Summer Slaughter 2024 has drawn some serious backlash for its comeback lineup featuring co-headliners Veil Of Maya and Brand Of Sacrifice, to the point where organizers changed the tagline of the tour.
Now in an interview with The Punk Rock MBA, festival owner and Sumerian Records head Ash Avildsen said the lineup for the first Summer Slaughter tour since 2019 was supposed to be way different.
"Truth be told, we looked at a more legacy, larger than life, big lineup when we were first talked about bringing the tour back," said Avildsen as transcribed by The PRP. "I mean we were looking at Suicidal Tendencies, Dying Fetus, Biohazard triple co-headline."
Avildsen said the lineup ultimately fell through, and that organizers wanted to book a tour that better reflected the current crop of metal bands rather than established, older acts.
"It's tough to take a tour like that in 20-30 cities in a row for a myriad of reasons. All 3 are iconic, timeless bands in their own right. And it got to the point, where we're trying to see if it was even possible — some bands couldn't do all the dates. Everyone's got plans in Europe in the summer. And I just kinda had a heart to heart with everyone involved in the tour. And we're like 'dude, we created this tour to help move forward a new era of bands'.
"Even if we still had Cannibal Corpse and certain older acts headline the tour. I was like, let's focus on something that is going to do that, and bands that we think have earned the right to be on the top of it."
Avildsen also touched on the massive backlash online, saying he feels things probably would've been different if there wasn't a five year gap between tours.
"I think — total transparency — I think what happened with the announce, was for anyone that's seen Game Of Thrones. The last episode got a lot of backlash because the second to last episode was so impressive, and climactic and powerful. 'Dracarys', and all of the action, and carnage, and drama. So [then] people assumed that the finale was gonna eclipse the second to last episode, and naturally that didn't happen.
"Had it all been one episode it probably would have landed differently with all the fans. I think because the way we teased the comeback of the tour, and showed all the old posters, and all the lore around the tour, and these old lineups; I think a lot of fans assumed because we were returning and everything's gotta be bigger and better post-COVID… I think kinda everyone had it in their minds there was gonna be some kind of massive lineup with all these big legacy bands. And it's just not realistic to do tours like that in clubs anymore, unfortunately, because of how expensive it is to tour.
"But outside of that, I think everyone was just expecting it's gonna be so larger than life. And I think I underestimated what the perception of the brand actually meant to people. Because to me, starting the tour was always about, ya know, still having older acts on it. But it was all about elevating the future and helping current younger bands get bigger."
