New England Metal & Hardcore Festival – September 20, 2025

September 23, 2025 John Merritt Leave a comment

Fans arrived very early in the day at The Worcester Palladium for the 2025 New England Metal & Hardcore Festival. Unlike previous years, the 2025 edition was a one-day-only event. With beautiful bluebird skies, fans from all over New England and beyond entered through the metal detectors, wearing their favorite band shirts and smiles on their faces. The Century Media Stage was used inside the Palladium, while both the Nuclear Blast Records and Armada Merch stages were setup outside the venue in the parking lot. The stages were positioned across from one another, directly behind the Worcester Palladium, similar to last year.

One of the biggest highlights from NEMHF 2025 was Bury Your Dead’s final show EVER! Mat, Mark, Slim, Bubble and Cain coming together one last time to close out over two decades of touring the World. It was special seeing all of the band member’s family, including their children, on the stage for the whole set. One fan out in the crowd was noticeably holding up a prayer card for a significant person in their life that had passed away. The fan held up the prayer card in the air during the entire set just like they were there in person, watching the show together.

Another highlight included Lorna Shore headlining NEMHF 2025. They are currently on tour with The Black Dahlia Murder, Shadow of Intent and PeelingFlesh, who were all on the bill tonight. Kublai Khan TX also brought their current tour to The Worcester Palladium with supporting acts Drain and Gideon. Many of these bands had just performed two days earlier at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, KY.

Cannibal Corpse put on an amazing performance. As their set ended, fog machines turned on and were covering the entire Nuclear Blast Stage. With the drums set up high on top of massive video boards, lead vocalist Will Ramos’ deathcore band Lorna Shore was here to leave their mark on The Palladium Outdoors. Touring in support of their fifth studio album, (which was just released on September 12th) I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me, Lorna Shore’s set included singles “Oblivion”, “Unbreakable”, “Prison of Flesh”, and “Glenwood.” Worcester, Massachusetts was Lorna Shore’s third stop on their tour, which wraps up at the end of October in New York City.

The NEMHF originally dates back to 1999 with Scott Lee founding the festival. It has given opportunities to hundreds of bands at this point and provides them with a platform to connect with fans through live music. Whether the festival stays with the one day format or goes back to the two day setup, New England metal fans hope the festival is here to stay.