Knotfest 2021 is on for September 25 in Indianola, IA, with a newly-announced lineup. Naturally, Slipknot is headlining, with Faith No More, Megadeth, Lamb of God, $uicideboy$, Gojira, Trivium, Tech N9ne, Fever 333, Knocked Loose, Turnstile, Gatecreeper and Vended joining them. Tickets are on-sale today, May 25 here, starting at $79. 

Although Knotfest 2020 couldn’t take place in-person in Iowa, Slipknot had other plans for last year anyways. If COVID-19 hadn’t prevented their plans, there would have been a Knotfest Japan and Asian tour in March, Knotfest Roadshow tour featuring A Day to Remember, Underoath and Code Orange across North America in May-June and an inaugural Knotfest at Sea cruise in August. Although they likely planned an Iowa event for 2020, it was never announced.

Knotfest Japan, their Asian tour and Knotfest at Sea have all been postponed and will still take place when they’re able to. However, the Knotfest Roadshow was held as a livestream instead. Knotfest also hosted a Pulse of the Maggots Fest livestream last November, featuring Tallah, Wargasm and Year of the Rabbit, among others. As for this year, Slipknot announced an inaugural Knotfest Brazil for December 19, 2021 in São Paulo.

Slipknot also announced late last year that they’re working on a new album. Their last release was 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind. Vocalist Corey Taylor released his first solo album, CMFT, in October 2020 and has recently been playing a series of socially-distanced in-person performances in support of the LP. Tech N9ne was one of the artists featured on the solo debut, as well as Kid Bookie.

Faith No More were also announced to be headlining Tons of Rock Festival 2021 in June in Oslo, Norway and Riot Fest 2021 in mid-September at Douglas Park in Chicago, IL. They also plan to play a few shows with System of a Down and Korn in Fall 2021 and an Australia/New Zealand tour in Winter 2022.

Megadeth parted ways with their founding bassist David Ellefson yesterday, May 24 due to allegations of grooming and “an already strained relationship.” In lighter news, they have plans to play a rescheduled “Metal Tour of the Year” co-headlining with Lamb of God, featuring Trivium and In Flames as ‘support’ acts. In addition, they have a new album in the works reportedly called The Sick, The Dying and The Dead.

Lamb of God has released a couple of songs this year, including “Ghost Shaped People” and “Hyperthermic/Accelerate.” They were also announced as headliners for ShipRocked 2022. In addition to performing with them on tour later this year, Trivium’s frontman Matt Heafy has been indirectly supporting their 2020 album What the Dead Men Say in his own way. He paid tribute to Power Trip’s late frontman Riley Gale in a live performance and shared an acoustic EP of Trivium songs.

As for the other artists scheduled for Knotfest Iowa 2021, $uicideboy$ is also set to play Ill Points Festival 2021 and are dealing with a lawsuit from Three 6 Mafia over 35 allegedly uncleared samples. Gojira’s new album Fortitude hit number one on the Billboard Album Sales chart in early May. They also have plans for a Winter 2021 tour. Fever 333 have a lot of festival appearances planned, including Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival, ShipRocked 2022, Welcome to Rockville 2021 and more. Knocked Loose plans to support Hatebreed on a Summer 2021 tour and was announced as one of the bands playing Blue Ridge Rock Fest 2021. Turnstile last released an album in 2018, called Time & Space. Gatecreeper released an album in February called An Unexpected Reality. Vended is a new band featuring the songs of Corey Taylor and Slipknot drummer Shawn “Clown” Crahan.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat