It may be only a matter of weeks since Soundwave 2014 wrapped up another year of the annual hard and heavy music festival but already some clues for next year’s lineup have emerged.

It might seem pretty soon to begin speculating on the sequel to this year’s lineup – a 90+ strong bill featuring the likes of Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Rob Zombie, Mastodon, and GWAR (RIP Oderus Ungurus) – but not when many of the rumours are being fuelled by Soundwave’s very own promoter AJ Maddah.

In between discussing soccer and politics, the fertile grounds of the Soundwave boss’s twitter feed have thrown up plenty of potential bands and artists as lineup candidates, while Maddah revealed in a tweet to a fan that the “lineup is coming along quite rapidly” for the 2015 “East Coast only” event.

Following shortly after detailing the shortfall in attendance that led to the cancellation of the Perth Soundwave leg earlier this month, Maddah kickstarted lineup rumours after telling an enthusiastic fan who’d put together a fake Soundwave 2015 lineup that they had “got a few of them right.”

The mock lineup (view in full at bottom) fantasised AC/DC, Rammstein, and Foo Fighters as the festival’s headliners. We can already definitely rule out the latter Dave Grohl-fronted rockers, a fan tweeted the promoter asking if there was a “sneaky chance” the Foos would play Soundwave. Maddah’s reply? “doubt it,” explaining to another inquiry, “I’m not Foos promoter [in Australia],” as Music Feeds points out.

The same logic also rules out Swedish metal band Sabaton, Maddah explaining: “they are another Australian promoter’s artist. As such I wont make the approach to them as that would be wrong.”

But another potential Soundwave 2015 headliner has emerged in the form of Disturbed. Though the American heavy metal act have been on official hiatus since 2011, Maddah has been chasing them for a comeback Australian tour since. Next year is no exception, with Maddah saying he’s keen to get the conversation started once more.

Based on various tweets from the promoter, other acts that Maddah has been chasing – or at least welcome to hosting at Soundwave – include Rise Against, Lacuna Coil, Anvil, Fear Factory, Social Distortion, Papa Roach, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Opeth, and Lamb Of God. A well as Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, and Dethklok, Maddah stating he’d “be happy to have any/all of them.”

Stone Temple Pilots, who pulled out of Soundwave 2014 owing to recording commitments, could “maybe” return for Soundwave 2015 according to Maddah. The Chester Bennington-fronted STP were one of several bands that cancelled on the festival ahead of its kick-off (namely, Megadeth, Newsted, Whitechapel, Desaparecidos, Hardcore Superstar, and Sevendust).

The logistical issues with this year’s Soundwave – from cancellations, to revisions to “unacceptable” timetables, bands’ “pissing contests“, and ongoing battles with Perth’s Claremont Council – led Maddah to describe the event as “a total nightmare.”

This year also marked Soundwave’s last visit to Western Australia, Maddah revealing, “one more year like this one in Perth and there would be no SW anywhere. Sorry. Perth is too expensive & not enough ticket sales.”

Most recently the promoter tweeted he “will never set foot in Perth again.” The silver lining of scrapping Perth as the event scales back to “East Coast only”, is that ticket prices will likely be reduced (by approximately $20) for patrons in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide.

Despite the troubles, in the eyes of its attendees Soundwave 2014 contained plenty of memorable moments and if Maddah can lock in the some of the bands he’s already tossing about online, then Soundwave 2015 will be just as memorable. Watch this space.

Soundwave 2014 Coverage

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

Mock Soundwave 2015 Lineup Tweet:

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