Aftershock Festival
Discovery Park, Sacramento
October 2-5, 2025
The Aftershock Festival celebrated its 13th year in Sacramento with a massive weekend of nonstop music and fun. The festival, held in Sacramento’s Discovery Park, has grown into a well-organized behemoth as festival organizers Danny Wimmer Productions (DWP) have a strong grasp of not only the musical tastes of the heavy music world but the logistics of how to pull off a massive feat like this year after year. And naturally, everything worked out just fine.
In fact, it was was a record-breaking festival year with the largest Aftershock in history — drawing over 164,000 fans from all 50 states and more than 30 countries to landing in Discovery Park, generating an estimated $35 million in local economic impact.
This year’s version was blessed with cooler than normal early October weather, and even a little rain on the first two days. It concluded on Sunday with a perfect California day that ended up in the low 80s as the four-day festival warriors trudged through the final day. And from the first day through that final day, there were exceptional musical choices to see throughout each edition.
Thursday kicked off with early sets by the hypnotic riffs and super heavy stoner power of High on Fire on one of the smaller stages while pop-punk stalwarts Blink 182 closed out the big stage at the end of the night. If that didn’t work for you, there was a strong, dark, and psychedelic set by Acid Bath on another stage. Acid Bath reformed earlier this year after a 28-year hiatus. They had followed Testament, who debuted a new song from their just released album Parabellum and played a classic set that featured one of the most scintillating bluesy guitar solos of the weekend by the gifted guitarist Alex Skolnick on “Return to Serenity.”
Friday set things into high gear with a plethora of choices that were so good that choosing a stage was difficult. There were epic solo sets by Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson and Slayer’s Kerry King. There were sets by Bay Area thrash stalwarts Forbidden, Death Angel, and Exodus. Death Angel also debuted a new song that sounded great and their singer Mark Osegeuda doubled as Kerry King’s vocalist later that day. Also on board were sets by stalwarts Lamb of God and A Perfect Circle; both arguably had some of the best sound of the entire weekend. Wrapping up the night was a massive set by local Sacramento legends Deftones. The band brought it with a full on display of their dark and light, heavy, and heavenly sounds. Across the festival from them, the mighty progressive metal band Dream Theater launched into a beautifully played, symphonic set that celebrated their 40th year as a band.
As the weekend continued, festival fans were treated to the all powerful sounds of French thrash titans Gojira on Saturday evening, followed by the thunderous nu-metal pioneer sound of Korn as the night’s closer. There were also great sets by Trivium, who performed the album Ascendancy in its entirety on its 20th anniversary. Also fun were sets by Kittie and Trash Talk.
The final day concluded it all with perfect California weather and a line-up that was hard to beat. As four-day festival goers dragged themselves in for one more round, they were treated to a full day of incredible sounds. The reunited 3 Inches of Blood played early in the day as did the visual stimulating metal core band In this Moment. Later in the day there were big stage sets by horror show buffs Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie sandwiching a wild politically skewered bloodbath by GWAR on a smaller stage.
There was the long anticipated set by Cavalera Conspiracy, who savagely tackled the 90s tribal metal opus “Chaos AD” alongside Bring Me the Horizon on the larger headliner stage, filling the eyes with a stunning sci-fi and high tech stage design and lighting. As fans spilled out of the park, many who had come from vast distances left satisfied alongside Sacramento locals who had pedaled to the venue on bike were all thinking the same thing-That was a solid festival weekend.
Top Image of Deftones by Steve Thrasher
