40 Live Acts You Should Go And See In 2026 (part one)
Music is not a competition, and we don’t like ranking or rating art. As long as you’re supporting live music and going to gigs, more power to you. Taste is subjective, and we’re not here to judge.
But…
Everyone loves a list at the end of the year, so here’s the first part of ours, highlighting 40 affordable live acts we saw in 2025 that we won’t be forgetting for a long time, and would absolutely urge you to go and see in 2026.
Discharge
If there were a single band we could point to as foundational to our ethos at Sherwood, it’s hard to do better than Discharge. Among all the punk legends, they were the clearest, the fastest, and the most direct with no frills or ambiguity, and you can still go and see them perform today in a revitalised form that includes original members alongside new blood. Vocalist Jeff “JJ” Janiak has only sharpened the band’s legacy, ensuring that watching them live in 2025 is just as thrilling as you imagine it would have been when you listen to their records from the early 80s, just as intense and urgent.
Sugar Horse
The conversation about who the loudest band on earth is bubbles away with My Bloody Valentine, Sunn O))) and Swans getting a lot of mention, but Sugar Horse also deserve to be in that conversation, providing the same experience in much, much smaller rooms. With a keen understanding of contrast, scale and grandeur, Sugar Horse will hold back, let things breathe, and then absolutely flatten the room with no flashy playing or showing off, just pure brute force. Bringing post-punk and new wave influences into their songwriting alongside doom and sludge, their songs grapple with weighty subjects as they completely overwhelm you with volume. If you like properly loud, heavy music, Sugar Horse are worth every penny.
Split Dogs
Split Dogs are four punks playing classic rock and roll at lightning speed. The songwriting and performances hold a deep respect for several different eras of heavy, fast rock all stitched together into a sweaty, energetic explosion. Harry Atkins’ charisma as a frontwoman is impossible to overstate, with a magnetic presence every time. They closed out 2025 opening for Gogol Bordello, and their headline shows are sweaty as all hell. They’ve just had an enormous year, but it still feels like they’re only getting started. If you’ve never been to a Split Dogs show, you’d better fix that in 2026.
Napalm Death
Napalm Death have been going since 1987, and there may be no other band on earth who’s been at it so long and spent all that time sharpening their attack. They are concerned with punishing noise, and punishing noise only, and have spent nearly four decades becoming frighteningly good at delivering it. With no attempt to broaden their appeal, Napalm Death hit you as hard as possible with precision, force, and conviction, the exact opposite of watching a tired hair metal band from the 80s. If you’ve never seen Barney Greenway move on stage, you owe it to yourself to witness it at least once. What a fucking band.
Knocked Loose
Knocked Loose are far bigger than most of the bands we write about, but impossible to ignore, and are the definitive ‘you have to see this band’ of their generation. Their entire goal is to elicit fear, and everything from the creepy interludes to the way Isaac commands the crowd to push each other around is designed to keep the audience permanently on edge. At the centre of it all Bryan Garris barks and shrieks like a possessed Elmo. Their tours consistently showcase great bands, using their fame to act as ambassadors for the scene. It’s utterly exhausting and deliberately overwhelming, which is why Knocked Loose deserve to be as notorious as they are.
Raging Speedhorn
In their original run, Raging Speedhorn were a nasty and ugly ball of pure rage. At a time when heavy music was full of haircuts and eyeliner, they stood out as a proper scary gang of thugs. They burnt out and eventually came back, and this current version of the band takes everything great about 90s riffage and turns it into a massive, unapologetic rock show with two vocalists and absolutely no melody. There’s an ironic self-awareness that only amplifies their power, fully committed to putting on the biggest, stupidest, heaviest rock show they can, finding their true form twenty-five years into their career. If you’re a metalhead who likes a loud, dumb party, Raging Speedhorn deliver without fail.
DITZ
Emerging from Brighton’s extremely fertile punk scene, DITZ are one of the most intriguing live bands around right now. Sweaty and heavy as anything else on this list, the band also care about tension, mood and storytelling, holding back and letting the room simmer before unleashing a noisy, abrasive groove that makes the crowd erupt as C.A. Francis clambers through the crowd and performs from the back of the room, making you part of the show whether you like it or not. Their reputation has been built on relentless touring, becoming one of the most talked-about underground bands around.
Noisepicker
Noisepicker are one of the most reliably entertaining live bands around, and they’re forever playing free shows. Grunge, punk, blues, doom and sludge all tangled together in dive-bar outlaw squalor with riffs dragged from the gutter. Just drums, guitar, and two men howling their guts out, Noisepicker play over the top rock and roll with feral character in spades that feels both funny and dangerous.
Heriot
Heriot have just wrapped up their first American tour opening for Trivium, and they’re one of the most important rising metal bands in the UK. Their sound is brutal, oppressive, and genuinely frightening with strands of industrial, massive chugging riffs, blurred, collapsing genre lines. Debbie Gough is a phenomenal frontwoman, constantly barking orders at the crowd and keeping the energy at boiling point. If you’re even remotely into heavy music, you won’t do better than ticking Heriot off your list as soon as possible.
Employed To Serve
Employed To Serve’s latest album Fallen Star is a total triumph, packed with huge riffs, relentless shredding, and cameos from friends across the metal community. The band’s unity is impossible to miss when you watch them live, looking like they’re having an absolute blast riding the momentum of their biggest record to date. Fresh off a tour with Killswitch Engage, Employed To Serve are confident and purposeful, without tipping into self-seriousness. Massive ambassadors for UK metal through Church Road Records, they’re helping to build and support an entire ecosystem, with a community spirit at their live shows that feels like modern metal done just right.
