07) Prophecy Fest announce first wave of bands for 2026

Prophecy Fest will return in 2026 as the first wave of bands have been announced. Scheduled to take place in the Balve Cave, the event kicks off on September 3rd through 5th, 2026. Tickets are available at this location. Norwegian doom act The 3rd And The Mortal, performing Sorrow and Tears Laid in Earth with the return of original singer Kari Rueslåtten.

Swedish gothic metal outfit Tiamat will perform 1994’s Wildhoney. Empyrium will celebrate 30 years of 1996’s A Wintersunset…. Empyrium’s Markus Stock will also add a set with his ambient black metal act Sun of the Sleepless. Secrets of the Moon will return with drummer Thelemnar and bassist Daevas for a special 20-year-anniversary show of 2006’s Antithesis. Italian neoclassical outfit Camerata Mediolanense will make their return as well as Dornenreich.

Lineup (so far):

The 3rd And The Mortal
Tiamat
Empyrium
Sun of the Sleepless
Secrets of the Moon
Camerata Mediolanense
Dornenreich 

08) Inferno Festival 2026: Second wave of bands announced

The second wave of bands for the 2026 edition of Inferno Festival in Norway has been revealed: Enslaved, Samael, Auðn, Morax, and Forsmán. The festival will take place in Oslo, NO across multiple venues from April 2-5, 2026. Tickets are available at this location.

The full lineup for 2026 thus far is:

Deicide
Enslaved
Old Man’s Child
The Kovenant
Kanonenfieber
Samael
Incantation
Auðn
Whoredom Rife
Darvaza
Perchta
Morax
Myr
Forsmán
more TBA

09) Primer 55 announce fall 2025 Tour Dates

Primer 55 will return to the road this November for their Silhouettes & Mayhem tour with support from Smile Empty Soul and Lines of Loyalty.

Tour Dates:

10/30 West Dundee, IL @ Rookies Rochaus (Smile Empty Soul only)
11/01 Flint, MI @ The Machine Shop
11/02 Cadillac, MI @ Venue Event Center
11/04 Sioux Falls, SD @ Bigs Bar
11/05 Des Moines, IA @ Lefty’s
11/07 Colorado Springs, CO @ Sunshine Studios Live
11/08 Parker, CO @ Wild Goose Saloon
11/09 Grand Junction, CO @ Mesa Theater
11/11 Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
11/12 Hollywood, CA @ The Whiskey
11/14 Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post
11/15 Redlands, CA @ JRileys Distillery
11/17 Mesa, AZ @ Rosetta Room
11/19 Lubbock, TX @ Jakes
11/20 Tulsa, OK @ The Shrine
11/21 Wichita, KS @ Wave

10) Coachella 2026: Lineup Revealed

The 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will return to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA, across two weekends, April 10–12 and April 17–19, headlined by Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G. While the pop-heavy lineup leads the bill, heavier acts are well represented, with Nine Inch Noize (Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize) delivering a special industrial/electro collaboration. Heavier acts will also include Turnstile, Iggy Pop, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, Drain, Fleshwater, Ceremony, and Ecca Vandal. For tickets and more information go to this location. 

11) Refused announce final tour dates; reveal plans to form new project

Refused are calling it quits as the Swedish post-hardcore act announced their final set of dates. While one door closes, another one opens, drummer David Sandström revealed plans for him and members of Refused to form a new project. Tickets are available at this location.

Final Tour Dates

10/01 Glasgow, UK @ SWG3
10/02 Manchester, UK @ O2 Victoria Warehouse
10/03 London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
10/05 Dublin, IRE @ 3Olympia
10/07 Tilburg, NET @ Poppodium 013 (no Quicksand)
10/08 Paris, FRA @ Elysee Montmartre
10/09 Lille, FRA @ L’Aéronef
10/10 Cologne, GER @ Burgerhaus Stollwerck
10/11 Leipzig, GER @ Felsenkeller
10/12 Munich, GER @ Muffathalle
10/28 Barcelona, SPA @ Razzmatazz
10/29 Madrid, SPA @ Sala Riviera
10/31 Sao Paulo, BRA @ Terra SP
11/01 Palermo, ARG @ Palermo Groove
11/03 Santiago, CHL @ Teatro Coliseo
12/11 Goteborg, SWE @ Pustervik
12/12 Goteborg, SWE @ Pustervik
12/13 Norrkoping, SWE @ Arbis
12/17 Stockholm, SWE @ Fallan
12/18 Stockholm, SWE @ Fallan
12/19 Umea, SWE @ Vaven
12/20 Umea, SWE @ Vaven
12/21 Umea, SWE @ Vaven

On the new project, post-Refused, Sandström shared the following on social media:

“Hello, this is David speaking. A few people have insinuated that like some other bands who, in the fashion of the great Larry David, quit with bells, whistles (and blood raining from a lacerating sky) only to return within a few years as if nothing had happened, Refused would do the same. Well, we won’t, and i feel the need to elucidate.

We only broke up once and it was involuntary. Most of you might not remember but at the end of our reunion year 2012 we kept things ambigious in our final statement: “The hatchet is buried … we’re going home”, for plausible deniability, because we weren’t sure our attempt at a permanent reunion would fly. It did, but only so far. The reasons for ending the band are legion, but the two most important ones are:

1. Refused was never good for mine and Dennis’ relationship, we both have our own idea of what the band should be and how we should behave and never the twain shall meet. And we’d rather be friends than play in a popular band.
2. A new band has been born within the band and we (Mattias, Magnus, Dennis and me) want to explore that, a band with no baggage, no fans to please, limited only by our wildest musical hopes and dreams. We’re very excited about getting around to taming this new wild beast.

But before all that, we have some business to attend to. The last of the last shows are soon upon us and it’s come together better than we could have hoped for. The lineups are stacked with old friends, comrades and collaborators as well as some of the best newer bands in the heavy, punk and/or violent music spectrum. For one thing, we’re bringing Youth Code over from LA to join us, a band we love both artistically and socially. Whenever i want listen to some really intense, violent new hardcore I always end up listening to Youth Code instead, and I can’t think of a band that better embodies the maelstrom of hatred and insanity that is presently consuming the US. Also, the low key best death metal band in Sweden right now, Harrowed, are joining us. Think Autopsy, Bredäng in 1989 and a toilet full of human remains and you will get an idea of what a perfect death metal band they are. Division of Laura Lee was a new band when we broke up in 98 but consisted of friends from other hardcore bands (guitarist Pär Stålberg being the very first outside scenester to come check out UÅHC back in the summer of 1993) and we’re very happy to be playing together again. Also our old friends Millencolin are joining us!!! We actually played the release party for their very first EP and in a sense they’re repaying that 30-year old debt in Umeå on the 19th of December. On a more personal note Abhinanda, Fireside, Nix and Matti Alkberg were all there at the very start, either just hanging out or playing in other bands at our very first show. Pelle from Fireside even produced half of our recorded output (they also did a better job than we did at returning with new material to rival their old stuff). Fun fact: with Dennis’ brothers Jonas and Fredrik in Nix and Left hand of darkness respectively we’ll have three sixths of the Lyxzén Clan represented, how about that? Now, the line between Abhinanda and us was always pretty blurry, with most of us hanging out constantly in the early years, but our most explicit intersection was the band Final Exit, which was an outlet for our shared passion for, and sense of humor about, hardcore punk in the nineties. So when the three bands converge on the very last show, expect some weirdness, some blurred lines and, of course, some total moshpit mayhem. Add Mackan from Regulations new band Svart Hål, our old touring mates from before the pandemic Rome is not a town (one member of which plays with Dennis in Vännäs Kasino) to all this, as well as Spøgelse, Darla, Lost Faith, Twin Pigs, Deppa and Top 10 Babies, and you have a pretty glorious marriage of old and new, of underground and established, of traditionalists and risk-takers, and nothing could sum up our band more than this amazing catalog of bands.

This is going to be an absolute blast of a finale.

Go tell it on the mountain.”

12) Hulder announce Western US Fall 2025 Tour

Hulder will return to the western side of the United States this Fall for their To The Otherworld tour. The trek will kick off before the group gets ready to plan for their new album, expected to arrive sometime in 2026. Tickets are available at this location.

 Tour Dates

10/30 Seattle, WA @ El Corazón
10/31 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
11/02 Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
11/04 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick
11/05 Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit Live
11/07 Austin, TX @ The Lost Well
11/08 Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
11/09 Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street
11/11 Denver, CO @ HQ
11/12 Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall
11/15 Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown
11/16 Olympia, WA @ The Crypt

13) A Killer’s Confession & Dogma announce Fall 2025 Tour

A Killer’s Confession (ex-Mushromhead) and Dogma are teaming up this fall for their Dogmatic Confessions Tour. Tickets are available at this location.

Tour Dates

11/11 Pittsburgh, PA @ Crafthouse
11/12 Leesburg, VA @ Tally Ho Theater
11/13 Clifton, NJ @ Dingbatz
11/14 Harrisburg, PA @ Capitol City Music Hall
11/15 Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater
11/17 Hobart, IN @ The Art Theater
11/18 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Stache @ Intersection
11/19 Columbus, OH @ The King Of Clubs
11/20 Cadillac, MI @ Venue Event Center
11/21 Joliet, IL @ The Forge
11/22 Ringle, WI @ Q & Z Expo
11/23 Westland, MI @ Token Lounge

Zenae Zukowski

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