It’s a bit of an understatement to say that this year’s return of ‘The Summer Slaughter Tour‘ after a several year absence didn’t exactly go as well as hoped. Known as a bastion for mixing death metal, metalcore and deathcore bands of different generations, fan expectation didn’t exactly align with the reality of the actual bill that was delivered.
The blame doesn’t just fall on the fans though. The hype of a return to the past bills of the tour was exacerbated by the tour’s social media relying heavily on nostalgia of past lineups in the initial teasing for this year’s run.
Thus, when this year’s tour was revealed without the presence of any veteran death metal bands or traditional ‘legacy’ bands to begin with, a vocal contingent of the internet quickly pounced and tore the tour to shreds.
The lineup that was announced for the tour included:
Veil Of Maya (co-headliner)
Brand Of Sacrifice (co-headliner)
Gideon
Left To Suffer
ten56.
Tallah
Cabal
BRAT
Within Destruction were also made part of the bill at a later date, but ultimately had the scrap their plans due to issues with work visas. Filth were later added to the trek as well. However, it would appear that the backlash was at least taken in part personally by tour founder Ash Avildsen, as vitriol from the tour’s official social media spilled over in various comments online.
An article posted on MetalSucks about the lineup reveal carried the headline of the ‘First Batch of Summer Slaughter Tour Bands Announced Don’t Hold a Candle to Years Past’. A subsequent social media post from MetalSucks about the story drew perhaps the most infamous response, with the ‘Summer Slaughter Tour‘s official Instagram firing back:
“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.”
The post was widely thought to have been made by Avildsen, who has been vocal in the past on his stance against COVID-19 vaccinations and other hot button issues. Presumably past MetalSucks stories criticizing Avildsen for expressing those views led to the initial bad blood.
In the run-up to the tour, Avildsen would take to the press to address his side of the tour’s controversial booking. He also revealed at that time that the original plan for the trek was a triple co-headliner between Suicidal Tendencies, Biohazard & Dying Fetus.
Avildsen would go on to state that various reasons led to that initial vision falling through, leading the tour to pivot to focus on a generation of bands he felt have earned the chance to stand on their own. Avildsen was so confident in these bands, that he told The Punk Rock MBA this past May:
“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.”
Despite the backlash, the tour moved ahead with the ambitiously booked bill, retaining venues that largely ranged around 1500 cap range. However, per various fan reports from those attending the shows, it was commonplace for only a few hundred people to turn out nightly, with attendance seemingly ranging from anywhere between 100 to 500 people on average.
Danish deathcore band Cabal, who played the recently concluded trek, spoke of their experience on the bill during an appearance on the ‘Garza Podcast‘, hosted by Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza.
When asked about what went wrong with the tour by Garza, Cabal bassist Dennis Jovcevski Hursid offered, “Ticket sales, sometimes. We just played two big rooms, like 1200 caps, for 150 people.” Vocalist Andreas Bjulver added, “Some of the shows have been really good, and some of them not so good.”
When asked why he thought people took issue with the lineup, Bjulver echoed the concerns mentioned above, where he felt fans were likely expecting to see a lineup that featured more traditional death metal bands involved. He also mentioned, “the rant” as being a potential factor.
He continued, “The person who controlled the page went on some rant…” Hursid then chimed in, offering:
“They [MetalSucks] wrote about all the backlash when the tour got announced, and he dropped the comment like basically calling people pussies. Like Fauci-pussies. Like he basically went on an anti-vax rant. It was like it’s 2024, let go of that shit.” Bjulver added, “It’s a little late for that now, I think we’re kind of past it.”
Hursid then added some context to his own stance on lockdowns and the post-COVID world, stating, “I was all for lockdowns and stuff like that back then, four years ago, now I’m like lets get over it. It’s done.”
Bjulver also shared his thoughts upon seeing the initial comment made by Avildsen towards MetalSucks:
“We saw a picture of it and we were like ‘Oh no, why did he do that?…’ The thing is, you can do that as a private person. That’s all fine. But when you’re speaking on behalf of kinda like the entire tour… And also, if you’re trying to sell a product, you shouldn’t try and antagonize your potential buyers. And that’s kinda like what happened and we were like ‘Oh no.'”
