System of a Down
Armenian-American art-metal that never stopped sounding unhinged — lurching time signatures, Serj Tankian's operatic yelp, and hooks that shouldn't work but do.
Sick New World Texas 2026 Lineup
One Saturday, one speedway, and the whole nu-metal and industrial canon in a row — System of a Down and Deftones over a bill that runs to Deafheaven and Boy Harsher.
About Sick New World Texas 2026
Sick New World's Texas edition is a single Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, and it is unusually well-designed for one day: fifty acts covering essentially the entire late-90s and 2000s heavy canon, plus a genuinely modern hardcore undercard. System of a Down and Deftones headline. Slayer play a 40 Years of Reign in Blood set. Evanescence, Ministry, Marilyn Manson, Mastodon and Melvins fill the tier beneath.
What separates it from a straightforward nostalgia bill is the bottom half. Sunami, Scowl, Speed, Knocked Loose, Pain of Truth and Dying Wish are the current hardcore mainstream, and Boy Harsher, Twin Tribes and She Wants Revenge give the day a genuine darkwave strand. No day splits to worry about — it's all one Saturday, so the only real planning problem is stage clashes.
Expect alt-metal, metalcore, hardcore and nu-metal across 50 acts.
The headliners
- System of a Down — Armenian-American art-metal that never stopped sounding unhinged — lurching time signatures, Serj Tankian's operatic yelp, and hooks that shouldn't work but do.
- Deftones — The band that dragged heaviness toward dream-pop — Chino Moreno's croon-to-scream over guitars tuned for atmosphere as much as impact.
Up-and-comers to catch early
- Sunami — Bay Area beatdown that has become one of hardcore's biggest live draws.
- Speed — Sydney hardcore that went global in about eighteen months.
- Amira Elfeky — Solo nu-metal revivalism with a real pop ear underneath.
- Sleep Theory — Memphis alt-metal rising fast on the modern rock format.
- PeelingFlesh — Slam with a hip-hop swagger — the most extreme thing on the bill.
- Violent Vira — Newer nu-metal solo act leaning into the genre's bounce.
Other acts worth planning around
- System of a Down — One of very few festival appearances they play in any given year.
- Deftones — Co-headlining, and the band whose influence is audible across half this bill.
- Slayer — Performing a 40 Years of Reign in Blood set.
- The Prodigy — The outlier booking, and likely the most physical set of the day.
- Glassjaw — Rare live outing from post-hardcore's great withholders.
- Knocked Loose — The heaviest band on the bill with genuine crossover pull.
- Boy Harsher — Anchors the darkwave strand running quietly through the day.
The lineup by day
- Saturday, October 24: System of a Down, Deftones, Slayer, Evanescence, Ministry, AFI + 44 more
Sick New World Texas 2026 lineup FAQ
When is Sick New World Texas 2026?
Saturday, October 24, 2026 — a single day.
Where is it held?
Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
Who is headlining?
System of a Down and Deftones, with Slayer and Evanescence beneath them.
How many acts are playing?
50 acts across one day.
Is this the same as Sick New World in Las Vegas?
No — this is the Texas edition, with its own separate lineup.
How do I work out which acts I'd like?
Type a few bands you already love into the search at the top of this page and you'll get ranked matches from this lineup, with reasons.
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Going to Sick New World Texas 2026? Get tickets ↗
▸ Browse the full lineup (50 acts)▾ Hide full lineup
Sick New World Texas full lineup
Deftones
The band that dragged heaviness toward dream-pop — Chino Moreno's croon-to-scream over guitars tuned for atmosphere as much as impact.
Slayer
Thrash's most pitiless institution — tritones, air-raid solos, and a rhythm section that never once let up, 'Raining Blood' as closing rite.
Evanescence
Amy Lee's piano-and-orchestra gothic metal, the sound of a whole 2000s radio format built around one voice — 'Bring Me to Life' still an event live.
Ministry
Al Jourgensen's industrial-metal war machine — sampled sermons, mechanised riffing, and four decades of pure spite, still grinding forward.
AFI
Hardcore kids who became goths and then a genuinely huge rock band — Davey Havok's full-commitment melodrama riding a catalog that runs from East Bay punk to 'Miss Murder'-era anthems.
Marilyn Manson
The 1990s' designated national panic — glam-industrial theatre staged with genuine pop instincts underneath, 'The Beautiful People' still a siren.
Underoath
Screamo-adjacent post-hardcore with a drummer who sings the choruses — the band that made metalcore sound cavernous and searching, still restless.
Clutch
Riff-and-groove lifers — Neil Fallon hollering tall tales over the most reliably heavy live band in American rock, three decades without phoning one in.
Down
NOLA sludge supergroup — Phil Anselmo fronting molasses-slow riffs built for a room with no air conditioning, swamp-heavy doom from scene royalty.
The Prodigy
Rave music rebuilt as a punk band — breakbeats at riot volume and a live show that still flattens festival fields.
Boy Harsher
Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller making darkwave that feels like a film score for something you shouldn't watch — throbbing synths, whispered menace, fog everywhere.
Coal Chamber
Spooky-kid nu-metal with real bounce — detuned, dressed up, and unbothered about being taken seriously, which is exactly why it holds up.
Poison the Well
Florida metalcore that kept mutating — each record noticeably stranger and more textured than the last, a blueprint for the genre's art wing.
She Wants Revenge
Deadpan Valley post-punk that wore its Joy Division debt openly and got a genuinely great single out of it — 'Tear You Apart' endures.
Wage War
Clean-chorus metalcore engineered for the big room, with breakdowns placed exactly where you want them — Ocala precision, radio ambition.
KMFDM
German industrial-rock built on sloganeering, disco-stomp drums, and Aidan Hughes's woodcut sleeve art — self-described 'ultra-heavy beat', four decades strong.
Terror
Two decades of straight-ahead hardcore with no ornament whatsoever — pure mosh utility, 'Keepers of the Faith' as literal job description.
Sunami
Bay Area beatdown that turned meme-level swagger into a genuinely feared live act — the joke stopped being a joke fast.
Knocked Loose
Kentucky hardcore built on the meanest two-step riffs going, with Bryan Garris's shriek cutting clean over the top — heaviness that crossed over without softening.
Scowl
Kat Moss fronting hardcore that keeps widening toward melody without losing the bite — Santa Cruz's fastest-rising export.
Melvins
The band grunge was built on and then outlasted — King Buzzo's hair, Dale Crover's drums, and forty years of contrarian sludge.
Glassjaw
Post-hardcore's great withholders — Daryl Palumbo's serrated delivery over grooves that lurch sideways, and records doled out a decade apart.
Speed
Sydney hardcore that went global fast — brotherhood-forward lyrics and riffs built entirely for the pile-on, community as the whole point.
P.O.D.
San Diego's rap-metal optimists — reggae inflections and arena-sized uplift where their peers went nihilist, a genuinely durable outlier.
Mastodon
Concept-album sludge that grew into full prog — four players who all sing, over riffs that fold in on themselves.
Deafheaven
Black metal's tremolo blur pointed at shoegaze bliss — screamed vocals over passages that keep resolving into something radiant, 'Sunbather' still the genre-argument that never ends.
Superheaven
Thick, downtuned '90s worship that a whole generation found late and adopted wholesale — 'Youngest Daughter' the unlikely viral hymn.
Kittie
Teenage Ontario nu-metal that hardened into a genuinely heavy career — Morgan Lander's growl was never a novelty, and the comeback proved it.
Snot
Late-'90s funk-metal cut short by tragedy — hyperactive, punk-fast, and still fondly guarded by everyone who caught them the first time.
Orgy
Synth-forward nu-metal in vinyl trousers — the New Order cover was the hit, but the originals leaned genuinely cold and chrome-plated.
Alien Ant Farm
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.
Filter
Richard Patrick's post-NIN project — one enormous distorted single and a catalogue that swings from abrasive to sincere, 'Take a Picture' proving the range.
Power Trip
Crossover thrash that hardcore kids and metalheads agreed on — riffs with a pit already built into them, Riley Gale's legacy carried loud.
Twin Tribes
Border-town darkwave — reverbed baritone, chorused bass, and an unusually devoted following, Brownsville goth gone international.
Norma Jean
Chaotic Southern metalcore — dissonant, lurching, and famously punishing to watch from the front, two decades of controlled collapse.
Failure
'90s space-rock that everyone else spent decades catching up to — heavy in texture rather than tempo, 'Fantastic Planet' the cult document.
Lords of Acid
Belgian acid-house provocateurs — filthy, funny, and built entirely for a room past midnight, '90s industrial-dance sleaze still fully operational.
Better Lovers
Every Time I Die and Dillinger Escape Plan alumni reconvened — frantic, technical, and unusually fun for music this dense, with the swagger of veterans who have nothing to prove.
Pain of Truth
Long Island heavy hardcore with a lineage running straight back to the NYHC canon — new-school stomp, old-school allegiance.
Haywire
Newer West Coast hardcore working the same fast, mean seam as its Bay Area peers — no-frills aggression built for short, violent sets.
Violent Vira
Nu-metal revivalism from a newer solo act, leaning on the genre's bounce rather than its irony — self-made and rising.
Sleep Theory
Melody-forward modern alt-metal, R&B inflections and all, from one of the format's fastest-rising new names — Memphis soul under the drop-tuning.
TSS
Speed of Light
Dying Wish
Emma Boster fronting metalcore that leans hard into late-'90s heaviness with none of the nostalgia — Portland fury built for the modern pit.
Amira Elfeky
Solo alt-metal built from bedroom production upward — nu-metal bounce with a genuinely modern pop ear, at the front of the scene's internet-native new wave.
Ego Kill Talent
Brazilian alt-rock with a rotating-instrument gimmick that turns out to be a real band underneath — everyone plays everything, arena-sized either way.
PeelingFlesh
Slam played with a hip-hop swagger — gurgles, gore, and breakdowns tuned to the floor, the internet's favorite new heaviness.
