Last year’s long-awaited return of ‘The Summer Slaughter Tour‘ wasn’t exactly a strong start. After laying dormant since 2019, founder Ash Avildsen brought the festival back last year with a lineup that leaned heavily on more modern artists and eschewed the past traditions of implementing tenured death metal bands and such into the mix.
That was not the original plan for the fest’s big return, as Avildsen himself publicly revealed, the likes of Suicidal Tendencies, Biohazard and Dying Fetus were originally in the mix. However, the challenges of booking a tour in 2024 reared their head, and as budgeting and scheduling conflicts arose, the trek thus pivoted in the direction that saw the likes of Veil Of Maya and Brand Of Sacrifice co-headline, with Gideon, Left To Suffer, and more filling out the bill.
The reaction to that decision was not well-received. There were fans who felt betrayed by the teases and promotion leading up to the return of the festival, which had banked heavily on the nostalgia of the genre melting pot of past ‘The Summer Slaughter Tour‘ bills.
Then there was the infamous clapback that appeared on the tour’s official Instagram in response to a story ran by MetalSucks regarding the 2024 lineup reveal. That publication’s piece was titled, ‘First Batch of Summer Slaughter Tour Bands Announced Don’t Hold a Candle to Years Past.’
Taking issued with that, a comment made in direct response to that story on ‘The Summer Slaughter Tour‘ Instagram created even more division. That comment, which was widely said to have been made by Avildsen, stated:
“regardless if we booked cannibal and fetus or resurrected necrophagist and cynic, you’re still a bunch of pro vaccine mandate brainwashed pharma cuck sheep bootlickers. have a good day and bow to your publicly traded owner, posers.”
As you can imagine, associating hot button issues like vaccine mandates with a heavy metal tour only stirred the pot further. Avildsen himself did do some damage control in the weeks afterward. Speaking with The Punk Rock MBA about the realities of budgeting a tour and such in 2024, he also outlined why he felt it was proper time to focus on bands he felt were future headliners. Avildsen was confident enough in the booking for the tour that he went on to say in that May 2024 interview:
“I stand by all these bands. If all you ‘Summer Slaughter‘ ledge jumpers aren’t really sure, if you think it’s not worth your time. I stand by these bands we put at the top. If you go to the show and you’re like ‘Veil Of Maya, Brand Of Sacrifice & Gideon didn’t make me feel like I got my money’s worth, email me dude, I’ll PayPal you the money back. These bands are going to deliver man. It’s their time.”
Unfortunately for Avildsen, his bold gambit didn’t exactly pay off. Bands who played the tour spoke openly of sparsely attended shows, while pictures and videos of modestly filled venues circulated online, mocking the trek for its controversial booking decisions.
Given the fate of last year’s return, it’s not surprising that Avildsen was open to a new approach this time around. As newly revealed by Hatebreed, etc. vocalist Jamey Jasta, he has been brought on to help assume taking over the trek from Avildsen.
Speaking to Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza on the below newly published episode of the ‘Garza Podcast‘, Jasta had the following to say of his involvement, while also seemingly confirming rumors that his veteran metalcore outfit will be headlining this year’s edition of the fest [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“I’m going to be helping take over ‘Summer Slaughter‘. I don’t think I can talk about the lineup, but this is something that I really wanted to do. Especially after the reaction to last year’s lineup… Ash is a Maverick and a visionary. And if you look at the early days of ‘Summer Slaughter‘… There was shows where, like, Whitechapel opened, playing first, okay?
And [Avildsen] would always offer us this tour, and we never did it, because we were always building in Europe. But now that we kind of made it where we need to be in Europe, where either we’re headlining or we’re second or third from the top — we focused on Europe for a long time — I said we want to bring back… We want Hatebreed to headline a summer tour. And so after the the reaction [to ‘The Summer Slaughter Tour‘] from last year, I thought we could do this.
We can bring it back, and we can diversify the lineup a little bit, with some hardcore and some metalcore, but still have the deathcore and the death metal and the crossover, or whatever you want to call it.”
After reflecting on some early lineups of the tour, Jasta continued:
“So they created headliners out a lot of these bands, and Hatebreed hasn’t done a summer tour in years in the US. But we’re going to start small. It’s going to be very short, like 14-15 shows and we’re going to take small bands; we’re going to take the future bands, for better or for worse.
So we’re not expecting it to be blowout bonkers, but we’re just, we’re also taking it global… Because, it’s summer in other parts of the world, at different places, like Australia, like South America.
And we [Hatebreed] also need to be… We’re long overdue to start working Australia regularly. Again, we just did ‘Knotfest‘ and just crushed it, and in South America too. So yeah, so we got work to do, but it’s good problems to have and it’s good opportunities to have.
And yeah, I really, I appreciate Ash giving Tim [Borror of Sound Talent Group] and myself the support of not only ‘Milwaukee Metal Fest‘, but also the belief in us taking this over and trying to make something great again.”
If you’re not aware, Jasta and Borror resurrected the long dormant ‘Milwaukee Metal Fest‘ back in 2024 and have since remained committed to establishing it as a premier inaugural heavy music festival in the Midwest.
