FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Damnation Festival Kicks off Today with Cradle of Filth, Bleeding Through, Russian Circles, Nails, Decapitated, The Ocean, Employed To Serve, Morne, Mizmor, and More


 

Ghost Cult is once again honored to cover Damnation Festival this year, kicking off with A Night of Salvation pre-party, and tomorrow proper all-dayer. The fest has been around almost as long as Ghost Cult has, and we love supporting this music and staff! Taking place at Manchester, UK’s BEC Arena once again, our expert team will bring you the coverage of some of the best underground Metal and metal-adjacent bands in the world in a curated setting with many unique one-of-a-kind shows. The usually sold-out event still has tickets on sale at the links below, and they even have a great app (we tested it). Let’s delve into a quick preview of the fest for those attending or curious about one of the best metal festivals we have covered (check out our 2023 coverage here)!


Tickets and Damnation Festival app details can be found at this link: 

https://linktr.ee/damnationfest

A Night of Salvation show features Decapitated performing a once-in-a-lifetime set: The Negation with original frontman Sauron(!) helping out on vocal duties. The band will never do this set again and will also feature their new permanent vocalist. The Ocean is going on a hiatus after this show to reform with a new lineup and will all of their 10/10 album Pelagial for the final time! The mighty Employed To Serve will play their stellar Conquering record in full, never to be done again. Hardcore Punk trailblazers Discharge (covered by Metallica and Slayer) will celebrate 4 decades of Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing! Also featured tonight are Insanity Alert, Cult of Fire (UK exclusive), Mizmor, Morne (performing Engraved With Pain), Fen, Underdark, LLNN, A Swarm of the Sun, A Burial at Sea, Sugar Horse, and Norna.

For the festival proper on Saturday – we have the headliners – the incomparable Cradle of Filth with an old-0school set surrounding the Nymphetamine album! This is a worldwide exclusive set that only Damnation can bring! Following that will be another anniversary full album sets from Bleeding Through (This Is Love, This Is Murderous), Ne Obliviscaris (Citadel), and the highly-anticipated return of Dragged into Sunlight (Hatred For Mankind)! Un-holy shit!  

The rest of the fest features killer sets from the cream of the crop of music like Nails, AHAB, Hangmain’s Chair, DOOL, Pijn, Ghost Cult favorite A.A. Williams, Enforced, 200 Stab Wounds, Fuming Mouth, the unmissable The Ruins Of Beverast, Celeste, and all the festival flair, merch, beer, and food you could want. 

Damnation truly has a little something for every kind of music fan this year! Stay tuned for our extensive review, photo sets, and interviews.