Heavy music met industrial history on October 10–11, 2026, as Furnace Fest celebrated its landmark 10th iteration. There is no music festival backdrop in America quite like the skeletal ironworks of the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. Set against the towering, rusted ironworks of Birmingham, Alabama’s Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, the weekend served as a visceral, high-decibel flashback to the golden era of the scene 20 years ago.
Saturday
Even the remnants of Hurricane Isaias couldn’t dampen the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of Saturday night. Closing out Day 1 against the striking, flame-lit backdrop of Sloss Furnaces, A Day To Remember delivered an absolute masterclass in festival headlining. Despite the incredibly wet conditions, the crowd’s energy peaked the second the band kicked into gear.
Giant mosh pits broke out instantly across the concrete, and a relentless wave of crowd-surfers flowed over the barricades from the left and right sides of the stage. With massive production, booming drum tones that rattled the chest, and a crowd shouting every single word back over the guitars, it wasn’t just a concert—it was an unreal, community-solidifying highlight of the entire weekend.
Underoath brought an absolutely massive wall of sound to the festival, proving once again why they are absolute legends of the scene by playing their seminal masterpiece Define the Great Line in its entirety from front to back. Adding to the excitement for fans, clean vocalist and drummer Aaron Gillespie pulled double duty over the weekend, also taking the stage to perform with his rock project, The Almost.
Tearing through their primary setlist with a ferocious, unmatched energy, Underoath commanded the stage flawlessly. Giant mosh pits and a continuous wave of crowd-surfers dominated the floor from the first note to the last. With pristine audio mixing, booming drum tones, and a crowd screaming every lyric back at the stage, Underoath delivered an unforgettable high-decibel highlight that stood out as a premier moment of the entire weekend.
Sunday
Eighteen Visions brought absolute mayhem to Sunday’s lineup, matching the gritty, industrial atmosphere of Sloss Furnaces with a relentlessly heavy set. Tearing through fan favorites like “Waiting for the Heavens” and closing with the devastating “Tower of Snakes,” the band delivered an emotionally charged, high-decibel performance. James Hart and company commanded the stage with a veteran confidence, feeding off a manic crowd that spent the entire set crowd-surfing and tearing up the pit. In a wild moment, Hart fed two microphones—stands included—into the crowd, secured a third against his chest, and dove off the stage. The audience embraced him instantly, a fitting tribute to everything he’s done for the scene over the years.
During Eighteen Visions’ set, Underoath’s very own Chris Dudley shared an intimate backstory that served as the perfect thesis statement for the entire weekend. Standing there pointing out his teenage children, Dudley recounted how Eighteen Visions was the exact band that took a young, ascending Underoath on their first-ever tour back in the fall of 2002. Watching his own kids witness the band that jumpstarted his career—against the timeless iron stacks of Sloss Furnaces—transformed the set from a nostalgic retrospective into a beautiful passing of the torch, proving that this subculture built twenty years ago is now a multi-generational family affair.
While hearing Count Your Blessings in full was already a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Bring Me The Horizon saved the ultimate shocker for the encore that followed the album. In a historic moment that sent shockwaves through the crowd, the band brought out Josh Scogin for the live debut of “The Fox and the Wolf.” The 2010 deep cut was performed with a gritty, screeching intensity that perfectly matched the haunting iron backdrop of Sloss Furnaces. They didn’t stop there, tearing into an encore of rare classics like “Suicide Season” and “Diamonds Aren’t Forever.” Oli Sykes practically embedded himself into the crowd for the finale, capping off the festival with an unmatched, nostalgic high as he dove off the stage into a roaring crowd, essentially disappearing into the green confetti pouring down.
Furnace Fest successfully delivered a monumental weekend of heavy music, turning the landmark into a massive, city-shaking celebration. True to its hardcore roots, the weekend felt like a massive family reunion.
Other notable flashback performances included The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Bleeding Through, the ALMIGHTY Norma Jean, Motionless in White, Slaughter to Prevail, Circa Survive, thrown and Emery. Pit etiquette was stellar, the audio was loud enough to shake houses miles away, and the deep sense of community reminded everyone why this festival’s legacy is so fiercely protected.
