After an eight year absence, Mayhem Festival came roaring back to Glen Helen Amphitheater Saturday, with a fresh lineup of bands, and damn…. It was great to have it back.
San Bernardino has been a staple of Mayhem since the beginning, having been the third date back in 2008, and the second date of the tour in 2015… the last year of the fest until this past weekend. I have photographed many of the past year’s shows, and really hope this returns as a regular thing. They apparently plan to resurrect Mayhem as a full tour next year, and the fact that they chose Glen Helen as the only date this year says a lot about what a great venue we have here in the I.E.
In all honesty, when they announced this year’s lineup I was a little surprised. This iconic fest had hosted some of the hottest bands in history over the years, like Slipknot, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Underoath, Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Bullet for My Valentine, Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Megadeth, Anthrax, and trust me… I could keep going. So when I saw Bad Omens in the final spot as the headliner, along with Parkway Drive, Architects, and Jinjer on the Main Stage, I wondered if this could live up to the history.
The fresh lineup of bands drew a crowd of die hard fans, and no question they loved seeing these bands live, under a beautiful blue So Cal sky. With 21 bands, I can’t talk about every one here, but there is a full gallery of almost 200 photos below, and I do want to call out some of what I thought were the highlight performances.
First, let me talk about the headliner, Bad Omens… unfortunately, media were not allowed to photograph them, or Poppy, so I won’t be covering those two here. The House photographer and festival photographers were allowed to shoot, but not the press. I find it odd to have a headliner that doesn’t allow media photographers on the first year back, but I have photos of all of the other bands at the end.
Seven Hours After Violet
The biggest treat for me was seeing Seven Hours After Violet, the new project with System Of A Down’s bassist Shavo Odadjian. This was such a great performance.
Vocalist Taylor Barber is a powerhouse, and the rest of the band is fantastic. We have Michael Montoya on guitar, Josh Johnson on drums, Shavo on bass, and the surprise to me was seeing that American Idol’s Alejandro Aranda is on guitar and backing vocals.
I could talk about this band all day, but let’s just say that you need to see them live. So damn good.
Jinjer
The first time I saw and photographed Jinjer was at Fivepoint Amp last year. I had been told to watch out for this Ukrainian metalcore band, fronted by Tatiana Shmayluk, and wow. I thought they were great back then, but Saturday they took it to another level. This is one of those bands that has it all. A unique sound and delivery, and stage presence like few others. Jinjer is another highly recommended act to follow.
Parkway Drive
Parkway Drive is another band I first photographed at Fivepoint Amp, and while they were already huge overseas that night just felt like we were being treated to seeing a band play a venue smaller than their talent. It was awesome to see them Saturday in the second spot at Mayhem. So well deserved. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to photo the whole set this time around, so no fire pics like last year. If you get to see them live you’ll see what I mean when I say their production is one of the best out there.
Suicide Silence
This was special. Suicide Silence was one of the artists on the original 2008 Mayhem tour, and they are always one of the best performances of any show. Back then fans were treated to the amazing vocals of the late Mitch Lucker, but Hernan “Eddie” Hermida has been with the band since 2013, and trust me when I say that he brings a passion and sincerity to the stage few people have. Honestly, Suicide Silence may be one of the best live performance bands touring today.
Hanabie
THIS WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL. Hanabie is a Japanese nu metalcore band from Tokyo, and I had no idea what I was in for. They completely blew me away. This band was formed back in 2015, so how the hell have I not seen or at least heard of them before? Vocalist Yukina came out on stage waving an American flag, but at the end of the set when someone from the crowd threw a Japanese flag on stage you could see the joy on the band’s faces. I can’t wait to see this band again.
Darkest Hour
For the jump of the day I have to go with Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum. Dude can fly!
Wrapping It Up
For future shows I do hope there is less overlap of the three stages. By the end of the day both the side stages were running about 20 min late, and that meant that when Parkway Drive took the stage August Burns Red was still playing. That’s two bands I don’t want to miss, but there was still a huge crowd at the ABR set when PWD went on. I couldn’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to have all of that ABR crowd at the main stage for the top acts. That said, all-in-all this was a great day of music in the foothills of San Bernardino.
As usual, there is a gallery with many more photos below, and if you were at the show I’d love to hear your thoughts. Follow me online at:
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~ Razz
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