Sonic Temple are about to open up the gates at Columbus, Ohio’s Historic Crew Stadium so heavy-music fans can take in a massive lineup of 140 acts playing across multiple stages. Part of the fun is figuring out who to watch at each stage each day.
There are, of course, juggernaut headliners showing up like My Chemical Romance, Bring Me the Horizon, TOOL and Shinedown. Between May 14th-17th, the fest grounds will also host a number of veteran heavy hitters including Lamb of God, Black Veil Brides, Megadeth, Dethklok and more. But it also pays to show up early and catch the next wave of artists due to have you crankin’ it up loud for years to come.
With the latest iteration of Sonic Temple coming up quick, Revolver are saluting the rising stars in fantasy-doom, metalcore and more that festival-goers should put on their watchlist.
Allt
Allt gave us a chilling, dystopian vision of a nuclear future with their bombastic 2024 LP, From the New World, and they’re set to bring the apocalypse to Sonic Temple.
While the Swedish progressive metalcore act will undoubtedly be atom-bombing the Citadel stage with key tracks from that breakthrough release, they’ve notably also been teasing new music on Instagram and spent the past few weeks test-driving a new tune called “Snowblind” onstage through a leg of North American dates.
Castle Rat
New York City’s Castle Rat will no doubt rule Columbus with their mélange of horns-raising stoner gloom, chainmail-jingling stagewear, elaborate fantasy-based theatrics and at least one impressive, if foam-formed onstage broad sword. It all makes for a hell of a spectacle, Revolver previously describing the band as “a Frank Frazetta painting come to life.”
Vocalist-guitarist Riley Pinkerton (aka the Rat Queen) has described the band’s concerts as a way to portal themselves and the crowd into “The Realm,” a unifying utopia of collective, fantastical connectedness.
Coming off a recent tour with Dethklok and Amon Amarth, and with last year’s excellent The Bestiary recently receiving a wider release through Loma Vista, 2026 is shaping up to be another massive year for the Queen and her council.
Not Enough Space
Who could bemoan catching a feral and frenzied set from Florida’s Not Enough Space?
We’ve praised the group’s vicious vocal tandem of Liv Mitchell and Lizzie Raatma for the “barrage of bleghs and brees” they power through the band’s most demented deathcore moments, though they also flex melodic chops on pop-punkier singles like “Don’t Let Go.”
And then, of course, there’s Mitchell’s infamous viral moan on “Primitive.” She told us last year that this has become more of a crowd-sourced vocal moment in their set, so get to the Sanctuary Stage early on May 15th for your chance to hit the mic.
The Pretty Wild
Vegas sister act the Pretty Wild explained to Revolver last year that they’ve “driven thousands of miles to be able to play the next stage,” having explored a self-described “y’allternative” sound before leaning into the heaviest tendencies of debut LP Zero.Point.Genesis.
The road veterans’ most recent songs — plunging from screamed-to-the-hilt metalcore, to hypnotic nu-metal to gothic trap — have blown up online, and the viral “coughcore” practitioners are now performing them to their biggest crowds yet.
Catch the Pretty Wild opening the Sanctuary stage on May 14th ahead of Dayseeker, Magnolia Park and more.
Thornhill
Thornhill have become one the bands to keep an eye on in the heavy scene. Last year, the Australian tastemakers linked up with Sleep Token for a massive North American arena tour, and this spring they’re topping the bill for their own bigtime “Mercia Tour,” headlining above friends and fellow on-the-rise acts vianova, Fox Lake and 156/Silence.
Last year’s Bodies is still boomin’ in our eardrums, having recently arrived in an expanded and “definitive” edition. And while tracks like “Revolver” and “nerv” deliver gloriously ground-quaking nu-metal grooves by the ton, songs like the slow-building and moodily melodic “Mercia” reflect how Jacob Charlton and the band aren’t “scared to utilize their [other] influences” in order to make their “heavy sound different.”