15th Annual Hayward Metal Fest
10 hours ago
2 min read
Memorial Park Amphitheater
Hayward, CA
September 12, 2026
Bleeding Priest covered this annual event last year, and with 2 Hectic Records / Bleeding Priest Records bands, Blind Illusion and Frolic, both on the bill this year, I figured I should check it out. Hayward isn’t a place I’ve spent much time, but it turned out to be pretty easy to get to in a car, just across the San Mateo - Hayward bridge on Highway 92. Who knew?
The park has a nice large band shell built into a hillside, a good setup for outdoor sound, and there was already a crowd of a couple hundred people there when I arrived. Unfortunately I missed a couple of the openers, but got there in time to see the last 3 bands.
Cultural Warfare had just hit the stage when I arrived, a good thrash band with heavier style vocals. I’ve seen them before, always a good time. Their cover of the S.O.D. classic “March of the S.O.D. / Sgt D” was a set highlight.
The whole event was sponsored and put on by Music Depot, a music store in Hayward. I’ve never been, but they gave away a ton of instruments in a raffle, including 4 or 5 guitars.
Very cool how generous they were with the community, seems like it must be a great place to buy instruments and take lessons. The MC had an annoying habit of slowly reading parts of the raffle numbers which created a bit of confusion as to who won, but you couldn’t argue with the giveaways.
Frolic was in the support slot, and apparently they have been playing this fest for many years, moving up the lineup order over time. I believe Edgar the singer / guitarist grew up in Hayward, so he goes back aways with the fest and Music Depot.
Frolic sounded great as always, they had a new guitarist Erik @shreddrick_2.0 filling in on second guitar. It was a fairly short set, perhaps because of the fill in they did not play many of the more complex tunes from their recent Hectic Records / Bleeding Priest Records release Legacies of Cybernetica, but they did include covers of both Exodus’ “Lesson in Violence” and Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” in the set.
Blind Illusion was the headliner, and put on quite a show, playing at least 13 songs over nearly an hour and a half set. They played songs from every era of the band, from 1988’s The Sane Asylum to 2022’s Wrath of the Gods to the likely 2027 record Crushing the Universe. Everything except the early demos with David White, which are on Blind Illusion’s forthcoming live album Stage Fright: Live at the UC Theatre coming out on Hectic Records / Bleeding Priest Records next month.
I think it was the best time I’ve seen Blind Illusion, as they don’t often get a chance to play such an extended set. It was a great Saturday afternoon in the park at Hayward Metal Fest!
–Hectic
