Some bands sound as if they have tuned their guitars in a parallel universe – ALIEN ANT FARM belong right there. Since the late nineties, they have been delivering a charged mix of alternative rock, nu metal and a good dose of tongue-in-cheek self-irony. And yes: they are the ones who turned Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” into a guitar anthem that still gets every crowd moving today.

ALIEN ANT FARM will land at the Reload Festival 2026 for the first time – and it won’t be a gentle first contact. Their shows are a wild mixture of joyful playing and controlled chaos. Between powerful riffs, catchy hooks and humorous announcements, an atmosphere is created in which you never quite know whether a mosh pit is about to break out or an alien is about to fly through the audience.

Musically, ALIEN ANT FARM skillfully balance between heaviness and melody – too heavy for the mainstream, too playful for genre boundaries, always with a mind of their own. After almost three decades of band history, they sound fresher than many newcomers and show that 2000s nu-metal is not nostalgia, but a way of life.

For the reload, this means looking forward to a performance full of energy, humor and anthems that you thought you had long forgotten – until the first chorus brings everything back to life. Helmets on, hands up, aliens inbound.