2025 Copenhell delivered a maelstrom of sound, beer, burgers and the smell of piss (more on that later)
With the lineup being questioned, especially with the headliners (an addition like Korn would have been nice) it was really up to the mid-tier bands to deliver and in many ways they did. In fact, the biggest surprises for me were from many of the smaller bands on the Gehenna stage.
Overall, the weather really delivered (a bit windy the first two days) and ramped up to a perfect sunny Saturday for the Slipknot main act.
As always, the organization from food, mech to pit crew went above and beyond and, as I have said before, this is the friendliest most easy-going festival I have had the pleasure of attending.
Day one. Local crew Vulvatorious kicked things off for me in fine fashion with Ditte Krøyer proving a formidable stage presence. However, it was the legendary Skunk Anansie fronted by the ageless Skin on the main stage that ended up being a highlight of the festival for me. With material from new album The Painful Truth as well as classics like Weak and Charlie Big Potato, it was a hugely energetic set from a newly re-energized band that cumulated with Skin taking a walk in the crowd right in from of me.
Another Festival highlight was Aussie band Battlesnake. Looking and sounding like the bastard child of Monty Pyton, Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age, they have with their wild antics and crazy energy converted a few new followers this day. Also, the best AC/DC classic Let there be Rock.
Julie Christmas brought the cool visual weirdness (if not my taste in music) and the day finished up with animated antics from the awesome Dethklok.
Day two. SYRACUSÆ was first up and brought some hardcore from South America. Local boys Eyes x Syl brought a Danish hardcore mashup as they played each other’s songs.
Welsh boys, Bullet For My Valentine brought a big crowd, although I never saw the appeal myself.
Gloryhammer served up a visual spectacle framed around wizards, warriors and epic battles. Great fun and the crowd ate it up.
The first disappointment of the day was The Cult. Despite frontman Ian Astburys odd, strange energy and presence the whole performance (or at least what I saw of it) was very “by the numbers”.
Exodus put a bit of energy back into the day with some good old fashioned trash metal.
The second disappointment of the day, if not the festival, was headliners The Prodigy. The last time I saw them was in Ireland in 1997, so I was super stoked to be seeing again having missed so many times before. Despite moments of awesomeness the set was a series of remixes that often deviated from the original source material. This is not always a bad thing, but I expect many of the crowd would have liked renditions closer to original classics from the albums Fat of the Land and Music for the Jilted Generation. The set was not helped by large rambling gaps between songs. Not terrible, just disappointing.
Day three: Fucking Soulfly, baby! Old school classics from Max Cavalera with Back to the Primitive putting a big old smile on my face.
Next up we had another highlight in the form of Dream Theater. With Mike Portnoy back behind the drums, the band provided a blistering technical set of classics and tracks from new album Parasomnia.
Brat from New Orleans brought their Barbiegrind to the Gehenna stage and it was a high energy set and a mix of pop classics with hardcore.
Guilt Trip from the UK also provided some hardcore fun but it was over to the Hades stage then to take a breather with Myrkur and her eerie Nordic folk styled black metal stylings.
It was then over to Dirty Honey for some classic rock sound. The Los Angeles outfit strut around the stage in a great fun throwback to classic 80s and 90s style tunes.
I had a look in at Billy Idol on the main stage. Sounded pretty good but for me the next highlight was the legend himself King Diamond, and what a show he put on. Horror themed grandiosity with amazing stage and lighting all supporting a voice that can still knock out the classics like Abigail.
Day four. Final Stretch and at this point I need to highlight the previously mentioned “smell of piss”: please, Copenhell, for the love of Satan, do not put the outdoor urinals next to the main stage. Not only is it a bad look for photography and video, but the smell also just got worse each day. A minor gripe among the overall fantastic organization of the event.
Alien Ant Farm took to the Hades stage for a rather uninspired performance. Even the cover of Micheal Jackson Smooth Criminal struggled to get people invested. Powerwolf on the other hand had little trouble getting the crowd going with their stories of vampires and werewolves belted out in operatic style by frontman Attila Dorn.
More visual Frazetta stylings followed with the Brooklyn based Castle Rat. With the Rat Queen herself, Riley Pinkerton, the music itself struck a nice Sabbath vibe backed with some great costumes.
Kim Dracula hit the Pandæmonium stage at 5:30pm in what proved to be the most eclectic set of the week. The frontman himself, screaming, scatting and overall, just bonkers performance. The crowd loved it.
In Flames took to the stage with three decades of material behind them and absolutely crushed it but then it was time for the almighty Slipknotwho whipped up the Maggots (fan nickname) into a frenzy with a huge emphasis on the 1999 self-titled debut album celebrating its 25th anniversary.
I moshed, I sang, and crowd surfed out utterly exhausted. What a way to wrap up a fantastic festival.
Roll-on 2026.
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