In his master piece, The Divine Comedy, Dante embarked on a journey through Inferno, Paradiso and Purgatorio. Music-wise, my journey has been the other way around: from Paradise and Purgatory, to Copenhell 2026, where I was welcomed to Hell.
Equipped with notebook, brain and heart I was ready to capture every detail, visual, feeling and vibe.
Day One. Under a fantastic sun, entry was smooth despite a short queue.
My baptism at Copenhell was at the Pandæmonium stage, with Dogma. The five almost-nuns opened with an energizing team huddle before delivering a very good show, alternating horror movie litanies with great guitar riffs and short provocative talks from Lilith. She constantly energized the crowd, culminating with Madonna‘s Like a Prayer cover.
Next came Mammoth, with Wolfgang Van Halen leading an hour of their blend of modern alternative rock, grunge influences, and classic hard rock hooks, followed by Tom Morello: his outstanding storytelling and unique guitar work involved the crowd in a great show.
Copenhell experience went beyond the music: excellent organization, endless food and drinks options, and even a roaming stage, equipped with big pyros and live bands.
Next in line gathered quite a huge crowd too: Alice Cooper‘s time! His spectacular entrance kicked off a memorable theatrical experience, before Slay Squad brought chaos with their “ghetto metal”.
No matter which generation they belonged to, Iron Maiden united them all in front of the main stage and demonstrated once again to be a cultural phenomenon.
Even after five decades, the British legends remain one of the top bands for live metal performance: they put up a massive show, with lights, pyros, inspiring visuals and videos in the background and a constant engaging energy making sure it was a memorable concert.
In one of the few two hour long concerts at Copenhell, Iron Maiden played some of their colossal hits and cult classics, like The Trooper and The Number of the Beast, but also some songs that they had not been playing for a long time, like Infinite Dreams.
An almost full moon raised in the sky while Adrian Smith delighted the crowd with a memorable guitar solo in Aces High.
Bruce Dickinson delivered his message before ending the concert: “Have a great night, have a great fucking life!!”
And we all took the advice seriously.
The last gig of Day 1 was Mastodon, that brought on stage their massive 25+ year experience and an extraordinary energy.
Day Two. Unpeople were the first up. The red logo, red shirts and tie stood up against the black background, and it alone brought a good amount of energy. Jake Crawford exhibited a charismatic presence and it was a quite an ironic moment when they played Clouds, under a perfectly blue sky.
Big stage, Helviti, for Black Label Society. Zakk Wylde warmed up the crowd with his action figures before starting the gig and then it was a massive storm of music, guitar riffs and moves, and emotional moments, like No More Tears: the background screen displayed big photos of Ozzy, while huge balloons made their way to the crowd.
Next in line was Die Spitz, that performed at Gehenna, the stage in the forest: a completely different atmosphere where Ava Schrobilgen and the rest of the band kept interacting with the crowd since the first song, Red40, delivering an engaging performance of punk, grunge and heavy metal.
From the forest to Hades, to enjoy the Queensrÿche progressive metal and heavy metal, and then End It, with their full-blown energy that brought to a wild mosh pit.
Kublai Khan TX concert was an adrenaline-fueled performance, where their leader Matt Honeycutt acted like a conductor, directing a big crowd and pushing them to a wilder and wilder mosh pit.
Calva Louise followed, and brought their alternative rock and metalcore back to the forest.
The last slot today was for Sepultura, and their fantastic and engaging show.
Day Three. All Them Witches kicked off the day, under the hottest sun of the week. Charles Michael Parks Jr. deep voice and their psychedelic rock, blues rock, and stoner rock was a very enjoyable experience.
Trivium was next, and they pulled off a big show characterized by pyros, guitar solo and duels, streamers, confetti and a very engaging Matt Heafy.
Californians P.O.D. were on stage at Hades, with their energizing show of rap metal and alternative metal, followed by one of the highlights of the festival, A Perfect Circle with their perfect show.
And then we had a festival in the festival, with the 15 YEARS IN HELL – ALL STAR SHOW: it was a dynamic rotation on stage of Danish musicians, playing some of the best classics, from Paranoid, to Highway Star to No more Tears.
The day ended with Anthrax, that did a spectacular entrance and hyped the crowd right away with Among the Living. The American legends ran a show of lightning-fast riffs, great presence on stage and huge crowd engagement.
Day Four. Warkings were first in line, with their warriors’ costumes, impressive interaction with the crowd and alternating vocals between The Tribune and Morgana le Fay.
Next stop: Djerv from Norway, with their mix of hard rock and metal, and Trollfest, that pulled off a unique and entertaining flamingo themed show.
It was then over to Californians Social Distortion, whose performance was a neat punk rock exhibition, played without any theatrical scenery: just rock, and a beautiful one.
Bury Tomorrow and their metalcore sound kept the folk highly engaged. Alestorm then took the Helviti stage, filled in with four big ducks: their pirate metal music fired up the crowd, that started a massive crowd surfing flow, which often traffic jammed before being safely delivered beyond the barriers. A little sound issue didn’t impact the energy and the level of the show.
I went then to Hades, as Saxon were about to start: the British band pulled off a heavy metal show, that a mostly Generation X really appreciated.
Volbeat took the stage in front of a huge crowd and ran their both heavy and highly melodic show, under a setup of really big and moving lights, that made the concert even more memorable when suddenly the sky got much darker, thunder and lightning filled the air and the Hell was hit by a massive rain shower that brought some chaos, but the festivalgoers reacted well and kept having fun in the various tents.
The four days at the festival were a blast for me: I got closer to my friends, made new ones, jumped in the middle of mosh pits, crowd surfed blindly trusting strangers’ arms, roared with the GoT dragon. Copenhell is not just a festival, it’s a life experience.
Luca Bruschi
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