Milwaukee Metal Fest Was the Convergence of Passion and Community at the Core of Metal Music

The long-awaited return of Milwaukee Metal Fest took place this last weekend after a 16 year hiatus. The iconic multi-day event created many memories between 1987 and 2007 when it last raged. Milwaukee Metal Fest set the stage for the festivals that followed, and served at a platform for smaller bands to find their footing. When Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta purchased the rights to the festival in 2022 and announced its imminent return, the excitement was palpable and did not relent at any point during the weekend. We spoke with fans and bands throughout the weekend to get their thoughts on the festival’s return.

“This is an honor obviously because it has such a pedigree in the industry and we’re happy to be at the first one,” shared Zachary Ezrin of Imperial Triumphant. “We are going to have to christen this one with some champagne.”

“We played ‘02, it was the last time we played Milwaukee Metal Fest,” added John Hunt of Dead To Fall. “It’s our only show this year, so far, so we’re pumped to be back and playing it. I live in Spain now, so I flew over just for this and I fly back at 8am tomorrow morning.”

Both fans and bands alike converged on The Rave, the traditional venue for the fest, and the passion could be felt humming through the crowd. 

“Life is a circle, because I have been going to Milwaukee Metal Fests since ‘88,” reminisced Jeremy Wagner of Broken Hope. “The first time Broken Hope played Milwaukee Metal Fest was in 1992. After ‘92, we played maybe 5 of these in the 90’s, so for it to come back is just so freaking cool. It’s a lot of deja vu, old memories when I think about the times we came here and played in the past.”

“Jamey Jasta did an amazing job with pulling this together and resurrecting Milwaukee Metal Fest.” Wagner continued. “There are over 70 bands, the lineup is killer and there’s so many fans here. You have all the old fans from before and you have all these young fans saying “I never thought I would be at a Milwaukee Metal Fest. I would hear about it from my parents and it’s so cool to be here.” It’s really cool on all these multigenerational levels that Milwaukee Metal Fest is back.”

While there were obviously the big headliners like Lamb Of God, Biohazard and Anthrax, there was also a solid mix of newer bands, younger bands and bands that may have been missed when they first hit the scene. Old bands and new bands joined forces to bring an excellent weekend to the fans. “It’s something we would always hear about when it was gone, and now that it’s back it’s really cool to be asked to play the first one back,” Stated Frank Albanese, frontman of the band Hath. 

“It’s a little unreal to be playing. I still consider us local band status, and getting an opportunity like this feels like “You’re asking us, right? You’ve got the right Hath?” Haha!” laughed guitar player Pete Brown. 

“It does seem like this festival is bringing in a lot of up and coming bands, ourselves included, which I think is really smart,” elaborated Zach Ezrin. “Spreading the word and trying to grow live music in general and not just hiring the same headliners.”

“I’m hoping it brings a lot of the unknown older bands out,” shares Aaren Pantke of death/thrash outfit Molder. “The older lineups, there’s some things that kind of got missed back in the day. I hope that it does exactly what it did in the 90’s, that it creates a platform for underground metal to really shine.”

“I think this is going to set the platform for a lot of the mid-card bands,” predicts Mario Rubio of Thrown Into Exile. “Obviously, you have your headliners that are already well established, but I think the bands that are going to benefit the most are the md-card bands and the smaller ones too.”

“If you look back at the old photos of Milwaukee Metal Fest, and you see Children of Bodom playing in one of the small rooms, and you look at the whole bill, you never know who it’s going to be. Keeping your ears to the ground is really exciting because there’s a ton of talent this weekend,” continued Rubio. 

Keeping their ears to the ground is the entire ethos behind Milwaukee Metal Fest. The fest has always served as a platform for underground or overlooked bands to break through, sharing the same building as the larger headliners everyone is familiar with. At is peak, Milwaukee Metal Fest served as a tastemaker type festival, and affected metal culture in a profound way and, with its return, will continue to do so for new and old generations. 

“Hopefully it will affect it in a positive growth way,” shares Steve Blanco of Imperial Triumphant. “The live music scene is kind of strange these days, I’d love to see it blossom from here.”

“I think it will have a really big impact because there’s not that many US metal festivals.” elaborates Broken Hope’s Jeremy Wagner. “You have Maryland DeathFest, Full Terror Assault, and a brand new one, Hell On The Harbor. I think Milwaukee Metal Fest being back will have a huge impact on the fans as it’s a heavyweight for North American Metal festivals. Europe always had the biggest metal festivals, they’re always the sickest. The handful I mentioned are all great festivals, but there really aren’t that many to choose from. So Milwaukee Metal Fest being back gives the fans something to look forward to, annually.”

“And just by what I’ve seen that Jamey Jasta has done, it’s really serious. Again, a really awesome lineup, there’s so much diversity. It’s just amazing. I believe it’s going to have a big impact,” Wagner concludes.

“I think it’s really good for there to be a large show that will showcase who’s coming up, who are the future big bands.” adds Frank of Hath. “Judging from the lineup, they have their ear to the ground. Everyone here who is here for the larger bands, they’re going to hear these newer bands who are obviously very good and it helps everyone.”

“I feel like we’re entering a new resurgence of American metal festivals in a way that hasn’t really ever existed,” anticipates Undeath frontman Alex Jones. “The field was dominated by Maryland DeathFest and other festivals, but I think it’s great to have more players on the field. Rising tides lift all ships as they say. The more fests like this that come around, whether it’s a legacy fest like this, or this inspires someone to start their own metal fest, the more the merrier. And it works out for everybody because you won’t have to fly to Europe to see metal festivals all summer long. We’re entering a new era where we’re going to get some of that in the states.”

“There’s us and all of our peers, our friends in Phobophilic, Frozen Soul and Sanguisugabogg are all playing, and you’ve got massive bands like Lamb of God and Shadows Fall,” Jones concludes. 

Beyond the plethora of bands and genres, this was one of the most multigenerational festivals I have ever seen. From small children to people close to retirement, the demographics ran the gamut. 

“I’ve heard so many great things about Milwaukee Metal Fest and this is my first time playing it,” shared Diego Soria of Broken Hope. “A lot of old fans, new fans, including myself with it being my first time here. I’m really honored to be part of this resurrection and the history of Milwaukee Metal Fest.”

“I’ve seen a lot of youth here the past couple days, a lot of kids,” Evan Seidlitz, frontman of Thrown Into Exile, excitedly shared. “The first kid I met as soon as I came in on Saturday morning was like a 10 year old kid and he knew exactly what band I was in and he was really excited. He was right up front for our set.” Later, that very same kid was seen crowd surfing along with the rest of us during Machine Head’s set!

“I saw another young girl on her dad’s shoulders during Suicidal Tendencies, singing every word. It’s cool to see that the parents are bringing them out and getting the next generation into heavy music,” continued Evan. 

“I look around and 1 – this place has been packed for three days,” Megan Orvold-Scheider of Casket Robbery shared excitedly. “And 2 – it’s been really cool to see all of the ages and ranges of everything in here. You’ve got deathcore kids that are learning about metal and getting into modern metal and I think it’s going to get bigger and bigger.”

Beyond bringing together the generations of metalheads, this festival, in similar fashion to its European counterparts, brought together the genres. Rather than a segmented or focused festival, Jamey Jasta and his crew curated a massive cross-bill with a taste of everything for everyone. 

“I just hope to see a lot of bands I’ve never seen before and fall in love with them,” shared one fan, David, as he waited for Allegaeon to kick off the Knotfest stage. 

“I think it’s definitely going to bridge the gap between smaller bands, bigger bands, bands that wouldn’t necessarily play together because they’re a slightly different genre,” Pantke of Molder stated. 

“I think the accessibility of all these different bands is great,” added Casket Robbery’s frontwoman Megan. “Everyone just walks into a room and you find different bands. I saw a full room for The Black Dahlia Murder and at the same time there was a full room for Jungle Rot. It’s allowing everyone here to see something they might not think they’ll like, or something they wouldn’t normally go towards.”

“Just walking around the past few days has been one of our favorite things,” she continues. “Wandering into a room and catching a band we’ve never heard of and being like “Oh this band kicks ass.” It’s all about finding something really cool that you never thought you would.”

“It’s the type of festival that harkens to what they do in Europe,” elaborates Broken Hope’s Jeremy. “There’s so many different types of bands. You’ve got death metal bands, you have some black metal bands, doom, metal, sludge metal, and then you’ve got hardcore bands and that diversity attracts a lot of different kinds of people who are into heavy and extreme music.”

“It’s sort of like a melting pot of metal genres,” he concludes.

As the genre barriers continue to break down, it is fostering an overall healthier metal scene here in the US, one where we are all fans of heavy and extreme music, regardless of how we label it. Milwaukee Metal Fest, done the way it was this year and in the past, will only serve to bolster metal culture throughout North America. 

“I feel like the US doesn’t really have a festival culture for metal, at least not in the way Europe does,” stated Pete Brown of Hath. “”Any opportunity to do that, I welcome.”

“You see the same bands going on tour over and over, year after year, but you’re seeing bands like us, bands like Undeath, given a profile and stage time with a band like Anthrax or Lamb of God. You wouldn’t get that opportunity elsewhere.”

“I think people argue about genres way too often, and there’s a lot of crossover that people might not realize,” Hath frontman Frank added. “People might like a lot of other shit they might not normally check out, but when they go to this festival and there’s 70 bands, maybe they’ll think “Oh, I like this too.””

“It’s good for people to be exposed to other genres and groups of people that they normally wouldn’t.”

“Just this weekend there are a number of bands I wasn’t really aware of and that I hadn’t listened to, but we’re here so we’re gonna check them out,” Pete stated. “We had two days to kill before we were going to play, I wanted to watch some bands.”

“Growing up it felt like metal had a stick up its ass where it was “No you can only listen to this,” or “You have to listen to that,” or “If you’re a death metal guy, how dare you listen to hardcore,” and I feel like that’s gone away in so many ways, but it’s still getting broken down on the show level,” concluded Pete.

“The only way for us to continue the genre, metal as a whole, is to continue to push things together with cross bills,” declared Thrown Into Exile’s Rubio. “Whether it’s a death/black/thrash bill or a power metal band with a hardcore band, or whatever it might be. With festivals we can cross all these things and, at the end of the day, we all have a common thing, it’s all metal. The more we continue to unify the better. We have more in common than we have that’s different.”

“Especially younger bands coming up, they don’t really give a shit what genre they’re supposed to be, it just rules and they want to play it,” Dead To Fall’s John Hunt stated. “Which is the way it should have been in the first place! There was a little bit of that “we don’t want hardcore in our metal, we don’t want metal in our hardcore”, but I don’t really feel that now. It feels like we just like heavy parts. We can have breakdowns, we can have thrash riffs, whatever we want to put into a song, we can make it work.”

“It’s a METAL fest! It’s Milwaukee METAL fest!” Hunt proclaimed excitedly.

And check out other bands everyone certainly did. From Robb Flynn of Machine Head, to Brian Fair of Shadows Fall, to everyone interviewed here, band members regardless of how long they’d been in the game walked around the festival supporting their fellow metalheads. Brian Fair was caught crowd surfing during Terror, while Megan of Casket Robbery could often be found throwing down in the pit. And everyone was excited to share their predictions of who were going to be the “Headliners of Tomorrow.”

“Couch Slut. Local favorites, the coolest band,” shared Imperial Triumphant’s Ezrin. “They put on a wild show. Absolutely visceral and they have a new record coming out this year.”

“Plebeian Grandstand. We’d love to see them get more attention,” added Steve Blanco.

“Philadelphia/New York’s Cleric. Just because they’ve always been their own thing in the metal world and together they have a special chemistry that’s pretty rare in any kind of music so it would be great to see them get off the ground and get out there,” stated Kenny Grohowski of Imperial Triumphant. 

“One band that’s younger, newer, but harkens to the old school style of death metal is the band Sanguisugabog,” Jeremy Wagner added “They’re a great band. I see them as being one of the future headliners. Another band is Immolation. They’ve been around a long time, they’re at the top of their game, I could see Immolation come back with a new album and headline one of these stages. Another band I could think of that also harkens to the old school style of death metal whose not playing this year, but should next year, is 200 Stab Wounds.”

“Definitely Undeath. Sanguisugabogg too, and Frozen Soul. That’s the easy answer. They were playing 200 cap rooms 2 years ago and now they’re playing this. I can’t remember bands doing that growing up; going from just starting out to the main stage so quickly,” Hath’s Pete added. 

“#1 – Gatecreeper! That’s my #1 favorite band right now.” John Hunt excitedly proclaimed. “I moved to Europe and I cleaned out my black t-shirt library and I still brought two Gatecreeper shirts with me. Cephalic Carnage, I’m really excited to see them today. And After The Burial, I can see them being a headliner. After seeing their trajectory and seeing how they’ve built it over time, I could see them being Lamb of God massive in 10 years.”

“Frozen Soul blew me away. Sanguisugabogg, they’re just so fun to say and they’re so good. And Hath, they’re definitely a headliner of tomorrow,” Casket Robbery’s Megan continued, sharing the love.

“Blood Incantation, Frozen Soul, and they may not be a younger band, but they are new, I’d put Halo Effect in there,” Mario Rubio predicted.

“I will say Orbit Culture. They’re phenomenal. For bands that aren’t on the bill, 10x Orbit Culture,” Evan Seidlitz shouted out. 

All-in-all, this festival was one of excitement and passion. Fans and bands all came together in their shared love of metal and extreme music as a whole. “I think it’s cool for a legendary festival like this, and Jamey Jasta, to give smaller bands like Thrown Into Exile a chance to play here. I was blown away by the attendance to be honest. Seeing a few thousand people coming through the door, it’s really insane to see that many people show up, but it being the first year back, I can see why everyone is really excited,” added Seidlitz.

“I’m excited to see it grow because I think people are having a great time and having a lot of fun here,” stated Cory Scheider of Casket Robbery. 

“The whole weekend has been overwhelmingly incredible,” added Megan.

---