Music : Sick New World announces 2025 line-up with Linkin Park, Metallica, Evanescence, QOTSA and more

Sick New World has announced its line-up for next year, with Linkin Park and Metallica headlining – buy tickets here.

The festival, which focuses on rock, nu-metal and industrial, shared the line-up for its third edition on April 12 at Las Vegas Festival Grounds on social media today. Over 50 names have been announced, with Evanescence, Queens Of The Stone Age, Gojira and AFI among some of the biggest names after the headliners.

Also on the lineup are The Flaming Lips, the Sisters Of Mercy, Meshuggah, Cradle Of Filth, X, Refused, Cannibal Corpse and Lacuna Coil. Meanwhile, Louisiana sludge metallers Acid Bath will be reuniting to play their first show since 1997 at the festival.

Tickets will go on sale on Friday (October 18), starting at US$19.99. You can sign up for the presale on the festival’s website, and buy tickets here.

Last year, the likes of System Of A Down, Slowdive and Slipknot played the festival, the latter celebrating the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut album and performing a career-spanning setlist.

System Of A Down played the inaugural festival in 2023, too, while Korn, Deftones and Incubus were also among the biggest names to perform.

Check out the official recap of last year’s festival here:

Ahead of their Sick New World headline set next year – and in the middle of their ‘M72’ world tour – Metallica frontman James Hetfield told The Metallica Report that the thrash icons have no plans to become a “legacy band”.

He said: “We know people wanna hear the ‘best of’. And you’ve gotta challenge them to listen to some of the new stuff as well, ’cause we certainly don’t wanna be a legacy band that just plays their greatest hits and then that’s it.”

NME gave the opening night of the tour in 2023 a four-star review, saying: “Metallica have always been a gateway band for heavy music, but there’s a renewed excitement around them now. Tonight’s surprising, ambitious and giddy gig matches that energy at every turn. Their closing crossover track ‘Master Of Puppets’ naturally goes off, but then so do all of the songs on the setlist. From the gorgeous ‘Nothing Else Matters’ through to the unifying ‘Seek & Destroy’, the majesty of heavy music is on full display throughout the gig as Metallica prove why they’re clearly still the greatest metal band around.”

Meanwhile, Linkin Park played their first shows since 2017 last month – including one at London’s O2 Arena. The nu-metal band reformed with a new vocalist, Emily Armstrong, following the death of Chester Bennington that year, and are set to release their first album since 2017’s ‘One More Light’, ‘From Zero’, on November 15, too.

The addition of Queens Of The Stone Age comes after the band rescheduled their tour dates for 2025, which happened as to the band scrapped its remaining dates for the year in order to allow frontman Josh Homme to receive “essential medical care”.