“Mayhem can really help elevate this era” – Ash Avildsen speaks about the Mayhem Festival’s lineup

Bands like Slayer, King Diamond, and Avenged Sevenfold were the main acts during the first Mayhem Festival, which took place from 2008 until 2024. Last weekend, the Mayhem Festival returned with a notably different roster that included Parkway Drive, Architects, and headliners Bad Omens. So why the change? In an interview with Revolver, Ash Avildsen, the organizer of the Mayhem Festival and the owner of Sumerian Records, stated that the main goal is to introduce the upcoming generation of festival headliners.

I love all the older acts that headline a lot of the rock festivals in the U.S. 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. We decided [to] bring it back for one day and reestablish that the brand is back, and that will give us a lot more lead time to assemble a full [2025] summer tour.