Blacken Open Air 2025 Unleashes Full Lineup for Its Most Explosive Year Yet

Blacken Open Air 2025 has dropped its full lineup, featuring Frenzal Rhomb, FATE GEAR, Divide and Dissolve and more. Here’s everything you need to know about Australia’s most remote heavy music festival.

In a climate where music festivals are dropping like flies, Blacken Open Air refuses to go quietly. The cult favourite metal gathering in the heart of Australia has just revealed its full 2025 lineup, and it’s a wild, world-spanning celebration of heaviness in all its forms.

Organisers have doubled down on the absurd, the extreme and the inspiring – curating a bill that goes beyond genre and geography. From Japan to New Zealand, Taiwan to the Czech Republic, the festival’s reach is global, but its roots remain deeply planted in the red dirt of the Northern Territory.

Among the biggest names are the exclusive Australian reunion of grind legends Blood Duster, Japanese power metal heroines FATE GEAR, American stoner rock icon Brant Bjork, Taiwanese black metal mystics Dharma, and international noise crusaders Divide and Dissolve. Czech gore-grind freaks Gutalax are flying in for what’s sure to be one of the messiest sets of the weekend.

Aussie punk royalty Frenzal Rhomb joins the chaos alongside a deep bench of homegrown talent including Battlesnake, Jalang, and RUN. There’s even something for the kids, with Bunny Racket bringing riffs for the next generation of headbangers.

Here’s full breakdown of all the bands set to play Blacken Open Air 2025:

Blacken Open Air 2025 Full Lineup

• Frenzal Rhomb
• FATE GEAR (JP)
• Divide and Dissolve
• Dharma 達摩樂隊 (TWN)
• Wildfire Manwurrk
• Alarum
• Jalang
• ISUA
• Mulga Bore Hard Rock
• Malcura
• RUN
• Diploid
• The Black Swamp
• The Holy Dimes
• Scaphis
• Writhing
• Rinser
• TombFeeder
• Bunny Racket
• Full Tone Generator
• NGLAH
• Snake Mountain
• KOH
• LETHALCORRUGATION

These acts join a raft of already-announced artists hitting the stage:

• Earthless (USA)
• UADA (USA)
• BLOOD DUSTER (EXCLUSIVE AUSTRALIAN REUNION)
• GUTALAX (CZ)
• Brant Bjork TRIO (USA)
• Battlesnake
• Southeast Desert Metal
• DAHTM (NZ)
• KILAT
• NICOLAS CAGE FIGHTER
• Terminal Sleep
• Carcinoid
• DAWN
• SLIMKRUSTY
• SCARNON
• Witchskull
• FUXACHE
• Hidden Intent

Blacken’s team aren’t mincing words about the state of festivals right now. “We can’t promise Blacken will happen again,” reads their official statement. “This is not a marketing pitch.” It’s a stark reminder of how fragile the live music ecosystem has become, especially for niche festivals operating hundreds of kilometres from major cities.

But if this really is the final form of Blacken Open Air, they’re going out swinging. From September 19 to 22, under the new moon sky in the Dead Centre of the country, thousands will descend on this DIY utopia for what might just be the last great metal pilgrimage in Australia.

Expect three nights of punishing riffs, surreal desert skies, Indigenous-led performances, skateboarding, sideshows, camping culture and a community that lives and breathes loud music.

Tickets are available now at blackenopenair.com and are moving fast.

Whether you’ve been a loyal disciple since the Black Wreath days or this is your first trip to the red centre, Blacken 2025 is set to be the most memorable edition yet. It’s not just a festival. It’s a last stand.