Kevin Lyman, the co-founder of the annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival has proven once and for all that he is a grade A douchebag and has zero regard and even any real knowledge about the current state of metal music in general. As a matter of fact, just one look at each of the festival’s line ups over the last seven years. You will see that what this festival boasted as metal are the very bands that, in my opinion, have killed metal and all that it is about. Bands like Korn, Disturbed, HellYeah, and Avenged Sevenfold are just a few examples of the bands that they billed as the best representations of metal out there.
As a diehard metal head since the 80’s, I was a grown man by the time this new wave of metal started to emerge. While the classics like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motorhead managed to survive and stick to their guns doing what it is they do best, it was this new wave of metal that changed the landscape of metal. All of the sudden, when people talked about “metal” it was bands such as Korn, Disturbed, Slipknot, etc that were mentioned at the forefront. These were all bands that I considered to be ridiculously horrible and were responsible for putting the very music that I loved into the ground. To me, this was really a sad case as I felt that what was truly metal to begin with was now just more of an obscure legend and even as newer, younger bands started to emerge, the classic influence was gone. Now we had bands coming up saying things like, “We were inspired by Korn or Pantera or Slipknot.” How could this be?
Anyway, you might think that I’m getting off topic but maybe I am. My point is this. you have this dipshit of a festival organizer talking like he knows everything about metal in general. Mayhem fest co-founder Lyman recently told the Detroit Free Press that the tour is “at risk of going away at any given moment” due to the limited number of headline-worthy acts in metal. Alan Strange, guitarist/vocalist for the Atlanta metal band Prime Mover, had this to say about Lyman’s statement:
“Where are the headliners? Fair enough. Where is ANY artist development these days? Where is tour support? Where is the music industry? It’s the Wild West out here now. Everyone likes a dozen obscure bands, or a dozen old bands, or one new flash in the pan. There is a HUGE scene and a HUGE market with absolutely no cohesion. If Mayhem could play to this (like Warped Tour very successfully does) instead of fighting it things may be different, but since it seems like the founder does not know a god damned thing about metal, I don’t see that happening. …especially if he’s going to publicly bash the bands and the fans that made the tour what it once was. I just want to see (and if possible, be a part of) whatever comes along to replace it. “If there’s a new way, I’ll be the first in line, but it better work this time!”
Where are the headliners? Ok, here’s the deal. I get it. If you want your festival to fill amphitheaters, yes, you are going to need headliners that can draw the masses so you can pad your pockets and pay your bills. I get it. I also get that in order to do this, your options are very much limited. With that being said, Mr. Lyman, you cannot blame metal music as a whole for you not being able to have big enough names on your festival to fill amphitheaters and pay the bills. Lyman went on to say, “”What happened was metal chased girls away because what happened was metal aged,” he said. “Metal got gray, bald and fat. And metal was about danger. When you went to a metal show, it was dudes onstage; there was some danger in it.”
Again, spoken like someone who just looks at the surface of things and is speaking as a guy who is losing money on a sinking festival. Of course metal is aging. We are all aging. We are all going grey, bald, and in most cases fat but guess what? True, dedicated metal fans look past all of these things and if a band is still capable of delivering the goods, who cares how they look? What has really happened here is that he has run out of high profile commercial shit metal bands to use as headliners to draw in people. OK, then close up shop if that’s the case. Or better yet, if you really want to prove your love of metal and respect of it, maybe even scale down your festival to smaller venues. Scale it down to small scale theaters/large clubs, dig deeper into the metal world and find that there are a vast number of young, upcoming bands that are doing real metal and doing it really well. Bands like Holy Grail, Stryker, and Enforcer are young bands that are carrying the flag for metal yet being continuously overlooked. Will Lyman ever dig below the surface? Of course not because this guy doesn’t care about those bands. Those bands will not make him money or fill large scale venues therefore he will not be bothered. He will be more than happy to continue to stick a fork in metal music proclaiming it dead.
Finally, Lyman said, “”Unlike punk rock, metal never knows how to take a step back to move the whole scene forward. That’s how punk rock was. Metal doesn’t seem to have that concern, never has, never has since I was working in the clubs in the ’80s. It’s always about a ‘me, me, me’ thing.” When you look at the metal bands that this guy has been working with, it’s no surprise that this is a statement he would make but to call out metal as a whole like this is completely wrong. From what I have seen, I see nothing but camaraderie, admiration, and mutual respect for each other in the metal community. I’m sure there are rifts between bands here and there but for the most part metal bands are one for all, all for one. They work hard together to move their scene forward and to keep it alive underground because people like Lyman are up on the top level whining that metal is dying and that he’s just not making money.
At the end of the day if you really want to see the best representation of metal music Mayhem Festival is not the place to go. It’s just like, if you want the best hamburger, you don’t go to McDonalds. Even though they’re bigger and more famous the quality will never be anywhere near as good as you would get from the smaller establishments. Any true metal head will tell you this. People like me to go Mayhem for the opportunity to see an act like Megadeth or even King Diamond but as a whole, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about any of those other bands. Why? Because I know that, to me, nearly all of them are the antithesis of what I love in metal music. If I want to see a true representation of great metal bands, it’s in the smaller blogs, the “related artists” button on Spotify, in the small, dingy clubs, in the first band on 5 band bills, places like that. Ask your friends what they are listening to. Ask your favorite bands what they’re listening to. This is where you will find the stuff that is worth your time and worth listening to. Mayhem fest never was and never will be an authority of metal music. Good riddance.
About The Author
