08/03/2026
Well, Metal Massacre XV: The Ides of Massacre was another amazing weekend of music, fundraising, and shenanigans.
I want to start by emphasizing that we are a community. We learned last week that we lost an amazing musician, a great friend to so many in the scene, and an overall awesome human being, Michael J. Scutella. He was missed on stage for the Requiem For Oblivion set and supporting his brother James Scutella and the rest of the scene throughout the weekend. The uploaded picture was taken during the memorial that we set up during the RFO set. It captures what we mean when we say we are a community.
Next, I want to thank my wife, Kris Denham. Issues occurred last year that made us realize we needed to make some changes to protect the bands, fans, and ourselves. She formalized much of the junk that has been in my head for years and pushed me to help her develop policies to accomplish all three of those goals. Having Jim N I Metal Massacre transition from "my" biggest accomplishment to "our" biggest accomplishment hits on a different level.
I want to thank all 28 bands that took the stage this weekend, and the two that submitted a playlist so we could remember Mike. It would take me all day to tag all of the talented and awesome musicians that played this year.
A huge shoutout goes to the Metal Massacre volunteer crew! For those of you who do not know, we meet monthly throughout the year to ensure the festival runs as smoothly as possible. We started delegating this year and could not have had such a successful weekend without our team leads: Melissa Nordin, Roger Davis, Hannah Marie, and Sarah Mascaro.
I hope all our pie in the face volunteers were able to get a nice hot shower and take pride in raising so much money for charity. I have never seen Zachary Krahe's hair look so majestic.
Lastly, as we continue to grow and modernize Jim N I Metal Massacre we know there will always be people who are not happy with the changes required to protect ourselves, the bands, and the fans. While most of the complaints have come from the individuals you see complaining about everything from venues, bands, and their miserable lives regularly, we do take all positive and negative feedback to heart, analyze it, and try to make the best decisions to keep the festival going.
At the end of the day, we know we will never please everyone, but watching hundreds of people having a complete blast this weekend and then reading all of the posts and personal messages sent to us about how awesome this year's festival was for them makes Kris and I want to push that much harder to make next year's festival bigger and better.
