Milwaukee Metal Festival 2026 is pleased to now reveal the headliner day splits! ACID BATH will conquer Friday, followed by KILLSWITCH ENGAGE on Saturday with newly added headliner MINISTRY to close out the weekend! In addition, the festival has announced over 20 new additions, which can be found below!
All single day, 2-day and 3-day ticketing options can be found HERE.
The festival will now take place June 5 – 7, 2026, with the pre-party kicking off on June 4! The festival will take place once again at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom.
Co-organizer Jamey Jasta comments: “2026 is shaping up to be our best year yet and we’re just getting started! More bands, more stages, more vendors, more food, more signings, it’s gonna be the best weekend EVER! See you in the good the land!”
The current lineup is now as follows with more TBA:
ACID BATH KILLSWITCH ENGAGE MINISTRY OBITUARY POWERTRIP AGALLOCH AFTER THE BURIAL ALL SHALL PERISH NAILS IRON REAGAN HAVOK NUNSLAUGHTER HIRAX INTEGRITY PRONG INTERNAL BLEEDING UADA DEADGUY MASTER WEEKEND NACHOS MORTA SKULD POLKADOT CADAVER SWORN ENEMY BELUSHI SPEEDBALL INCITE CASKET ROBBERY DUSK JEFFREY NOTHING BRICK BY BRICK DEAD BY WEDNESDAY HUMAN ARTIFACTS THANATOTIC DESIRE EYES OF THE LIVING MISERY STRIKING 13 TRIP TO THE MORGUE DARK HORSE PROPHET & OVER 40 MORE ARTISTS / BANDS TO BE ANNOUNCED!
The seventh edition of FOREVER DEAF FEST will descend upon Chicago on April 10th and 11th, 2026!
What began as a showcase for local talent back in 2018 has become one of the premier festivals on Chicago’s annual metal calendar. Forever Deaf Productions aims to bring the heaviest riffs to venues across the city and hosts FOREVER DEAF FEST each Spring.
Sponsored by Still Austin, Five Star HVAC, Kuma’s Corner, and Emperor Cabinets, this year’s festivities will take place at Sleeping Village and Avondale Music Hall with a special after show party at Live Wire Lounge.
The monumental weekend will include sets by Atomic Rule (featuring members of Every Time I Die, Dry Kill Logic, The Acacia Strain, and Eternal Sleep), See You Next Tuesday, Motherless (featuring members of The Atlas Moth and Without Waves), Weekend Nachos performing their only Chicago area show of 2026, Scalp, Year Of The Knife, Plague Bringer (their first show in a decade), Hewhocorrupts, and Mellow Harsher.
Saturday headliners Pig Destroyer will be blazing through their monumental Prowler In The Yard full-length, in its ravaging entirety (a 25-year album anniversary celebration and their only Midwest show). A very special Friday headliner is to be announced still!
To commemorate the event, renowned heavy metal themed burger restaurant Kuma’s Corner will bring back the FOREVER DEAF FEST Burger as well as DJ sets and preview events a week prior to the fest’s kick off.
Additionally, Forever Deaf Productions will donate $1 per ticket towards Head Bang For Science, an annual scholarship award program for high school seniors, undergrads, and grad students who are pursuing a career in healthcare and/or the physical sciences. It’s the first scholarship foundation to directly provide financial aid to metalheads, and was founded by SiriusXM curator/host and former pharmacy grad student Jose “Metal Ambassador” Mangin in 2021.
The FOREVER DEAF FEST lineup and ticketing info is available below. Secure your tickets now! This will sell out!
Friday, April 10th, 2026: Sleeping Village – 21+ ($24 + fees) Headliner TBD Atomic Rule See You Next Tuesday Motherless
Saturday, April 11th, 2026: Avondale Music Hall – 17+ ($49 + fees) Pig Destroyer Weekend Nachos Scalp Year Of The Knife Plague Bringer Hewhocorrupts Mellow Harsher
JOINING THE BAND FOR THE HEAVIEST TOUR OF THE NEW YEAR ARE KUBLAI KHAN TX, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY AND SANGUISUGABOGG
ARTIST PRE-SALES BEGUN
GENERAL ON-SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10 A.M. LOCAL TIME
Nov. 18, 2025 – RICHMOND, Va. – Lamb of God return to the road this March for what promises to be the heaviest tour of 2026, with the North American trek, produced by Live Nation, featuring support from Kublai Khan TX, Fit For An Autopsy, and Sanguisugabogg.
“We are beyond thrilled to announce the loudest, proudest, floor shakin’-est, earth quakin’-est, ear-splittin’-est, mosh pittin’-est, undiluted, undisputed HEAVIEST tour of the whole damn year,” Mark Morton declares. “Is this the largest collection of RIFFS ever assembled under one roof? It would seem so. Lamb of God, Kublai Khan TX, Fit For An Autopsy, and Sanguisugabogg. Do not miss this shit.”
The tour news follows the recent release of “Sepsis,” the band’s first new original song since 2022’s Omens, and now the #1 song on the U.S. metal radio charts. Produced by longtime collaborator Josh Wilbur, the track celebrates the Richmond underground and the bands Lamb of God performed alongside during their early years. The band also shared a live video for “Sepsis,” capturing the electrifying live debut of the song at Aftershock Festival.
Consequence named the three-and-a-half minute track its “heavy song of the week,” describing the single as “crushing” while Revolver spotlighted “Sepsis,” calling it a “rock-solid addition to their ever-crushing canon.”
March 17 National Harbor, MD The Theater MGM National Harbor March 19 Montreal, QC Bell Centre March 20 Toronto, ON GCT Theatre March 22 Detroit, MI Fox Theatre March 24 Minneapolis, MN Armory March 25 Chicago, IL Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom March 27 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium March 28 Salt Lake City, UT The Union Event Center March 30 Portland, OR Theater of the Clouds March 31 Seattle, WA WAMU Theater April 1 Vancouver, BC PNE Forum April 3 San Francisco, CA The Masonic April 4 Inglewood, CA YouTube Theater April 5 Phoenix, AZ Arizona Financial Theatre April 7 Albuquerque, NM Revel Entertainment Center April 10 Austin, TX Moody Amphitheater April 11 Irving, TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory April 12 Houston, TX 713 Music Hall April 14 Nashville, TN War Memorial Auditorium April 15 Atlanta, GA Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre April 16 Raleigh, NC Red Hat Amphitheater April 18 Reading, PA Santander Arena * April 19 Virginia Beach, VA The Dome April 21 Buffalo, NY Buffalo RiverWorks April 23 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Paramount April 25 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena * April 26 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall at Fenway
*Not a Live Nation show
2026 Festival Performances:
May 14 – 17 Columbus, OH Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival July 24 – 27 Plovdiv, BG Hills of Rock July 27 – 31 Râşnov, RO Rockstadt Extreme Fest August 1 Wacken, DE Wacken Open Air August 5 – 9 Lisbon, PT Vagos Open Air August 6 – 9 Kortrijk, BE Alcatraz Open Air August 7 Walton-on-Trent, UK Bloodstock Open Air August 12 – 16 Dinkelsbühl, DE Summer Breeze August 13 – 15 Sulingen, DE Reload Festival August 14 – 16 Eindhoven, NL Dynamo Metalfest October 30 – November 3 Miami, FL Headbangers Boat
Photo credit: Travis Shinn
Lamb of God is Randy Blythe (vocals), John Campbell (bass), Mark Morton (guitar), Willie Adler (guitar) and Art Cruz (drums). Formed in 1994, the Richmond, Virginia based band has released nine critically-acclaimed albums, received five GRAMMY® Award nominations, sold over 3 million albums, packed arenas around the world, and tallied over one billion streams and counting.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative forces in modern heavy music Lamb of God’s most recent collection, Omens, arrived in late 2022 , marking their sixth consecutive album to debut in the Top 15 of on the Billboard 200. Kerrang! noted that the album finds the band “as reliably heavy, violent, and pissed off as ever,” and Consequence said the “album will break you down to nihilistic pieces.”
If you’re a band or musician and would like your music reviewed or be interviewed by Stone, please click the link under the “ALBUM REVIEWS ARCHIVES” section below!
Metal Odyssey's Rock, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Hall of Fame! These Are The Rock And METAL Legends Wrongfully Ignored By "The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame"
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.