Brutal Assault has added twenty six names to the bill for its thirtieth edition at Josefov Fortress, and Knocked Loose are at the top of the list.
The hardcore side of it runs deep. Agnostic Front and Gorilla Biscuits bring two different decades of New York with them, with Get The Shot, Volumes and Taiwan's Whispers filling the rest of that corner.
Death metal takes the largest share: Gorgasm, Carnifex, The Acacia Strain, The Zenith Passage, Six Feet Under, Fulci and Schizophrenia, which stretches the wave from brutal and technical ground into deathcore and grind. The atmospheric end gets Arcturus, Vintersorg, Stormkeep and Forsman, with Russian Circles for the post metal slot and Heaven Shall Burn somewhere between all of it.
Two bookings stand out for not being bands at all. Mick Gordon, whose industrial and electronic soundtracks for Doom and Wolfenstein have reached more people than most of this bill combined, plays the festival, and the tribute to Quorthon and Bathory returns to Josefov after two years away.
A thirtieth edition is a reason to book widely rather than safely, and this list reads like one.