The Rock Hard Festival have announced the first seven bands for 2027, which runs from 14 to 16 May at the Amphitheater in Gelsenkirchen over the Pentecost weekend.
Triptykon play a set built around Monotheist, the last Celtic Frost album, which is the booking that will sell the weekend. Metal Church and Exumer are confirmed, and Therion arrive marking forty years.
The curious part of the bill is that Aaron Stainthorpe appears twice. Towards the Sinister plays songs from the first four My Dying Bride albums, and High Parasite is the gothic rock band he runs now, so two very different halves of one career end up on the same poster. Villagers of Ioannina City complete the seven.
Fifteen more are promised. The other thing worth noting is who is running it: Rock Hard magazine, which reported financial trouble not long ago, have taken FZW from Dortmund on as partners, which is how a festival of this age keeps going when the publication behind it is under strain. Tickets are out through stagedates.com.