Sweat, Dirt, and Metal: Sick New World Texas

Sick New World Texas took over Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on October 24, and from the moment the gates opened, it was obvious this was going to be a day unlike anything Texas had seen before.

(*Photo: @LUISRODPHOTOGRAPHY for Sick New World)*

Getting into the speedway came with plenty of traffic and chaos, but arriving early paid off. By noon, the grounds were already filling with metalheads preparing for nearly 13 hours of music, and the Texas heat showed up like it had something to prove. With artists constantly overlapping across the grounds, the entire day became a race between stages, photo pits, water stops, and trying not to miss the bands everyone had been waiting months to see. It was exhausting before the biggest sets had even begun, but the energy throughout the festival made slowing down almost impossible.

Kittie was my first set to photograph and one I had been especially excited about since I had never seen them live. Women dominating heavy music will always get my attention, and Kittie wasted absolutely no time proving why they have remained such an important part of the scene. They opened with “Fire” before moving through “I’ve Failed You” and “Cut Throat,” with Morgan Lander commanding the stage from the first note. Their sound still carries the same aggression and attitude that made so many people fall in love with the band decades ago. Unfortunately, festival life meant heading toward the next stage before their set ended, and hearing “Spit” begin while walking away was painful. Kittie later closed with “Brackish” and “Eyes Wide Open,” making leaving early hurt even more.

Mastodon followed on the Gold Stage, and as one of my all time favorite bands, they were an easy must see. Having seen them around six times already, their live show somehow still manages to feel massive every time. They opened with “Barbarians Blood” before launching into “Steambreather,” “Mother Puncher,” and “Megalodon,” bringing massive riffs, fire, and exactly the kind of energy expected from Mastodon. Troy Sanders had the crowd completely locked in, but one of the best moments had nothing to do with production. An eight year old stood near the front holding a sign that read, “Mastodon i might just be 8 but completely obsessed,” which might be the perfect summary of how far this band’s influence reaches. The set also included “Snakes for Dinner” from their latest album, Marrow Deep, before ending with “Colony of Birchmen” and “Blood and Thunder.” The heat was brutal, but between the crowd surfers and pits, nobody seemed interested in slowing down.

AFI was next, and somehow Sick New World Texas marked my first time ever seeing them live. They opened with “Girl’s Not Grey” before going straight into “Love Like Winter,” a song that immediately transported me back to junior high. Hearing songs that have lived in your headphones for that long suddenly explode across a festival crowd is a different kind of experience. Davey Havok remains one hell of a frontman, commanding the stage with the kind of confidence that only comes from decades of doing this. The band also worked through “I Hope You Suffer,” “Behind the Clock,” and “The Days of the Phoenix” before closing their ten song set with “Miss Murder.” As expected, the crowd completely lost it. By that point the heat had started draining whatever energy I had left, but AFI somehow gave it right back.

Then came Knocked Loose. Their set was pure rage, fire, and absolute mayhem. I have been covering Knocked Loose for several years now, and watching their rise has been one of the coolest things to witness in heavy music. From the moment they launched into “Deep in the Willow,” the field became a war zone of circle pits, crowd surfers, flying dirt, and bodies moving in every direction. The ground was so dry that the pits created massive clouds of dust and rocks that hung over the audience, leaving nearly everyone covered in it by the end. Their fifteen song set included “Everything Is Quiet Now,” “Oblivion’s Peak,” “Where Light Divides the Holler,” “God Knows,” “Take Me Home,” and “Blinding Faith.” Bryan Garris brought relentless energy from beginning to end, and when “Suffocate” and “Counting Worms” arrived, the entire crowd knew exactly what to do. Yes, thousands of people barked together. Yes, it was glorious. Walking out of the photo pit completely exhausted, it was still impossible not to turn around and keep watching.

Marilyn Manson was next, looking healthy, focused, and completely ready to just unleash. His eleven song set began with “Angel With the Scabbed Wings,” “Disposable Teens,” and “This Is the New Shit,” immediately pulling from several eras of his catalog. “Tourniquet,” “The Nobodies,” his cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “The Dope Show,” and “mOBSCENE” followed before the unmistakable opening of “The Beautiful People” closed the set. Vocally, he sounded remarkably close to the records that introduced so many fans to his music years ago. There was a renewed spark to the performance that made the set especially memorable. I am also fairly convinced we locked eyes through my camera a few times, and I walked away with some of my favorite photographs from the entire festival.

This was my second time seeing Evanescence, but this performance carried an entirely different weight. I have been listening to the band since I was around ten years old, sitting in my dad’s garage while he worked on cars and trucks. Years later, standing in a photo pit photographing Amy Lee while those same songs filled Texas Motor Speedway felt surreal. Their fifteen song set included “Going Under,” which still sounds every bit as powerful as it did on Fallen, along with “Call Me When You’re Sober,” “Lithium,” “Wasted on You,” “Self Destruct,” and “Who Will You Follow.” The production was beautiful, with towering cathedral imagery and smoke rolling across the stage while Lee’s voice cut through the entire speedway. Naturally, “Bring Me to Life” became one of the biggest singalongs of the evening. Amy Lee remains an icon in heavy and alternative music, and watching thousands of people respond to her voice made it easy to understand why.

Then came Slayer, and whatever level of chaos had existed earlier in the day suddenly felt like a warm up. Celebrating 40 years of Reign in Blood, Slayer delivered the most intense performance I witnessed all day. Fire erupted across the stage again and again while upside down crosses, smoke, and massive LED visuals surrounded the band. Sharing the photo pit with Wee-Man from Jackass somehow made the entire situation even more…wild. The crowd was completely unhinged, security had their hands full, and every song seemed to send another wave of bodies over the barricade. Slayer ripped through thirteen songs, including “South of Heaven,” “Hate Worldwide,” “War Ensemble,” “Born of Fire,” “Angel of Death,” and “Altar of Sacrifice.” Five tracks from Reign in Blood made the anniversary celebration especially fitting before “Postmortem” crashed directly into the final assault of “Raining Blood.” Knocked Loose had brought chaos earlier in the afternoon, but Slayer showed up to remind everyone where generations of that chaos came from. Photographing it was easily one of the wildest experiences I have ever had with a camera in my hands.

Now, where do I even start with Deftones? This was the set I had been counting down to all day. They are my favorite band ever, I have seen them more times than I can count, and somehow they continue finding ways to make every performance feel different. Their eighteen song set opened with “my mind is a mountain” before moving through “Swerve City,” “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away),” and “Around the Fur.” They continued with songs including “Rocket Skates,” my personal favorite, along with “Sextape,” “Change (In the House of Flies),” and “milk of the madonna.” Deftones have spent decades shapeshifting their sound without ever losing what makes them unmistakably Deftones, and hearing songs from different eras blend together so naturally is part of what keeps their live shows special. Chino Moreno seemed to be on cloud nine, constantly smiling and feeding off the crowd throughout the performance. Just when it felt like the night might be winding down, “My Own Summer (Shove It)” and “7 Words” gave the audience one final chance to lose their minds. The visuals were unreal, the atmosphere was emotional, and as usual at a Deftones show, it was difficult to decide whether to scream or cry along.

Photo: @helloisandrewphoto for Sick New World

System of a Down closed the night, and somehow I had made it this far in life without ever seeing them live. That finally changed at Sick New World Texas. At 10:35 p.m., after nearly an entire day beneath the Texas sun, tens of thousands of exhausted fans suddenly found another reserve of energy. System tore through a massive 25 song set that included “Prison Song,” “Violent Pornography,” “Aerials,” “B.Y.O.B.,” “Needles,” “Radio/Video,” “Hypnotize,” “Chop Suey!,” and “Lonely Day.” “Aerials” has always been one of my favorites, and hearing a crowd that size sing it together was everything I hoped it would be. By the time “Toxicity” and “Sugar” closed the festival, the speedway had become one enormous chorus. Nobody around me seemed ready for the night to end.

That was ultimately what made Sick New World Texas feel so special. Beneath the dust, heat, traffic, sore feet, crowd surfers, and complete exhaustion was an enormous community of heavy music fans getting something Texas rarely receives on this scale. Reports put attendance at around 80,000 people, and looking across Texas Motor Speedway during the final sets, that number was easy to believe. For one day, fans of metal, hardcore, alternative, goth, industrial, and everything in between took over a racetrack in Fort Worth and proved there is absolutely an audience here for festivals this ambitious. Sick New World Texas was chaotic. It was exhausting. It was loud, dusty, beautiful, and completely insane…And Texas is more than ready to do it again.