Odense Metalfest 2025 Wrap Pt.1
Slow Dragon Music returned to Denmark’s Odense Metalfest for another fix of Scandinavian metal and hardcore.
In 2023, we made our first foray to Odense Metalfest, at Musikhuset Posten (read our wrap article here). Suitably impressed by the community, venue, and excellent lineup, we had to come back when the 2025 edition began revealing bands. With known names and new music to discover, the event offers a deep dive into the Danish scene, and the artists who travel to partake in it. If you feel like going, we’d highly recommend looking into Hotel Cabinn. It is affordable, and only a two minute walk from the venue, with a reasonably priced supermarket across the road, or Hafla Burger, if you’re in need of fast food.
Travelling from Scotland, the cold, wet weather offers no surprises.
Doors are open nice and early, so we save ourselves an unnecessary soaking and head on in. It’s not long before everything kicks off. Foot To Face open proceedings, with a strong hardcore edge, although the interspersed grooves (and what sounds to me like bursts of Iron Maiden – Slow Dragon) spell out a metal background. It is, after all, essentially a “hardcore & metal” event. Anything brutal goes.
We are quick to discover that the fest has it’s own beer, and at 3 rounds for 30 quid, it’s not bad for gig prices. Picking ours up, I turn round to the grinning face of Andreas Truelsen, frontman of Plaguemace. A welcome indeed! He’s not spilling whether he’ll be invading the stage this year, but the friendly interaction goes to show that there is a strong, open community here.
Next up, still on the smaller Helheim stage, is Lotan.
They’ve been manning the merch stall from early doors, so we managed to get a word with them. Self-described as Marduk meets death metal and groove, they apparently started of as a side-project from Vanir. They run the gamut of black metal, and it feels good for a mid-afternoon fix. There’s a bit of dirtiness to them, both musically and the stage show, some of the licks recall garage rock n roll in 90s Sweden, just with Satan at the helm.
As we circulate and mingle, it turns out there are some fellow Scots here, travelling specifically to see today’s headliners, Lik. Good shout! It’s hard to deny they are a quality band. In the meantime, though, the third band, still on the second stage, is Aarhus’ Guttural Disgorge. They look incredibly young. Which is another sign that the organisers are doing it right. Gotta nurture the scene to keep it alive. It helps that they are obscenely heavy, and put on a belter of a performance.
Odense Metalfest 2025 Wrap Pt.1
Finally, the big stage is open for some superlative death-thrash from Persecutor.
The room looks full on entry, but actually, it’s just that half the floor is taken up with a huge circle pit. Formed around the guitarist. This is a peak highlight, as the band smash their way through some intense, melodic death metal, of the grittiest kind. Utterly brilliant stuff from a band fronted by one of the 118 guys.
For a relatively ‘small’ band, they have left some big shoes to fill. But switching things back up to hardcore eases that burden. Young German squad, Torch It drop chunky sounds on the smaller stage, and, while my mind is still on Persecutor, they do get the crowd bouncing. Harmshelter (who share last year’s Grey City Tales split with Torch It), follow suit, complete with on stage crowd-killing from the bassist.
While the whole fest is heavy as hell, the spread of genres really helps keep things fresh through the whole weekend.
Things shift back in favour of death metal with Sweden’s Wretched Fate. You can tell from the riffs, that they grew up in their national scene, but they fit in perfectly, and have the floor filled. This is another pretty very young outfit, but we hear rumours that they’ve been carving their place, including a support with Slayer! Likewise, we’ve heard good things about the penultimate main stage act, Neckbreaker; another young crew who get the place bouncing. They’ve been playing a lot of big festivals, including Bloodstock, Hellfest, and Summerbreeze, more popular Scandi fests like Copenhell, Tuska, and Sweden Rocks, and supporting Baest, Crypta, and Left to Die.
There’s a very distinctive Danish death metal scene that you can see across the festival. A feeling of camaraderie pervades amongst them, and everyone seems to know each other, helping out with each other’s merch, and guesting each others sets. It makes this feel very familial to the Scottish metal scene, although it draws people from much further afield. We even stumble into a chance meeting with the organiser of Iceland’s Satan Festival (their 2026 bill looks very tempting… https://satan-festival.com/)
Hard grooving death metal is next
Last year’s Wacken Metal Battle winners, Thus close the small stage to a packed room. Progressive elements merge into jagged, thrashy swells, and melodic death metal with a dollop of grime, as they spin a musical story in concise form. It’s a set to lift energy levels before the closing act of night one. (For me, this is very impactful, hosting more diversity than the average extreme metal billing; a perfect choice of headliner for the Helheim stage – Slow Dragon)
The great thing about travelling to these club size festivals is getting to know the local/national community. Outside in the food court, we get our education on other Danish festivals of repute, such as Metal Magic. and Heavy Agger. We put them on the mental wish list, before the first finale of the weekend…
Odense Metalfest 2025 Wrap Pt.1
At last, the big dog bites…
…and Friday headliners, Lik (read more here), take the stage. Ploughing through heavy hitting numbers like Morgue Rat, Corrosive Survival, and Funeral Anthem, they deliver everything which was wished for, like an old school Swedish death metal Santa Clause. Despite some minor technical issues, at no time do they disappoint. Guitars interject the sludged depths of the rhythm section with knifepoint precision, topped with Tomas Åkvik‘s unmistakable harrowing vocals. The Maceration t-shirt is a nice nod to the organiser’s band, too. Clocking in at almost an hour doesn’t quite seem enough, but it has to end some time, leaving a heaving audience grinning with satisfaction.
Odense Metalfest have already started announcing bands for their 2026 edition, with Benighted, Grand Cadaver, and more. Tickets and further information can be found here: https://www.odensemetal.dk/
READ MORE REVIEWS IN FEEDING FRENZY ON SLOW DRAGON MUSIC
Odense Metalfest 2025 Wrap Pt.1
