The Mayhem Festival aims to bring the best of what might be described as the Swedish glam metal scene- ranging from sleaze to melodic rock- to these shores. After a trio of shows last year with a triple headline of Crazy Lixx, Crashdiet and the Cruel Intentions, the organisers were back for a more ambitious second helping. Initially there were two shows over the weekend, but when London sales proved unexpectedly poor, the difficult decision was taken to pull that show and consolidate on a single gig in Nottingham.

Nothing was going to stop me making the trip though as the two headline acts H.E.A.T and Eclipse have been favourites over a near 20 year period – by coincidence a friend recently challenged me to list my top 10 Swedish bands, and both made the top five.

Instead of Rock City or one of Nottingham’s established music venues, the festival was at The Nest, a barn type building adjacent to Notts County Football Club. Now the Magpies have no known musical association other than the misheard lyric that opens a Glen Campbell classic (‘I am a linesman for Notts County….’) but it proved an ideally sized venue with a good layout, bench seating behind a standing area, with bars and merch stalls further back and a generous outside yard including food vendors.

The one downside was that, not being a specialist music venue, there were a few sound issues and as a result we were 40 minutes late when opening act Wasted Wizards hit the stage. Singer and guitarist Leo and Sam are the sons of Eclipse mainman Erik Martensson, who was proudly watching on, though imagining his youthful face as the father of adult children took a leap of faith!

This was their first ever appearance outside of Sweden and they showed a lot of youthful and almost puppyish energy, which I am sure will be honed with time. Opening with ‘My Oh My’, their image was less glam than most of the bands that followed them and a number of songs including ‘The Story Goes’ had a punky rawness to them. They closed a promising set with ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’ and ‘Wannabe Rock Star’, getting the festival off to a good start.

Unfortunately to make up time and preserve the promised set times for the two main acts most of the supporting cast had their sets trimmed slightly starting with Smoking Snakes. They were return visitors from last year and as I remembered then, singer and rhythm guitarist Brett Martin was a dead ringer vocally for Blackie Lawless (and visually for ex Europe guitarist Kee Marcello).

After a bit of an average opener in ‘Angels Calling’, I was impressed with the band’s tightness and how the quality of songwriting complemented those gravel vocals on the likes of ‘Excited’, ‘Soul Survivors’, ‘Run For Your Life’ and ‘Lady Luck’. After ‘There Is No Tomorrow’, a short and sweet set ended with its catchiest number ‘Rocking to the Morning Light’ sparking an audience singalong.

With some very fast changeovers next up were Trench Dogs, new to me but regulars here at glam and sleaze festivals. Visually and musically they reminded of the trashy glam bands that dominated the London rock scene in the second half of the eighties (as chronicled in Seb Hunter’s ‘Hell Bent For Leather’) with several from central casting including the peroxide blonde bassist, the artful dodger-like guitarist and singer Andy Hekkandi with his teased hair – as well as an accent that discombobulatingly was his native Australian with a touch of English, rather than the Scandinavian one I was expecting.

They were not particularly my scene but one of their songs ‘Colourful’ was somewhat apt and I found myself enjoying the likes of ‘A Little Overdressed’, a new song ‘Churchbells’ and ‘The Gin Beat’. The pace got faster for the last song ‘Homesick Parade’, ticking the best boxes of the genre with a rock’n’roll beat, punk attitude and expletive-laden insults.

Sporting a name that it is probably best not to google if your social media history is being checked, Suicide Bombers were somewhere between the previous two acts, glammy but on the evidence of openers ‘Dynamite Playboys’, ‘Let’s Rock’n’Roll’ and ‘Murder Couture’ with a harder musical crunch than the Trench Dogs.

Frontman Chris Damien Doll seemed quite the character in his polka dot shirt and German military style red peaked cap. ‘Tonight Belongs to Us’ was clearly a crowd favourite judging from the reaction, as was ‘So Bad’. ‘Bladerunner (Tokyo Nights)’ with the crowd chanting their ‘oh-oh’s ended a full-on uncompromising set.

Toxic Rose were another band returning from last year, bringing a darker and heavier image with their Manowar like studded leather outfits including in the case of singer Andy Lipstixx that now forgotten accessory, the codpiece. Without doubt they were the heaviest band of the day and one of the most musically accomplished, yet songs like ‘Reckless Society’ and ‘World of Confusion’, with their big choruses, also showed a melodic sensibility.

‘In For the Kill’ was quite simply a great slice of metal, then as ‘Set Me Free’ closed a truncated set, came a great Simmons-inspired moment as Andy picked up a skull-shaped chalice and drank ‘blood’ from it which spilled all over his face and into the front rows of the audience.

Next up was one final band that were new to me in Confess, though blonde singer John Elliot also does double duty with one of last year’s headliners Crashdiet. Their logo looked a little ‘black metal’ for a festival like this, and the music was heavier than expected, with an aggressive and yet still melodic approach reminding me a little of Skid Row notably on a fine opening new song ‘Colorvision’ with some twin lead guitars.

‘Metalmorphosis’ even had something of a Maiden-like gallop to it, while ‘The Warriors’ and ‘Strange Kind of Affection’ combined a heavy approach with participatory ‘heys’ and ‘who-oahs’ respectively. ‘Haunting You’ veered from heavy to softer passages amid more arm waving, while the closers ‘Wicked Temptations’ and ‘Silvermalen’ got an equally good reaction from a band clearly with a big following: you could now count me among that number.

Now for the odd band out in the shape of a British act, but one in South of Salem who thoroughly deserve their place on the bill, having worked their way up through the clubs to build a substantial following, many of whom were here today. They have a strikingly macabre visual image with a backdrop of the band logo above what looked like a particularly gothic cemetery.

There have recently been a number of changes in the band and the two (temporary?) guitarists on show today, a bearded biker type and a younger one sporting a blonde feather cut may not quite have got the memo about image, but were very impressive players, notably with their harmony guitars on opener ‘Vultures’.

Fans had their arms waving to ‘Static’ and their hands in the air to ‘Let Us Prey’ (sic). Singer Joey Draper never stops working the crowd and the old grunts and growls are now all but absent as the band have moved closer to a mainstream sound, a progression which personally has made me warm to them after getting off to a slow start.

‘Made to Be Mine’, ‘Pretty Little Nightmare’ and ‘Death of the Party’ were all thoroughly enjoyable and well written songs. Again they had to trim their set, but it ended in fine style with ‘Jet Black Eyes’ with its ‘monsters under the bed’ chorus and ‘Cold Day in Hell’, perhaps their signature song which always reminds me of WASP’s ‘Wild Child’. A very fine set which saw them go toe to toe with the Scandinavians on an even keel.

By now we had caught up on time only for some technical gremlins to delay Eclipse by about 15 minutes, which occasionally recurred during their set. A straw poll of t-shirts suggested more fans were there for them than any other act, and the four-piece opened in uncompromising fashion with ‘Roses on Your Grave’ and the less impressive ‘All I Want’.

‘Things We Love’ saw singer Erik Martensson and guitarist Magnus Henriksen wielding their guitars in the air in synchronised fashion on a solo passage which sounded like a celtic jig, and the heavy ‘Twilight’ ended with a snatch of Beethoven’s ninth (or to us rockers Rainbow’s ‘Difficult to Cure’).

The band seemed tighter than ever as former Hardcore Superstar drummer Adde Andreasson seemed to give the music an added hardness, working in tandem with bassist Victor Crusner who won the best dressed award of the festival, looking like a 19^th century nobleman.

It was almost an Eclipse greatest hits with hard hitting favourites such as ‘Bleed and Scream’ and ‘The Downfall of Eden’ while even the ballad ‘Hurt’ was made to sound huge and intense and ‘Blood Enemies’ again continued the heavy celtic theme, leading me to muse this was where Thin Lizzy might have ended up if they had continued with John Sykes.

Erik’s songwriting has become progressively lean and mean over the years and ‘Saturday Night’ was a case in point, fists waving as people rocked out then ‘Black Rain’ took them back into heavier territory with some almost Malmsteen like soloing from Magnus. ‘Runaways’ was another to get a big crowd reception, at which point the band left Erik to his own devices with part of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ leading into the appropriately entitled ‘Anthem’ with its ‘carry on forever’ chorus, the band returning for the second half of the song.

Talking of anthems, there could only be one song to finish an exemplary set in ‘Viva La Victoria’, with a rhythm and chorus made for bouncing in the air, and when the Wasted Wizards came on stage to join the band in doing likewise, that might just have been my favourite moment of the whole festival.

Some invariably bale out towards the end of a tiring day at festivals but there was little drop off as people awaited the other headliner H.E.A.T. They may still look youthful but it’s now a full 18 years since their debut album came out.

Arriving to a long intro tape, with my attention distracted by the fact that long-time drummer Don Crash was absent- though Erik Modin from Wildness fitted in seamlessly- they opened with ‘Disaster’ from the most recent ‘Welcome to the Future’ album. It led into a series of instant anthems with massive hooks in ‘Rock Your Body’, ‘Dangerous Ground’, one of many to have a video backdrop, and ‘Hollywood’.

Like Eclipse, they have over the last three albums stripped their writing style down to its bare essentials and the big riffs of ‘Rise’ impressed and suited singer Kenny Leckremo, even if ‘Nationwide’ was ordinary in comparison.

The long-maned singer has fully settled back into his second spell with the band after initially looking like he was trying too hard when he returned, and is a commanding frontman- with the comfort that as he works the crowd the likes of bassist Jimmy Jay and keyboardist Jonah Tee do some heavy lifting with their backing vocals.

He was also modest enough to pay tribute to HEAT’s other singer Erik Gronwall, who many miss (and a possible future Mayhem headliner now his solo album has been released?). However his tour de force on the ballad ‘Cry’ showed that Kenny is second to none as a technical singer.

After the usual fun audience participation of ‘Beg Beg Beg’, with an interpolation of ‘War Pigs’, and ‘Back to the Rhythm’, another good example of that simple but anthemic songwriting approach, there was a brilliant moment when a rowdy section of the crowd filled a brief silence by bursting into ‘100 Miles’ and despite it not being on the setlist, it forced the band into an improvised semi-acoustic version.

It was back to the schedule with the big bouncy chorus of ‘Running To You’ and though few songs remain from the Erik Gronwall era, an exception must be made for ‘Living On the Run’, still as thrilling as it was 14 years ago.

Guitarist Dave Dalone, who seemed to have de-glammed a little, particularly shone on ‘One By One’ and a set that had flown by came to an end with a final anthem with big hooks in ‘A Shot at Redemption’, though not before Kenny showed great consideration, becoming aware someone had been taken ill in the crowd, unsurprisingly in the sauna-like atmosphere at the front, and wanted to check they were being treated before starting the song.

It had been a highly successful festival despite the teething troubles, and walking back to our hotels in town, the consensus from a group of gig buddies, all festival veterans, was a very favourable one. We were already speculating what top names could reasonably be booked that would eclipse (pardon the pun) this year’s excellent line up.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

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Power Plays w/c 11 May 2026

BREITLER Sentinel (El Puerto Records)
FIRE IN HER EYES Too Late To Change (indie)
KING FALCON Wait (indie)
BEAUTIFUL SKELETONS Come What May (indie)
KARIN PARK Shadow (Size Records)
HARSH Don’t Mess With Me (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 11 May 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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