gothic metal. On the other hand, however, it draws from the simplest yet the most powerful emotions. Evergrey dives into the deep end of sorrow, only to emerge seconds later, carried high on the wings of their passion – it is this versatility that makes Tom S. Englund’s band stand out not only on the Swedish scene.
Martyrdöd
Come in closer and your body won’t soon forget this gig. Don’t let your guard down though, for Martyrdöd strikes hard and without warning. The band composed of veterans of the Swedish scene has skilfully been merging crust punk with black metal for a quarter of a century now. With every drum kick, with every razor-sharp riff, Martyrdöd proves that rage has only one name.