CtrlAltMusic was at the second day of Samhain Festival at Trix, where things got loud, fast, and unrelentingly heavy. From blackened speed metal and ethereal soundscapes to suffocating doom and genre-defining brutality, the lineup delivered something for every shade of extreme. Whether it was the hypnotic atmosphere of Vemod, the full-throttle assault of Hellripper, the ritualistic violence of Dragged into Sunlight, or the devastating precision of Suffocation.
Death Komes Ripping Through – Witchfukker
Having stormed the BeNeLux underground metal scene with their 2024 release Tapestry of Unspeakable Horrors, Dutch three-piece Witchfukker wasted no time igniting day two of Samhain Festival. Their filthy, unrelenting fusion of speed, black, and thrash metal driven by raw, shrieking vocals felt like a sonic gut punch from the first note.
Their live show was pure chaos, a relentless barrage of riffs and aggression that turned the Cafe Stage into a headbanger’s battleground. No frills, no mercy – just a blistering, face-melting opening to set the tone for the rest of the day.
Setlist: Pain Beyond Death – Sordid Aggression – Death Komes Ripping Through – Abyssal Autosarkophagy – Descension Into Horrid Delirium – Nymphomania – March – Grueling Interkourse
True Norwegian Melancholy – Vemod
After an unrelentingly raw first act, we made our way to the main stage for Norway’s dark and ethereal Vemod. The trio delivered a transcendent sonic journey, weaving otherworldly tremolos over relentless blast beats, seamlessly blending haunting clean vocals with feral growls.
Their stage presence was as mesmerizing as their sound—draped in all-black simple outfits, they stood against a backdrop of shifting clouded skies and vast natural landscapes, embodying the essence of Ethereal Black Metal.
In a genre where bass often gets buried in the mix, the sound engineers did an impeccable job, letting every note cut through the waves of tremolo-picked melodies and thunderous drumming, making the set an immersive, hypnotic experience.
Setlist: Mot oss, en ild – Der Guder Dør – True North Beckons – Inn i lysende natt – Venter på stormene – I Troldskog Faren Vild
Give us a Second Max, OK GO MAX! – Hellripper
The next band to take the main stage by storm was Scotland’s own Hellripper. As a flagbearer of the death-laced, blackened speed/thrash metal hybrid, James McBain has been leading the charge alongside the likes of Midnight, Toxic Holocaust, and local heroes Schizophrenia and Bütcher.
Did we say take the stage by storm? This was a full-blown tempest. Kicking off with the iconic ‘All Hail the Goat’, the band wasted no time launching into the first single from their 2020 album, ‘Spectres of the Blood Moon Sabbath’. From the first note, it was clear—James and his live band were tearing through their material even faster than on record. One standout was drummer Max Southall, who, playing barefoot, delivered a relentless assault behind the kit, sounding less like a man and more like a six-limbed beast.
Keeping the momentum going, they ripped through ‘Hell’s Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and the savage ‘Nekroslut’, sending the front row into a frenzy. Taking a brief breath, they then tore into ‘Demdike (In League with the Devil)’, setting the stage for the absolute carnage of ‘The Affair of the Poisons’ and ‘From Hell’. Trying to jot down notes for this live report in the front row quickly became impossible under the onslaught of whiplash-inducing riffs.
As if things weren’t already fast enough, the set hurtled forward with ‘Goat Vomit Nightmare’, ‘The Hanging Tree’, and the crushing ‘The Nuckelavee’, each track upping the intensity. But James wasn’t done with us yet. Promising to push the speed even further, the band stormed through ‘Nunfucking Armageddon 666’, ‘Fork-Tongued Messiah’, and the razor-sharp ‘Bastard of Hades’.
Bringing their show to a neck-breaking conclusion, Hellripper closed with ‘Headless Angels’, leaving a battered but thoroughly satisfied crowd in their wake.
Setlist: All Hail the Goat – Spectres of the Blood Moon Sabbath – Hell’s Rock ‘n’ Roll – Nekroslut – Demdike (In League with the Devil) – The Affair of the Poisons – From Hell – Goat Vomit Nightmare – The Hanging Tree – The Nuckelavee – Nunfucking Armageddon 666 – Fork-Tongued Messiah – Bastard of Hades – Headless Angels
Blinding Strobes and Animal Skulls – Dragged into Sunlight
Forbidden entity, rarely seen live, hatred in musical form, the British-born independent Blackened Death-Doom quartet took to the main stage cloaked in shadows, strobing lights, goat skulls, and candlelight. This is a band that thrives on extremity, both in sound and presence, standing as one of the most “you either get it or you don’t” acts of the festival. With releases few and far between, they embody pure sonic violence, offering no crowd interaction, instead facing their wall of amplifiers as they unleashed Hatred for Mankind in its rawest form.
From the opening moments of ‘Boiled Angel’, the atmosphere was suffocating. Waves of distortion and tortured vocals poured over the crowd, the sheer density of the sound pressing down on the venue like an unrelenting force. Despite their anti-performance approach, the audience at the barrier was fully immersed—heads banging in chaos, absorbing every ounce of the sonic and visual punishment. The frontman, barefoot, pushed his voice to its limits and traded vocals with the guitarist, shrieking and growling through ’Buried with Leeches’.
There was no crowd interaction, no acknowledgment of anything outside their own sonic abyss. ‘Volcanic Birth’ droned and swelled over samples of serial killers, its chaotic ambience leaving the audience swaying rather than moshing—this was music that consumed rather than ignited. ‘To Hieron’ opened with a sampled quote from Aileen Wuornos, death-row sentenced prostitute-turned-serial killer, criticizing her executioners. The short, almost 3-minute track takes us to the depths of damnation and hell.
By the time they reached ‘Lashed to the Grinder and Stoned to Death’, the weight of it all had settled. Some people in the crowd stood still, frozen in the moment, while others let themselves be swept away by the waves of distortion. ‘I, Aurora’ stretched time, its slow-building tension growing into a drowning wave of blast beats and tremolos, sometimes groovy, sometimes completely dissonant, a moment that felt endless to witness.
They ended with ‘Totem of Skulls’, not with a triumphant finale, but with a gradual, unraveling descent into silence. No farewell, no grand gesture—just the last whispers of feedback, slowly dissipating like a ghost into the darkness. Some remained in place, unsure whether to applaud or simply absorb the aftermath. Others walked away, their faces caught somewhere between awe and discomfort. A brief experience, impossible to replicate, and for those who understood, one to hold onto.
A rare spectacle, an unrelenting force, a display of pure, uncompromising hatred through sound.
Setlist: Boiled Angel – Buried with Leechers – Volcanic Birth – To Hieron – Lashed to the Grinder and Stoned to Death – I, Aurora – Totem of Skulls
(Hatred for Mankind in its entirety)
Closing the Festival with a Bang – Suffocation
The last band we saw at Samhain Festival was the legendary Death Metal band Suffocation. The American pioneers walking the line between Technical and Brutal Death closed off the festival’s main stage with one of the most consistent and disgustingly whiplash-inducing sets of the night. And if you wonder, yes, the members did the thing – Derek Boyer played his bass propped on the ground, Terrance Hobbs was a nonstop riff machine, Ricky Myers hit the blast beat karate chops, and Eric Morotti laid down some of the most punishing blasts of the entire day.
They kicked things off with ‘Thrones of Blood’, setting the tone straight away with crushing riffs and brutal vocals. Followed by the sonic wall that ‘Seraphim Enslavement’ from their latest Hymns from the Apocrypha, the track showed just how good the band still is in 2025.
It wasn’t long before we were thrown straight into ‘Effigy of the Forgotten’, with the title track from their iconic debut hitting like a sledgehammer. This was followed by ‘Dim Veil Of Obscurity’ and ‘Descendants’, also from the latest record, carrying that dense, technical sound the band’s perfected over decades.
The rest of the set kept diving into all corners of their discography. ‘Catatonia’ from their 1991 Human Waste EP still rips live with its raw, slow-crushing energy, while ‘Clarity Through Deprivation’ off 2017’s …Of the Dark Light put us back into the sonic wall territory.
To wrap up, ‘Perpetual Deception’ landed like a sledgehammer before they gave us the brutal closing combo of ‘Liege of Inveracity’ and ‘Infecting the Crypts’, triggering some of the rowdiest pits of the entire day. The energy never let up until the final note rang out.
Suffocation didn’t need theatrics – they just walked on and did what they do best: deliver pure, unfiltered death metal chaos. A perfect, crushing finale to the main stage.
Setlist: Thrones of Blood – Seraphim Enslavement – Effigy of the Forgotten – Dim Veil Of Obscurity – Descendants – Pierced from Within – Funeral Inception – Catatonia – Clarity Through Deprivation – Perpetual Deception – Liege of Inveracity – Infecting the Crypts