Summer Slaughter Tour Lashes Out Over Negative Reaction to Lineup

After a pretty negative reaction to their lineup announcement, Summer Slaughter's social media lashed out at commenters and publications alike.

Yesterday, the long-running Summer Slaughter Tour announced its much anticipated return after five years of dormancy. The headliners were announced to be Veil of Maya and Brand of Sacrifice , as well as support from Gideon, Left to Suffer, Ten56, Tallah, Cabal and Brat.

Fans' reaction to the announcement was mostly negative, with some pointing out the lack of death metal bands on the lineup, a genre that has long been a staple of the tour in years past. "RIP Summer Slaughter for the OGs," reads the most liked comment on the page's announcement.

Summer Slaughter Tour Leaves Angry Comments on MetalSucks Post

MetalSucks echoed fans' reactions to the festival, publishing an article headlined "First Batch of Summer Slaughter Tour Bands Announced Don’t Hold a Candle to Years Past."

The article doesn't take a dig at any of the bands playing, but writer Hesher Keenan points out the caliber of bands that have played before. "Maybe it was hyped up too much or maybe I’m just too old to appreciate the bands that were announced, but when you consider past lineups had bands like Morbid Angel, Dying Fetus, Goatwhore, and Cattle Decapitation, it’s pretty obvious that they’re going in a different direction with this this year’s tour."

After MetalSucks posted to Instagram, the Summer Slaughter tour shot back, criticizing the publication: "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."

Readers shot back, asking why they responded so negatively, to which the account replied "nah salty over them trying to cancel the founder of the tour cuz he said we shouldn't have to take annual booster shots and reposted woody harrelson's SNL skit."

The comment references Sumerian Records' founder Ash Avildsen's much-criticized tweets from last year, where they raged against the FDA's COVID vaccine suggestions unprompted. The replies have since been deleted, but you can see them screenshotted below.

Other deleted comments replying directly to other comments, which were observed by Loudwire, saw Summer Slaughter defending its lineup and what conversations were pursued with other bands who don't appear on the 2024 lineup.

Previous Summer Slaughter Tour Lineups

Since starting in 2007, Summer Slaughter has typically well-represented multiple facets of heavy music, booking deathcore, metalcore and death metal acts all on one tour. Past bands have included The Black Dahlia Murder, Arch Enemy, Dying Fetus and many other headline-worthy bands.

See the tour's comments below, as well as the full lineup. How do you think the tour stacks up?