London MetalFest 2026: A Triumphant First Edition Takes Over Camden
Updated: 14 hours ago
Electric Ballroom, The Underworld and The Dev, Camden, London —
12 September 2026
Camden has never needed much encouragement to turn up the volume, but on Saturday 12 September, London MetalFest gave the capital’s most famous rock district something it had been missing: a proper multi-venue metal festival with the ambition and character of its European counterparts.
Following Friday evening’s Metal Cruise along the Thames, the festival’s main day spread across the Electric Ballroom, The Underworld and The Dev. With overlapping performances, seeing everything was impossible, but the short walk between venues made moving around remarkably easy. Our route took us through eight bands, from The Underworld’s opening act at 13:00 to an extraordinary and unrepeatable finale from Candlemass.
Enquire Within
Opening a festival at one o’clock in the afternoon is rarely an enviable assignment. People are still arriving, collecting wristbands and working out where everything is. Enquire Within, however, did not have to perform to an empty room for long. By approximately the third song, The Underworld was already beyond half capacity. The London band combine groove-heavy metal with thrash riffs and melodic guitar work, with “Final Seal”, included on 2025’s Elysium Deluxe, standing among the strongest moments of an energetic set.
Another highlight came with “Seeds of Destruction”, a track featuring Acid Reign—who were also performing at London MetalFest that evening in the Electric Ballroom, although unavoidable clashes elsewhere prevented us from seeing them. Enquire Within have released four records since 2020, so this was certainly not a band taking its first steps. Yet their gratitude, permanent smiles and genuine excitement at playing The Underworld might easily have suggested otherwise. Guitarist Nik King was excellent, Jacobs vocals brought tremendous energy, and the entire band worked hard to give the early arrivals a proper show. Their humility simply reinforced the impression of five grounded, hardworking and thoroughly decent musicians who deserved every person filling that room.
Unnatural Order
Unnatural Order immediately presented something different from much of the day’s more traditional metal lineup. The young Canterbury trio operate on the darker edge of modern metalcore, combining deathcore aggression with djent rhythms, industrial touches and crushing breakdowns. That change of tone may initially have taken part of the audience some time to process, but from the opening “Observe/Infiltrate”, the band never diluted their identity or intensity.
Alex Fuller’s vocals were brutal throughout, while Nathan’s guitar and Jacobi Marman's drumming generated a remarkable amount of weight without a bassist onstage. Recent single “Visceral” offered one of the clearest glimpses of their development before “Bloodsport” brought an uncompromising set to its conclusion. With 2024’s Poltergeist as their only album so far, Unnatural Order remain near the beginning of their journey, but the confidence, technical strength and sheer commitment displayed at The Underworld suggest a band with a considerable future ahead.
Wretched Soul
Wretched Soul brought experience, authority and the first proper mosh pit of our afternoon. Their music sits somewhere between thrash and traditional heavy metal, but carries enough death-metal weight to make any single label feel inadequate. The riffs occasionally reached back towards the sharpness of the 1980s, only to be dragged into darker territory by Chris Simmons’ commanding vocals.
Simmons controlled The Underworld like someone entirely at home onstage. His gutturals were powerful, but occasional high clean notes revealed considerably more range than simple brutality. Around him, the guitar, bass and drums formed an impressively solid unit, with Andy Clifford’s performance behind the kit providing much of the set’s momentum.
“Truth Unseen” established their intent, while “Sacrificial Kings” was a personal highlight before “Spirit Slayer” pushed the room further into motion. “War Wolf” and “Necromancer”, both drawn from The Ghost Road, delivered a suitably forceful conclusion from a band whose combination of musicianship and stagecraft suggested plenty of hard-earned experience.
Genitorturers
At 16:20, the doors of the Electric Ballroom opened onto an entirely different world. Genitorturers did not so much begin their performance as invade the venue.
Gen arrived wearing a mask and carrying a futuristic weapon, looking as though she had taken a wrong turn somewhere in the wastelands of Mad Max and decided to conquer Camden instead. What followed combined industrial metal, alternative metal and shock rock with the band’s familiar BDSM and horror aesthetics.
Crucially, the music was never secondary to the spectacle. “Revolution”, “Cum Junkie” and “Razor Cuts” sounded vicious, heavy and remarkably tight. The theatrical production then grew increasingly deranged, with dancers dressed as murderous nurses joining the show and a devil appearing during the excellent “Devil in a Bottle”.
“One Who Feeds”, “Flesh Is the Law”, “Lecher Bitch” and “120 Days” maintained the balance between industrial force and controlled debauchery before 1998 classic “Sin City” brought the performance to a close.
Plenty of people inside the Electric Ballroom had clearly come specifically for Genitorturers, and it was easy to understand why. This was not merely an entertaining diversion within the lineup but one of the festival’s defining performances. Having a band with this history, identity and theatrical ambition at the first London MetalFest felt like a genuine luxury.
Aethoria
Back at The Underworld, Aethoria offered another change in atmosphere. Their melodic modern metal proved more approachable without lacking weight, led by the considerable voice and natural charisma of Mecia-Jade Holden.
Holden, who was also celebrating her birthday, spent much of the concert smiling and engaging warmly with the audience. That friendliness should not obscure what an exceptional vocalist she is. Her performance gave songs such as “Human”, recent single “Popcorn” and the title track from the newly released Fool’s Gold both power and personality.
“Stepping Stones”, originally released in 2025, remained one of the strongest moments, while Alex Coombes supplied several excellent guitar solos. Only two weeks earlier, Aethoria had performed on Stonedead’s enormous stage; seeing them in the intimacy of The Underworld felt like a privilege of a different kind. The front row was filled with people singing their songs, suggesting the connection between this band and its audience is already becoming something meaningful.
DeVere
DeVere were playing on home ground, and it showed. The inevitable clashes between stages meant The Underworld was not quite full when the first note landed, but by the second song the room was packed. Those still walking over from another venue missed one of the best openings of the entire festival.
“Nightmare”, a new song we had not heard when the band played Takedown Festival earlier this year, arrived with a rhythm recalling Dio’s “King of Rock and Roll”. It was a spectacular way to start. “Surrender” then pushed the acceleration even further, its speed and weight demonstrating how efficiently the DeVere machine now operates.
That machine is driven by the formidable rhythm section of bassist Will Vaughan and drummer George Love, but every member brings an individual personality that strengthens the whole. Newer songs “Burnout” and “Empire” gave Mike Wroe ample opportunity to become virtually unstoppable. Wroe is the guitarist every rock band would like to have: technically sharp, visually magnetic and apparently incapable of standing still for more than half a second.
Then there is Sam Cassidy, a frontman whose voice is difficult to compare with anyone else. He possesses a recognisable personality of his own while retaining the timeless tone and command associated with classic hard-rock vocalists. DeVere may embrace the colour, swagger and excess of the Sunset Strip, but nothing about them feels like imitation.
Every member commands attention independently, yet together they become something much larger. Camden already knew what DeVere could do, and The Underworld welcomed them accordingly. Now we are impatient to hear “Nightmare”, “Burnout”, “Empire” and the rest of this new material properly captured on record.
The loudest band in London had come home.
Dool
Dool are a unique band, although their dark and introspective proposal was not necessarily what every member of this festival audience wanted at that precise point in the evening. After the visual assault of Genitorturers and the electricity of DeVere, their performance occasionally felt like an opportunity to breathe and conserve energy before the final act.
That does not mean they delivered anything less than a strong concert. Raven van Dorst possesses undeniable aura, leading the Dutch band through a sound that combines dark rock, gothic atmosphere, psychedelia, metal and progressive structures.
They began with “The Shape of Fluidity”, the title track from their latest studio album, followed by “Self-Dissect”. “The Alpha”, taken from 2017 debut Here Now, There Then, carried a slower and heavier riff that felt particularly appropriate for the Candlemass devotees gathering inside the Electric Ballroom.
The set also introduced an unreleased song titled “To Whom May Lead the Blind”. Its chorus was immediately memorable and left us hoping that a studio release will follow soon. Dool concluded with their two 2026 singles: an atmospheric interpretation of Killing Joke’s “Love Like Blood” and “Oweynagat”.
It may not have won over everyone in the room, but Dool never sounded like anybody else—and in a festival containing so many different shades of heavy music, that individuality had its own value.
Candlemass
Shortly before Candlemass were due to appear, The King—the festival’s mascot—walked onto the Electric Ballroom stage. Every proper festival deserves a mascot, and London had just found its own.
Most of the audience had learned that same morning that Johan Längqvist had been taken to hospital and would be unable to perform. What many did not know was who would step into his place or exactly what kind of Candlemass concert they were about to witness.
Felipe Plaza Kutzbach answered that question dressed in a monk-like robe, immediately adding an appropriately classic and ceremonial presence to a set drawn entirely from Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and Nightfall. Taking on some of doom metal’s most revered material at such short notice was an enormous responsibility, but Plaza did far more than simply rescue the evening. He delivered an outstanding performance.
From the opening weight of “The Well of Souls”, Candlemass sounded immense. Plaza’s voice suited the material, while the band appeared focused, energised and determined to honour both the festival and their absent singer. The reaction inside the Electric Ballroom quickly changed from uncertainty to exhilaration.
He did far more than rescue the evening, delivering an outstanding performance through classics including “Demon’s Gate”, “At the Gallows End”, “Samarithan”, “Bewitched” and “A Sorcerer’s Pledge”. Behind him, founder and bassist Leif Edling, guitarists Mats Björkman and Lars Johansson, and drummer Jan Lindh sounded immense: focused, energised and visibly determined to honour both their absent vocalist and the audience waiting for them in London.
The encore then transformed an already remarkable performance into something genuinely unrepeatable. Former Venom frontman Tony Dolan took command of “Under the Oak” before Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride emerged for “Solitude”, joined by Dolan and Plaza for a finale featuring all three guest vocalists. What could easily have become a compromised Candlemass show instead felt like a celebration of the band’s history and of doom metal itself. Particularly moving was the number of very young fans seeing these legends for the first time, embracing riffs written decades before many of them were born. Candlemass did not merely overcome an extraordinarily difficult situation; through the strength of its four core musicians and three very different guest singers, the band created the kind of concert everyone inside the Electric Ballroom knew they would never witness again.
The King Has Arrived
For a first edition, London MetalFest was an undeniable success. Moving between The Underworld, The Dev and the Electric Ballroom was quick and easy, allowing audiences to build their own routes through the lineup even when clashes made difficult decisions unavoidable.
There is room to grow. The metal market was relatively small, although colourful and full of character, while the food options inside the festival could be expanded. These felt like the understandable limitations of a first year rather than fundamental problems.
What mattered most was already present: strong attendances, a happy crowd, memorable performances and a clear sense of identity. Festival shirts and caps were everywhere, evidence that people had not simply bought tickets but had already begun investing in London MetalFest as something that belonged to them.
Genitorturers delivered the theatrical spectacle. DeVere produced the explosive homecoming. Candlemass turned adversity into an extraordinary piece of metal history.
A festival carrying the London MetalFest name, rooted in Camden and spread across venues with this much history has every ingredient required to become a fixture not only in Britain, but on the wider European festival calendar.
The first edition planted the flag. London MetalFest 2027 now has the opportunity to become bigger, stronger and even more ambitious.
The King has arrived—and he is already warming up for next year.
No sleep till LMF 2027.
Jose Crespo for The Riff Collective
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