The time for Mayhem is now, again.
For eight years, between 2008 and 2015, the Mayhem Festival was the United States’ premier traveling heavy-music event. Just look at the legendary lineups that were taken across the country back then, each year a unique cavalcade of classic, contemporary and emerging metal talent led by headliners Slipknot, Slayer, Avenged Sevenfold and more. When festival organizers announced this year that, nearly a decade later, Mayhem would make its grand return in 2024 as a one-day festival in San Bernardino, California — with a new wave of heavy favorites including Bad Omens, Architects, Parkway Drive, Poppy and more topping the bill — music fans immediately got excited.
“The way they curated the different colors of the heavy-metal rainbow, so to speak — a diverse group of bands from different subgenres and eras — just became the calling card for metalheads in the summer,” recalls Ash Avildsen, founder and CEO of Sumerian Records and the architect behind the relaunched Mayhem Festival, of the fest’s original run.
Avildsen knows Mayhem’s history well. Back in 2008, he was a booking agent working with deathcore group Suicide Silence. The band had built up some hype but were having trouble breaking through to the next level — at least until Mayhem Festival reached out to put them on the inaugural tour, to support Slipknot. Mayhem was a major turning point in Suicide Silence’s career, and indeed for numerous other acts, too.
The return of Mayhem is about more than nostalgia though. Sure, Avildsen is helping revive an iconic brand, and this year’s stop at the Glen Helen Amphitheater is, coincidently, on the same site that held the third-ever Mayhem show back in 2008 — but this is also a chance to see how much heavy music has changed in the decade since Mayhem Festival went dark.
From the breathtaking-but-bleak heavy melodicism of Bad Omens, to Poppy’s eclectic pop-dustrial subversion, to the much-anticipated emergence of Seven Hours After Violet, the new deathcore group from System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian and members of Left to Suffer and Winds of Plague — this year’s lineup reflects a generation of artists that have established themselves as major players since the last Mayhem Fest. While there are veteran acts in this year’s lineup, too — from the reunited Kittie to Aussie metalcore giants Parkway Drive to original Mayhem participants Suicide Silence and Unearth — what excites Avildsen is that some of the youngest bands are making the biggest waves right now. And it’s about damn time.
“I love all the older acts that headline a lot of the rock festivals in the U.S.,” Avildsen says. “But I think it’s a bit naïve to think that there’s not an urgent need to break new headlining bands.
“When I think back to when I was a teenager in the Nineties, the whole new wave of big bands like Korn and Slipknot were young guys. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a wave of bands with singers that are in their twenties that can really headline festivals. I feel like we’re finally there with a number of bands, [and] I think Mayhem can really help elevate this era the same way that it had elevated bands 10-15 years ago.”
What’s certain is that, just like the old days, this fall’s Mayhem Festival is a must-see event for the metal community — as well as a preview of what fans can expect from future fests. “We decided [to] bring it back for one day and reestablish that the brand is back,” says Avildsen, “and that will give us a lot more lead time to assemble a full [2025] summer tour.”
It’s about to get crazy. So with that in mind, we caught up with eight of Mayhem 2024’s most electric bands — Bad Omens, Architects, Poppy, Parkway Drive, Jinjer, HANABIE., Seven Hours After Violet and Kittie — to hear about the chaos and carnage they’ve already experienced onstage, and what kind of mayhem is in store for fans in the future.
Bryan Kirks
BAD OMENS, NOAH SEBASTIAN
Bad Omens’ headlining set may be one of Mayhem’s most anticipated performances, but for different reasons than most. The Richmond, Virginia, band’s only remaining North American concert appearance of 2024 marks a return to the stage following a brief live hiatus, brought on by the “extreme burnout” vocalist Noah Sebastian was feeling after spending the past decade transmuting Bad Omens’ metalcore origins into a breathtakingly violet-hued amalgam of alt-metal, glitchy R&B, electronic experimentation and more.
The set is poised to celebrate myriad fan-favorites written along the way, and likewise act as the final resting place for Bad Omens’ now two-years-running The Death of Peace of Mind tour cycle.
MAYHEM FEST IS KNOWN FOR ITS DIVERSE LINEUP AND ENERGETIC ATMOSPHERE. HOW DOES PERFORMING AT A LARGE, MULTI-GENRE FESTIVAL INFLUENCE THE WAY YOU APPROACH YOUR SOUND, SETLIST OR STAGE PERFORMANCE?
NOAH SEBASTIAN It doesn’t affect it much at all, to be honest, other than the setlist — in instances where we have a reduced set length, and we want to prioritize playing our more popular or energetic songs. But we retain a consistent general philosophy and approach to all aspects of our performances, which is to never be something we’re not for the satisfaction of anyone else. At the end of the day, it’s our taste and style that draws people to us in the first place. Playing a festival isn’t going to influence that.
MAYHEM HAS QUITE A LEGACY OF PERFORMERS: SLIPKNOT, SLAYER, KORN, AVENGED SEVENFOLD AND MORE. DOES THE FESTIVAL’S HISTORY ADD EXTRA PRESSURE OR EXPECTATIONS FOR YOU AS A PERFORMER?
Well, as for pressure, I apply enough of that on myself to begin with, so the history [of the festival] isn’t something I think about. I’m just focused on doing a great job and having fun, because they are greatly intertwined. I realized recently, before the last two festivals we played, that there’s a part of me that still feels the need to prove to the naysayers that we deserve these festival slots and lineups because of how seemingly fast it may appear we got them — and how much younger we are than a lot of the bands usually on the top of the bill. I, myself, know we do — but I want everyone else to know it, too, by putting on an undeniably great performance every time.
MAYHEM WILL BE BAD OMENS’ FIRST SHOW AFTER TAKING THE SUMMER OFF. WHAT KIND OF PREPARATION ARE YOU UNDERTAKING TO GET READY FOR THE PERFORMANCE?
We’ve generally been playing the same set since the “Concrete Forever” tour in the fall of 2023, with a subtly evolving production and setlist. But after this break we’re coming back with a new show entirely, hopefully for the last time until our next album cycle begins. It demands a lot of time, creativity and nuance trying to make these now-old songs feel new and special every time we do a new tour within this very long album cycle.
Read the full cover story in Revolver’s Fall 2024 Issue, which is available now at our shop.
Mayhem Festival 2024 is set for Saturday, October 12th — tickets are available now. You can livestream Bad Omens’ headlining set on Veeps.