The band that dragged heaviness toward dream-pop — Chino Moreno's croon-to-scream over guitars tuned for atmosphere as much as impact.
From Sacramento, CA · Sounds like Chino Moreno, Failure, Hum, Quicksand
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.
Sick New World Texas 2026 lineup: all 50 acts
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre — save anything straight to your schedule.Browse all 50 acts →
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre — save anything straight to your schedule.
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.
From Glendale, CA · Sounds like Deftones, Rage Against the Machine, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle
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.
From Ukiah, CA · Sounds like My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, The Cure, Thursday
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, Papa Roach
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.
From Buffalo, NY · Sounds like Every Time I Die, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Fever 333, Norma Jean
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.
From Northampton, MA · Sounds like Chromatics, Drab Majesty, Cold Cave, Molchat Doma
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.
From Germantown, MD · Sounds like Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Red Fang, The Sword
Spooky-kid nu-metal with detuned bounce and a goth streak the genre mostly abandoned — 'Loco'-era heaviness back from the grave.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Sevendust, Static-X, Kittie, Soulfly
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.
From San Francisco, CA · Sounds like Alcest, Explosions in the Sky, Slowdive, Envy
NOLA sludge supergroup — Phil Anselmo fronting molasses-slow riffs built for a room with no air conditioning, swamp-heavy doom from scene royalty.
From New Orleans, LA · Sounds like Crowbar, Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Eyehategod
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.
From Little Rock, AR · Sounds like Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Flyleaf, Nightwish
'90s space-rock that everyone else spent decades catching up to — heavy in texture rather than tempo, 'Fantastic Planet' the cult document.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Hum, Deftones, Swervedriver, Autolux
'Hey Man Nice Shot' — Richard Patrick's industrial-rock sneer intact, machine-tooled riffs from NIN's family tree.
From Cleveland, OH · Sounds like Stabbing Westward, Gravity Kills, Nine Inch Nails, Orgy
Post-hardcore's great withholders — Daryl Palumbo's serrated delivery over grooves that lurch sideways, and records doled out a decade apart.
From Long Island, NY · Sounds like Quicksand, Thursday, Deftones, Refused
Teenage Ontario nu-metal that hardened into a genuinely heavy career — Morgan Lander's growl was never a novelty, and the comeback proved it.
From London, ON · Sounds like Otep, Jucifer, Coal Chamber, In This Moment
German industrial-rock built on sloganeering, disco-stomp drums, and Aidan Hughes's woodcut sleeve art — self-described 'ultra-heavy beat', four decades strong.
From Hamburg, DE · Sounds like Ministry, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy
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.
From Oldham County, KY · Sounds like Terror, Code Orange, Harm's Way, Vein.fm
Belgian acid-house provocateurs — filthy, funny, and built entirely for a room past midnight, '90s industrial-dance sleaze still fully operational.
From Brussels, BE · Sounds like My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, KMFDM, Praga Khan, Front 242
The 1990s' designated national panic — glam-industrial theatre staged with genuine pop instincts underneath, 'The Beautiful People' still a siren.
From Fort Lauderdale, FL · Sounds like Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ministry
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, Gojira
Forty years of deliberately difficult, punishingly slow riffs — and the band Nirvana learned from, still outweirding everyone downstream.
From Montesano, WA · Sounds like Boris, Big Business, Helmet, Butthole Surfers
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 KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Godflesh, Front 242
Chaotic Southern metalcore — dissonant, lurching, and famously punishing to watch from the front, two decades of controlled collapse.
From Douglasville, GA · Sounds like The Chariot, Every Time I Die, Botch, Converge
Synth-forward nu-metal in vinyl trousers — the New Order cover was the hit, but the originals leaned genuinely cold and chrome-plated.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Filter, Stabbing Westward, Gravity Kills, Deftones
'Alive' and 'Youth of the Nation' — San Diego's nu-metal survivors, positivity intact through every scene cycle.
From San Diego, CA · Sounds like Sevendust, Incubus, Hoobastank, Alien Ant Farm
Florida metalcore that kept mutating — each record noticeably stranger and more textured than the last, a blueprint for the genre's art wing.
From Miami, FL · Sounds like Norma Jean, Glassjaw, Thrice, Converge
Crossover thrash that hardcore kids and metalheads agreed on — riffs with a pit already built into them, Riley Gale's legacy carried loud.
From Dallas, TX · Sounds like Iron Age, Municipal Waste, Exodus, Terror
Kat Moss fronting hardcore that keeps widening toward melody without losing the bite — Santa Cruz's fastest-rising export.
From Santa Cruz, CA · Sounds like Drain, Gel, Turnstile, Militarie Gun
Deadpan Valley post-punk that wore its Joy Division debt openly and got a genuinely great single out of it — 'Tear You Apart' endures.
From San Fernando Valley, CA · Sounds like Interpol, The Bravery, Cold Cave, Editors
Thrash's most pitiless institution — tritones, air-raid solos, and a rhythm section that never once let up, 'Raining Blood' as closing rite.
From Huntington Park, CA · Sounds like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Kreator
Late-'90s funk-metal cut short by tragedy — hyperactive, punk-fast, and still fondly guarded by everyone who caught them the first time.
From Santa Barbara, CA · Sounds like Incubus, Sevendust, Downset, Alien Ant Farm
Sydney hardcore that went global fast — brotherhood-forward lyrics and riffs built entirely for the pile-on, community as the whole point.
From Sydney, AU · Sounds like Sunami, Drain, Terror, Pain of Truth
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 Gulch, Drain, Pain of Truth, Terror
Thick, downtuned '90s worship that a whole generation found late and adopted wholesale — 'Youngest Daughter' the unlikely viral hymn.
From Doylestown, PA · Sounds like Balance and Composure, Basement, Turnover, Citizen
Two decades of straight-ahead hardcore with no ornament whatsoever — pure mosh utility, 'Keepers of the Faith' as literal job description.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Madball, Hatebreed, Trapped Under Ice, Knocked Loose
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
Border-town darkwave — reverbed baritone, chorused bass, and an unusually devoted following, Brownsville goth gone international.
From Brownsville, TX · Sounds like Drab Majesty, Lebanon Hanover, Boy Harsher, Clan of Xymox
'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 Thrice, Norma Jean, The Devil Wears Prada, Silverstein
Clean-chorus metalcore engineered for the big room, with breakdowns placed exactly where you want them — Ocala precision, radio ambition.
From Ocala, FL · Sounds like Fit For A King, August Burns Red, Beartooth, Silent Planet
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.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Poppy, Spiritbox, Scene Queen, Tetrarch
Emma Boster fronting metalcore that leans hard into late-'90s heaviness with none of the nostalgia — Portland fury built for the modern pit.
From Portland, OR · Sounds like Knocked Loose, Vein.fm, Jesus Piece, Sanguisugabogg
Brazilian alt-rock with a rotating-instrument gimmick that turns out to be a real band underneath — everyone plays everything, arena-sized either way.
From São Paulo, BR · Sounds like Deftones, Chevelle, Cave In, Failure
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 Sunami, Drain, Scowl, Pain of Truth
Long Island heavy hardcore with a lineage running straight back to the NYHC canon — new-school stomp, old-school allegiance.
From Long Island, NY · Sounds like Sunami, Terror, Madball, Drain
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, 200 Stab Wounds, Kublai Khan TX, Ingested
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, Dead Poet Society, Nothing More
Speed of Light
The Dark
TSS
Nu-metal revivalism from a newer solo act, leaning on the genre's bounce rather than its irony — self-made and rising.
From Los Angeles, CA · Sounds like Amira Elfeky, Scene Queen, Poppy, Kittie
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.
Going to Sick New World Texas 2026? Get tickets ↗
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