Hellsinki Metal Festival Announces First Artists for 2027 Edition

Having firmly established its place on the European metal festival circuit, Hellsinki Metal Festival will return on 6–7 August 2027, and the first artists have now been announced. Taking over the Helsinki Ice Hall area, also known as Nordis, the festival will welcome German power metal powerhouse Edguy, French synthwave artist Perturbator, black metal heavyweights Dark Funeral and Rotting Christ, and US death metal veterans Nile.

Completing the first wave of international acts is VENOM (Mantas & Abaddon), who will perform a special 45 Years of Black Metal set. Norwegian avant-garde metal pioneers Arcturus will also make a special appearance at Hellsinki, performing material from their Aspera Hiems Symfonia album. One of the festival’s truly rare live performances will come from British extreme metal band Akercocke.

As fans have come to expect from Hellsinki Metal Festival, the programme will also feature special performances by Finnish acts. The first of these is Ensiferum’s Early Years set, featuring the band’s former vocalist and guitarist Jari Mäenpää! The band will play only two shows in Finland next summer, and this will be one of them. Other Finnish acts announced today include Bloodred Hourglass, Norther, Havukruunu and Noiduin.

“Not all our aces have been pulled out of the sleeve just yet, so just think back to the kind of sonic assault we’ve delivered in previous years. We’re sticking to that same relentlessly heavy approach. Although the people behind the scenes have changed, the spirit of the festival will remain the same until the very end. Never stop the madness,” says promoter Toni Törrönen.

There have also been changes behind the scenes at Hellsinki Metal Festival, with Ext Ventures Oy taking ownership of the flagship festival, as well as Hellsinki Metal Cruise, Nordic Metal Cruise and Rock The Waves cruises. Ext Ventures is also behind the multiple award-winning John Smith Rock Festival and John Smith Rock Frozen. Despite the shared ownership, all festivals will continue to operate as separate entities in the future.

“We greatly appreciate the work Toni Törrönen has done in shaping Hellsinki Metal Festival into an event with a distinctive identity of its own, and we intend to preserve that spirit going forward. Our role behind the scenes is to give the festival’s promoter the freedom and support to make Hellsinki Metal Festival exactly what it is meant to be. This first year will certainly involve a learning curve for us, but we have great confidence in the Hellsinki Metal Festival brand,” says Jonne Lehtonen of Ext Ventures.