France's environmental-metal titans — from the Olympics opening ceremony to the pit, whale-song riffs and precision heaviness with an actual conscience.
From Bayonne, FR · Sounds like Meshuggah, Lamb of God, Opeth
Louder Than Life 2026 Lineup
America's biggest rock festival — four days, nearly 200 bands, and every shade of heavy in one Louisville field.
About Louder Than Life 2026
Louder Than Life is America's biggest rock festival, full stop: four September days at Louisville's Highland Festival Grounds, seven stages, nearly 200 bands, and bourbon everywhere it legally fits. The 2026 bill is an embarrassment of heaviness — My Chemical Romance, Iron Maiden, Tool, Limp Bizkit, and Pantera's only U.S. show of the year up top; Megadeth's farewell; Cavalera performing Sepultura's Roots; reunions from Circa Survive, Chiodos, and Get Scared; and Saturday hosting one of the most prominent female-fronted stage lineups a major U.S. rock festival has ever assembled. Whatever heavy means to you — emo, thrash, hardcore, metalcore, nu-metal nostalgia — it's on this poster somewhere.
Expect metal, rock, post-hardcore and hard rock across 197 acts.
Louder Than Life 2026 lineup: all 197 acts
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre — save anything straight to your schedule.Browse all 197 acts →
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre — save anything straight to your schedule.
Up the irons — metal's greatest live institution, Eddie included, galloping twin leads and Bruce Dickinson sprinting the stage like it's 1985.
From London, UK · Sounds like Judas Priest, Metallica, Motörhead, Black Sabbath
Nu-metal's chaos agents in their beloved victory-lap era — Fred Durst does it all for the nookie, still, and the field does it with him.
From Jacksonville, FL · Sounds like Korn, Staind, Kid Rock, Crazy Town
Concept-album maximalists who treated emo as opera — marching-band drums, guitar harmonies, and a costume for every era, theatrical to the last note.
From Newark, NJ · Sounds like Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, AFI
The reborn kings of groove metal — their only U.S. show of 2026, 'Walk' and 'Cowboys from Hell' as scripture.
From Arlington, TX · Sounds like Lamb of God, Sepultura, Exhorder
San Diego post-hardcore romantics enjoying a massive TikTok-era second act — the scene's most swooned-over comeback.
From San Diego, CA · Sounds like Sleeping With Sirens, Bring Me The Horizon
Sun-bleached ska-punk-dub hybrid, now carried by Bradley Nowell's son with the songs left intact — '40oz. to Freedom' forever.
From Long Beach, CA · Sounds like 311, Slightly Stoopid, No Doubt, Rebelution
Prog-metal's cathedral builders — polyrhythms, lasers, and total audience surrender, Danny Carey's drumming alone worth the pilgrimage.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like A Perfect Circle, Deftones, Meshuggah, Puscifer
The pop-punk/metalcore hybrid blueprint — mosh-call breakdowns and sugar-rush hooks in equal measure, delivered with beach balls, confetti cannons, and total arena confidence.
From Ocala, FL · Sounds like The Amity Affliction, Parkway Drive, All Time Low, Beartooth
The original shock-rock showman — guillotines, snakes, straitjackets, and 'School's Out' forever, still running rock's greatest vaudeville horror show six decades in.
From Detroit, MI · Sounds like Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, KISS, Ozzy Osbourne
Chicago's heart-skull institution — graveyard romance in three chords, with Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano trading morbid valentines across two-plus decades of dark pop-punk.
From Chicago, IL · Sounds like The Lawrence Arms, AFI
Big Four thrash with NYC attitude — 'Caught in a Mosh' remains an instruction, and four decades in they still play like the scrappiest kids in the class.
From New York, NY · Sounds like Metallica, Slayer, Testament
J-pop choreography welded to genuine power-metal chops — a premise that should not work and completely does, now with arena-scale production and a decade of converted skeptics.
From Tokyo, JP · Sounds like Bring Me The Horizon, Dragonforce, Polyphia, Lovebites
Johnny Franck's absurdist country-core project gone legitimately huge — saxophones, breakdowns, and jokes played tight enough to work as straight-up bangers.
From Columbus, OH
Zakk Wylde's biker-metal brotherhood — pinch harmonics for days, Sabbath-weight riffs, and guitar solos treated as main events.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Ozzy Osbourne, Down, Corrosion of Conformity
Warpaint-and-leather anthems — the black parade's glammer cousins, stadium-goth choruses delivered with total conviction, eyeliner-era devotion still marching.
From Hollywood, CA · Sounds like Motionless in White, Falling in Reverse, Avenged Sevenfold
Max and Iggor performing Sepultura's 'Roots' in full — Brazilian metal history live, from the brothers who wrote it.
From Belo Horizonte, BR · Sounds like Sepultura, Nailbomb, Max Cavalera's Killer Be Killed
Craig Owens's theatrical post-hardcore, reunited — MySpace-era drama with real stakes, piano flourishes and that unmistakable swooping vocal intact.
From Davison, MI · Sounds like The Fall of Troy, Saosin
Anthony Green's art-punk flagship, reunited — soaring, strange, and beloved, with a fanbase that treats these songs as sacred text.
From Philadelphia, PA · Sounds like Saosin, La Dispute
Sci-fi concept-rock saga with arena hooks — 'Welcome Home' indeed, the Amory Wars mythology powering some of modern prog's biggest singalongs.
From Nyack, NY · Sounds like Rush, Thrice
Swancore's funk-flecked flagship — technicolor riffs and dual-vocal whiplash, a prolific catalog that never stopped mutating.
From Sacramento, CA · Sounds like Sianvar, Capstan, Chon, A Lot Like Birds
Oingo Boingo's madman turned Tim Burton's composer — a berserk orchestral-rock spectacle that mashes film scores into art-punk chaos.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Oingo Boingo, Nine Inch Nails, Mr. Bungle, Tim Burton scores
The Evil Elvis — Misfits mythology and 'Mother' brooding in the flesh, blues-metal croon delivered from rock's darkest pulpit.
From Lodi, NJ · Sounds like Misfits, Type O Negative, Black Sabbath, Samhain
Metalocalypse's cartoon death-metal band, real and devastating live — Brendon Small's shred played against the animation at brutal volume.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Amon Amarth, Children of Bodom, At the Gates, In Flames
Lzzy Hale's Grammy-winning powerhouse — the loudest voice in modern hard rock, delivered nightly with full-throttle sincerity.
From Red Lion, PA · Sounds like Alter Bridge, Within Temptation, Evanescence, Shinedown
Midwest emo's chaotic favorites — screamed choruses, absurd song titles, real feelings, and a crowd that knows every word including the yelps.
From Lansing, MI · Sounds like Origami Angel, The Wonder Years, Free Throw, Prince Daddy & The Hyena
Horror-movie metalcore staged as full theatre — every song a slasher reference, every set closer to a production than a gig.
From Boston, MA · Sounds like Motionless in White, Avenged Sevenfold, Bring Me the Horizon, Falling in Reverse
Maria Brink's gothic ritual-metal — costumes, choirs, and 'Whore' still searing, a stage show closer to dark ceremony than concert.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Evanescence, Lacuna Coil
The emo band that became a permanent radio fixture — enormous choruses delivered with total earnestness, decade after decade without a dip.
From Mesa, AZ · Sounds like The Get Up Kids, Motion City Soundtrack, Death Cab for Cutie, Saves the Day
Metalcore's standard-bearers — 'The End of Heartache' still detonates, two decades of the genre's template played by its authors.
From Westfield, MA · Sounds like As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, Trivium, Unearth
Texas hardcore at its most punishing — mosh calls with a message, and a low end that treats subtlety as a character flaw.
From Sherman, TX · Sounds like Knocked Loose, Terror, Hatebreed, Malevolence
Dancing electric-violin spectacle — classical chops at festival scale, choreography and pyrotechnics included, a one-woman production that earns the word spectacle.
From Santa Ana, CA · Sounds like Apocalyptica, 2Cellos, David Garrett
Oakland groove-metal veterans — 'Davidian' still an extinction event, three decades of down-tuned survival behind it.
From Oakland, CA · Sounds like Lamb of God, Fear Factory, Sepultura
Atlanta's prog-sludge institution — concept records about doom and grief, played with genuinely uncommon musicianship and harmonized howls.
From Atlanta, GA · Sounds like Baroness, High on Fire, Torche, Red Fang
Mustaine's farewell campaign — thrash's most venomous catalog, one last ride through 'Peace Sells' and four decades of grudges.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Metallica, Slayer, Testament
Al Jourgensen's industrial-metal war machine — sampled sermons, mechanised riffing, and four decades of pure spite, still grinding forward.
From Chicago, IL · Sounds like Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, Fear Factory, Godflesh
San Antonio alt-metal showmen — bass-throwing spectacle, Grammy-nominated hooks, and a stage rig built like a science experiment.
From San Antonio, TX · Sounds like Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Sevendust
'Last Resort' to now — nu-metal survivors who never stopped filling fields, with Jacoby Shaddix still working every inch of stage.
From Vacaville, CA · Sounds like Linkin Park, Korn, Disturbed
Chicago's melodic-hardcore conscience — two decades of fists-up anthems delivered with undimmed conviction, 'Savior' still closing rooms.
From Chicago, IL · Sounds like Anti-Flag, Strike Anywhere, A Wilhelm Scream, Bad Religion
Swedish power metal's war historians — tank included, choruses drilled to parade-ground precision, history lectures you can mosh to.
From Falun, SE · Sounds like Powerwolf, DragonForce, Hammerfall, Amon Amarth
Christian rock's arena juggernaut — 'Monster' with a special production, pyro and strings at full budget.
From Memphis, TN · Sounds like Thousand Foot Krutch, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin
Kellin Quinn's falsetto-fronted post-hardcore — Warped Tour royalty matured, with the high notes fully intact and scene-era devotion still filling rooms.
From Orlando, FL · Sounds like Of Mice & Men, Silverstein, Falling in Reverse
Venice crossover legends — 'Institutionalized' and a pit that never ages, Cyco Mike still leading the charge.
From Venice, CA · Sounds like D.R.I., Municipal Waste, Body Count
Long Island emo royalty — mic-swinging catharsis, twenty-plus years deep, 'MakeDamnSure' still a communal throat-shred, and yes, the mic still swings.
From Long Island, NY · Sounds like Brand New, Straylight Run, Senses Fail
At the Drive-In's cosmic successors — salsa-prog freakouts and falsetto fire, 'The Widow' amid the labyrinth.
From El Paso, TX · Sounds like At the Drive-In, The Fall of Troy
Taylor Momsen's grunge-blooded hard rock — smoky, heavy, chart-topping, with more rock-radio #1s than most legacy acts.
From New York, NY · Sounds like Evanescence, The Dead Weather, Alice in Chains, Alter Bridge
Firestarters, still — the UK's rave-punk institution hits harder than bands half their age, three decades of menace intact.
From Braintree, UK · Sounds like The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Pendulum, Atari Teenage Riot
Bert McCracken's scream-to-croon whiplash defined a corner of early-2000s post-hardcore and still detonates live — the chaos aged into craft.
From Orem, UT · Sounds like Senses Fail, Story of the Year, Saosin, Glassjaw
Three sisters from Monterrey out-rocking everyone — Mexico's hard-rock pride, a family band that grew into arena-grade virtuosity.
From Monterrey, MX · Sounds like Evanescence, Paramore, Rush
The Rage guitarist solo, which in practice means the riffs, the politics, and a rotating cast of guests — expect surprises.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Street Sweeper Social Club, Prophets of Rage
'They're Only Chasing Safety' to now — metalcore's restless innovators, reinventing loudly in every era, and the reinventions keep landing.
From Tampa, FL · Sounds like Norma Jean, The Almost, Silverstein, The Devil Wears Prada
156/Silence
Sounds like Knocked Loose, Vein.fm, SeeYouSpaceCowboy
Cleveland's contribution to the new-school death-metal revival — filthy, mid-paced, and built entirely around the riff, with the kind of grooves that turn a pit violent in seconds.
From Cleveland, OH · Sounds like Cannibal Corpse, Gatecreeper, Undeath, Sanguisugabogg
40 Below Summer
Sounds like Ill Niño, Nonpoint, Sevendust
Adelitas Way
Sounds like Theory of a Deadman, Shinedown, Saving Abel
Early djent architects out of Minneapolis — eight-string polyrhythms and huge grooves whose low end still lands harder live than any recording has managed to capture.
From Minneapolis, MN · Sounds like Veil of Maya, Periphery
The godfathers of NYHC — Lower East Side scripture since the early '80s, with 'Victim in Pain' still the blueprint for every two-stepping hardcore band that followed.
From New York, NY · Sounds like Sick of It All, Cro-Mags, Terror
Canada's post-hardcore heart — three voices trading scream, croon, and rasp across one beloved catalog, with reunion sets that feel like national holidays back home.
From St. Catharines, ON · Sounds like Glassjaw, Silverstein, Cancer Bats
Best known for turning 'Smooth Criminal' into an alt-metal hit — which undersells a Riverside band with a real ear for a chorus and more melodic instinct than their era usually rewarded.
From Riverside, CA · Sounds like Hoobastank, Incubus, Sugarcult, Crazy Town
American Monster
Hardcore veterans making sunny, ramshackle power-pop with the energy of a band that has nothing to prove — Turnstile and Trapped Under Ice pedigree, zero tough-guy posture.
From Baltimore, MD · Sounds like Turnstile, Trapped Under Ice, Superheaven, Power Trip
Eight-string instrumental wizardry — Tosin Abasi rewrites what a guitar can do nightly, prog-metal precision that draws musicians the way other bands draw fans.
From Washington, DC · Sounds like Periphery, Plini, Polyphia, Chon
Archers
Arrows in Action
Sounds like State Champs, With Confidence, The Story So Far
As You Were
OC metalcore originators — 'Lip Gloss and Black' nostalgia with new-era polish, from a band that helped write the genre's melodic playbook in the first place.
From Orange County, CA · Sounds like Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, As I Lay Dying
The original Of Mice & Men vocalist returning to the material after years away from touring — a scene-history moment for everyone who wore out those first records.
Sounds like Of Mice & Men, Blessthefall, Parkway Drive
Aviana
Sounds like Landmvrks
Progressive metal with no regard for song length — polka breaks, jazz detours, and genuine death-metal fury, often inside the same eleven-minute track.
From Raleigh, NC · Sounds like Opeth, Dream Theater, The Contortionist, Between the Buried
Billy McNicol
Blood For Blood
Sounds like Hatebreed, Sick of It All
Blue Medusa
Bodybox
Sounds like Knocked Loose, Kublai Khan
Boltcutter
Born of Osiris
Sounds like Veil of Maya, Periphery
Boundaries
Sounds like Knocked Loose, Kublai Khan, Terror, Jesus Piece
Texas pop-punk comedians with better songwriting chops than the joke suggests — twenty-five years of hooks hiding under the punchlines.
From Wichita Falls, TX · Sounds like Simple Plan, Zebrahead, Wheatus, Fenix TX
Butcher Babies
Sounds like Arch Enemy, Otep
Cane Hill
Sounds like Motionless in White, Of Mice & Men
Caskets
Sounds like While She Sleeps, Bad Omens
Cenobia
A solo billing built entirely around two decades of nu-metal and groove-metal frontman work — Mudvayne intensity and HELLYEAH swagger in one set.
From Peoria, IL · Sounds like Mudvayne, Slipknot, Static-X, Coal Chamber
Chained Saint
Utah deathcore that keeps finding new floors beneath the floor — a decade-plus of low-tuned punishment that only got nastier with time.
From Salt Lake City, UT · Sounds like Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder, Carnifex
Fat Mike's genre-agnostic side project — punk, rap, and folk stitched into something genuinely odd, with Ceschi's rapid-fire verses at the center.
From Oakland, CA · Sounds like Get Dead, Ceschi, Fat Mike, Sage Francis
Corpse Pile
Currents
Sounds like Northlane, Invent Animate
Dark Divine
Dead Poet Society
Sounds like Highly Suspect, Royal Blood, Nothing But Thieves, Badflower
Death Valley Dreams
Diamante
Sounds like New Years Day
Nashville rapper with a rock streak and a fiercely independent release history — melodic grit built entirely outside the label system.
From Nashville, TN · Sounds like Yelawolf, iann dior, Bryce Vine
Downswing
Dreamwake
Dry Kill Logic
Sounds like Chimaira, Sworn Enemy
Earshot
Sounds like Chevelle, Breaking Benjamin, Trapt, Cold
Elijah
Kentucky's own — post-hardcore turned silk-smooth pop-rock, playing home turf with one of the scene's most distinctive clean vocals.
From Lexington, KY · Sounds like Saosin
'The Question'-era screamo-pop veterans, still swinging — dueling vocals and dynamic whiplash from one of the scene's smartest bands.
From Seattle, WA · Sounds like Anberlin, Norma Jean, Silverstein, The Chariot
Divisive by design — nu-metal bounce, deathcore weight, and Frankie Palmeri saying the unsayable, engineered to start arguments and pits alike.
From New Fairfield, CT · Sounds like Suicide Silence, Upon A Burning Body, Attila, Whitechapel
End It
Sounds like Turnstile, Terror, Trapped Under Ice
ERRA
Sounds like Northlane, Periphery
Vegas post-hardcore that survived a frontman swap and a decade of scene churn intact — arena-scene hooks with a survivor's stubbornness.
From Las Vegas, NV · Sounds like Falling In Reverse, Blessthefall, Motionless in White, Asking Alexandria
'Hey Man Nice Shot' — Richard Patrick's industrial-rock sneer intact, machine-tooled riffs from NIN's family tree.
From Cleveland, OH · Sounds like Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward, Gravity Kills, Rob Zombie
Texas metalcore built on clean-vocal lift and reliably enormous breakdowns — arena-scale heaviness delivered with total consistency.
From Tyler, TX · Sounds like Wage War, August Burns Red, Silent Planet, Parkway Drive
Fox Lake
Freeze The Fall
Rap-rock revivalists trading verses between a singer and an MC, straight out of the 2000s playbook — updated production, same adrenaline.
From Lancaster, PA · Sounds like Hollywood Undead, Bad Wolves, From First To Last, Linkin Park
Future Palace
Sounds like Landmvrks, Novelists
Gates To Hell
Get Scared
Sounds like Falling in Reverse, Blessthefall
Louisville's chaotic metalcore pride — Every Time I Die-school swerves and hooks, on a hometown play.
From Louisville, KY · Sounds like The Chariot, Every Time I Die, Norma Jean
Intergalactic latex monsters spraying fake blood on the front rows since 1984 — thrash chops under the costumes. Wear a poncho.
From Richmond, VA · Sounds like Municipal Waste, Lordi
H2O
Sounds like Sick of It All, Gorilla Biscuits
A drummer-vocalist fronting frantic, jazz-inflected post-hardcore that changes direction every eight bars — Chico's contribution to the Swancore canon.
From Chico, CA · Sounds like Sianvar, Chon, The Fall of Troy
Haste The Day
Sounds like As I Lay Dying, Norma Jean
Newer West Coast hardcore working the same fast, mean seam as its Bay Area peers — no-frills aggression built for short, violent sets.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Drain, Scowl, Pain of Truth, No Cure
He Is Legend
Sounds like Clutch, Every Time I Die
Heavy//Hitter
Welsh post-hardcore romantics — soaring, heart-first heaviness, every chorus written to be wept through, Cardiff sincerity at full wingspan.
From Cardiff, UK · Sounds like Static Dress, Boston Manor, Casey
LA project trading in cinematic, brooding alt-pop with a big low end — grief-forged songs delivered with theatrical force.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like PVRIS, Royal & the Serpent, Poppy, Phantogram
Holywatr
I See Stars
Sounds like Attack Attack!, Of Mice & Men, Crown the Empire
Icon For Hire
Sounds like Paramore, Flyleaf
ivri
Jeff Hardy
Josey Scott: The Original Voice of SALIVA
Sounds like Saliva, Nickelback, Crossfade, Hinder
Toronto artist who moved from rap features into full pop-punk, and sounds more at home there — emo-rap roots showing through the power chords.
From Toronto, ON · Sounds like mgk, nothing,nowhere., blackbear, Iann Dior
Kami Kehoe
King 810
Sounds like Slipknot, Hollywood Undead
Long Island kids threading '90s melodic hardcore through big, wistful hooks that stick immediately — scene-lifer pedigree with real pop instincts.
From Long Island, NY · Sounds like Turnstile, Title Fight, Movements, Citizen
MCR, Thursday, and Circa Survive members' supergroup — urgent, veteran post-hardcore played like a first band, not a side project.
From USA · Sounds like Saosin
Lacey Sturm
Sounds like Flyleaf, Evanescence, We Are the Fallen
Like Moths To Flames
Sounds like Miss May I, Motionless In White
'My Own Worst Enemy' — one perfect song and a very good time, delivered by SoCal pros who know exactly why you came.
From Fullerton, CA · Sounds like Sugar Ray, Everclear, Smash Mouth, Fastball
Liverpool heaviness that swings between crushing metalcore and gorgeous shoegaze drift — Deftones lineage carried somewhere genuinely new.
From Liverpool, UK · Sounds like Deftones, Sleep Token
Locked Shut
Black Sabbath covers performed by fast-food mascots — exactly as great as it sounds, with lyrics rewritten as fast-food satire.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Black Sabbath, Green Jelly, Okilly Dokilly
NYHC royalty — Freddy Cricien's bark over the crossover riffing that defined the Lower East Side sound, hardcore lineage in the literal family sense.
From New York, NY · Sounds like Sick of It All, Terror, Hatebreed
Many Eyes
Maylene & The Sons of Disaster
Sounds like Every Time I Die, Norma Jean, The Showdown
Metal Church
Sounds like Metallica, Testament, Overkill
Missing Link
Mushroomhead
Sounds like Slipknot, Mudvayne, Static-X
Nevertel
No Resolve
Orianthi
Sounds like Alanis Morissette, Michelle Branch, Sheryl Crow
OTHERWISE
Sounds like Shinedown
'Alive' and 'Youth of the Nation' — San Diego's nu-metal survivors, positivity intact through every scene cycle.
From San Diego, CA · Sounds like Linkin Park, Korn, 311, Incubus
Palaye Royale
Sounds like Panic! at the Disco, The Struts, Marilyn Manson
Slam played with a hip-hop swagger — gurgles, gore, and breakdowns tuned to the floor, the internet's favorite new heaviness.
From Little Rock, AR · Sounds like Sanguisugabogg, Ingested, Devourment, Aborted
Powerman 5000
Sounds like Rob Zombie, Static-X, Fear Factory
President
Primer 55
Sounds like Mudvayne, Slipknot, Static-X
Formerly Slaves, rebuilt around melody — modern post-hardcore with the edges sanded deliberately smooth and the choruses aimed at radio.
From Orlando, FL · Sounds like Slaves, Dayseeker, Bad Omens, Issues
'End of Silence' anniversary — orchestral Christian metal's biggest debut, replayed in full with the strings intact.
From Nashville, TN · Sounds like Breaking Benjamin, Thousand Foot Krutch, Three Days Grace
Resolve
Sounds like Landmvrks, Novelists
Rivers of Nihil
Sounds like The Black Dahlia Murder, Cattle Decapitation
Sace6
Keyboard-led post-hardcore with a genuinely gorgeous streak under the screaming — scene-era drama back from the vault.
From Gilbert, AZ · Sounds like Saosin, The Fall of Troy, Silverstein, From First to Last
Pink-glitter 'bimbocore' — pop-metalcore with a feminist bite, breakdowns in hot pink and lyrics that name names.
From Cleveland, OH · Sounds like Poppy, Motionless in White
Sent By Ravens
Sounds like Fireflight, Kutless
Set For Tomorrow
Theatrical pop-rock with orchestral flourishes and a frontman who can genuinely belt — Broadway instincts at Warped velocity.
From Tampa, FL · Sounds like Panic! at the Disco, All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, Mayday Parade
Snarling young punk energy on the Sunday undercard.
Signs of the Swarm
Sounds like Lorna Shore, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder
Silly Goose
New-generation alt-metal built on a soulful clean vocal and a very modern low end — the format's next arena act in waiting.
From Memphis, TN · Sounds like Bad Omens, Sleep Token, Dayseeker, The Plot In You
Soil
Sounds like Drowning Pool, Mudvayne, Chevelle, Sevendust
Max Cavalera's post-Sepultura vehicle, still fusing tribal percussion with pure groove-metal weight — three decades of roar undiminished.
From Phoenix, AZ · Sounds like Sepultura, Coal Chamber, Max Cavalera, Fear Factory
Bay Area deathcore with a bottomless low end and breakdowns that arrive like a door being kicked in — no melody, no mercy.
From San Francisco, CA · Sounds like Slaughter to Prevail, Kublai Khan, Suicide Silence
Space-suit cinematic rock — sci-fi lore with radio-metal hooks, a full 'demonstration' rather than a mere concert.
From Columbus, OH · Sounds like Breaking Benjamin, Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Bad Wolves
Bay Area beatdown that turned meme-level swagger into a genuinely feared live act — the joke stopped being a joke fast.
From San Jose, CA · Sounds like Hatebreed, Knocked Loose, Terror, Gulch
Louisville post-grunge veterans on home ground — 'Breakdown'-era radio rock played for the crowd that grew up on it.
From Louisville, KY · Sounds like Days of the New, Creed, Puddle of Mudd, Fuel
Texas Hippie Coalition
Sounds like Down
Punishingly slow, tuned-into-the-floor heaviness with Vincent Bennett's misanthropy on top — doom tempos, hardcore intent, heaviness as a moral position.
From Chicopee, MA · Sounds like Bodysnatcher, Whitechapel, Suicide Silence
The Ataris
Sounds like New Found Glory, The Get Up Kids, Saves the Day
The Barbarians of California
The Funeral Portrait
Seattle's funk-flecked pop-metalcore — groove first, breakdowns second, and falsetto hooks the scene didn't see coming.
From Seattle, WA · Sounds like Issues, Dayseeker
The Pretty Wild
The Rasmus
Sounds like HIM, The 69 Eyes, Nightwish, Poets of the Fall
Jacksonville post-hardcore whose one inescapable single has kept the whole catalogue in rotation for two decades — 'Face Down' still hits its mark.
From Middleburg, FL · Sounds like Yellowcard, The All-American Rejects, Story of the Year, Hawthorne Heights
The Violent Hour
The Word Alive
Sounds like Of Mice & Men, Motionless in White
Post-hardcore that leans into the ache — glossy production over genuinely raw heartbreak, built for night drives after the show.
From San Diego, CA · Sounds like Dayseeker, Void of Vision, Wage War
Post-hardcore's elder statesmen — heavy, literate, endlessly evolving, and never once coasting on the back catalog.
From Irvine, CA · Sounds like Glassjaw, Deftones, Brand New
'Full Collapse' pioneers — the bridge between hardcore and emo, still vital, with Geoff Rickly's yelp intact.
From New Brunswick, NJ
'Possum Kingdom' — Texas alt-rock's eternal dark ride, still promising to be your angel nightly, Texas gothic in radio form.
From Fort Worth, TX · Sounds like Silverchair, Bush, Local H, Fuel
Twitching Tongues
Sounds like Turnstile, Terror, Code Orange, Harm's Way
TX2
Vana
vianova
Volumes
Sounds like Periphery, Veil of Maya
'Check Yes Juliet' — MySpace-era pop-punk sunshine, Florida warmth that never curdled, and the chorus still checks yes.
From Bradenton, FL · Sounds like All Time Low, Boys Like Girls, The Maine, Mayday Parade
Wind Walkers
Sounds like Wage War
Zero 9:36
Sounds like Bring Me the Horizon, grandson, nothing,nowhere.
The headliners
- My Chemical Romance — Concept-album maximalists who treated emo as opera — marching-band drums, guitar harmonies, and a costume for every era, theatrical to the last note.
- Iron Maiden — Up the irons — metal's greatest live institution, Eddie included, galloping twin leads and Bruce Dickinson sprinting the stage like it's 1985.
- Tool — Prog-metal's cathedral builders — polyrhythms, lasers, and total audience surrender, Danny Carey's drumming alone worth the pilgrimage.
- Limp Bizkit — Nu-metal's chaos agents in their beloved victory-lap era — Fred Durst does it all for the nookie, still, and the field does it with him.
- Pantera — The reborn kings of groove metal — their only U.S. show of 2026, 'Walk' and 'Cowboys from Hell' as scripture.
- Pierce The Veil — San Diego post-hardcore romantics enjoying a massive TikTok-era second act — the scene's most swooned-over comeback.
- Gojira — France's environmental-metal titans — from the Olympics opening ceremony to the pit, whale-song riffs and precision heaviness with an actual conscience.
- Sublime — Sun-bleached ska-punk-dub hybrid, now carried by Bradley Nowell's son with the songs left intact — '40oz. to Freedom' forever.
Up-and-comers to catch early
- Sleep Theory — Memphis alt-metal's fastest riser — R&B-smooth vocals over crushing grooves.
- The Home Team — Seattle's funk-flecked pop-metalcore — groove first, breakdowns second.
- Scene Queen — Pink-glitter 'bimbocore' — pop-metalcore with a feminist bite.
- The Warning — Three sisters from Monterrey out-rocking everyone — Mexico's hard-rock pride.
- Bilmuri — Absurdist country-core gone legitimately huge — saxophones and breakdowns.
- Kami Kehoe — Gen-Z alt-metal riser on Saturday's history-making female-fronted stage.
Other acts worth planning around
- Pantera — The reborn groove-metal kings — their only U.S. show of 2026.
- Megadeth — Mustaine's farewell campaign — thrash's most venomous catalog, one last ride.
- Cavalera — Max and Iggor performing Sepultura's Roots in full — Brazilian metal history, live.
- Danny Elfman — Oingo Boingo's madman turned Burton's composer — a berserk orchestral-rock spectacle.
- The Mars Volta — At the Drive-In's cosmic successors — salsa-prog freakouts and falsetto fire.
- Circa Survive — Anthony Green's art-punk flagship, reunited — soaring, strange, beloved.
- Mac Sabbath — Black Sabbath covers performed by fast-food mascots. Exactly as great as it sounds.
The lineup by day
- Thursday, September 17: Iron Maiden, Pantera, Megadeth, Danzig, Rise Against, Alice Cooper + 42 more
- Friday, September 18: My Chemical Romance, Pierce The Veil, A Day To Remember, The Used, Coheed and Cambria, The Pretty Reckless + 44 more
- Saturday, September 19: Limp Bizkit, Sublime, Papa Roach, BABYMETAL, Halestorm, Circa Survive + 43 more
- Sunday, September 20: Tool, Gojira, Danny Elfman, The Prodigy, The Mars Volta, Mastodon + 44 more
Louder Than Life 2026 lineup FAQ
When is Louder Than Life 2026?
September 17–20, 2026 — Thursday through Sunday.
Where does Louder Than Life take place?
Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, KY.
Who is headlining Louder Than Life 2026?
Iron Maiden and Pantera (Thursday), My Chemical Romance and Pierce The Veil (Friday), Limp Bizkit and Sublime (Saturday), and Tool with Gojira (Sunday).
How many bands are playing?
197 announced acts across seven stages over four days.
What days do specific bands play?
Every act's day is already on this page — expand the full lineup below or check the day-by-day breakdown.
How do I figure out which of the 197 bands I'd actually like?
Tell the finder at the top of this page a few bands you love — it'll match you with your must-see sets, with reasons why.
Going to Louder Than Life 2026? Get tickets ↗
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