Baltimore’s biggest festival and arguably one of America’s best metal festivals just released the first wave of artists set to take the stage in 2018 and by the looks of it so far, you’re going to want to be there. The first 25 bands of the lineup includes: Bloodbath, Coven, -(16)-, Abhomine, Blood Incantation, Broken Hope, Chthe’ilist, Destroyed in Seconds, Dead Infection, Durian, Enemy Soil, Evoken, Eyehategod, God Dethroned, Gutted, Lord Gore, Opera IX, Phrenelith, Ritual Necromancy, Sadistic Intent, Sinister, Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition, Ufomammut, Wormrot and Zemial.

The four day festival will take place on Memorial Day weekend again, May 24-May 27 in Baltimore, MD. Imitating the same set-up as last year, the festival will be indoor and split between the Rams Head Live and Baltimore Sound Stage. Early bird tickets are currently available for purchase, but snag them while you can because of the limited quantity. Click here to check it out.

2018 will mark MDF’s 16th installment of the epic event, and has presented over 500 bands from more than 25 countries thus far. As the Death Fest official website states, “MDF is a showcase of what extreme music, both new and old, is capable of.” Sister festivals have even been created since MDF’s start, adding California Death Fest and Netherlands Death fest to the mix in 2016. Last year performers included Acheron, Macabre, and Night Raids. And while the lineup had a significant amount of artists less a decade ago, the performers were just as gnarly including: Brutal Truth, Cock and Ball Torture, and Nunwhore Commando 666.

This year EyeHateGod performed at the Mike IX Williams Benefit Show with Phil Anselmo of Pantera.

Last year Coven headlined at the Roadburn music festival alongside Baroness and Warning.

UPDATE 7/25: The following 19 bands have been added to the Maryland Deathfest lineup: Cognizant, Cripple Bastards, Defeated Sanity, Dusk, Gateway to Hell, Gonkulator, Helmet, Horrible Earth, Integrity, Khemmis, Master’s Hammer, Pessimist, Petrification, Pure Hiss, Pig Destroyer, The Ruins of Beverast, Suffering Hour, Today is the Day, Violation Wound and more.

UPDATE 9/10: The following 15 bands have been added to the Deathfest Lineup: Satyricon, Darkspace, Incantation, Inquisition, Baptism, Gasp, Misery Index, Morta Skuld, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Blurring, Reeking Cross, Plagues, Stimulant, Blk Ops and Bound by the Grave.

UPDATE (2/12): My Dying Bride will no longer be performing at Maryland Deathfest. In their place are titans of industrial metal Godflesh. See the updated flyer below: