Mystic Festival 2025: First four names, four sides of metal
8th October 2024
We are laying our first cards on the table – and it’s a hand of aces! In Flames, Exodus, Nile and Alcest will welcome you from the stage at Mystic Festival 2025 in Gdańsk. Be there June 4th to 7th or be square.
In Flames
The flame was lit in the early 90s in Gothenburg. With the albums the Swedes released in the middle of this decade, Lunar Strain and The Jester Race, they were not only writing their own history but created a new genre of heavy music – melodic death metal. Once they achieved its mastery, the band unexpectedly changed course with Reroute to Remain, steering towards a more modern, alternative sound, and sailing through oceans of possibilities that they draw from till today. Irrespective of the stylistic turns, the core of the music In Flames plays remains the same – melodies that still chew on your brain long after you heard them balanced out by pure metallic aggression. Foregone, recorded in California and released in 2023, is the latest and best testament to it.
Exodus
We have been waiting for Exodus at Mystic Festival for a while now, but in 2025 the wait is finally over – the pioneers and masters of thrash metal will (dis)grace the stage in Gdańsk to give us a proper lesson in violence. This is the band whose guitarists have lent a helping hand to Metallica and Slayer in times of need and whose music has inspired whole generations to create extreme metal of the highest fineness. To put it short, even though the media did not honour them with a membership in the Big 4, it was Exodus who paved the way that took others to the top. From Bonded By Blood and Pleasures of the Flesh to Blood In, Blood Out and Persona Non Grata, they never disappointed, and they never tarnished themselves with compromise. We will be honoured to host this living legend during the festival.
Nile
The lyrics of Nile are not entirely honest with you about the tale of ancient Egypt, for… if it was an empire as powerful as the sound of the Karl Sanders-led band, it would never have fallen. They debuted in 1998 with an outstanding album, Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka, proving that the rumours of the death of death metal were entirely overblown. Since then, this demon-fuelled desert wind is not only still blowing strong, but is only getting stronger, leaving wreckage in its wake. Nile’s tenth record, released this year, titled The Underworld Awaits Us All is but pure sound madness.
Alcest
Stéphane “Neige” Paut is not just the leader of Alcest – he is one of those musical visioners who lead their bands down paths invisible to other artists. Indeed, the land spanning between the cold kingdom of black metal, the deserts of post-rock and the rocky massifs of shoegaze has been well traversed since, but it was Alcest who first went out to map it out, starting out two decades ago with their debut Souvenirs d’un autre mode and continuing till this day with the 2024 Les Chants de l’Aurore. And live? You will forget your own names, their music will take hold of you so thoroughly…
Mystic Festival will take place in the Gdańsk Shipyard from June 4th to 7th, 2025. More information and tickets available at our website: www.mysticfestival.pl.
Currently available for purchase:
Early Bird pass – PLN799.
VIP pass – PLN1299.
Passes are also available for purchase via the eBilet platform, which offers instalment sale – buy today, pay later.
The festival is brought to you in partnership with Antyradio.
The festival is organised by Mystic Coalition, an alliance of companies with rich experience in concert, festival and record industries, comprising Knock Out Productions, Mystic Production, and B90.
