From the Greek seaside through Norwegian woods to Georgia swamps and Arizona deserts, Mystic Festival 2026 is shaping up like a metal travelogue with a hangover and a halo. And right after you clock that the Polish stop is in Gdańsk, you realise they’re not messing about: Rotting Christ, Shining, Gatecreeper and Black Tusk are all coming in to prove that wherever metal grows, it grows wild.
Rotting Christ are the big, sulphur-scented statement. A legend of the Greek scene, they kicked off back in the 80s with grind chopping before, in the early 90s, laying the very fundaments of the original Greek black metal sound. Passage to Arcturo, Thy Mighty Contract and Non Serviam are now rightly considered stone-cold genre classics. But even when you invent a sound, the walls can start to close in; the Tolis brothers clearly felt the parameters of black metal were too narrow and chose to keep walking their own shadowy path. The result? A long, unbroken streak of records that marry gloom and grandeur with those unmistakable melodic structures and a deep immersion in Hellenic culture. It’s not just heavy; it’s heavy with history.
Then there’s Shining, who look at genre rules the way a bull looks at a red rag. Cold Norwegian black metal, progressive rock from back when “prog” actually meant pushing forward, and even some jazz, on paper it sounds like a car crash. In practice, when Shining do it, it’s mesmerising and properly captivating, the sort of thing that makes you double-take and then lean in closer. This isn’t fusion for the sake of it; it’s metal with its third eye prised open.
Gatecreeper and Black Tusk round out the picture, dragging in the grit of Georgia swamps and the dust of Arizona deserts, proof that sludge and death metal thrive just as hard under Southern humidity and desert sun as they do under Scandinavian snow. Wherever Mystic Festival 2026 is pulling from, the through-line is simple: metal is played everywhere, and everywhere it is excellent.
The festival line-up includes:
Megadeth, Behemoth, Black Label Society, Anthrax, Down, Mastodon, Saxon, Blood Incantation, Ice Nine Kills, Cavalera plays Chaos A.D., Overkill, The Gathering plays Mandylion, Carpenter Brut, Bloodywood, Corrosion Of Conformity, Decapitated, Death To All, Six Feet Under, Static-X, Scour, Marduk, Coroner, Kublai Khan TX, Forbidden, Thrown, Benediction, Grave, Unleashed, Evergrey, letlive., Rotting Christ, Primordial, Septicflesh, A.A. Williams, Acid King, Gaahls Wyrd, Harakiri For The Sky, Priest, Severe Torture, Eyehategod, Shining, Carach Angren, Gatecreeper, Bölzer, Black Tusk, Today is the Day, Frontside, Disharmonic Orchestra, Winterfylleth, Martyrdöd, Kanonenfieber, Monkey3, Blood Vulture, Djerv, Hostia, Kent Osborne, Master Boot Record, Embryonic Autopsy, and Knife Bride.
More information and tickets available at www.mysticfestival.pl.
Currently available for purchase: Early Bird 4-day pass – PLN 819.VIP pass – PLN 1299.
Passes are also available for purchase via the eBilet platform, which offers
instalment sale – buy today, pay later.
