Few debuts arrive with as much intrigue as Antihuman Industries. Formed as a Finnish underground supergroup with current and former members of iconic bands like Trollheims Grott, …and Oceans and True Black Dawn and fresh from releasing their debut album earlier this year, Steelfest 2026 is expected to host the project’s first-ever live performance.

Combining industrial textures with black metal hostility, Antihuman Industries represents the experimental side and uniqueness of the Finnish scene, proof that innovation still thrives within extreme music’s underground circles and how Finland has always done its own thing regarding black metal. With musicians of this kind of pedigree and a sound that brings all the bands the band members come from to mind, with a touch of Mysticum‘s relentless industrial madness, this is simply a show you won’t want to miss out on. It’ll be an early party and we predict one of the highlights of the day.

Ukrainian atmospheric black metal entity Severoth already impressed Finnish audiences during last year’s Steelfest and a recent club show appearance last autumn, making their quick return something plenty of fans are all too happy about. And since there have been quite some issues to get certain metal bands from Ukraine to Steelfest due to the issues going on in the country, we’re all counting our blessings that Severoth will be here.

Severoth trades aggression for immersion, weaving melancholic melodies and expansive soundscapes into deeply emotional performances. Amid a festival known for intensity, this set promises a different kind of heaviness, introspective yet powerful. These more atmospheric acts are good moments to get relaxing a bit, letting the music take you away to other realms before you dive back into the madness and chaos that will be the majority of the rest of the day.

Another Finnish powerhouse on the bill, Concrete Winds brings their unique grindcore/black metal chaos to the Outside Stage on Friday. Easily one of the most musically extreme acts of the festival, this is mandatory viewing for the sickos.

Blending technical ferocity with unfiltered violence, Concrete Winds push extremity beyond genre boundaries. Their live shows feel unpredictable and dangerously energetic — exactly the sort of performance that reminds audiences how far extreme metal can still be pushed.

The nightmare vision of Akhlys transforms black metal into something deeply unsettling. Known for suffocating atmosphere and dreamlike horror aesthetics, the band crafts performances that feel closer to psychological descent than traditional concerts.

All masked up like demons from the depths of hell, Akhlys offers one of the darkest sonic journeys of the entire weekend: hypnotic, oppressive, and utterly absorbing.

It would be criminal not to mention Beherit. No introduction needed – one of the most legendary and influential Finnish black metal bands of all time headlines Steelfest Friday. Every Beherit performance feels like history in the making. This is not one to miss. METAL OF DEATH.

Few names carry the mythological weight of Beherit, whose influence stretches across generations of extreme music. When they suddenly announced to be doing some select shows again, the excitement rippled through the underground scene and every date pulled in large groups of devotees. Seeing them on Finnish soil at an event as iconic and legendary in the underground metal scene as Steelfest, surrounded by an audience that fully understands their legacy, elevates this headline appearance easily into one of this year’s highlights and one for the history books of the event.