Culture
Louder Than Life’s lineup delivers on familiar favorites while ushering in a new era
By: Nicholas Kobe
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WOUB) – Danny Wimmer Production’s Louder Than Life 2025 happens September 18–21. After Hurricane Helene forced a day’s cancellation in 2024, expectations are high for a strong comeback—and the initial lineup delivers, featuring some of last year’s most missed acts alongside fan favorites.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: bringing Slayer back was the right call.
After their 2024 set was scrapped due to weather, Wimmer handled refunds well and made every effort to make it up to fans. Rescheduling Slayer for day one of this year’s festival is another smart move. Plus, it’s their only announced U.S. show in 2025, making it all the more attractive to die-hard fans.
Just like Metallica at Sonic Temple, I’m glad to see Wimmer planned accordingly with a great slew of heavy bands. I’m excited to see Sonic Temple and INKcarceration double dipping for Cannibal Corpse, Exodus, Lamb of God, and Municipal Waste, as well as cool new additions like Carcass.
Deftones is our nu-metal headliner of the year, and as my favorite band in the subgenre (except for maybe Rage Against The Machine), I have no complaints. As I mentioned in my review of their appearance at Sonic Temple 2023, Deftones is a band that naturally lends itself to a nighttime setting with plenty of time to churn through their countless iconic tracks.
Bring Me The Horizon being the closing headliner is the answer to the prayers I have been sending through these previews for two years now. Finally, Wimmer has taken a chance on one of the hottest bands around at the moment.
Do I love Bring Me The Horizon as much as Slayer?
No, but I’m arguably more excited, just for what they represent. As much as we all love the ‘80s and ‘90’s, metal needs to march forward, and we can’t do that without platforming new artists.
While there’s been hints of this switch, it feels more like a full commitment to the younger generation than INKcarceration’s Falling In Reverse headliner. Part of that is certainly just me hating Falling in Reverse, but I’d also argue Bring Me The Horizon has found musical appeal and success outside of the metal world and is a bigger and more innovative band overall.
The package of Bring Me The Horizon, Bad Omens, Sleep Token, Spiritbox, Motionless in White, and Knocked Loose pretty much covers all the bases of modern metal, making Louder Than Life 2025 the most forward-thinking rock festival announced so far this year.
Another pleasant surprise: even though bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest have been booked in the past, the classic wave of heavy metal is traditionally under-represented at these festivals.
With Sunday’s slate of Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden fame), Queensryche, Sebastian Bach and Accept, Louder Than Life is providing more stage time to some of the classics I personally am partial to. The same goes for Friday’s slate of power metal: Powerwolf (marking their U.S. festival debut), Dragonforce, Alestorm, and Gloryhammer. Both of these sub-genres will not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you don’t enjoy silly metal. However, if silly, shred-filled anthems are your jam, I’d suggest checking out all of the bands mentioned; even if it’s just to add a little diversity to your day.
Unfortunately, they can’t all be winners. You can take the inclusion of Marilyn Manson and All Time Low as you will; both have had allegations (All Time Low, Marilyn Manson) that have since been to some degree discredited, however, it would not surprise me if many fans didn’t share my opinion of generally being a little apprehensive about their high billing and acceptance back into the rock scene.
Additionally, while I love the platforming of new artists, the $uicideboy$ is simply not my cup of tea. Their brand of aggressive trap just does nothing for me, especially in comparison to other modern rappers, or their older peers (Tech9 and Cypress Hill) who will also be at Louder Than Life.
As with any festival, a slew of mediocrity will creep in, mostly consisting of unoriginal radio-metal and nu-metal. As I’ve said, I love supporting new metal bands. However, Louder Than Life brings back the classic mid-day slog of pop artists with 7-string guitars and screaming. It doesn’t count in my “new and interesting” category if you’re just ripping off some of the names I listed above like Bad Omens or Bring Me The Horizon. These bands, however, are much more palatable, considering they’ll build up to the actual forward-thinking artists later on in the day.
In general, after the lineup home run of Sonic Temple 2025, followed by the lineup strikeout of INKcarceration, I was expecting Louder Than Life to land somewhere in the middle. Luckily, it leans much more toward the former than the latter. The increased diversity of bands continues from Sonic Temple, with an arguably better set of headliners.
As we prepare to roll the dice on the uncontrollable elements, and the “unforeseen future nestled somewhere in time” for Louder Than Life, the odds look to be solidly in the festival’s favor this year.