Last year marked the inauguration of the Rockstar Mayhem Festival tour, a summer package from the creators of Warped Tour that featured heavier acts. There were some pretty surprising bands on the bill: besides Miami's Black Tide, performers included Mastodon, Underoath, and Of course, if you're a Slipknot fan, that band was the ultimate draw as it celebrated its high-profile return.
Besides some really gross on-and-off rain on that boiling July day, the place was packed -- so it's no surprise that a second Mayhem Festival has been announced this year. Dare I say the lineup is well, better. Say what you will about Marilyn Manson, but nobody can argue with Slayer!! (Actually, neither act can argue with the other -- they both played together in South Florida in 2007, when the Cruzan Amphitheatre was still the Sound Advice Amphitheatre).
Also headlining is Bullet For My Valentine, which is less exciting, well, musically, and also because the band has already headlined both a festival (the 2008 Taste of Chaos tour) and a club gig (fall 2008 at Revolution) in South Florida in the recent past.
In another interesting move, while last year's festival featured many radio-friendly bands (Disturbed, ugh), this year's lineup is somewhat more diverse. The Jagermeister stage will, unsurprisingly, feature meat-and-potatoes metal with Trivium, All that Remains, and God Forbid. But a Hot Topic stage, surprisingly, will feature more extreme sounds from the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, the Black Dahlia Murder, and Whitechapel.
The tour arrives in West Palm Beach on August 12, again at the Cruzan Amphitheatre. Tickets go on sale April 24, and -- like all shows at this venue now -- will be available exclusively through Live Nation.
