The best bands to see at RADAR Festival 2026
- Adrian Chapman
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
RADAR returns to Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse from July 31st to August 2nd, and if you’ve never been, prepare to have your expectations reset. What started as a new festival in 2019 has grown into one of the UK’s most beloved alternative gatherings, built on a no-clash schedule and a knack for booking whoever’s about to blow up before anyone else catches on.
This year’s line-up is stacked across three distinct days. Friday is the heaviest of the bunch, closing out with THY ART IS MURDER after a relentless run of acts building towards it. Saturday belongs to SKINDRED, bringing their trademark raucous energy to close out the night. Sunday shifts gears entirely, easing into technical wizardry courtesy of ANIMALS AS LEADERS. Beyond the music, RADAR’s Music and Gaming Market returns too, alongside masterclasses and tabletop gaming stalls to break up the moshing. Whether you’re there for the headliners or hunting down your new favourite band, this is a weekend built for both. Here’s your guide to ten essential acts to catch, wherever your RADAR exploration takes you.
THY ART IS MURDER
Australian deathcore heavyweights THY ART IS MURDER headline RADAR's Friday for a UK festival exclusive, and it’s hard to imagine a heavier way to open a weekend. Since 2006, the Sydney outfit have built a reputation as being one of extreme metal’s most punishing live acts, with vocalist Tyler Miller stepping into the fold following 2023's Godlike. Tracks like Reign of Darkness, Holy War and Slaves Beyond Death are all pit-igniting staples. If your idea of a Friday night out is throwing down to brutal (with two zeros) riffs, RADAR is the place to be.
SKINDRED
Saturday’s headline slot goes to a band who’ve never needed an excuse to start a party: SKINDRED. The Welsh ragga metal royalty blend chaos with pure joy, and Manchester’s about to get a masterclass in both. Led by the irrepressible Benji Webbe, the band arrives fresh off their chart-topping ninth album, You Got This. RADAR can expect an all-killer-no-filler set featuring Gimme That Boom, That’s My Jam and the all-time classic Nobody. Following their massive secret set at Download Festival, expect dancehall grooves combined with industrial-strength riffs and a Newport Helicopter to finish off the night.
ANIMALS AS LEADERS
ANIMALS AS LEADERS offer something no other headliner this weekend can: virtuosity with zero vocals needed. The Washington D.C. trio have spent nearly two decades redefining what heavy music can sound like, combining jazz fusion and progressive metal into something entirely their own. Tracks like CAFO, Tempting Time and The Woven Web remain live staples, and watching the band reconstruct that technicality on stage is genuinely jaw-dropping. A rare UK festival exclusive at RADAR only, this is a spectacular exhibition of musicianship to send you home on a high. There's no better way to end the weekend than watching three musicians make the impossible look effortless.
VOLUMES
Stepping in for a CHELSEA GRIN cancellation, LA progressive metalcore outfit VOLUMES return to RADAR after their triumphant 2023 set. Bringing their dual-vocal, bounce-heavy riffing to Friday’s line-up on the back of last year’s Mirror Touch, RADAR’s crowd in 2023 will tell you exactly why this is a win, not a consolation. The band blend djent precision with nu-metal groove and a genuine flair for melody, with tracks like Erased, Adrenaline and Edge of the Earth showcasing a band who know exactly what they’re doing on a festival stage. RADAR made the right call, and VOLUMES are about to prove it live.
VIANOVA
Berlin’s VIANOVA are RADAR’s tech-metal ones-to-watch, and it’s not hard to see why. Formed by brothers Felix and Paul Vogelgesang alongside vocalist Alexander Kerski, the quartet fuse groove-heavy riffing with rap-inflected hooks and unexpected touches of 80s synth and R&B, refusing to sit neatly in any one metalcore box. Singles like Wheel of Fortune, Whatever Alright and the explosive Uh Yaya have built them a rapidly growing fanbase and glowing reactor coverage online. Don’t be surprised if half the crowd shows up in fluffy hats and orange sunglasses – a nod to the Hit It! album artwork that’s become something of an unofficial uniform.
LUNA KILLS
LUNA KILLS are proof that nu-metal's future sounds like nothing else on this bill. Hailing from Finland and fronted by the ferociously charismatic Lotta Ruutiainen, the quartet blend jazz-trained cleans with vicious fry screams over riffs steeped in video-game soundtrack euphoria. Following 2025 debut album Deathmatch and its singles love u and slay ur enemies, plus this year's blistering LOWER, the band have quickly become one of the most talked-about names in modern metal. If you want proof that heavy music can still sound genuinely fresh, LUNA KILLS' set is the one to catch.
GRAPHIC NATURE
Few bands wear their heart as visibly on their sleeve as GRAPHIC NATURE. The Kent-formed nu-metalcore outfit fuse 90s-indebted riffs with electronic flourishes, all built around frontman Harvey Freeman’s unflinching lyrics on mental health and isolation. Having just signed to Century Media and dropped new single Faceless, the band are stepping into a bold new era. For anyone diving in, Killing Floor, Something I’m Not and White Noise are the perfect place to start. Devastatingly heavy and disarmingly honest in equal measure, this is a set that hits as hard emotionally as it does sonically.
UNPEOPLE
UNPEOPLE’s festival reputation has grown faster than almost anyone else’s on this bill. The London four-piece have torn through UK and European stages over the past couple of years, and there’s a reason they keep getting talked about after every set they play. Live, they lean hard into scale, with singalong hooks stacked on top of riffs that hit like a truck, all held together by a sense of togetherness that comes through as much in the crowd as it does on stage. With tracks like smother, the garden and latest single friends, UNPEOPLE channel raw emotion into something cathartic to witness live.
CLT DRP
Brighton electro-punk trio CLT DRP are exactly the kind of chaos RADAR was built for. The band fuse punk, electronica and heavy pop into something uncompromising and entirely their own, tackling gender and identity with a wry, DIY edge. Fresh off new single WHAT IS SHE FOR?, their first release since 2024, and a year spent touring with Bob Vylan and Lambrini Girls, the trio are gearing up for one of their biggest years yet. Expect to hear disorientating riffs and feral energy in tracks like Until You Showed Me, NEW BOY and I Put My Baby To Sleep.
ROZEMARY
The newest wave in the North-West heavy music scene, ROZEMARY blur the line between technical metalcore’s precision and hardcore’s raw brutality, with post-hardcore melodies threaded through for good measure. Dubbed RADAR’s resident ‘baddiecore’ act, tracks like bleed me dry, starlit ballroom and no flowers bloom show a band already comfortable letting tenderness and heaviness sit side by side. Their new EP it’s harder now to breathe is out now, and digs even further into the tension that made their debut so compelling. ROZEMARY are exactly the kind of rising name RADAR exists to champion.
Words: Adrian Chapman
Cover Photo: Heather Patterson for Out Of Rage
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