The lineup for the 23-band jaunt drops on June 4
After months of speculation, Mayhem Festival is making its comeback. The festival confirmed through its apparently official Instagram account [see below] a one-off gig this fall to celebrate the reincarnation. If all goes well, the full summer tour will return in 2025.
For the initial re-launch, 23 bands will perform on October 12 at a to-be-announced location in Southern California. The lineup and full details drop this coming Tuesday, June 4. The original Mayhem Festival was branded by sponsor Rockstar Energy, which also had Uproar Festival in its portfolio. While Mayhem Festival was more of a metal fest, Uproar focused on straight ahead rock and alternative acts. It’s unclear at this point whether Rockstar Energy will once again be the driving brand behind the Mayhem Festival.
We will see what happens on Tuesday, but heavy music fans should be hopeful that Mayhem Festival does what the Danny Wimmer festivals aren’t doing – giving new headliners a chance to shine on the big stage. There’s nothing wrong with what DWP and others are doing. It’s quite awesome, actually. They’re booking the biggest and best available. But, acts like Metallica, Slayer, and Mötley Crüe won’t be around forever, and the likes of Foo Fighters, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, and Korn have had their chance to shine and they’re where they are not because of it.
If heavy music has any hope of surviving for another generation and even beyond, someone has to start grooming the next crop of headliners. The iconic Download Festival in the UK took a massive step in the right direction by choosing Bring Me The Horizon to headline, instead of Iron Maiden or Metallica for the umpteenth time (absolutely no offense to those legends, of course). Mayhem Festival needs to follow suit. Bands like Mastodon, Gojira, Trivium, Knocked Loose, Slaughter to Prevail, Malevolence, Code Orange, and others have proven they have the chops. Now, it’s time to see what they’ve got with full production under the Main Stage lights.
The legendary Mayhem Festival kicked off in 2008. Slipknot and Disturbed served as co-headliners on the main stage. The rest of the bill featured Dragonforce, Mastodon, Underoath, Machine Head, Walls of Jericho, Black Tide, Suicide Silence, The Red Chord, and 36 Crazy Fists. Then up-and-comers Five Finger Death Punch were way at the bottom of the bill, and straight-ahead Aussie rockers Airbourne held their own mixed in with a metal lineup.
In 2013, Five Finger Death Punch returned to co-headline with Rob Zombie.
Until now, the final installment of Mayhem Festival came in 2015. Slayer and King Diamond co-headlined, and Hellyeah and The Devil Wears Prada rounded out the Main Stage. Also featured on the bill were Whitechapel, Thy Art is Murder, Jungle Rot, Sister Sin, Sworn In, Shattered Sun, Feed Her to the Sharks, Kissing Candice, and another force soon to be reckoned with – Code Orange.
