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By Kelley Simms Hatebreed photo by Cindy Frey
ne of the country ' s most nostalgic metal festivals was resurrected in 2023 and will be thankfully returning for a second straight year .
Initially founded in 1987 by Jack Koshick ( also the founder of March Metal Meltdown ), the Milwaukee Metal Fest has a storied history and was once an annual global metal music tradition up until 2004 , then returned for a one-off in 2007 .
In 2022 , Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta purchased the rights from Koshick and relaunched the festival the following year to worldwide fanfare . With the upcoming second year of the reformation , Milwaukee Metal Fest continues to grow into the powerhouse it was once known for . MMF takes over The Rave / Eagles Club in Milwaukee for three sweat-inducing days , beginning on Friday , May 17 ( including the pre-party on Thursday , May 16 ). This year ’ s festival has the most diverse lineup but also honors the spirit of the original fest . Some of the major highlights of the festival include thrash legends Testament — who have been the festival ’ s most requested band , two unique sets by Death to All covering two of Death ’ s most prominent albums , and a Friday night set from Swedish power metal legends Hammerfall . Some of the veteran bands who represent the old guard of the festival include Heathen , Deicide , Destruction , Atheist , and Possessed . Up-and-coming and newer bands , such as Paleface Swiss , Belushi
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Hatebreed ’ s
JAMEY JASTA Milwaukee Metal Fest , New Solo Music , The Band , and the Future
Speed Ball , Bleed From Within , and regional favorites from Madison , Casket Robbery , will also be performing . Unfortunately , Marduk and Metal Church had to cancel , but in their place will be Overkill and Doro , respectively . The eclectic mix of bands this year bridges the gap between the death , thrash , hardcore , classic , power metal and even the rock genres .
RESURRECTION
Jasta initially hatched the idea to reboot the festival from a conversation with The Black Dahlia Murder ’ s Trevor Strnad on Jasta ’ s popular podcast , The Jasta Show . The two discussed resurrecting the festival and curating it as a team . However , after the unfortunate passing of Strnad in 2022 , Jasta felt the urge to see their vision through and relaunch the festival . “ I thought it was a criminal injustice that the festival had been dormant since 2006 or so ,” Jasta explains during a recent Zoom chat . “ It crashed and burned kind of badly . I knew it was going to be an uphill battle to bring it back and get people ' s minds changed . I went to some of the people first who I knew who had gotten pretty burned ( by Koshick ), and that was Obituary , Deicide , and a couple of others . Those were the two big ones that I wanted to have play either the first year back or the second year back . Luckily , we were able to get Obituary for the first year .”
According to Jasta , Koshick always treated him and Hatebreed well . However , a lot of the bands Jasta was speaking to refused to play the rebooted festival if Koshick was involved in any way . “ Jack has been nothing but cool through this whole process of handing over all the assets and the domains ,” Jasta confesses . “ I also got March Metal Meltdown from him in the deal . We ' re doing a documentary , and Jack ' s going to be heavily featured in the documentary . I appreciate his candor and his willingness to say , ‘ Hey look , I took a big gamble and I lost , and unfortunately I burned some bridges .’ But for the most part , we ' ve been able to heal a lot of that stuff . Not necessarily with the Rave ; obviously , they don ' t associate with Jack in any way .”
With over 60 bands on three stages — indoors and outdoors — the festival has a lot to offer to metalheads , young and old . Jasta successfully has the 2023 fest under his belt , but planning and curating set lists , schedules and travel itineraries are his least favorite part of organizing the festival . “ That was the worst part of it ,” Jasta exclaims with a chuckle . “ That ' s the thing that keeps me up at night and gives me anxiety . We ' re still tweaking it . This year we had way less complaints about the lineup . I think the complaint was that there were all of us , mostly USA bands that people had seen already last year , at least people who were traveling . But I think not having as many clashes was important . Right now , we still have a five or 10-minute overlap here and there . We still might tweak it a little bit to try to
Hatebreed - L to R : Matt Byrne , Frank Novinec , Jamey Jasta , Wayne Lozinak , Chris Beattie
get rid of some overlap , but we are giving the bands longer sets this time around , so that also plays into it .”
HEADLINERS
With this year ’ s headliners , Jasta took a bit of a different approach from previous Milwaukee Metal Fests by injecting it with some European power metal from Blind Guardian on Friday , May 17 , oddball death / thrash cult favorites Mr . Bungle on Saturday , May 18 , and Russian deathcore champions Slaughter To Prevail closing out Sunday , May 19 . “ My thinking was , let ' s branch out and let ' s do a different style of metal ,” Jasta explains . “ Mr . Bungle absolutely crushed at Riot Fest , and Blind Guardian hasn ' t been in the States in a while . And those two you would never expect to see on Milwaukee Metal Fest . So I thought , the rest of the bill can be all the classics and all the bands that you ' ve seen at Milwaukee Metal Fest before like Autopsy , Possessed , Overkill and Testament . These are all Milwaukee Metal Fest alumni . But the headliners hopefully bring somebody different who will maybe then discover Possessed or Eternal Champion . It was a big deal for us to get Slaughtered To Prevail and Avatar , especially with them both selling out shows everywhere all over the country . I think bands like that could be the future headliners of a lot of different festivals in the States . So why not give them the chance ?”
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