Taking place over two days (Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th April) and three stages at the Portsmouth Guildhall, Takedown Festival 2026 embarked on a special mission: to showcase a complete timeline of heavy music. Originally inspired by the passing of Ozzy Osbourne last year, one day would celebrate the ongoing legacy of heavy music, headlined by guitar legend Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, performing a set of Motörhead songs. One day would celebrate some of the most diverse and most talked about loud acts around, paving the way for its exciting future, headlined by one of the most mysterious acts, in their first ever festival headlining slot – PRESIDENT.
The Wildhearts - Takedown Festival @ Portsmouth Guildhall
One week before the festival, the former Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell sadly passed away after complications from surgery, aged 64. Northern Irish alternative metal trio Therapy? were announced as headliners of the main stage just days before the event. However, even without Campbell there in person, his presence and influence is felt all weekend, not least when there is a “minute of noise” in his memory on the main Kerrang Phil Campbell Stage.
The festival begins on the Total Rock Stage with Hampshire’s own Stone Soup, who perform a sludgy but energetic stoner rock set, entirely of material ready for their upcoming third album. Well, almost ready, as lead vocalist Paul Davis admits that the introduction to new song Chronos is not yet finished, and asked that guitarist Chris Gilday improvise an opening. Even during Broken Scales, a song about financial problems (“alright Portsmouth, it’s time to get angry!”), there is no convincing anybody that they are not having fun, however furiously Davis played his tambourine. Just try to look and keep a straight face when someone is wearing a pink tea cosy on one’s head (as he did during Fuzzy Brain).
Welsh-American supergroup Kill The Lights formed in 2019, when Bullet For My Valentine’s original drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas wanted to return to his heavy metal roots, making them appropriate for today’s tributes, even with their more modern melodic metalcore sound. Now with the addition of a second former BFMV member, bassist and backing vocalist Jay James, there is noticeably a lot of nostalgic glee amongst both the band and the crowd (even though he joined five years ago), as he begins to growl during Scapegoat. As more people arrive, there were more clapping hands aloft, peaking with latest single Iron Bite.
Asomvel are rooted very much in riff-heavy hard rockin’, rollin’, and making sure that they do so at such a volume that everyone notices (with a ridiculous array of amplifiers). It is to be expected of any band with such song titles as Born To Rock ‘N’ Roll, Louder And Louder, and If It’s Too Loud, You’re Too Old. They even roll out a cover of Motörhead’s Born to Raise Hell – one of many tributes across the weekend.
South Of Salem, members of a New Wave of Classic Rock resurgence, push the horror aesthetic further in a fun direction, with a stage set-up featuring glowing coffins, cheerleaders, and a spooky green and pink haze that turns blood red with vocalist Joey Draper’s every scream. The chorus of Static got a lot of people singing as the band dropped out, and Draper turned his microphone on the crowd, regardless of whether or not it was working, as the beginning of the set was plagued with technical difficulties. For anyone curious, their hometown of Bournemouth is indeed further south than Salem.
On the Total Rock Stage, hard rock heavy hitters King Kraken are not content with choosing between either volume and horror. Frontman Mark Donoghue, clad in a Phil Campbell t-shirt and a kilt, makes clear just how absorbed he was in his music. Whenever he isn’t singing, he closes his eyes and waggles his fingers like a conductor – “make some noise! Make some fucking noise!”. Whether he is instructing his band, or their audience, they succeed on that front, as he delivers a monologue about gloomy goings on “deep in the forest”, and howls lyrics inspired by The Evil Dead during Chainsaw Saviour.
Instrumental sludge and stoner rock duo Wall may be the act that one would have expected to deviate from classic riffs, especially considering some of their influences. The twin brothers have cited names such as Radiohead and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, as those who shaped some of their “spacey and ambient” moments, but today they bring fewer of these extended squeals and atmospheric whirrs of feedback. That is not to say there is anything remotely generic and simple to follow, as complex rhythms cannot make up their minds for long. The most straightforward moment is actually a cover of desert rock band Karma To Burn’s Nineteen.
Second from the top of the bill are The Wildhearts. Just days before this performance, frontman Ginger Wildheart revealed that he suffered from aggressive cancer, and had decided against treatment. Despite the upsetting announcement, the band choose not to make the performance any more sentimental than they have to.
Over the next forty-five minutes, not only does the normally very talkative Ginger choose not to speak much, but he chooses not to even sing very much either. Instead, The Wildhearts perform only five songs, and a gargantuan medley of riff after riff, with total abandonment of their latest album. They make the very respectable and entertaining decision to cram as much as physically possible into what little time that they had onstage. Ginger smiles almost non-stop through the set. As they finish final song Chutzpah, he nods approvingly to guitarist Ben Marsden, and then proudly the room at the applauding crowd, giving everyone a thumbs-up.
After three years, InMe make their eagerly awaited return to Takedown, this time headlining the Metal For Good stage. To celebrate thirty years as a band, and twenty years of their sophomore album White Butterfly, they perform every track from it. There is “a bit of a side quest” when they perform new song Prove Yourself before getting “back to butterfly business” as very sweaty frontman Dave McPherson described it.
It is quickly apparent how much the album means to some in the audience, who heckle for various tracks from it, although McPherson is quick-witted in response – “we’re kind of doing it in order. It’s coming. We’ll get there.”, only to play You’ll Get There. He seems to respect the intelligence of their audience enough to make a pun that way, particularly after saying that this was the first audience not to have anybody ask him what the title of the album’s title track is. Yes, it is White Butterfly.
The only reason that that there isn’t much physical movement is just how tightly packed the room is – this hour-long set belongs on a larger stage, and the many fans left watching from outside the door would agree. When the room became slightly more sparse, as the main stage headliners are about to begin, there is just enough room for McPherson to perform Safe In A Room (another pun?) from the middle of the crowd, and for there to finally be enough breathing space for moshing chaos during Just A Glimpse.
As Friday draws to a close, Takedown Festival proves that even in the face of loss, the spirit of heavy music is unshakable. What could have been a sombre opening instead becomes a powerful tribute — not just to Phil Campbell, but to the enduring legacy of the genre he helped shape. Across three stages, riffs reigned supreme, blending nostalgia with raw, unfiltered energy from both veterans and rising acts alike.
There’s a sense of unity running through the Guildhall — a shared understanding that heavy music isn’t just about volume or aggression, but about community, catharsis, and carrying something forward. From heartfelt tributes to sweat-soaked celebrations, Friday sets the tone with grit and reverence in equal measure. Where does it go next? With a whole second day still to come, Takedown looks ready to answer that — loudly.
Live review of Takedown Festival 2026 at Portsmouth Guildhall on 3rd April 2026 by Nick Pollard. Photography by Rebecca Cairns.
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