Louisville’s LDB Fest is one of the biggest American DIY hardcore festivals of the year; it might be second behind Sound And Fury. So it’s funny to see that only one of the three headliners for next year’s LDB Fest is an actual hardcore band: Pennsylvania greats Cold World, who haven’t released anything in a decade and who mostly only play big festivals like this one. The other two headliners are Superheaven and Basement, two grungy, hardcore-adjacent fuzz-guitar bands who broke up and then got back together when their old songs went viral on TikTok.

Next year’s LDB goes down 4/25-26 at the Triple Crown Pavilion, and the lineup looks awesome. It’s cool to see non-hardcore bands and hardcore fests, and it’s cool to see two bands from that world who pushed their sound into different realms getting a chance to enjoy that kind of unexpected success. There are also plenty more hardcore-adjacent bands on the LDB bill, as well as some of the best straight-up mosh bands in the world.

The LDB bill also has shoegaze heavyweights Glare and Modern Color, as well as High Vis, who made my favorite hardcore album of 2024 despite not always sounding like a hardcore band. And the more intense hardcore, punk, and metal bands on the bill are nothing to sneeze at, including Fury, God’s Hate, Mindforce, Missing Link, Never Ending Game, Spy, Year Of The Knife, and XweaponX. Also on the bill: Full Of Hell, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Soul Search, Static Dress, Soul Blind, Haywire, Holy Blade, Combust, Collateral, Bad Beat, Split Chain, Prevention, Shogun, COA, Indication, Killing Me Softly, Surfaced, Two Witnesses, and xGaargoylex. This looks fun! You can find all the details here.

In other hardcore fest news, Richmond’s United Blood fest, which hasn’t happened since 2019, has announced a return next year. We don’t know any of the details yet, but we know it’s happening.