Sick New World will return despite next year’s incarnation being cancelled, System Of A Down’s drummer says.
Last week, following days of rumour, the 2025 edition of the Las Vegas metal mega-festival was cancelled, due to what the organisers called “unforeseen circumstances”. Metallica and Linkin Park were set to headline the one-day event in April, with Queens Of The Stone Age, Evanescence, AFI, Gojira, a reunited Acid Bath and dozens more also booked to play.
The cancellation cast the future of Sick New World as a whole into doubt, but John Dolmayan says it will return later down the line. Not only did the drummer’s band headline the festival’s first two editions in 2023 and 2024, but its co-founder David “Beno” Benveniste is CEO of System Of A Down’s management company Velvet Hammer, meaning Dolmayan likely knows more than most.
The drummer comments via Instagram, “Well , this bummed me out bad. I was so looking forward to going as a fan and enjoying these amazing bands with you guys. SNW will be back , and so will we if the fans demand it !”
Sick New World started in 2023 as a nu metal nostalgia festival, with System Of A Down being joined by Korn, Deftones, Incubus, Evanescence and more. It retained that focus in 2024, when Slipknot co-headlined. However, next year, the festival was set to branch out and cover multiple generations of metal. Despite Dolmayan’s claim, there’s been no official word on if or when Sick New World will come back.
System Of A Down haven’t released a new studio album since they went on hiatus in 2006. As of the nu metal legends’ reunion five years later, they’ve focussed almost entirely on live performances. They’ve increasingly favoured one-off performances to fully fledged tours as well, as vocalist Serj Tankian explained last year.
“When you’re doing a tour, after a while it’s like Groundhog Day,” he told Revolver. “You try to be as creative and present to each show as you can, but after the second week, you’ve been there, done that already. But when it’s one show, it’s actually unique and special and fun.”
