The Wacken Open Air has added 26 bands to the billing of its 30th anniversary edition, which will take place from the 1st until 3rd of August. The event, which has been awarded as « Best Major Festival » at the renowned European Festival Awards for its previous edition, will among others welcome Uriah Heep for the first time. With massive hits such as « Lady in Black » und « Easy Livin' », the British hard rock legends are counted among the pioneers of heavy metal. Another premiere at the worldwide biggest metal festival will be the appearance of US space rockers Monster Magnet with their charismatic fronter Dave Wyndorf.

It is about to become a cherished tradition in Wacken to pay tribute to the punk roots of modern metal, which will be continued this year by the inclusion of English punk rock veterans The Damned. Yet, the Wacken Open Air is not just a place for chart topping acts, but also embraces the underground scene. In that vein, Tom Warrior’s Triumph Of Death will perform the classic and highly influential material of Hellhammer, which can also be seen as a tribute in honour of the saldly late friend and collaborator Martin Eric Ain. Also underlining the international character of the festival is for example the booking of China’s black metal mystery Zuriaake. « The Middle Kingdom » already won last year’s Wacken Metal Battle with its contribution to the competition: Die From Sorrow. Complete lists of all newly as well as previously confirmed bands can be viewed below.

The promoters of the Wacken Open comment: ‘We are stoked to have achieved a blast of a billing’, says Thomas Jensen. ‘As promised, we are delivering something for everybody’s taste in hard music. Established acts mingle with young and exciting newcomers, which gives the latter a great chance to conquer the hearts of the fans. On top of this, our running order is still not yet complete, so stay tuned! »

An alphabetical list of all 26 new bands:

Aborym, Angelus Apatrida, Asrock, Baby Face Nelson, Crazy Lixx, Crobot, Deathstars, Dirty Shirt, Eclipse, Hellhammer (performed by Tom Warrior’s Triumph Of Death), Lucifer Star Machine, Monster Magnet, Nachtblut, Nordjevel, Prong, Savage Messiah, Skew Siskin, The Damned, The Lazys, The New Roses, The Quireboys, The Wild!, Uriah Heep, Warkings, Wiegedood, Zuriaake

Among the already announced highlights of the 2019 billing will be the final German festival show of legendary US-thrashers Slayer as well as performances by Demons & Wizards, Sabaton, Parkway Drive, Powerwolf, and Within Temptation. Further highly anticipated shows will be the appearanc of Body Count lead by rap-idol and actor Ice-T, the only German concert of Rage with their Lingua Mortis Orchester, the show of gothic pioneers Sisters Of Mercy as well as the American crossover super-group Prophets Of Rage including members of Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy, and Cypress Hill.

A list of all previously announced bands:

1000 Löwen unter Feinden, Acranius, Airbourne, All Hail The Yeti, Anthrax, Avatar, Battle Beast, Beyond The Black, Black Stone Cherry, Bleed From Within, Body Count, Bullet For My Valentine, Cradle Of Filth, Crematory, Crisix, Critical Mess, D-A-D, Dark Funeral, Delain, Demons & Wizards, Die Happy, Die Kassierer, Downfall Of Gaia, Eisbrecher, Eluveitie, Emil Bulls, Equilibirum, Evergrey, For I Am King, Frog Leap, Gama Bomb, Gernotshagen, Girlschool, Gloryful, Gloryhammer, Grave, Hämatom, Hamferð, Hammerfall, Harpyie, Jinjer, Joachim Witt, Kaizaa, Kärbholz, Krokus, Lagerstein, Legion Of The Damned, Life Of Agony, Manticora, Meshuggah, Michale Graves, Myrath, Nashville Pussy, Nasty, Necrophobic, Night In Gales, Of Mice And Men, Opeth, Parkway Drive, Powerwolf, Primordial, Prophets Of Rage, Queensrÿche, Rage & Lingua Mortis Orchestra, Rose Tattoo, Sabaton, Santiano, Septicflesh, Sisters Of Mercy, Skyclad, Slayer, Soil, Subway To Sally, Suidakra, Sweet, Tesseract, Testament, The Adicts, The Boss Hoss, The Crown, The Night Flight Orchestra, The Vintage Caravan, Thy Art Is Murder, Torment, Tribulation, UFO, Vampire, Velvet Viper, Venom Inc., Versengold, Vltimas, Vogelfrey, Windhand, Within Temptation
WOA 2018 Panorama W