6 Big Things That Happened at Sonic Temple 2025

Here’s six big things that happened at Sonic Temple 2025.

The annual festival, put on by DWP (Danny Wimmer Presents), took over Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio from May 8-11.

The four-day event featured the widest range of bands in the 15-plus year history (going back to its days as Rock on the Range), including headliners Korn, Linkin Park and Metallica, the latter of which played two unique sets on different nights.

There was truly something for just about every type of rock and metal fan and full of memories that will last a lifetime for the tens of thousands of headbangers in attendance.

Now, let’s get to some of those big highlights!

Korn Put “Blind” Back in the Set as the Opener + We Were Ready

For the first time since 2019, Korn opened their set with the obvious fan favorite “Blind.” You know, the one that starts off with Jonathan Davis screaming “ARE YOU READY?!”

It’s our deeply held belief that this should be a permanent set opener, but we understand that the nu-metal pioneers have to keep things fresh and switch it up. Korn recognized the moment, however, serving as the first of four festival headliners and even they couldn’t resist the most ideal way to bring the stadium to a total frenzy.

The band’s 19-song set also featured the return of “Twisted Transistor” and “4 U,” which hadn’t been performed live since 2019 and 2020, respectively. In all, they touched on 10 of their 15 albums and the weekend-long parade of Korn T-shirts out in the crowd demonstrated they are indeed still here to stay.

Crossfade Play First Show Since 2012

After 13 years, Crossfade made their long-awaited return to the stage at Sonic Temple. The alt-metal/post-grunge outfit reunited last year, first putting a pair of festival shows on the books — one was already mentioned and the other is elsewhere in Ohio at the 2025 installment of the Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival.

Known for standouts such as “Cold” and “Colors” off their self-titled platinum-selling 2004 debut, the four-piece played songs from all three of their albums. Contending with I Prevail, who were lighting up the Temple Stage inside the stadium, they pulled a more than sizable crowd that was eager for a first look at the group in more than a decade.

And they saved the best for last, closing things out with “Cold.”

As noted in the Facebook post below, fans snatched up all the merch Crossfade had brought to the fest a staggering three hours before their 7PM set. They are so back!

READ MORE: Bands Who Broke Up + Ones Who Reunited in 2024

Beartooth to the Rescue

Unfortunately, Alice in Chains had to drop off the festival bill. The grunge legends were forced to cancel the entirety of their brief tour following a “non-life-threatening medical emergency” pertaining to drummer Sean Kinney.

The trek was supposed to kick off in Connecticut on May 8 with an appearance at Sonic Temple scheduled for Sunday, May 11.

As festival promote Danny Wimmer himself noted, you can’t “replace” Alice in Chains. However, he did challenge hometown hero Caleb Shomo to reroute Beartooth’s tour to Columbus, Ohio on a day off to come rock the stadium.

And rock the stadium they did!

Shomo, who also got to spend Mother’s Day with his mom in attendance, declared from the stage that Beartooth will always answer the call to come rock and the band ripped through 13 songs in a little under an hour.

Metallica Play a True Rarity

For just the 99th time in their career (according to setlist.fm) Metallica played the …And Justice For All deep cut “The Shortest Straw.”

The performance came during the thrash legends’ first set of the long weekend, where they ran through 15 other songs that have all been a primary focus of the M72 world tour.

“Orion,” which has also been a fixture, had never been played in Ohio before, so that was it’s own kind of treat as well.

“The Shortest Straw” came third in the set after the blistering one-two punch of “Creeping Death” and “Harvester of Sorrow,” which brought the stadium to a frenzy.

Death Metal and Deathcore Win Big, From Noon to Late at Night

This year’s Sonic Temple lineup looked quite a bit different than years past. The DWP team does a remarkable job of shaking it up from year to year as it is, but this time they went all-in on brutal music from underground upstarts to longstanding veterans.

How did the crowd respond?

THEY LOVED IT!

Cannibal Corpse, Arch Enemy and Whitechapel all headlined side stages and pulled massive crowds during the headliner inside the stadium (Metallica on Friday and Sunday). That’s pretty damn impressive.

Elsewhere (while the sun was still up), fans tore up the pit to the likes of Gatecreeper, Frozen Soul, PeelingFlesh, All Shall Perish, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Acacia Strain, Obituary, Sanguisugabogg and Shadow of Intent.

During those sets, DWP felt a lot like it stood for Down With Pulverizing.

Linkin Park Bring Up Grandson for “One Step Closer”

One major highlight of festivals is that there’s a lot of opportunity for onstage collaborations, cameos, guest appearances… whatever you want to call it.

When Poppy played “V.A.N.”, the collaborative track with Bad Omens, we had a feeling she wouldn’t be doing it a second time on the same day with the latter’s set later in the day. Bummer.

But we did get to see Grandson hop onstage with Saturday night headliners Linkin Park, performing “One Step Closer” with the band. Something unexpected is always nice to see!

Grandson has been opening select dates of Linkin Park’s world tour in support of their latest album, From Zero and, yes, he’d been joining them for this very song on the trek already. But it’s different when you’re at a festival versus your own headlining tour and to showcase a still rising artist on such a big song in a moment like this is important for the longterm health and future of the music we love so much.