Review and photos Paul McWilliams
There are some gigs where you walk away thinking you have watched a collection of bands. Then there are nights where the whole event becomes one massive celebration of live music. Hella Rock Festival 2026 at Coventry’s HMV Empire was firmly in the second category.
With a packed bill bringing together Walker, Suns Of Rest, Beth Blade & The Beautiful Disasters, Silveroller, King Kraken, Crobot and Dan Byrne before the headline appearance from Phil Campbell’s Bastard Sons, this was a day built around one simple idea: turn the volume up and let the guitars do the talking.
And believe me, they did.
Walker had the job of getting proceedings moving, and they immediately demonstrated why opening a rock festival is never simply about warming up the crowd. Their set brought its own personality and gave the afternoon a strong starting point. There was no hanging around waiting for the evening acts. Hella Rock was underway, and the energy was already building.
Suns Of Rest continued that momentum, adding another dimension to the afternoon. As the room filled and the crowd became increasingly involved, their performance helped establish the atmosphere that would carry through the rest of the event.
Then came Beth Blade & The Beautiful Disasters, and this was where the attitude really started coming through. Beth Blade has always had an unapologetic approach to rock, and live that personality becomes even more apparent. There was plenty of punch, plenty of swagger and absolutely no interest in playing it safe.
Silveroller followed, bringing their own take on modern rock while keeping one foot firmly planted in the traditions that have kept guitar music alive for generations. Their performance fitted the Hella Rock atmosphere perfectly without sounding like a carbon copy of anybody else.
By the time King Kraken took the stage, the festival had found serious momentum.
The Welsh rockers have developed a reputation for delivering their music with considerable weight, and live that translates into big riffs, muscular performances and a stage presence that demands attention. Their growing profile was easy to understand when the volume went up inside HMV Empire.
Crobot then added another flavour to the evening. Their swampy, groove-heavy hard rock brought something different to the bill, proving once again that modern rock does not have to sit inside one particular box. Their set kept the pressure on and gave the crowd another reason to stay locked into the stage.
Dan Byrne brought another change of pace and another personality. On a bill this varied, individuality becomes important, and Byrne certainly brought his own identity to the festival. His appearance was made even more interesting by a guest appearance from Oli Brown on guitar, adding an extra spark to the performance.
Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for.
Phil Campbell’s Bastard Sons.
There was inevitably a huge emotional element to this headline appearance. Phil Campbell was originally scheduled to headline Hella Rock 2026 before his death earlier this year, and the festival subsequently became an opportunity for his sons Dane, Todd and Tyla, alongside the Bastard Sons, to honour his remarkable legacy.
What could have been an evening weighed down by emotion instead became something much more powerful: a celebration.
The Bastard Sons brought the thunder.
With Campbell’s Motörhead legacy impossible to ignore, the expectations surrounding the headline set were enormous. But this wasn’t simply about looking backwards. The band delivered the sort of hard-hitting rock ’n’ roll that belongs on a festival stage, with the guitars, drums and vocals combining into a full-force assault.
The Motörhead connection was naturally at the heart of the performance, and recent setlists have shown the band continuing to bring songs from that legendary catalogue into their live shows alongside their own material.
For Hella Rock, it was an appropriately emotional and thunderous conclusion.
What really worked about this year’s festival was the variety. You could move from contemporary rock to heavier riff-driven territory, from blues-influenced swagger to straight-ahead rock ’n’ roll, without the day ever feeling disjointed.
That is what a good rock festival should do.
It should introduce you to bands you might not have seen before, give established acts a stage big enough to make an impact, and ultimately remind everyone in the room why live music matters.
Hella Rock 2026 achieved exactly that.
Loud? Absolutely.
Guitar-heavy? Without question.
Full of attitude, energy and rock ’n’ roll? You bet.
And with Phil Campbell’s Bastard Sons closing the night by celebrating the legacy of one of rock’s great guitar players, Hella Rock 2026 became more than another date on the festival calendar.
It became a night to remember.
Hella Rock Festival proved once again that rock music is very much alive, kicking and capable of shaking the walls.
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