Mystic Festival 2025: Something is loud in the state of Denmark

Did you know the distance from Copenhagen to Gdańsk is only 400 kilometres? Next year, we will have a neighbourly visit from John Cxnnor, Møl, Cabal, Plaguemace, and Embla. You won’t find a better survey of the emerging Danish scene outside of Denmark than that on our stages.

John Cxnnor
John Cxnnor sounds as if he volunteered to join arms with Skynet and destroyed everything that’s human with cold, mechanical, raw music, which spans from trip-hop through industrial to techno. John Cxnnor is a project of two brothers, Ketil G. Sejersen and Rasmus G. Sejersen, whom you can also know as members of LLNN, and they collaborate with the best voices of the Danish hardcore and metal scene.

Møl
The drifting, untethered, panoramic shoegaze dreams that Møl let the listener dream are, here and there, disturbed by a pained black metal shriek or a mighty guitar onslaught. The four-piece hailing from Aarhus has thus far released two albums – Jord and Diorama – and has a reputation as a phenomenal live act.

Cabal
One of the most uncompromising Danish bands, a deathcore meat grinder. Meat not really all that fresh, if we are to believe the title of their upcoming fourth album, Everything Rots, to be released through Nuclear Blast in April 2025. An appetiser for what’s to be expected in the Gdańsk Shipyard was served to the audience of their Warsaw concert the band played in November, that is, if anyone’s still alive to tell the tale.

Katla
Sludge/doom heated up with hellfire. It is heavy, raw and uncompromising – it is something for the fans of Conan or even Electric Wizard. After a couple of years of battling it out in the underground, Katla signed with Napalm Records, the fruits of which we will surely get to taste soon.

Plaguemace
Scandinavian death metal of the purest form. If you don’t bend your necks to headbang, Plaguemace will break them in half with their shattering riffs. Their debut album, Reptilian Warlords, was released last autumn and as the title suggests, it sounds like a war reptilians wage against humankind. Suffice it to say, the lizards win.

Embla
You might not know the name, for the five-piece from Copenhagen has been using it only since May 2024. Before that, they were known as We Are Among Storms and their album, The I In We, caused a proper stir on the Danish posthardcore scene. Though they have already recorded some material under the new moniker, what Embla is truly known for is their intensely emotional live performances.