Hell’s Heroes is the Houston metal festival that turned White Oak Music Hall into a yearly gathering for old-school heavy metal. Singer and promoter Christian Larson started it in 2018. Within a few years the Houston Chronicle called it “America’s biggest metal party.” It has also become the stage where 1980s Texas bands like Gammacide and S.A. Slayer come back.
The Short Version
- Hell’s Heroes began in 2018 at White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N Main St, Houston.
- Hell’s Heroes IX runs March 18–20, 2027, back on the indoor stages.
- Helstar, Power Trip, Watchtower, Gammacide, S.A. Slayer and D.R.I. have all played it.
What Is the Hell’s Heroes Festival?
Hell’s Heroes is a Houston metal festival, now three days each March, at White Oak Music Hall, a five-acre complex just north of downtown. It books the old-school end of metal: traditional heavy metal, speed metal, thrash and the oldest strains of death and black metal. The festival bills itself as “one of North America’s premiere heavy music platforms.”
The headliners skew older and more cultish, as Brad Sanders wrote in the Houston Chronicle in January 2023. Cirith Ungol, Razor, Dark Angel and Exciter have all topped its posters. Death metal gets in only if it is the oldest of the old school. Larson will book some bands that would fit Maryland Deathfest, he told Sanders, but “I don’t want it to look like MDF.”
The crowd travels. Larson told the Dallas Observer in 2025 that most attendees come from the U.S., Canada and Europe. The 2026 edition brought Tankard to North America for the first time, according to Metal Addicts.
How Did Hell’s Heroes Start?
Larson is a Houston musician first. He fronts the heavy metal band Night Cobra and the black metal band Necrofier. The festival takes its name from a song by his former band, Venomous Maximus.
“I’d been wanting to do some kind of fest down here, because it didn’t exist.”
That is how Larson put it to the Chronicle. In North America, he said, only Jarvis Leatherby’s Frost and Fire and Canada’s Wings of Metal booked this kind of lineup. After a few false starts, his breakthrough was landing the reunited Cirith Ungol.
“Once I had Cirith, everyone just said yes,” Larson recalled. “The first one did pretty well. I think it did 600, 700 people.”
Hell’s Heroes II came on Saturday, April 13, 2019, with advance tickets at $27.50, according to Riff Relevant. Exciter played its first Texas show in more than 30 years, alongside Razor and Omen. The night ended with what the Chronicle called a “pit-opening” headlining set by Dallas thrashers Power Trip.
The pandemic stopped the next two. A planned 2020 fest didn’t happen, and Larson took 2021 off. Hell’s Heroes IV returned on April 22–23, 2022, as a two-day event headlined by Candlemass and Dark Angel, mxdwn reported.
Hell’s Heroes V, on March 24–25, 2023, moved onto White Oak’s outdoor stage after three fests held entirely indoors, nearly tripling the tickets Larson could sell. Possessed headlined, and Tom G. Warrior’s Triptykon played a pair of sets drawn only from his early Hellhammer and Celtic Frost catalog, the Chronicle reported.
Power Trip
Dallas crossover thrash, formed in 2008, and headliners of Hell’s Heroes II in 2019. Start with Nightmare Logic (2017), then Manifest Decimation (2013).
Cirith Ungol
Ventura, California, epic heavy metal; split in 1992, announced a return in 2015 and played its first reunion show in 2016. Their booking launched Hell’s Heroes. Start with King of the Dead, then Frost and Fire.
Why Do Texas Bands Reunite at Hell’s Heroes?
Larson books them on purpose. “It’s super Texan,” Arthur Rizk of Eternal Champion told the Chronicle. “They make it a point to do all these Texas bands every year.” The Dallas Observer reported that when Gammacide’s Scott Shelby pitched his later band Warbeast, Larson said no. He wanted thrash bands from the original era, or newer bands playing that era’s music.
Houston’s Helstar is the anchor. The band had played every edition through 2022, and it was booked for the 2023 afterparty. Singer James Rivera compared it to the big German fests: “We actually have our own Keep It True here now. We have our own Rock Hard. We have our miniature Wacken.” Helstar was back on the lawn on March 19, 2026, closing with “Run with the Pack,” per setlist.fm. Our Helstar history has the full story.
Helstar
Houston, founded 1981, and the most constant Texas presence at Hell’s Heroes. Start with Nosferatu (1989), then Remnants of War (1986).
The 2024 bill went deep into Texas history. Austin’s Watchtower and Arlington’s Solitude Aeturnus both played, alongside Sodom, Candlemass and Forbidden. See our pieces on Watchtower and Solitude Aeturnus.
Hell’s Heroes VII, held March 20–22, 2025, was the big reunion year. Gammacide, S.A. Slayer and Houston’s D.R.I. shared a lineup where Abbath, Crimson Glory and Saxon each closed a night. S.A. Slayer took the outdoor main stage from 5:15 to 6 p.m. on Saturday. It was the San Antonio band’s first show in about forty years, Alamo True Metal reported. Watchtower’s Jason McMaster sang. The S.A. Slayer story and our D.R.I. history go further.
S.A. Slayer
San Antonio speed metal from the early 1980s, back on stage at Hell’s Heroes VII with Jason McMaster singing. Start with Go for the Throat (1988), then the live Prepare to Die-Alive (2026).
Hell’s Heroes VIII ran March 19–21, 2026, with more than 40 bands. Blabbermouth listed Loudness, Doro playing Warlock’s Triumph and Agony, Enslaved playing Vikingligr Veldi, Udo Dirkschneider’s Balls to the Wall set and Voivod’s all-1980s set. Tankard, Destruction, Bulldozer and Manilla Road were on it too.
Gammacide: From a Free Show in 1988 to the Main Stage
Gammacide shows what the festival means to these bands. In July 1988, the Arlington thrash band was one of the names on a flyer for a free summer show. Underground Records put it on at Northlake, near Beltline Road, to thank everyone “involved in the underground.”
Thirty-seven years later, on Friday, March 21, 2025, Gammacide played 45 minutes on the Hell’s Heroes VII main stage. The Dallas Observer reported that Shelby met Larson at an Obituary show the summer before, where Necrofier also played. Larson asked whether Gammacide would play the 2025 festival.
“I’ve been doing shows since 1985, and it is incredible that 40 years later, this is the biggest show that I have ever played.”
That was founder Rick Perry, speaking to the Observer. Fans came from Dallas, Florida, St. Louis and Tokyo, a few in Gammacide shirts from the 1980s. Our Gammacide history covers Victims of Science and the reunion.
Gammacide
Arlington thrash, active 1986–1992, reunited in 2006, and re-formed again for Hell’s Heroes VII in 2025. Start with Victims of Science (1989).
Gammacide also runs straight into Rotting Corpse’s story. Shelby played the guitar leads on the band’s 1990 demo, Neck Breaking Fury, as the discography notes. In 2024 he took the band’s lead guitar chair, per the timeline. On September 6, 2026, Rotting Corpse and Gammacide shared a bill at Brushy Street Commons in Austin, listed on our shows page.
Other Texas Metal Festivals, Then and Now
The biggest Texas metal festival of all came first. The Texxas Jam, officially the Texxas World Music Festival, debuted at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on July 1, 1978. About 100,000 people sat through 104-degree heat to see Aerosmith and Ted Nugent, with Van Halen near the bottom of the bill, according to Best Classic Bands.
The Jam ran every summer through 1988, sometimes moving to the Houston Astrodome, and it got heavier as the 1980s went on. Ozzy Osbourne played the 1984 Jam, and Deep Purple and the Scorpions topped the 1985 Cotton Bowl show. The last one, on July 3, 1988, was the Monsters of Rock tour: Van Halen, the Scorpions, Dokken, Kingdom Come and Metallica, per Wikipedia’s year-by-year list.
Cotton Bowl Stadium Open
The Texxas Jam’s Dallas home, from the 104-degree 1978 debut to the Monsters of Rock finale in 1988. The stadium still stands in Fair Park and now hosts college football and Dallas Trinity FC soccer.
Photo: Brennan David via Google
The underground had smaller festivals, built by local promoters. On Saturday, October 22, 2005, Devourment Productions ran the Texas Halloween Metal Fest at Equal Eyez in Corpus Christi. The flyer promised 30 bands on two stages from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., with $15 presale tickets.
That bill was mostly death metal and grind. It fell in Rotting Corpse’s first reunion year, which the venues page follows show by show. Our Corpus Christi thrash piece covers that scene.
Pantera’s Philip Anselmo built a festival in Texas too. His Housecore Horror Film Festival paired horror films with extreme metal, opening at Emo’s in Austin on October 25–27, 2013, with Down, GWAR, Crowbar, Pig Destroyer and Warbeast, Loudwire reported. The third edition moved to San Antonio’s Aztec Theatre on November 13–15, 2015, where mxdwn listed King Diamond, Exodus, Suffocation and Warbeast again.
Austin had the bigger multi-genre fests. In 2019 the Austin Chronicle wrote that Austin Terror Fest had taken over the spring slot of Timmy Hefner’s Chaos in Tejas, which mixed metal, punk and noise.
The newest is Big Texas Metal Fest, from Third String Entertainment and Come and Take It Productions. It debuted at the Far Out Lounge in Austin on May 24–26, 2024, with room for 3,000 people a day. Hatebreed, Atreyu and All Shall Perish headlined the three nights, the last playing its first show in 11 years. It leans toward hardcore and metalcore, so Hell’s Heroes remains the Texas fest for 1980s-style thrash and heavy metal.
Where to Hear It Live
As of October 2026, the next Hell’s Heroes is set. Hell’s Heroes IX runs Thursday through Saturday, March 18–20, 2027, at White Oak Music Hall. Metal Centre reports it returns to the indoor stages of the early years, so tickets are limited. Doors open at 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at noon Saturday, and the venue is cashless.
The announced lineup includes Overkill playing an old-school set, Beherit, Armored Saint, Metal Church and Bulldozer. Omen is billed for its final U.S. show. Three-day passes are on Ticketmaster.
White Oak Music Hall Open
The home of Hell’s Heroes since 2018: a five-acre complex with a downstairs room, an upstairs room and an outdoor lawn. Metal Addicts put the lawn at about 3,000 people and the indoor theater at about 1,000.
Photo: 0d1n HvyIndustries via Google
Before then, Hell’s Heroes bands play Come and Take It Live in Austin: Forbidden on November 17, 2026 and D.R.I. on December 2, 2026. Coroner, a 2025 Hell’s Heroes act, plays there with Nile on March 7, 2027. The promoter’s calendar has more.
Come and Take It Live Open
An East Riverside club run by Come and Take It Productions, one of the two companies behind Big Texas Metal Fest. It hosts all three Austin dates above.
Photo: Come and Take It Live via Google
As of October 2026, Big Texas Metal Fest has not announced dates for another edition; its site still lists only the 2024 debut. Rotting Corpse has no dates on the calendar right now; new shows go up on the shows page and Instagram first.
Start with “Neck Breaking Fury” (1990)
It’s the title track of the 1990 demo, with leads by Scott Shelby, the same guitarist who played Gammacide’s Hell’s Heroes set in 2025.
Sources
- Houston Chronicle: How Houston became home to America’s biggest metal party (Brad Sanders, January 3, 2023)
- Dallas Observer: Hell’s Heroes: Gammacide, One of Arlington’s Thrashiest Bands, Reunites (Christian McPhate, March 25, 2025)
- Wikipedia: Hell’s Heroes (music festival)
- Riff Relevant: Hell’s Heroes II Fest Set for April 2019 (November 16, 2018)
- mxdwn: Hell’s Heroes IV Announces 2022 Lineup (June 4, 2021)
- Consequence: Hell’s Heroes Festival 2025 Lineup (September 4, 2024)
- Alamo True Metal: S.A. Slayer at Hell’s Heroes VII (Jay Nanda, March 30, 2025)
- The Metallist: Hell’s Heroes Festival Wraps Explosive Run in Houston (March 23, 2026)
- Metal Addicts: Hell’s Heroes VIII, 2026 edition review
- setlist.fm: Helstar at Hell’s Heroes VIII, March 19, 2026
- KNAC: Band Lineup Announced for Hell’s Heroes IX (August 20, 2026)
- Metal Centre: Hell’s Heroes IX 2027 (August 21, 2026)
- White Oak Music Hall: Hell’s Heroes and venue information
- Austin Chronicle: Austin Terror Fest Drops the Big One (Raoul Hernandez, January 23, 2019)
- Big Texas Metal Fest: About and lineups
- Wikipedia: Big Texas Metal Fest
- Come and Take It Productions: Calendar
- Blabbermouth: Loudness, Doro, Enslaved, Dirkschneider, Voivod, Others Confirmed for Hell’s Heroes 2026 (September 3, 2025)
- Wikipedia: Texxas Jam
- Best Classic Bands: Texxas Jam Debuts
- Loudwire: GWAR, Whitechapel, Goatwhore and More for Phil Anselmo’s Housecore Horror Film Festival
- mxdwn: Housecore Horror Festival 2015 Lineup Announced (May 21, 2015)
- S.A. Slayer: Official site
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hell’s Heroes?
Hell’s Heroes is an annual heavy metal festival at White Oak Music Hall in Houston, Texas. Christian Larson, singer of Night Cobra and Necrofier, started it in 2018. It books old-school heavy, speed, thrash and black metal, with reunited 1980s bands next to younger acts.
When is Hell’s Heroes 2027?
Hell’s Heroes IX runs March 18 to 20, 2027, at White Oak Music Hall in Houston. It moves back to the indoor stages, so tickets are limited. Overkill (old-school set), Beherit, Armored Saint, Metal Church, Bulldozer and Omen, playing its final U.S. show, are on the bill.
Which Texas bands have played Hell’s Heroes?
Houston’s Helstar has played nearly every edition. Dallas’s Power Trip headlined in 2019. Watchtower and Solitude Aeturnus played in 2024, and Gammacide, S.A. Slayer and D.R.I. played in 2025. Larson’s own Houston bands, Night Cobra and Necrofier, have played too.
What other metal festivals are there in Texas?
The Texxas Jam filled Dallas’s Cotton Bowl and, some years, Houston’s Astrodome from 1978 to 1988, ending in Dallas with Van Halen, the Scorpions and Metallica. Big Texas Metal Fest debuted at the Far Out Lounge in Austin in May 2024, with Hatebreed, Atreyu and All Shall Perish headlining. Austin’s Chaos in Tejas and Austin Terror Fest ran earlier. In 2005, Corpus Christi’s Texas Halloween Metal Fest packed 30 bands onto two stages.
Has Rotting Corpse played Hell’s Heroes?
No. Rotting Corpse has shared bills with Hell’s Heroes bands, though. It played Brushy Street Commons in Austin with Gammacide on September 6, 2026, and Gammacide guitarist Scott Shelby played the leads on the band’s 1990 demo, Neck Breaking Fury.
