Louder Than Life, one of the largest rock and metal festivals is back for its 12th year. From September 18th to 21st at Louisville, Kentucky’s Highland Festival Grounds, over 175 Bands will perform across 7 stages. 2025 marks festival producer Danny Wimmer’s largest line-up yet. DWP now has 10-year agreement with the Highland Festival Grounds, creating a bigger footprint for the city. Rides at the Grounds amusement park like the Giant Wheel and Lighting Run roller coaster, part of Kentucky Kingdom, will be free to all LTL guests.
Returning to festival grounds for their fourth year in a row is The 1 Million Strong mental health and wellness experience, opening daily at 11 AM for the duration of LTL. The area offers a substance free zone where festival-goers can relax with a mocktail, get a temporary tattoo, and write encouraging notes to leave on the Community Wall. The festival kicked off day one with beautiful weather and thousands of metalheads ready to rock out. Headliners of the day included Slayer, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Lamb Of God, Lorna Shore, and Kublai Khan TX.
Winds of Plague, a deathcore band, opened on Main Stage 1. The band is known for their unique element of symphonics. Fans were excited to see the band’s original members reunited for one of their few festival shows this year. Some songs they performed were “The Impaler,” “Drop the Match,” and “Reloaded.” Their performance was full of raw deathcore howls; an impressive feat for their early performance time of 12:15 p.m.
On Main Stage 2, industrial metal band Fear Factory celebrated the 30th anniversary of their album Demanufacture, an album that many fans feel is one of their best. The performance marks their first time at LTL. Fans crowd surfed, and moshed along to songs like “Zero Signal” and “H-K (Hunter-Killer),” with the crowd proudly singing along to heavy song “EdgeCrusher.”
Municipal Waste brought their name to life with fake biohazard bins with green ooze lined up on the stage. Guitarists Nick Poulas, Ryan Waste, and bassist Landphil showed off their shredding skills, each taking turns coming to the front of the stage for incredible riffs. As part of tradition, lead singer Tony Foresta kept up the chaos when he launched a trashcan into the crowd.
At 2 p.m., Michigan-based death metal band The Black Dahlia Murder composed of lead singer Brian Eschbach, bassist Max Lavelle, drummer Alan Cassidy, and lead guitarists Brandon Ellis and Ryan Knight got the mosh pits moving. They played songs including “What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse,” “A Vulgar Picture,” and “Statutory Ape” during which Statford the Ape made an appearance.
Liverpool, England death metal band Carcass put on a show at Main Stage 1. Lead guitarist Bill Steer opened up “Corporal Jigsore Quandary” with a stellar guitar riff followed by the harsh vocals of lead singer Jeffrey Walker. Drummer Daniel Wilding had his drums embellished with imagery from the band’s 2013 album, Surgical Steel.
Well known 80’s thrash metal group Exodus took over Main Stage 2. The group is celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of the most influential thrash metal albums, their very own Bonded by Blood, of which they performed its title track. A spinning circle pit erupted as the band played out the sound of “The Toxic Waltz.” Their set also included intense favorites like “A Lesson in Violence” and “Deathamphetamine.”
Cavalera made their LTL performance the kick-off of their 2025 tour where they will perform Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. (1993) in its entirety. The heavy metal supergroup was created by Brazilian brothers Max and Iggor Cavalera, former members of Sepultura. For LTL, the group rocked out to all Sepultura songs including “Territory,” “Refuse/Resist,” and “Propaganda.”
Since the 1980’s, death metal band Cannibal Corpse has been one of the heaviest to hit the scene. The band composed of lead vocalist George Fisher, bassist Alex Webster, guitarists Rob Barrett and Erik Rutan, and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz showed that they know the name of the game after nearly 40 years of metal. They made sure to include fan-favorite songs “I Cum Blood” and “Hammer Smashed Face,” constantly interacting with the crowd.
Heavy metal supergroup Down from New Orleans dedicated their entire set to Ozzy Osbourne, the rock legend that recently passed away. Down currently consists of vocalist Phil Anselmo, drummer Jimmy Bower, guitarists Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein, and bassist Pat Bruders. They opened their set with “Lysergik Funeral Procession.” During “Temptation’s Wings,” the band was joined by Shavarsh “Shavo” Odadjian, the bassist of System of a Down.
Lamb of God put on an incredible performance full of energy, pyrotechnics, and 11 songs that got the crowd moving. The band dedicated their last song “Redneck” to Brent Hinds, the former lead guitarist of Mastodon who passed away in a motorcycle crash just last month. Lead singer Randy Blythe also sang “Children of the Grave” by Black Sabbath to honor Ozzy Osbourne after talking about his first time seeing him perform live.
Closing out the Decibel Stage, New Jersey deathcore band Lorna Shore opened with the haunting new song “Oblivion” for nearly 9 minutes of growls and screams. Fans crowd surfed during essential classics like “Unbreakable” and “To the Hellfire.” Lorna Shore just released their fifth studio album on September 12th, I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me, that has made it onto album charts around the world.
Slayer returned to LTL for their headlining performance after their last performance was canceled in 2024 due to Hurricane Helene. Fans came out in droves to see the band return to playing since their farewell tour in 2018-2019. Aside from their performance at LTL, the band only has one more show scheduled for the upcoming year. Their set included 20 songs covering hits from 11 of their studio albums. Fans sang along to every word for favorites like opener “South of Heaven,” “Raining Blood,” “Seasons in the Abyss,” and the finale “Angel of Death.” Lights and pyrotechnics lit up the stage to the beat of every song as thousands of fans were finally able to see Slayer perform one last time.
Check back in tomorrow for our coverage of day 2 at Louisville’s Louder Than Life!
Words by Emily Cigan @emily.cigan and Amy Harris @thetraveladdictig