Words by Paige Erlandson
Photos by Marc Fong
There’s something kind of perfect about flying into Las Vegas for a day spent under the sun, moving between stages, and a sea of black band tees everywhere. That’s basically the whole point of Sick New World.
The crowd matched it. A healthy mix of people at completely different points in life, young couples, parents with their now grown kids, families, tight friend groups. Everyone showed up ready for whatever the day was going to throw at them, and it made the whole thing feel bigger than just a lineup on paper.
The 2026 return brought a lineup stacked in a way that kept you moving all day. It leaned all the way into the chaos with System of a Down and Korn closing things out, alongside a bill that jumped between industrial, nu metal, and Danny Elfman turning in one of the most unexpected standout sets of the day. It felt less like a festival and more like wandering between different versions of the same memory.
System of a Down were exactly what you wanted them to be. Loud, unpredictable, and completely locked in. There’s a weight to those songs live that doesn’t really translate anywhere else. On the next stage over just before, Korn pulled one of the biggest crowds of the day and leaned fully into it. No overthinking, just riffs and a field full of people who clearly grew up on it.
Earlier in the day, Knocked Loose fans showed up ready. You could feel it before the set even started, and once it did, it turned into one of the most intense crowds of the weekend. The aerial shots floating around after say it better than anything else, a full field splitting clean down the middle for a wall of death that actually held, then snapped right back into place.
AFI blew up the stage with an energetic and monumental performance; always a must-see performance!
Marilyn Manson drew a massive, curious crowd and delivered something closer to spectacle than nostalgia. Whether you were there for it or just trying to figure it out, it was hard to look away. Evanescence felt like a reset as the sun started to dip. Amy Lee’s voice cut through everything in a way that made the whole set feel bigger than the moment.
Highlights came from every hour of the day: HEALTH sounded massive in the heat, all distortion and pulse. Ministry leaned into their industrial chaos with zero interest in making it easy. Mastodon were tight and heavy in a way that really landed, and Norma Jean turned their set into a full body experience whether you were ready for it or not.
There were smaller moments tucked everywhere if you caught them. Alien Ant Farm pulling people back into early 2000s muscle memory, P.O.D. getting a crowd moving in that familiar way, and She Wants Revenge bringing a completely different kind of mood that still made sense in the middle of it all.
And then there was Danny Elfman, who turned the desert into something completely different for a bit. One of the most unexpected standout sets of the day, and it worked.
You spend most of Sick New World moving. Between stages, between sounds, between versions of yourself that probably listened to all of this at different points in your life. By the end of the day, there’s a rhythm to it that sticks with you in a good way.
