While a “REAL” metal fest would be a great idea, unfortunately America is currently in a downward trend in the realm of heavy music. The reason we had so many massive hard-rock and metal tours prior to 9/11 was because heavy music was riding the trend caused by Rick Rubin’s rap metal and the rise of other mainstream innovators like Slipknot. Right now though, with the exception of the cookie cutter/Cookie Monster Victory Record screamo crap, we don’t have any innovators for which to have on another metal fest. Everybody who is metal today is either doing everything that has already been done for the last 20 years or falling victim of this unsuccessful unintelligable screaming trend. Heck, Warcon records just released the Japanese band Dir En Grey’s “Withering to Death” CD in America because they realize if kids are going to listen to the garbled Cookie Monster screaming of Atreyu, what’s to say these same kids wouldn’t enjoy a kickass band screaming in another language.
Don’t get me wrong, we have the potetial to get metal back in the limelight and that hip-hop crap off MTV, but we need something accessible to the public to gain more followers and make metal cool again. That’s EXACTLY what country music did by going rocker pop. Big and Rich did for country what Limp Bizkit did for rap and metal. Guitarists are finally relearning the art of the solo, now we just need good vocalists, a sellable schtick , and an accessibility factor to the other demographics (women, older people) who would help promote this wave further. Selling out, maybe. But even FDR realized that you need to prime the pump to get money and interest flowing in the right direction again. Bottomline, we need to make metal sexy again.
Trust me, I too remember the Family Values and the Locobazooka tours, but with the recent crop of music and inability of record labels to give any time, effort, or money to the dire situation, we really don’t have a product to ligitamately put out for touring purposes.
I hope that helped answer your question.
