Milwaukee Metal Fest Day 2 (Saturday June 6, 2026)

 On this National Slayer Day of June 6th, WeHeartMusic started on the Sumerian Records Stage, catching the last few songs of Prong then seeing Macabre, who we had also seen at the Milwaukee Metalfest 2025.  This year they started their set with Zodiac and it seemed like every song had some kind of flair to it, like someone dressed in costume.  I did not know that Slayer had a day devoted to them until it was brought up during the podcast the day before.  Apparently people have been celebrating this day since 6/6/06 making this the 20th anniversary.  

Since this festival has a bit of a history as well, I hear from other fans all the time that they went 20 years ago.  Similarly, several of the bands on stage have said the same thing.  Last night’s Acid Bath had stated they were here the same year that Slayer was (1996) and that Wisconsin “hated” them.  We’re pretty sure that was in jest, they were rising stars back then.  Same with Death Angel, they played at the very first festival in 1987, when the drummer was just 14 years old, coming all the way from San Francisco.  

On this Saturday though, we also caught Havoc on the Blue Grape Music Stage, then back to Sumerian for Nails, Power Trip and Killswitch Engage. On the BLK II BLK/Copycat stage we also saw Napalm Death and Nachtmystum.  Bringing it back to the comaderie mentioned yesterday, Napalm Death is a self proclaimed noise band from Birmingham, England.  Their set was a certain fan’s favorite show due to about 20 people from the pit coming together to help out a fan close to the stage whose walker was bent, banding together to fix it.  The band actually did ask that the stage divers stop for a second because that “sh** is expensive.”  In case someone in the crowd was wondering, we did see the fan with a new walker the next day.

There has been some discussion regarding the new lead singer Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage.  I had no problem with the vocals at all and I think his personality really shines through, I wasn’t sure what he was running over but loomed above the drumset, all over the stage.  Notable song played was Broken Glass, a song about surviving abuse.  Although this was their first time playing this festival, their set included a wide range of songs from their 20 years as a band.  They also did a cover of Dio’s Holy Diver.

 

Macabre

Havok

Nails

Power Trip

Napalm Death (small stage)

Nachtmystium

Killswitch Engage