SOOOOOOON, a word 70000tons of Metal cruisers know all too well, love it or hate it. 70000tons of Metal, The Original, The World’s Biggest Heavy Metal Cruise, returns for its 2026 edition from January 29 – February 2, 2026, setting sail from Miami, Florida to Nassau, The Bahamas aboard Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas. For booking and full details are available on the official website. Read our essential packing guide here. Check out the testimonials from several 2025 artists at this location.
70000tons 2025 Round 13: ARTIST 52 of 61 The Kovenant
Stats
2025 Voyage:
Dates: January 30 – February 3, 2025 Destination: Miami to Ocho Rios, Jamaica Ship: Independence of the Seas
Artist Spotlight
Band: The Kovenant Number of 70000tons Appearances: 1 (2025) Set 1: January 31, 2025 – Royal Theater – 5:00 pm Set 2: February 1, 2025 – Pool Deck – 6:30 pm – Nexus Polarisset. Attended: Set 1 – Yes, Set 2 – Yes Country: Norway Genre: Industrial/Gothic Metal Latest Album: Seti (2003) Standout Moment(s):
Whether you were there for their symphonic black metal era as Covenant or joined in during their industrial gothic transformation, The Kovenant surprised everyone when they returned in 2024, and then took things a step further with their first-ever appearance on the metal seas in 2025.
Formed in the early ’90s by Nagash and Blackheart, the band had been inactive for nearly 15 years before resurfacing with a revamped lineup that includes Nagash, Hellhammer (drums), Ghul (guitar), Sverd (keyboard), and Sarah Jezebel Deva (female vocals). Their appearance on the 2025 voyage was one of the biggest surprises of the entire cruise, as the band delivered two distinct sets. The first highlighted their later industrial gothic metal era, while the second returned to their black metal roots with a performance of Nexus Polaris, originally released in 1998 under the Covenant name. Both sets were major highlights of the voyage.
The Kovenant – Set 1
The Kovenant – Set 2
Latest The Kovenant News
The Kovenant continued to perform Nexus Polaris throughout 2025, including making several festival appearances. As for what’s next, Nagash confirmed in a summer 2025 interview with Colombia’sSavage Noise Media that the band has been working on new material, which would mark their first album in over 20 years. More details are expected to surface soon, hopefully.
In the interview, Nagash revealed:
“Well, we already have several songs written. I hate to do the same album twice. I don’t play in AC/DC, so you’re not going to get the same album for 40 years. So, the new album is different from all the others, but it is more metal. It’s a bit darker, but it’s a mix between all the albums, plus new stuff, of course, ’cause it’s been such a long time and everyone has evolved as musicians and stuff. But it sounds very Kovenant. The people I’ve played the demo tracks to so far all say, like, ‘Holy shit, this sounds like Kovenant.’ So it’s not like we’re going back either with this new one, like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna do ‘Nexus Polaris’ part two’ or something. But there are some elements from ‘Nexus’ that we have on the new album, like all this whole symphonic, a little bit technical, weird riffs and stuff.”
Well, it’s more than a review of their performance; as 70000tons goes, each band is a headliner, and we treat each one as such, giving them their own spread, discussing who they are and what they’ve been up to since the cruise. Each spotlight coincides with any updates from 70000tons organizers (if any), leading to days before setting sail. An extensive coverage like no other.
70000tons 2026 Lineup 53 out of 60:
Ad Infinitum Amorphis Anthrax Arkona Beast in Black Bloodred Hourglass Cemetery Skyline Darkane Dark Tranquillity Dødheimsgard Dragonland Dust Bolt Eluveitie Ereb Altor Firewind Gama Bomb Groza Haggard Harakiri For The Sky Heathen Hiraes Hirax Hour of Penance Ignea Illdisposed Illumishade In Mourning Insomnium Izegrim Jag Panzer Kamelot Kanonenfieber Orden Ogan Paradise Lost Persefone Rhapsody of Fire Royal Hunt Satan Saturnus Seven Spires Skeletal Remains Skyclad Soen Soilwork Suidakra Tribulation Tyr Vader VBO Vio-lence Wind Rose Wolf Xandria
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