Deafheaven

The inaugural Sick New World Texas heavy metal music festival hit Fort Worth on Saturday, October 24, packing a sold-out crowd of 80,000 into Texas Motor Speedway. Produced by the management behind headliners Deftones and System of a Down, the festival marked SOAD’s first Texas show since 2005. A year of hype came down to a bill that put Slayer’s 40th anniversary of Reign in Blood on the same grounds as Knocked Loose. Four stages, constant set overlap, and a crowd you had to wade through to get anywhere: SNW was a twelve-hour endurance test that didn’t let up until midnight.