After a bumpy return in 2024, the Summer Slaughter tour will continue but Hatebreed‘s Jamey Jasta will now have a hand in the decision making.
The vocalist confirmed his new association with the Summer Slaughter tour during an appearance on the Garza Podcast. Jasta isn’t just the frontman of Hatebreed, he’s also taken a deeper interest in the music business and has been guiding the return of the Milwaukee Metal Fest in recent years and his success on that front has seemingly led to his new involvement with the Summer Slaughter Tour.
What Happened With Last Year’s Summer Slaughter Tour?
The Summer Slaughter tour had long been an established touring brand in the metal world originating back in 2007 by Sumerian Records honcho Ash Avildsen. But in 2020, the touring festival shut down due to Covid constrictions and it remained inactive until Avildsen brought it back in 2024.
The lineup revealed a touring festival led by Veil of Maya and Brand of Sacrifice. But not long after the bill was released did fans start sharing their disappointment with the lineup on social media and a Metal Sucks article noted that the caliber of bands wasn’t on par with what the tour typically delivered,
In response to the negative reaction, the Summer Slaughter social media account fired back, “Regardless if we booked cannibal and fetus or resurrected necrophagist and cynic, you’re still a bunch of pro vaccine mandate brainwashed pharma cuck sheep bootlickers. have a good day and bow to your publicly traded owner, posers.”
READ MORE: The Triple Co-Headliner Summer Slaughter Wanted to Book for 2024
The initial negative reaction to the tour then carried over to the box office. One of the bands on the bill, Cabal, later spoke about their experiences on The Garza Podcast, revealing why they felt the festival failed.
“We played a lot of fun shows, but we played some boring shows as well. I’m not gonna lie,” revealed bassist Dennis Jovcevski Hursid, when asked about their recent touring. When asked by Garza what was to blame for the boring shows, the bassist responded, “Ticket sales, sometimes. We just played big rooms, like 1200 caps for 150 people.”
“Some of the shows were really good and some of the shows, not so good,” admitted singer Andreas Bjulver. “I think the issue is that people wanted death metal and stuff.”
The singer continued, “I remember back in the days, looking at the lineups when I was a teen and there would always be a mix of death metal and then metalcore and deathcore. This year they kind of switched and just did death metal. We had Brand [of Sacrifice] who are death grind, kind of, but besides that it is really centered on more modern core. I like all the bands on it, but I think that some of the OG bands were really pissed about it.”
What Jamey Jasta Said About His Involvement With the Summer Slaughter Tour This Year
Within his chat with Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza, Jamey Jasta revealed that he was now involved with the Summer Slaughter tour as they approach plans for the next run.
“I’m going to be helping take over Summer Slaughter. I don’t think I can talk about the lineup, but this is something that I really wanted to do. Especially after the reaction to last year’s lineup,” said the Hatebreed vocalist.
“Ash is a Maverick and a visionary. And if you look at the early days of Summer Slaughter… There was shows where, like, Whitechapel opened, playing first, okay? And [Ash] would always offer us this tour, and we never did it, because we were always building in Europe,” said the singer.
“But now that we kind of made it where we need to be in Europe, where either we’re headlining or we’re second or third from the top — we focused on Europe for a long time — I said we want to bring back… We want Hatebreed to headline a summer tour. And so after the the reaction from last year, I thought we could do this,” Jasta adds, seemingly confirming his band will headline the trek.
READ MORE: Jamey Jasta Reflects on 30 Years of Hatebreed
“We can bring it back, and we can diversify the lineup a little bit, with some hardcore and some metalcore, but still have the deathcore and the death metal and the crossover, or whatever you want to call it,” he concluded.
What Jamey Jasta Could Say About the 2025 Summer Slaughter Tour
“Hatebreed hasn’t done a summer tour in years in the US. But we’re going to start small. It’s going to be very short, like 14-15 shows and we’re going to take small bands; we’re going to take the future bands, for better or for worse,” said the singer.
He also suggested the idea of a more global presence, adding, “We’re also taking it global… Because, it’s summer in other parts of the world, at different places, like Australia, like South America.”
Jasta also shared that Tim [Borror of Sound Talent Group] that he’s worked with on Milwaukee Metal Fest will also help with the new direction. “I really, I appreciate Ash giving Tim and myself the support of not only Milwaukee Metal Fest, but also the belief in us taking this over and trying to make something great again,” he concluded.
At present, an official lineup and dates for a 2025 run of the Summer Slaughter Tour are still pending.
Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta Guests on The Garza Podcast
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