BRUTAL ASSAULT 2026 – 10 reasons to go to the festival

This year’s edition will be 29^th one and as each year, the festival takes place on the grounds of Josefov Fortress in the city called Jaromer. It starts with the warm-up day on 4th August and will last another full four days on 4 main stages + so called KAL stage with experimental music. The line up is already known and now we got the official breakdown of the bands per each day – see below. The timing is yet to be confirmed.

The organisers planned four main days packed with versatile metal genre representatives. We are presenting 10 reasons why it is worth to visit the fortress this year, so that those who are still hesitant whether to go or not may finally make the final decision:

1. AURA NOIR will play their debut album “Black Thrash Attack” in its entirety. The title of the album is self-explanatory to what we can expect from the performance. Norwegians will definitely show the fiercest possible version of thrash metal.

2. BEHEMOTH’s debut album “Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic) will be performed by band’s leader – Nergal and MYSßYRMING from Iceland. It will be the celebration of 30^th anniversary of band’s release. This usual line-up will play the whole album live for the first time as a full conceptual work honoring BEHEMOTH’s roots while embracing the ferocity of a new black metal generation.

3. FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY – industrial legends will focus on their early tracks from between 1988 and 1991 that covers the albums “Gashed Senses & Crossfire” and “Caustic Grip”.

4. GRAVE will appear on BRUTAL ASSAULT for the second time in a row and will play the set of songs from the first three records “Into The Grave”, “You‘ll Never See” and “Soulless”.

5. MONSTROSITY has just released a thrashing new album called “Screams From Beneath The Surface”, but their set will consist of songs from their first two albums – “Imperial Doom” and “Millennium” that features George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher who later joined CANNIBAL CORPSE.

6. NEVERMORE recently reunited with its former leaders Jeff Loomis and Van Williams and three new members. It happened after many years of hiatus and unfortunate passing of original singer Warrel Dane. Now, with new blood in the team, there is the chance to check how refreshed version of the band is approaching their intricate version of thrash metal.

7. OLD MAN’S CHILD returned to active touring and now that Galder is no longer the member of DIMMU BORGIR, his former band is his only musical focus. Looking at the setlists from previous concerts, we can expect “the best of” selection before he hopefully get down to making first new music since “Slaves Of The World” from 2009.

8. WALTARI is the band that is mostly associated with energetic alternative rock, but they had a lot to do with metal in the mid 90s when they released an album called „Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! Death Metal Symphony In Deep C”. It was a breakthrough release thanks to its brave mixture of death metal with symphonic music and operatic vocals. At the similar time, THERION was also engaging choirs into their music, but WALTARI seems to be far more unconventional in their approach to composing music on that album. Their performance on main BRUTAL ASSAULT stage will be devoted to that album and the band will be joined by opera singer Laura Ruusumaa and Tomi Koivusaari – the guitar player from AMORPHIS (which also plays on the same day). Tomi originally recorded all growls on that album and he accepted band’s invitation to do it again, but live this time.

9. As each year, the organisers made sure to invite a lot of bands that never performed on BRUTAL ASSAULT before. They are from all possible genres associated with rock and metal. Some of them are well known while others can be new, but equally interesting to check. To name a few, black metal will be represented by BLACKBRAID, DEAFHEAVEN, DOM ZŁY, or previously mentioned OLD MAN’S CHILD. Death metal has a strong team of 200 STAB WOUNDS, ALTARS ABLAZE, CHAOTIAN, DECEASED, INTERNAL BLEEDING or SANGUISUGABOGG. Doom Metal and other atmospheric bands are WYATT E., THE RUINS OF BEVERAST, THE 3^RD AND THE MORTAL, ANTIMATTER, DUSK, RAGANA, CASTLE RAT, A.A. WILLIAMS and two well known stoner metal acts ELDER and FU MANCHU. Thrash and Heavy Metal also have long list with both known names as BODY COUNT, NEVERMORE, KITTIE and MORTAL SIN as well as more underground bands like NAHUM, DJERV and MORAX. There are many others who are from various other musical worlds like ALLT, FILTH, IMMINENCE, IOTUNN, THE GHOST INSIDE, VENDED, KIM DRACULA, PERIPHERY and last but not least one of the main stars of this year’s edition PRIMUS.

10. There are quite a few bands in the line up, which are coming to Josefov Fortress to present some fresh music from brand new albums. Among others, IMMOLATION released highly acclaimed  “Descent”. September 2025 was the premiere of new AMORPHIS album called “Borderland, LEFT TO DIE will soon put out the album “Initium Mortis” which will contain reworked versions of early songs/demoes by DEATH and MANTAS (former name). Thrash/Heavy metal ARMORED SAINT is just after the release of “Emotion Factory Reset”, while CORROSION OF CONFORMITY put out theirs in April. English, technical death metallers from CRYPTIC SHIFT, who will also be in the Fortress for the first time, just released their second full length album called “Overspace & Supertime” and surprised the world of how complex and multidimensional death metal can be. CORONER issued their long awaited album in October last year and definitely did not let down the fans who had to wait over three decades for something new from Swiss thrash metallers.

Tickets for all days (including warm-up day) cost 225 Euro (only 8% left). There are also tickets available for the youngest children (up to 12 y.o.), other for older ones (13-18 y.o.).

Apart from the tent area, there are also options to sleep in various hotels or dormitories in the neighbouring cities. The price for that also includes the possibility of free transportation to the event (1x daily back and forth).

Organisers also added an option to officially exchange the tickets for the festival, additional zones or hotel options – this is yet to be opened closer to the festival date.

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