8 Big Things That Happened at Louder Than Life 2025 (Plus Videos + Photos)

The 2025 Louder Than Life Festival is in the books. Over four big days, some of rock and metal's finest rocked the concertgoers that fled to Louisville to catch one of the hottest festivals of the fall and they weren't left disappointed.

It was a hard hitting weekend that yielded plenty of great musical moments and we're sharing just a few of the highlights and the things that people were talking about from the 2025 Louder Than Life festival below.

Slayer Return to Louder Than Life, But the Weather Doesn't

Slayer's highly anticipated return to the concert stage was supposed to be a 2024 highlight of Louder Than Life, but the remnants of a hurricane wiped out the day of performances last year and the band was unable to reschedule for later in the weekend.

So this year, Slayer made good on their promise to return to the Louder Than Life Festival grounds and they thrilled the audience with a 20-song headlining set on Thursday night (Sept. 18). And this time, there were no weather issues to dampen the spirits.

The band opened with "South of Heaven" and didn't let up until the final notes of "Angel of Death" rang out on their performance. See some fan-filmed footage and pro shots from their performance below.

Slayer, "Angel of Death" at 2025 Louder Than Life Festival

Slayer, "Raining Blood" at 2025 Louder Than Life Festival

Rob Zombie Digs Deep for Astro-Creep at Louder Than Life 2025

The great thing about album anniversary performances, especially when they're not overdone, is the possibility of revisiting material that fans haven't seen live in quite some time.

That was part of what made Rob Zombie's set featuring the Astro-Creep 2000 album so special and unique for those attending the Louder Than Life Festival this year. At least five songs — "Real Solution #9," "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains," "I, Zombie" "El Phantasmo and the Chicken-Run Blast-O-Rama" and "Blur the Technicolor" — were making their first appearance in a Rob Zombie setlist since 2016.

READ MORE: Rob Zombie Comments on Backlash Over Children's Book

In addition to focusing on the White Zombie-era album, the singer also finished out his 15-song set with solo favorites "Living Dead Girl" and "Dragula," ws well as another White Zombie classic, "Thunder Kiss '65."

Rob Zombie, "More Human Than Human" at Louder Than Life 2025

Rob Zombie, "Thunder Kiss '65" at Louder Than Life 2025

Knocked Loose Double Up for Hometown Crowd at 2025 Louder Than Life Festival

Though Knocked Loose didn't play until Day 4 of Louder Than Life, their presence was felt much earlier in the weekend when XWeaponX took the stage.

For those unaware, the Kentucky-based straight-edge hardcore band also featured Knocked Loose members Bryan Garris and Isaac Hale.

It was part of a whirlwind weekend for Knocked Loose who had the XWeaponX show for their side band on Thursday (Sept. 18), followed by a set at Riot Fest and a date opening for Slayer on Friday and Saturday before returning to their home base of Louisville to represent in their more traditional form as Knocked Loose playing a well-received 11-song set on Sunday (Sept. 21).

Knocked Loose, "Suffocate" at Louder Than Life 2025

Sleep Token in High Demand at Louder Than Life 2025

How big are Sleep Token these days? Well, there was no doubt who the most anticipated band was at Louder Than Life thanks to the Louder Than Life app. According to Blunt Magazine, over 21,000 people had added the band's Friday (Sept. 19) performance to their weekend Louder Than Life schedule ahead of the music weekend.

By comparison, only 11,000 has scheduled themselves to see Slayer, 17,000 were up for Deftones and 17,000-plus were reminding themselves to check out Bring Me the Horizon.

The band's set was pretty standard to what they have been playing at past shows. However, one interesting moment came during their final song of their 12-song performance. The Louder Than Life set reportedly was the first time lead singer Vessel had played guitar on "Thread the Needle."

Sleep Token, "The Offering" at 2025 Louder Than Life Festival

Sleep Token, "Provider" at Louder Than Life Festival 2025

Good Omens for Bad Omens at Louder Than Life 2025

At some point, you have to put your music out there in front of a live audience and see how it's going to fare. For Bad Omens, they chose the 2025 edition of the Louder Than Life festival to give two of their newer songs their live debuts.

About six songs into their 16-song set, the band dropped the song "Specter" and then waited two more songs before sharing "Impose" live for the first time.

The group also shared such favorites as the show-opening "Concrete Jungle" and the set closing "Dethrone."

Bad Omens, "Specter" at Louder Than Life Festival 2025

Bring Me the Horizon Bring Out "Bullet" With Underoath Singer at Louder Than Life 2025

Bring Me the Horizon helped to finish out the Louder Than Life festivities on Sunday (Sept. 21) with a blistering 16-song set.

The band set the tone for a hard-rock set early with such standouts as "Darkside," "Mantra" and "Happy Song" opening the show. Included in their set was their cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall," but the first surprise of the night came nine songs in when Bring Me the Horizon gave "A Bullet w/ My Name On" its live debut with special guests Spencer Chamberlain of Underoath on hand to join them.

The night also found Oli Sykes venturing out to pull a fan up onstage to help sing "Antivist." That was soon followed by an acoustic version of "Follow You."  Bring Me the Horizon finished out the night with a two song encore of "Drown" and "Throne"

Bring Me the Horizon With Spencer Chamberlain, "Bullet With My Name on It" at Louder Than Life 2025

Bring Me the Horizon, "Throne" at Louder Than Life Festival 2025

Evanescence Bring Paul McCoy Back to "Life" at 2025 Louder Than Life Festival

Evanescence played a pretty standard 14-song set, but they save their big surprise for the last moments of the evening. In a rarity, Amy Lee and crew welcomed 12 Stones' Paul McCoy to the stage as he performed his part from their breakout hit, "Bring Me to Life" for the Louder Than Life audience on Sunday (Sept. 21).

Though Amy Lee has shared her reservations with the rap part that was initially added to their breakout song and often performs the track without it, there's a certain edge that McCoy's vocal brings to the track that helped it become a smash hit in the first place. Louder Than Life proved to be a perfect place to give fans that onstage reunion.

Evanescence With Paul McCoy, "Bring Me To Life" at Louder Than Life Festival 2025

Weather Makes an Appearance at Louder Than Life 2025

The weather is something that can be unpredictable. Last year, the remnants of a hurricane wiped out one of the Louder Than Life festival days and forced the cancelation of one of Slayer's few appearances. But the band promised to return in 2025 to make it up to fans.

This year, the festival faced a weather delay on Sunday (Sept. 21) as attendees were asked to seek shelter at Freedom Hall around 11:11AM due to a heavy rain storm in the area.

But the festival grounds re-opened around 12:15 in the afternoon and the rest of the day went off unaffected.

One festival goer commented to WDRB, "Of course, it got a little bit delayed, but it didn't change anything. They handled that perfectly."