The 2026 edition of Primavera Sound Porto is just around the corner, returning to the city’s Parque da Cidade from the 11th to the 14th of June. This year’s lineup leans more heavily into the festival’s traditional alternative roots, with headliners Massive Attack and The xx joined by household names such as IDLES, Mike D, and Slowdive. Rather than focusing on the biggest attractions, we’ll be highlighting the acts we believe are must-sees from each day of the festival, from long-time artists and bands we’ve championed for years to rising names that are more than worthy of your time and attention.
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Agriculture (11/06)
There’s a clear continuum running through Agriculture’s newest album, stemming from their black metal roots, while pushing toward something luminous. On The Spiritual Sound, they channel the familiar blend of sounds, at times a rebel one, with blistering vocals and astounding metal riffs, as well as blackgaze melodies. Side A extends the sound they established in their self-titled debut – cathartic – while side B marks a threshold, letting goof black metal briefly, to introduce a new, perhaps, spiritual sound, which transitions to “Dan’s Love Song”.
The turning point comes with “Serenity”, where the album’s most intense guitar riff suddenly breaks into a new realm. The interplay between Dan Meyer and Leah Levinson’s distinguished vocals, creates space for hope amid chaos. Their voices and personal experiences create a space where transcendence and turmoil coexist, to create the spiritual sound of ecstatic black metal. As they say, even when ‘I’m totally out of control with a mouth full of water’, the answer is that ‘I’ll be born again, again’.
Black Country, New Road (12/06)
Black Country, New Road have always seemed allergic to outside expectations. Even when their Mercury Prize-nominated debut, For the First Time, brought them worldwide attention with its anxiety-boosted chaos, the band quickly moved on to the grandiose, confessional fusion of post-rock and chamber pop that informed what many claim to be their opus. That restless unpredictability soon felt like a necessity when faced with the sudden departure of Isaac Wood just days before the release of Ants From Up There, the former frontman whose voice often felt like the band’s very own spine. But when faced with the weight of survival, the now 6-piece chose something more radical: they dissolved the concept of a single leader altogether.
Their grand return with Forever Howlong confirms what 2021’s Live at Bush Hall had already teased, with Georgia Ellery, Tyler Hyde and May Kershaw handling the vocals on rotation. The emotional immolation and orchestral arrangements of past works are now reshaped to accommodate the lusher textures and twee folk leanings. Between the riveting finish of "For the Cold Country" and the harmonic, Joanna Newsom-inspired title track, the group does everything in their power to avoid unifying itself under one identity, instead embracing its variety like a patchwork of sounds and perspectives. Forever Howlong unfolds as patiently as it asks the listener for open-mindedness, in what’s yet another reinventive left-hook from a truly generational band.
Ethel Cain (11/06)
There’s something undeniably special about Hayden Anhedönia, who, despite her star-level popularity, continues to drift further away from pop sensibilities, drawing as much from alt-pop textures as from slowcore, ambient and alt-country. It’s no surprise that her second full-length as Ethel Cain is just as adamant to the aura she has cultivated, further engulfing her dedication to the shadowy corners of her music despite the mainstream acclaim - truly bridging the gothic americana of Preacher’s Daughter with the drone-heavy left hook that was Perverts.
Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You conceptually functions as a prequel to 2022’s Preacher’s Daughter, reminiscing on Cain’s first teenage love of the same name, rendered through songs of bittersweet devotion and flashes of passion drenched in melancholy. When the album goes fully instrumental, it expands the atmosphere around the remaining arc, in the same way Angelo Badalamenti did on the eternal Twin Peaks soundtrack. That same all-consuming pull animates Willoughby Tucker’s main tracks. Every time Cain portraits her stories of devotion, death and tragedy lurk right around the corner, waiting to consume anyone enamored by her exploratory worldbuilding.
Melt-Banana (12/06)
Arriving like a short-circuit in the underground, Melt-Banana shattered the limits of punk, noise, and hardcore with a sound that felt impossibly fast, unpredictable, and entirely their own. Emerging from Japan’s thriving experimental scene, the duo turned distortion into language and chaos into precision, creating music that felt less like songs and more like controlled explosions.
Their influence rippled far beyond noise rock, inspiring generations of experimental, punk, grind, and avant-garde artists. In a scene crowded with imitators, Melt-Banana remained untouchable, - proof that the future of experimental/noise rock often arrives sounding completely fresh and straight to your face.
Model/Actriz (13/06)
The Brooklyn four-piece has done it again! Marking their return in a more danceable fashion than before, Model/Actriz deliver songs that would fit into a clubbing scene while maintaining a heavy veil of noise. Their pure noise rock has given way to what feels more like an industrial brand of dance punk, filled with pop hooks that’ll stay in your head for days. The band’s signature theatricality shines even brighter here, with sections where harsher sounds give way to softer moments, alongside a showcase of Cole Haden’s wide range of vocal techniques.
Pirouette is both a coming-out story and an essay about being seen and perceived by the world and how intimidating that can be. Throughout the album, there are several key moments: the confessional story about wanting a Cinderella themed birthday party for his fifth anniversary before changing his mind, the spoken-word song “Headlights”, the lyric “You can call me a small business owner living in America, while trapped in the body of an operatic diva” and the line that ties everything together at the end: “It can be strange knowing I’ve been a person like you are to me, sister”.
The New Eves (11/06)
The New Eves rise from dust with their debut album, released in August. From the opening track, “The New Eve”, their manifesto unfolds as spoken poetry, drawing from classic punk, while delivering a sermon-like warning of what lies ahead. Their sound feels both ancient and immediate, fusing modern folk, punk, and spoken-word elements. Violet Farrer’s violin and Nina Winder-Lind’s cello weave layered instrumentals around pounding drums and chiming guitars, creating a sonic depth that is visceral.
While echoing archaic pagan tones, the four-piece reframe these sounds for the present, stating in their manifesto that ‘The New Eve fucks if she wants to’ because ‘There is no God to save you if you don’t listen’. The album conjures images of Mary and Eve as empowered women, giving the record a ritualistic, almost sacred undertone. In doing so, The New Eves carve out a sound that is simultaneously familiar, ancient, and unexpectedly modern.
Texas is the Reason (11/06)
In the crowded aftermath of hardcore’s first great wave, Texas Is the Reason arrived carrying something different: melody without compromise, emotion without excess, and an intensity that lived between the silences as much as the explosions. Briefly active but impossible to ignore, the band helped redraw the boundaries of post-hardcore in the mid-’90s.
Their influence stretches far beyond their short lifespan, leaving traces across emo, post-hardcore, and alternative rock for decades to come. For countless bands, Texas Is the Reason weren’t just another influence — they were the blueprint.