2025: Another pivotal year for Merseyside Metal

From brand new festivals to the emergence of new venues and cutting-edge bands, 2025 has been an unforgettable one for Merseyside heavy rock and metal. As we start 2026, we reflect on last year’s highlights and look forward to what is to come.

Events and partnerships

One of the core elements of our mission statement was to be outward-facing and to engage where possible with global partners to benefit the Merseyside scene. Thanks to our evolving partnership with Malaysian-based promoter and record label, Black Label Production, we have been able to achieve this during 2025 more than ever before.

Not only did we provide promotional support when Black Label Production brought pioneering South-East Asian extreme metal band, Black Fire, to Liverpool in April, this initial collaboration provided the foundation for a more sustained partnership.

This partnership culminated in Black Label Production launching a UK edition of their KL Metal Mayhem festival in October of this year. The concert part of the festival took place at EBGBS and featured a line-up of talented metal acts from Merseyside and the north-west including OmegaThrone, Archaea, Napierdalać, Steel Forge and The Machinist.

That an international partner was willing to travel over 6000 miles to put on a show in Liverpool and invest in our local talent speaks volumes for the reputation that Metal on Merseyside has established since its inception. It is also testimony to the commitment of Zax and the team at Black Label Production to work with other global metal music scenes.

Indeed, we are delighted to announce that a second edition of KL Metal Mayhem (UK edition) will take place during September 2026. We will start to confirm the exact date and venue, as well as the artists involved over the coming months.

To complement the KL Metal Mayhem concert event, a one-day symposium was also held at Liverpool John Moores University. Crossing Borders: metal music scenes and extremity brought together both academics and industry stakeholders from Merseyside and beyond for a day of insightful presentations exploring the theme of the different ‘border crossings’ that can occur within metal music culture and industry.

Again, to complement the forthcoming KL Metal Mayhem festival, we will be organizing another conference style event. Watch this space for further details.

On a more local level, it has been incredible to see the growth of collaborative partnerships across the region. Metal and alternative music promoters have formed a collective and have been liaising with each other in efforts to ensure that everyone feels supported and that clashes in the gig calendar can be avoided as much as possible.

While the LiveLiverpool initiative was launched with a clear agenda for supporting the region’s grassroots artists and venues. Metal on Merseyside is proud to working with this initiative.

Festivals and events galore

In addition to KL Metal Mayhem (UK edition), established festivals such as No Play and Dark Reign continued to thrive during 2025 with strong line-ups and healthy audiences. It was also encouraging to see Dark Reign continue to grow with the development of their inaugural Winter Edition festival, which took place in early December.

While the debut edition of Scouse of Heaven at District in October showcased the strength in depth of the Merseyside metal scene through blistering performances from Devil’s Henchmen, Ogun, Raised by Wolves, Scare Tactics, Sourflake and White Lightning.

Venues

2025 was a bittersweet year as far as the region’s venues are concerned. The legendary Zanzibar, home to several rock and metal gigs in years gone by, closed its doors to gigs in October.

Although this was a huge blow for our scene and Liverpool music in general, the establishment of several new venues in recent months has lessened the impact.

Firstly, the re-launch of Quarry in the site of the old Magnet venue on Hardman Street has been a boost. Secondly, the launch of new venue, ARC:HIVE, on the old Cains Brewery complex has been another shot in the arm for live rock and metal music.

Established “metal friendly” venues have continued to do sterling work during 2025. Most notably, Outpost have continued to prove themselves as the home of cutting-edge grassroots acts and their partnership with upcoming promoters such as the prolific LK Promotions and Vanquished Promotions has seen numerous gigs throughout the year.

Metal 2 The Masses Merseyside

Deathwave Entertainment bowed out in style as the promoter for Metal 2 The Masses Merseyside with a stellar set of heats and an outstanding sold-out final at Zanzibar.

In one of the most hotly contested finals in the event’s history, Ogun proved their class over talented contenders OmegaThrone, Archaea, and False Thoughts to win their place at Bloodstock Open Air festival.

Hot on the heels of Ogun’s impressive performance on the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock, it was recently announced that Metal 2 The Masses Merseyside would continue, this time under the umbrella of Metal on Merseyside, with the support of a range of other locally based promoters.

Indeed, no time has been wasted as all the competing acts were announced before the end of the year. On top of that, in a boost for the scene, heats will be taking place at brand new (150 capacity) venue ARC:HIVE.

Heat dates are already starting to be announced, so to ensure you keep up to date ensure that you follow the new Metal 2 the Masses Merseyside pages on Facebook and Instagram.

Bands

As is made evident each week on the Metal on Merseyside sponsored radio show, the Moore Metal Show, the breadth of bands emerging from the Merseyside scene has never been more impressive. From established metal monsters like Crepitation, Ogun, Devil’s Henchmen, Raised by Wolves and Scare Tactics to new upstarts like Skin Flowers, Neon Oracle, Rozemary, Sourflake, White Lightning, Archaea and Druid’s Cross, the scene is in rude health.

It is also genuinely exciting to see some of those artists crossing over. The success of Skin Flowers in getting radio exposure on BBC Introducing, as well as their single and music video for ‘Endymion’ getting impressive streams on Spotify and YouTube, being just one example that springs to mind.

In all, it has been an outstanding year for metal in Merseyside. As we start 2026 with the Metal 2 the Masses announcements coming thick and fast, the most exciting thing is that this year is going to be even better.