As always, you can expect to experience all shades of heaviness at Mystic Festival. Today we’d like to announce the first pillars of the upcoming edition’s lineup. Get ready to meet Black Label Society, Blood Incantation, The Gathering, Six Feet Under, Septicflesh, Master Boot Record, and Embryonic Autopsy.
Black Label Society
Zakk Wylde, a god of metal, who hurls riffs like they’re thunder, has many faces. You will, of course, know him as the close friend and collaborator of the late lamented Ozzy Osbourne; he’s also recently gone the world over to remind us of Pantera’s legacy, though Black Label Society remains his flagship project. Next year, the band is returning to the fold both with a new album – and the singles “The Gallows” and “Lord Humungus” have shown us just how serious things are – and a tour ahead. They’ll also make a stop at the Shipyard, to headline one of the festival days.
Blood Incantation
Can death metal still surprise, evolve, find new forms of expression in the third decade of the 21st century? Oh mighty, how it can! Absolute Elsewhere is not considered one of the best metal albums of 2024 for nothing, and their visionary blend of sheer brutality with classic progressive rock and electronic music is equally as impressive live. Blood Incantation are flying in to meet us from Colorado, though we all know that they’re really descending from outer space…
The Gathering – 30 Years of Mandylion
From the very beginning, they stood out from the fantastic Dutch death metal scene of the 90s. Their third album, however, the 1995 Mandylion took everyone by surprise, with the band opting to go down a more etheric and progressive path, inviting the charismatic Anneke van Giersbergen to take over the mic. Mandylion was not only a huge artistic and commercial success for The Gathering, but also the paving of the way for many other artists to come. We will celebrate the 30th anniversary of this groundbreaking record in Gdańsk with The Gathering lineup responsible for its very creation.
Six Feet Under
Chris Barnes is a living legend of the music of death. He was the original vocalist of Cannibal Corpse and for three decades now, he has been at the helm of the meat-grinding machinery that is Six Feet Under. In 2024, the band released their 14th album, Killing For Revenge, and as they promised in the title, they hit the road to make a killing, slaughtering concertgoers with the power of their sound and otherworldly vocals.
Septicflesh
If Sotiris, Spiros and Christos made music together in the pre-electric times, they’d probably have written sombre operas – they do possess the necessary flair and instinct for the dramatic. After all, the music that they make today has much classical grandeur, and it’s with the brutality of death metal, the heft of doom and the murk of the Greek school of black metal. A truly one-of-a-kind band.
Master Boot Record
The Rome-based producer, Victor Love, has been putting out music as Master Boot Record for over a decade now, paying no mind to styles and scenes, walking down his own strange path. His music sounds classic at times, even sentimental, yet it’s simultaneously futuristic, industrial, and morose. The sounds might be synthetic, but emotion’s real.
Embryonic Autopsy
A band of Chicago younglings schooled in the oldschool brutal death metal are but another proof of a renaissance of the genre stateside. Careful not to play their sophomore album, Origins of the Deformed, next to inflammable materials!