Following on from last week’s lineup ‘leak’, another band has been unofficially confirmed for Soundwave 2015.

Once again, the news would have been spotted by anyone keeping close tabs on the twitter feed of Soundwave boss AJ Maddah.

The festival promoter recently quizzed Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares about playing next year’s edition of the hard and heavy festival, to which the founding member and guitarist gave an overwhelmingly positive response.


Fear Factory were in Australia last year for a July tour presented by Soundwave that saw the American industrial metal band performing their landmark 1995 album Demanufacture live and in full. Our Tone Deaf reviewer at Fear Factory’s Palace show called the performance “utterly electric on both a sonic and spiritual level.”

Fear Factory are the second band named by Maddah to be a part of the Soundwave 2015 lineup. The first was Melbourne prog-metal band Ne Obliviscaris, who were “welcomed” to the bill by Maddah after the six-piece tweeted the promoter about being part of the festival last week. 

The first official lineup announcement is expected to drop this August, according to Maddah, who has previously sated the bill “is coming along quite rapidly” with rumours already heating up for next year’s edition of the hard and heavy event. Some band names tossed about already include Disturbed, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Social Distortion, Papa Roach, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Opeth, Lamb Of God, and many more.

The Soundwave boss also issued a “SUPER IMPORTANT” announcement to fans on Friday via a pair of tweets urging patrons to hold off booking flights and accommodation in anticipation as organisers were looking to changing the tour itinerary for the event. The possible changes include a venue and date re-shuffle that would put Adelaide at the start of the tour (to avoid clashes with the Clipsal 500 race) and a new space for Sydney’s event.


Soundwave already had issues in Adelaide earlier this year after the event was fined $10,000 over volume breaches by local council, with Maddah hinting that the festival may not return to the SA capital if it was blocked from using the Bonython Park site for next year’s “East Coast only” edition after the bidding farewell to the Perth leg this year.

The decision to scrub the Perth Soundwave “devastated” Maddah even as he declared “[I] will never set foot in Perth again.” Since then, he’s confirmed that the leg drew “around 20K (punters) meaning Perth leg lost around $2M.” The silver lining for the Perth loss is it means a reduction in ticket prices (by roughly $20) for patrons in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide.

In related news, Maddah has hinted he may be losing another major Aussie festival from his folio, indicating earlier this week that the Vans Warped Tour was “looking unlikely for this year” following what was an “attendance disaster” for the punk and hardcore festival in Coffs Harbour and Canberra last December.  Since then however, some extra tweets this week makes Maddah sound more optimistic about the festivals’ future, replying to one fan asking “will next week be a defnite yah or nah on Warped?” with a blank ‘Yes‘.

Soundwave 2014 Coverage

Brisbane: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Sydney: PHOTOS
Melbourne: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Adelaide: PHOTOS

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