Mayhem Fest Founder Asks Fans: “Should It Come Back?”

Ghost Cult reports that John Reese, co-founder of the currently-dormant Mayhem Festival summer mega-package tour, has taken to social media with an important question for fans: “Should Mayhem come back?”

The last edition of the traveling festival took place in 2015, included acts like Slayer, King Diamond, and Whitechapel, and was a notorious under-performer, with both Mayhem co-founder Kevin Lyman (who also founded Warped Tour) and Slayer’s Kerry King publicly offering excuses as to why shit went sideways (naturally, we offered up our own theories for the failure despite the fact that nobody asked us, too).

And yeah, despite a handful of winners, that year’s bill was pretty weak. (Remember Sister Sin and Feed Her to the Sharks? Yeah, me neither.) Still, I can’t imagine any metal fan who isn’t a bitter troll answering Reese any way other than “Yes.” Why? Why the heck not?

Having said that, I would foresee a major issue here, and it’s one that plagued the fest when it folded, too: finding an appropriate headliner. The truth is, the number of bands that can anchor an event this big was small to begin with, and is only getting smaller. There’s no more Sabbath and soon no more Ozzy and no more Slayer, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses command the national budget of a small country and are therefore probably unaffordable, Slipknot have their own festival now, any hopes of a faux Pantera reunion died with Vinnie Paul… that basically leaves Iron Maiden, Tool, and maybe Judas Priest. Otherwise you end up with a glorified Gigantour with an underwhelming headliner or maybe, if you’re lucky, a slightly-larger-than-average Summer Slaughter.

Just my two cents.

Sound off with your own opinions in the comments section.