Hills of Rock 2027 has unveiled its first wave of bands – and the opening salvo is already looking seriously heavy. SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS, SKILLET, ATREYU, MAKE THEM SUFFER, LEFT TO SUFFER and DIE KRUPPS are the first six names confirmed for next summer’s festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
There is still a long way to go before the full Hills of Rock 2027 line-up is revealed, but the festival has wasted little time making its intentions clear.
Returning for its eighth edition, Hills of Rock will take over the Plovdiv Rowing Canal from 23rd – 25th July 2027, once again spreading its programme across three stages and three days. More names are promised in the coming months. And if this first announcement is anything to go by, 2027 is shaping up to be another major date in the European rock and metal calendar.
SLASH LEADS THE FIRST HILLS OF ROCK 2027 ANNOUNCEMENT
The biggest name in the first announcement is undoubtedly SLASH featuring MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS, who will headline the Main Stage on Sunday, 25th July.
It is a particularly timely booking. SLASH, MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS have announced their 2027 world tour alongside news of a new album, Flying Blind, giving their Hills of Rock appearance an extra sense of occasion. The album is due in February 2027, meaning the Bulgarian festival performance arrives during a major new chapter for the group.
For rock fans, the attraction is obvious. Slash needs little introduction, but his work with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators has developed into something considerably more substantial than a conventional guitar legend side project.
With Kennedy’s formidable vocal range and Slash’s instantly recognisable guitar playing at the centre of the show, expect one of the weekend’s biggest singalong moments when the band hit Plovdiv.
SKILLET BRING THE ARENA-SIZED ROCK
Opening Friday’s Main Stage programme is SKILLET, another band with a huge international following and a sound seemingly engineered for outdoor festival stages. The American rockers have spent more than two decades refining a mixture of hard rock, alternative metal and huge melodic hooks, making their appearance at Hills of Rock 2027 a strong way to kick off the weekend.
Their Friday booking also gives the festival an immediate headline-sized presence on its opening day, even before the rest of the programme has been announced.
ATREYU RETURN WITH A HEAVIER EDGE
Saturday brings ATREYU to the Main Stage.
The Californian metalcore veterans have been part of the genre’s evolution from the early 2000s onwards, successfully moving between aggression, melody and straight-up hard rock without losing the intensity that built their reputation.
Their Hills of Rock appearance on 24 July should provide one of the festival’s most energetic sets – particularly for fans who have followed the modern metalcore scene from its formative years through to its current incarnation.
MAKE THEM SUFFER AND LEFT TO SUFFER TURN UP THE INTENSITY
The first announcement isn’t relying entirely on established names.
Australian metalcore outfit MAKE THEM SUFFER are confirmed for the Power Stage on Saturday, while Atlanta’s LEFT TO SUFFER will appear on the same stage on Sunday.
Both bookings underline the increasingly broad reach of Hills of Rock’s heavy music programming. The festival is clearly looking beyond classic rock and established metal names, bringing contemporary heavy acts into the mix alongside its bigger international draws.
For anyone searching for the Hills of Rock 2027 metal line-up, these are two of the names worth watching as further announcements arrive.
INDUSTRIAL PIONEERS DIE KRUPPS JOIN THE BILL
Rounding out the first six are German industrial veterans DIE KRUPPS, confirmed for the Power Stage on Sunday, 25th July.
Their presence adds a very different colour to the opening announcement, bringing industrial metal and electronic textures into a line-up otherwise dominated by hard rock and metalcore.
It is also a reminder that Hills of Rock has never been content to sit neatly inside one particular corner of heavy music. With three stages operating across the weekend, there is plenty of room for the festival to continue widening its musical palette.
The eighth edition of Hills of Rock takes place from Friday 23rd July to Sunday 25th July 2027 at the Plovdiv Rowing Canal in Bulgaria. The festival will once again feature three stages across the three-day event.
The first wave of confirmed artists is:
• Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators – Sunday, 25 July, Main Stage
• Skillet – Friday, 23 July, Main Stage
• Atreyu – Saturday, 24 July, Main Stage
• Make Them Suffer – Saturday, 24 July, Power Stage
• Left To Suffer – Sunday, 25 July, Power Stage
• Die Krupps – Sunday, 25 July, Power Stage
More Hills of Rock 2027 bands are expected to be announced in stages.
The first chapter, not the finished line-up – The most interesting thing about the Hills of Rock 2027 announcement may be what hasn’t been revealed yet.
Slash and Myles Kennedy give the festival an obvious marquee attraction. Skillet and Atreyu bring established international rock and metal audiences, while Make Them Suffer, Left To Suffer and Die Krupps add enough stylistic variety to suggest the organisers are once again building a bill designed to move between generations and subgenres.
And with more bands coming soon, the real shape of Hills of Rock 2027 is still to be determined.
For now, though, Plovdiv has its first six.
And with Slash’s guitar set to ring out across the Rowing Canal on the final Sunday, the festival has already given rock fans a pretty compelling reason to start looking towards Bulgaria next July.
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