Here’s who to see at Sonic Temple this year.
The nation’s largest metal festival will return to Columbus this year with a stacked line-up.
Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival; retrieved from Experience Columbus.
Sonic Temple, the biggest metal event of the year, is just under two months away and selling out fast. On May 8th, the festival will return to Columbus, Ohio for its fifth run, bringing four days, four stages, and over a hundred heavy-hitting bands.
With a stacked lineup featuring legacy acts (Metallica, Korn, Alice in Chains), long-awaited reunions (Three Days Grace, Linkin Park, Acid Bath), and big names across every metal subgenre, Sonic Temple promises a weekend of nonstop metal mayhem.
THURSDAY: Korn, Bad Omens, Three Days Grace (x2)
Korn, retireved from Amazon Media.
California nu-metal legends Korn will be kicking off Sonic Temple on the main stage. The band paved the way for the genre and influenced the likes of fellow fan favorites like Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Rage Against the Machine. Now, thirty years later, Korn is more popular than ever, coming off of a successful tour in 2024.
Joining them will be one of the younger acts of the weekend, Bad Omens. The Virginia-based group is known for their unique blend of alternative, industrial, and nu-metal influences.
Three Days Grace, image by Matt Barnes.
The main stage will also feature Three Days Grace (2x). For the first time ever, the iconic 2000’s Canadian emo band will feature both their original lead singer, Adam Gontier, and Matt Walst, who has been part of the band since 2013.
FRIDAY: Metallica, Rob Zombie, Acid Bath
Metallica, retrieved from Billboard Magazine.
Metallica needs no introduction—the multiple Grammy award-winners have rocked the world since the mid-80s with their fast, chugging metal, and will be headlining both Friday and Sunday at Sonic Temple. The band’s two-day setlist promises two unique sets with both deep cuts and fan favorites spanning their illustrious career.
Friday will also bring plenty of theatrics and experimental rock, featuring horror filmmaker Rob Zombie and shock-rock icon Alice Cooper.
Sludgy heavy-hitters like Atlanta’s Mastodon and New Orleans’ Acid Bath will also take the stage, the latter sludge-defining cult favorite reuniting for the very first time since their bassists’ death and following breakup in 1997.
Acid Bath, retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.
Friday’s lineup brings some of the heaviest acts of Sonic Temple, blending extreme metal and hardcore. Suicidal Tendencies, pioneers of crossover thrash, will bring their breakneck punk energy, while death metal legends Cannibal Corpse will unleash their signature guttural brutality. Metalcore meets beatdown with Hatebreed’s aggression, while Whitechapel delivers modern deathcore devastation.
Finally, with melodic death metal legends The Black Dahlia Murder buried at the very bottom of the lineup, you know this festival is absolutely stacked.
SATURDAY: Linkin Park, Incubus, I Prevail
Linkin Park, retrieved from Variety.
The multiple Grammy-nominated Linkin Park has been selling out stadiums with their alternative nu-metal since the 2000’s, but they went on hiatus following the death of their frontman Chester Bennington in 2017. In 2024, the band reunited with new lead singer Emily Armstrong and will stop by Sonic Temple on tour with their new lineup and a new album coming soon.
Iconic experimental rock band Incubus will also be taking the main stage on Saturday with their unique blend of hip-hop, funk, and metal. Another stage will be headlined by I Prevail, post-hardcore band who funnily rose to popularity from releasing a metal cover of Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. Even the smaller stages are graced by big names in metalcore like Bullet For My Valentine and Of Mice and Men, and Underoath. The day also promises some of the softer alternative and indie acts of the weekends like Jimmy Eat World and Grandson.
SUNDAY: Metallica (again!), Alice in Chains, Chevelle
Alice in Chains, retrieved from Rolling Stone.
Sunday, of course, will feature Metallica again, and joining them on the main stage will be Alice in Chains. The Seattle grunge icons carved out a darker, heavier niche within the genre, blending haunting vocal harmonies with sludgy, metal-infused riffs. Rising to international fame in the ‘90s, their brooding, melancholic sound set them apart from their grunge peers. The band has been fronted by William Duvall since the passing of original singer Layne Staley in 2002, and this will be one of just a handful of performances from Alice in Chains in recent years—so you won’t want to miss it.
They will be joined by Illinois-born Chevelle, known for their experimental alternative metal sound, layering guitars with heavy riffs, melodic vocals, and introspective lyrics.
Sunday will keep the energy high with melodic metalcore titans Ice Nine Kills and Asking Alexandria alongside death metal and deathcore crushers like Obituary and Arch Enemy. And for those who like their heavy-metal with blood-soaked theatrics, GWAR’s grotesque stage antics will be as over-the-top as ever.
A final hardcore stage headlined by Power Trip will feature beatdown titans Sunami, Speed, and Pain of Truth that have exploded into the national spotlight recently. Power trip and Sunami have even collaborated on an album and coast to coast tour.
With this new wave of hardcore at full force, Sunday might be the festival’s most intense day—expect violent moships, nonstop two-steppers, spin kicks galore.
See the full line up here.
GA field passes are sold out, but you can still buy stadium and VIP tickets or join the waitlist!
edited by Alia Smith, Managing Editor.
images by Experience Columbus, Amazon Media, Matt Barnes, Billboard Magazine, Wikimedia Commons, Variety, & Rolling Stone.