Metal Anarchy

In new interview Alternative Press, Kevin Lyman and John Reese discussed the various festivals they work on and metal headliners. You can read some excerpts from that below:

Here’s what they said about Mayhem Fest ending and its possible return:

Lyman: “Maybe. I don’t know. You never say never right?”

Reese: “Man, we’re just out of the firing line with this. We haven’t really had a debrief on anything as far as what we want to do, where we want to take it, if we want to take it… The biggest problem heavy music has right now is headliners, ultimately. You can’t play amphitheaters with this massive production without bands that are hard ticket sellers.

There was all this B.S. about it being a shitty lineup this year – but trust me, we beat the streets for a lineup. We didn’t leave a single stone unturned. We’re going to let dead dogs lie. [Laughs]. We’ll see what happens in the future. Who knows what the future holds?”

Reese added the following about the lack of metal headliners:

“Heavy rock bands aren’t overnight sensations. It takes a lot of time, a lot of touring, some big songs. The business from publishing and recorded music is just in the toilet. Bands don’t make any money, whereas a DJ can put a song out there and fly all over the world with a backpack. A pop artist can get on KISS FM or Hits 1 on SiriusXM. They can be in commercials and blow up quickly.

When you’re an aggressive rock band, there are fewer channels. It’s sad because Mayhem was a great avenue for the smaller bands. A lot of major labels are out of the rock business. They’d rather sign a DJ or a pop artist to a 360 deal, whore the song out all over the world and see a big return on their investment in a shorter period of time. The heavy rock space just doesn’t work that way.”

They also added the following about Taste Of Chaos returning and a possible expansion:

Reese: “We’re considering taking it on the road next year. We’ll see.”

Lyman: “John and I are talking about different things. I don’t think we can make it a full-blown thing or make it as long, but we want to do something. We just have to get through these [festivals] next month and then sit down and look at it.”

You can read more at Altpress.com.