Not to be out-done in the festival announcement stakes, the guys and gals over at Sonisphere have today confirmed an additional 28 acts that will be playing at this year’s event at Knebworth Park. And there’s plenty to get excited about, no matter what your particular rock’n'roll persuasion happens to be.

Check out the current line-up poster, then afterwards we’ll break down the new arrivals:

On the Apollo (aka main) Stage there are three new bands that have been added to the line-up: hugely influential US punk outfit, Bad Religion, the Sepultura survival support group  that is Cavalera Conspiracy (check back tomorrow for our review of their second album) and most interesting of all, rising Brit-stars Sylosis. This will be Sylosis’ third consecutive visit to Knebworth, but it will be the first time they’ve been allowed out of the Bohemia tent to play with the big boys. If you managed to catch them at either Sonisphere 2009 or 2010, then you know that they’ve bloody well earned it.

Speaking of Bohemia, the levels of fuck-yeah! enthusiasm we’ve got for the indoor stage has gone through the roof with a shit-tonne of new additions. These include Cancer Bats, The Answer, our old favourites My Passion, Paradise Lost, Glamour Of The Kill, Kylesa, and Pulled Apart By Horses and Hayseed Dixie. See what we mean? Fuck yeah!

In contrast, the Saturn (aka secondary outdoor) stage, only  gets a single new addition in this announcement, but it’s definitely the maniac headfuck of this week’s clutch of new bands: Richard Cheese and his backing band, Lounge Against The Machine. If you don’t know Richard Cheese, well, let’s just say you’re in for a unique experience.

Listen to Richard Cheese cover ‘People = Shit’ by Sonisphere headliners, Slipknot:

The smaller stages aren’t being neglected in this announcement either. The Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage now boasts Thrash Hits faves Rolo Tomassi, our very own James Monteith’s TesseracT, Tek-One, Arcane Roots, Me Vs Hero, and Title Fight. And finally, over on the Jagermeister Stage, it’s been announced that the Metal Hammer Golden God winning Demonic Resurrection, Amplifier, Anterior, The Crave, Hounds, Jettblack, Orange Goblin, Fletcher, Saint Jude and The Virgin Marys will all be tearing Knebworth some new ones come July.

Tickets for Sonisphere Festival are available now through the official Sonisphere website, where prices start at £180 (plus all the usual fees and whatnot). Some ticket types are already starting to sell out for this year’s festival, which once again takes place at the splendid Knebworth Park, so you better start saving up if you want to catch The Big Four, Slipknot, Biffy Clyro, and all of the bands that have been announced this coming July.