Louisville’s loudest export is back and this year, Louder Than Life isn’t f**king around.
Running September 18–21, the 2025 edition is a four day marathon of riffs, reunions, and genre bending carnage across six stages at the Highland Festival Grounds in Kentucky. If you’ve ever wanted to see Slayer, Sleep Token, A Perfect Circle, and Bring Me The Horizon in the same weekend, this is the year.
Thursday: Slayer Returns to Finish What the Weather Ruined
After their 2024 reunion set got smothered by Mother Nature, Slayer are coming back to settle the score.
They’re headlining Thursday in what’s now being called a makeup show for the apocalypse, pure, unfiltered thrash played like it’s a blood debt.
Joining them is Rob Zombie, who’s dragging his 30 year old beast ‘Astro-Creep: 2000’ back to life in full. It’s a one night only trip into his industrial horror funk wasteland and if you’re not in the pit, you’re missing the ritual.
Friday: Sleep Token Leads the Cult, Bad Omens and Spiritbox Bring the Future
Friday night reads like a moodboard for modern metal’s emotional breakdown.
- Sleep Token will baptise the mainstage in mystery and melody.
- Bad Omens bring polished devastation straight out of the apocalypse-core playbook.
- Spiritbox remain one of the most technically refined and emotionally unnerving live bands on the circuit.
It’s less of a show and more of a generational shift, playing out in real time.
Saturday: Deftones and A Perfect Circle Hold Church
Saturday is a vibe all its own. It’s not about brute force, it’s about atmosphere.
Deftones deliver shoegaze-drenched violence with heart. A Perfect Circle counter with surgical tension, art-rock precision, and existential dread in 6/8 time. Expect fewer fists in the air, more people standing still and feeling everything.
Sunday: BMTH & Evanescence Close It Out with Fire and Drama
Bring Me The Horizon headline Sunday with their genre-splicing, stadium crushing madness. Love them or roll your eyes they’ve become the future-facing face of heavy music, and they know it.
Evanescence joins the farewell sermon with that haunting goth-anthem energy, while acts like Fever 333, Knocked Loose, and Nova Twins will make sure nobody leaves without bruises (physical or emotional).
Not Just Music, A Whole Fking World**
Louder Than Life isn’t just about what’s happening on stage. It’s bourbon bars, immersive art, tattoo lounges, gourmet food trucks, and enough sweat and dust to peel your soul.
This year’s lineup is more than just a mix of legacy acts and new blood, it’s a full spectrum snapshot of where heavy music is right now. And it’s loud in all the right ways.
Tickets are on sale now at louderthanlifefestival.com
Whether you’re there for the Slayer pit or the Spiritbox cleanse, this one’s built for the lifers.
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