Damnation festival announces first bands for 2025, including Perturbator, The Haunted, Pig Destroyer and Crippling Alcoholism

(Image credit: Xavi Torrent/Redferns)

Manchester extreme metal festival Damnation has announced its first bands for 2025.

Synthwave maestro Perturbator, melodeath favourites The Haunted and grindcore wrecking crew Pig Destroyer are among the batch of names confirmed for the two-day weekender, set to take place at the 4,500-capacity BEC Arena on November 8 and 9.

Warning, Wormrot, Stampin’ Ground, Brodequin, Gaerea, Mantar, Hellripper, Frail Body, Gost, Meryl Streek and Crippling Alcoholism have also been announced. Damnation says that 34 further bands, including the headliners, are still yet to be revealed. Weekend tickets are now available, costing £170.50.

Damnation started raging in 2005, taking place at Jilly’s Rockworld in Manchester. Two years later, it relocated to the University Of Leeds, before moving to its current location in 2021.

Over the past 19 years, the festival has hosted an array of extreme, subgenre-spanning talent, including Opeth, Carcass, Katatonia, Entombed, Cult Of Luna, Ulver, Paradise Lost, Bolt Thrower, Kreator, Godflesh and the Devin Townsend Project. Last year’s edition was headlined by Decapitated and Cradle Of Filth. The Ocean, Russian Circles, Gatecreeper, Dragged Into Sunlight, 200 Stab Wounds, Nails and more also performed.

Recently, Damnation has held multiple special sets which see bands play classic albums in full. These have included Converge performing Jane Doe, At The Gates performing Slaughter Of The Soul and Enslaved performing both Vikingligr Veldi and Below The Lights. Last year, metalcore mavens Bleeding Through played 2003’s This Is Love, This Is Murderous in its entirety. No such performance has been confirmed for 2025 yet, but keep eyes peeled for future announcements.

Gavin McInally, co-organiser of Damnation, will soon tour the UK with his 2 Promoters, 1 Pod podcast, co-hosted by James Scarlett of Bristol progressive metal festival Arctangent. The dates will take place across the country in March. Tickets are now available to buy.

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Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.