FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Kill-Town Death Fest 2025
Words: Sam Jones
Photos: Tim Finch
When it comes to extreme metal, few festivals possess the simultaneous allure and savagery of Copenhagen’s Kill-Town Deathfest. Debuted in 2010, Kill-Town Deathfest has risen to become a haven for all things putrid and reviled, the very kind of metal scores travel for far and wide. Having taken a break over 2024, putting on a smaller edition in London over the Autumn, Killtown Bookings return with another monstrous lineup to celebrate the festival’s tenth edition, come September 4th – 7th at the Pumpehuset in the middle of Copenhagen, Denmark. But for me, this isn’t some mere festival, attending Kill-Town Deathfest is a significant bucket list event as well as my first ever overseas festival.
The moment they announced Portal to play I booked tickets and began perusing flights to Copenhagen; having not played Europe since 2019 its guaranteed to be a blistering show as the band bring their legendarily unnerving live aesthetic to the Danish realm. Other big names adorn the lineup as Finland’s Rippikoulo come over, the United States’ own Morpheus Descends perform an exclusive one-off performance, the vanguard of modern British death metal Vacuous join with the old school Cancer. But what makes Kill-Town Deathfest the desirable festival are not the big names; they’ll draw you in but its the smaller acts that grant this festival the prestige earned after fifteen years.
This is the lifeblood. Having disbanded and reformed Corpus Offal deliver the goods, bringing from record to stage material from their recent debut release. As a certain theme is established, you’ll find Kill-Town Deathfest has a knack for bringing bands to their land for one-off or rare live performances; its no wonder why the festival has garnered such a loyal following. The United States’ Fleshrot, Noroth , Left Cross and Purulency, Mexico’s Reverence To Paroxysm, Canada’s Ruinous Power and Ceremonial Bloodbath, Australia’s Mitochondrion. The number of bands playing here that aren’t otherwise on existing tours is astounding and really showcases Killtown Bookings’ capacity to pull in these incredible names, each from far-flung places, and bring them over for one-off performances over one weekend in early September.
Other names are plastered: Finland’s Galvanizer who stunned audiences back at Finnfest in London in 2020, Denmark’s own Maceration shall take the stage following not just their rebirth but their second album, Serpent Devourment, since doing so. Filthy grinders Caustic Wound may have amongst the last announced but they’re far forgotten all the while Abhorration, on the backs of Demonolatry, bring their raw and wicked side over to Denmark. But then you have bands only now marking their earliest shows as Killtown Bookings pull in Finland’s Malformed, recently releasing their first album; Necrotic Ooze and Foetorem respectively each perform their first live performances ever at the festival. But we would be amiss if we did not mention acts like Assumption, Miscreance, Sanctuarium, Sewer Haul, Funeral Moth and, a personally awaited highlight of mine, Trollcave.
Ultimately its lineups such as these that have long held my jaw agape and knowing I'll finally make my own pilgrimage over to Copenhagen in under a week’s time fills me with ravenous glee. Who knows? My experience with Kill-Town Deathfest may alter my usual Festival plans I've had penned down for some years now. I don’t think i could have picked a more revered name for extreme metal on Continental Europe, and meeting up with a good slew of friends there from the United Kingdom only sweetens it. Kill-Town Deathfest isn’t simply another festival to me; I'll be fulfilling a long-established bucket list item as well as taking that landmark step of flying over to a festival for the first time. See you in Copenhagen.
Photo credits: Tim Finch Photography
