eddie: man fuck that stage me: lets tell um eddie: i dunno man me: fuck that we did it last year! *turns around and starts scream EVERYONE...FUCK THAT STAGE
the other stage was just so gay...every time I see a kid in a silverstar shirt I wan to tell them how awful they should feel about themselves
wish ya'll would have been at the auburn hills mall the next day...was yelling slayer at all the people in mayhem shirts...most responded with..uhhh that was last year...fail...slayer is every year
the other stage was just so gay...every time I see a kid in a silverstar shirt I wan to tell them how awful they should feel about themselves
wish ya'll would have been at the auburn hills mall the next day...was yelling slayer at all the people in mayhem shirts...most responded with..uhhh that was last year...fail...slayer is every year
I handed the camera to my friend, and he records some dudes face. Anyway since it was only 15 seconds, I figured I'd upload it. Mr. Will Kriss makes an appearance.
My day at Mayhem Fest 2010 began at about 1:30, when I arrived with my friends. It quickly became evident that this show was sold out, as the line stretched from one entrance of DTE across two parking lots and nearly to the lawn where the cars furthest from the venue park. Much to my surprise, the line moved relatively quick, and eventually security led us to the west entrance on the far side of the venue, where the wait was much, much shorter. I was in the venue by 2 pm, which was an improvement for me over last year's Mayhem. After this, my group split in half and I stopped by the merch booth located in close proximity to the entrance. I picked up a Mayhem 2010 shirt with the carnival mascot on it and a Rob Zombie shirt. With the shirt quota taken care of, I headed across the venue to the east parking lot, where the side stage area was located. Norma Jean was just finishing up as I arrived, and while I won't review them, they didn't sound like anything worth seeing. Tension Head, the Jager band, started immediately afterwards. I spent their whole set moving about the area and figuring out where everything was located, so I didn't pay much attention to them, but I felt the same about them as I did about Norma Jean. Bleh. I went to the merch tent by the Roadrunner tent and bought Zombie's CD for the meet and greet. After Tension Head was done, I headed towards the Jager stage and waited for Shadows Fall. Winds of Plague followed up Tension Head, so I watched from across the stage area.
Winds of Plague - I didn't really expect these guys to be any different from any other deathcore band I've seen live, and I was mostly right. The keyboard added something to their sound, but other than that, I thought it was the usual deathcore formula that I've come to strongly dislike. The vocals were no different from any other deathcore band, nor were the guitars and drums. They managed to get a wall of death going, and while I didn't get a good enough view of it to judge for myself, I'm sure it was the best wall of death on this day. More on that later. Anyway, I would say they're better than Suicide Silence or Whitechapel, but that's not saying much. 3/10
Shadows Fall - Right after Winds finished, this Massachusetts band, the first one I was interested in seeing on the day, ran on stage. I have heard mixed reviews of these guys, but I thought they were pretty solid. Brian Fair dominated the stage with his dreads that stretched all the way to the floor, the second vocalist in a few weeks that I had seen sporting this look. Brian's seemed to be a bit longer than Mark Osegueda's, however, and many times during the set he showed them off by windmilling in front of the stage. He was competent vocally as well, nothing amazing, but he sounded pretty much as well as he does on CDs. A couple of the songs they played were pretty thrashy, which I appreciated. The one major problem I had with the set were the guitars sometimes being drowned out by the thudding of the drums, which I thought were a bit overbearing. Their Bark At The Moon cover, which I was dreading coming into this set, was not as bad as I expected it to be, though I couldn't really hear the main solo at all, which bugged me. I still would have rather seen them play their own songs, but it wasn't a total waste. Overall, definitely not the best metalcore act I've seen, but I enjoyed them. 6/10
Right after Shadows Fall finished, I hopped in the line for the Zombie meet and greet, which was already stretching past the Jager tent and nearly to the east entrance. We didn't move until 4 pm, when Zombie was scheduled to arrive, so I watched the next band from a distance.
3 Inches of Blood - Because of my distance from the stage, the bass drum was booming over pretty much everything else at times. But when that didn't get in the way, I enjoyed what I heard from the Canadian quartet. They were the rare band at the festival to have guitar melodies that weren't just heavy, heavy, heavy, but offered some variety, which I greatly appreciated. While I heard a lot of people mocking the vocals, I really liked them and found them to be a lot better than the vocals of most of the bands playing at this festival. I can't really give a fair review on the sound because of where I was standing, but I enjoyed my brief introduction to this band and would enjoy seeing them again when I'm not in a huge line waiting to meet a band. 6/10
After 3IOB got off, the line started to move slowly but surely, as all of us tried to stay in line in spite of the mass of people moving around and a lot of times through the line. By the time the next band on Jager started to play, I was near the back of the pit area, in very good position to watch while I slowly inched forward in line.
Chimaira - One of the bands I was most looking forward to seeing at the festival, this was my third time seeing them and they were as good as ever. Their sound was much improved over Shadows Fall, with the guitars coming in very clearly, along with the keyboard in the background and the drums. Mark's vocals, a turnoff for some people, were as strong as they usually are. The band changed up some songs from the previous two times I saw them, opening with the Resurrection track Black Heart. While I'm in the camp that believes they should have just opened with The Venom Inside as opposed to a pretty obscure track from their previous album, Black Heart seemed to go over really well with the crowd and sounded awesome. The band's energy was consistently high for the whole set, and the crowd responded with constant movement and energy off their own. As good as the more obscure tracks were live, the best songs of the set were the ones they usually do: Power Trip, Resurrection, and Pure Hatred. All three of those songs never fail to get me pumped up, and the crowd seemed to agree as the energy definitely reached a peak on those songs. I realized after the set that this was the furthest away I've seen Chimaira (I saw them from the rail at Music As A Weapon and Trivium's last tour), yet I enjoyed them as much as I did the first two times. Perhaps it's because I saw this time how good their stage presence really is and how well they can work a crowd with it and their music. I'm hoping they headline a tour soon, I'd love to see a full set from them. One of the must-see bands on the sidestages this year. 8/10
Near the end of Chimaira's set, I finally reached the Roadrunner tent and met Rob Zombie and his band. Zombie seemed to be in a pretty good mood, smiling and laughing, as did John 5. When I asked him how his foot, which he broke in North Carolina, was feeling, he shrugged and showed off the nice boot he was wearing. The other half of the band, including Joey, were silent and seemed less interested, and we weren't allowed to take pictures. Nevertheless, I thought my only meet and greet of the day was well worth $15.
I quickly made my way through the dissolving Chimaira pit to the Rockstar drink area, which I thought was in a better location this year, to get a quick drink. They only had two flavors this year: Cola, which sucked, and Lemonade, which was pretty damn good. During this time, I ran into Mike for the first time on the day. After a quick chat, I moved back towards the Jager stage to wait for Hatebreed. While waiting, I had to endure the horror that was the remainder of Atreyu's set. I didn't really watch them, so I won't honor them with a full review, but the songs I did hear were bad. Their Bon Jovi cover was not only out of place, it was just flat-out horrible. It seemed like their set would never end, and they ended up going over their allowed time a bit, but finally, they mercifully finished, giving the green light to the chaos that was about to ensue on the Jager stage...
Hatebreed - Definitely worthy of the hype that has been placed on their live show. As soon as Jamey Jasta got on stage and yelled, "You fucking bleed now!", all hell broke loose. I ended right in the middle of the first huge pit that broke out right when the song kicked in. After moshing for a little bit, I took advantage of the large pit size to get a few rows back from the rail. Space was tight, and there was a constant push from all sides the whole time, but I managed to hold my position for a few songs. The band has an awesome stage presence and energy, with Jasta as the ringmaster. "If you're not moving right now, you're a fucking Blackhawks fan!", he yelled out as the crowd responded with a loud roar and kept the push going. Musically, they weren't as loud as I might have expected, but they made up for it with its intensity, its straight-to-the-point aggression, and, of course, the presence of the band onstage. Admittedly, with bands like this, songs do tend to blur together and sound the same, which is probably why I don't really listen to them on CD, but live it's probably an advantage for them. They can stop one song and start the next without the crowd missing a beat, and the intensity never wavered throughout the whole set. After Destroy Everything, one of the songs I had been waiting to hear them play, I decided to save whatever energy I had left and started heading away from the stage, where I could watch the performance more comfortably. Though I wasn't in the pit anymore, the rest of the set was just as good from a distance, as almost everyone was getting into their set, and the feeling was infectious. I saw many people come out of the pit with a little blood, the worst being a guy with a little gash right above his right eyebrow that was covering half his face with blood. If that doesn't give you an idea of crazy it was, nothing will. Although I'm glad they didn't, Hatebreed deserves to close the sidestages, for nothing any of the bands on Silver Star do can top the high point these guys bring. I probably won't ever listen to them regularly, but live, they set the bar very high. Highlights of the set were Everyone Bleeds Now, In Ashes They Shall Reap, Destroy Everything, and I Will Be Heard. 8.5/10
After the set ended, I quickly headed over to the Rockstar drink area again, where I met Brad and Dayna for the first time on the day, Mike again, Ed for the first time evar (I was like O_O), Will for the first time all day, who was still raving about Hatebreed, and eventually Chuck, who had run off to meet Chimaira. Now, this is where we started to fail: we split up the group. Dayna, Brad, Will, and I moved up to the hill to find a spot to take the picture, while the rest of them hung back to wait for Drew, who still hadn't shown up yet. So it became one big clusterfuck trying to get this damn picture taken. Once we found a spot, we had to get everyone else to our position, which was harder than I thought it would be. First Dayna got Chuck to find us, then Ed, then the rest of them finally found us. Once we were all there, there was the issue of whose camera we were going to use, who was going to take the picture....we really did plan this out well. Not to mention I had to go and pull Ed back to take the picture because the allure of Five Finger Death Punch, who had already taken the stage at this point, had drawn him away from us. Anyway, we finally got the picture(s) taken, then snaked our way through the crowd to some open spots on the hill, where we watched the rest of the main stage opener.
Five Finger Death Punch - My perception of these guys has changed a lot since I was introduced to them with their solid performance at Mayhem 2008. Their first album was decent, but their offering last year turned me off on them pretty much completely. Still, I was curious to see if I viewed their live performance any differently. As it turned out, the answer is somewhat. As opposed to Mastodon in 2008 and Mushroomhead in 2009, they didn't seem to be plagued with the shitty mix the opening mainstage bands usually get at DTE. The sound from the guitars and drums seemed clean, for once. As for the band themselves, they were definitely much more entertaining to watch from the sidestage two years ago. Not much of a stage presence from them this time and not as much energy as I remember them having. Still, they were able to get a good portion of the crowd into it; there were people all around me screaming every word of every song they played. Shows you what a mainstream CD like War Is The Answer will get you. The music was decent, with even the songs from the second album carrying more power than they do on the album. They definitely don't break any new ground with what they're playing, but they deliver it pretty well, and I really don't have a problem with Ivan's vocals like everyone who hates the band with a passion seems to. I will almost definitely be seeing them again if the Godsmack tour comes around, so hopefully those stage presence problems were just an effect of opening the mainstage. Either way, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Highlights of the set were Bad Company and Way of the Fist. 6/10
After FFDP finished, for some reason, the group decided to venture farther down the hill. We ended up right at the foot of it, dead center, which would turn out to be a good vantage point for viewing the action on the hill during this next band.
Lamb of God - Probably the band I was least looking forward to seeing on this stage. Having already seen Lamb of God headline once and thought they were upstaged by their support, there really wasn't much to look forward to with this set except for maybe the pits. Still, Lamb of God is still Lamb of God, and no matter how much I dislike their latest work, they can still manage to make it work in a live setting. Just like when I saw them last year, they opened with The Passing/In Your Words, probably the worst part of their set for me, as I find the latter to be just a big buzzkill. They followed it up with Set To Fail, probably one of the better songs off Wrath in my opinion, and their performance of it was pretty well done, except for vocally, I didn't really think Randy was doing the screams very well at all. The trend continued in Walk With Me In Hell and Now You've Got Something To Die For; even though I enjoyed both songs, there was just something missing from their performance this time, and Randy was still struggling a bit. For Laid To Rest, a song that I'm pretty sick of at this point, they brought up the drummer for Winds of Plague to play this one, which was cool, except Chris Adler is probably one of the biggest reasons people watch this band. They followed it up with Redneck, one of my favorite songs on Sacrament, but once again, it just didn't seem like the band was on its game today, and it wasn't as good as I had hoped. Afterwards, they announced that they had one more song, which for anyone who knows anything about Lamb of God means one thing: Black Label and Wall of Death. Well, they got the first part....but the second part was an epic fail. What I envisioned as a wall stretching from the bottom of the hill to the top never came to fruition. Instead, we got this mini-wall of death just above where we were standing. As soon as Black Label kicked in, the two sides converged on each other....then tumbled down to the bottom of the hill in one big heap. It was hilariously bad. Overall, Lamb of God was probably the biggest disappointment on the main stage for me, even though I had pretty low expectations to begin with. Their performance just lacked the energy and aggression that had become their trademark, and Randy didn't sound as good to me as he did last year. I think they need a break before I see them again. 6.5/10
Rob Zombie - The band I was most looking forward on this night. Even when the lineup was announced back in January, probably the biggest incentive to buy a ticket was to see Rob Zombie after I missed out on his headlining tour last November. After reading many reviews of Mayhem saying that Zombie was amazing and should be closing the show instead of Korn, my expectations and excitement for his set were through the roof. The band responded with probably the best and most complete set of any of the six co-headlining bands to play this festival so far. As a mix of some of Zombie's intros played, the curtain dropped to reveal probably the best stage setup of any band to play Mayhem so far, with video screens, a few robots, including a walking one that spewed jets of air, and a healthy dose of pyro. Zombie himself appeared near the end of the intro with a large claw-like appendage, and soon, the intro cut right into the beginning of Superbeast, one of my favorite Zombie songs. Any concerns about Zombie's vocals were quickly put to rest for me as he sounded solid from the beginning to the end of the song and really throughout the whole set. His set ranged from some essential Zombie, such as Living Dead Girl and Scum of the Earth, to some White Zombie material in Thunder Kiss '65 and More Human Than Human, to a couple songs from his latest album. All were delivered with good vocal performances by Zombie and great guitarwork by John 5, who I was seeing live for the first time as well. Behind the kit, Joey was holding everything down and proved to me he has more talent than he gets credit for due to the Slipknot hate. After House of 1000 Corpses, he did the usual drum solo routine. Nothing spectacular or anything, but good enough to show that he's more than just a one-trick pony with Slipknot. No zero-gravity drumming necessary. In addition to the songs, Zombie did a pretty good amount of talking in between a lot of songs. He was pretty damn funny too, much much better than the comedian who came on after Five Finger Death Punch and quickly overstayed his welcome by pounding one joke into the ground. He poked fun at John 5 on numerous occasions, who had broken his foot in North Carolina and was sporting a boot. He also had some fun with Joey at one point. The video screens he had set up displayed various things throughout the set, with the screens near the amps typically displaying lyrics during the chorus of songs and the bigger screen behind him displaying something more elaborate. This ranged from some creepy horror footage during House of 1000 Corpses to some odd anime footage during Never Gonna Stop. Everything was incredibly stimulating visually. The highlight of the set for me was Thunderkiss '65, which probably took 10 minutes longer than the actual song to complete because there was so much going on. First, the actual song, which is one of the best songs Zombie has made in either band. Then John 5 ripped out an extended solo which last a good five minutes or so. Meanwhile, Zombie went out to the walkway in front of the lawn to greet us poor people. Finally, when Zombie got back, they did a quick rendition of Alice Cooper's School Out, which concluded with John 5 smashing his guitar. After that entire spectacle, they all left the stage, but Zombie quickly reappeared on another badass platform to finish off the set with Dragula, another awesome song. Zombie's performance was absolutely complete and, if not perfect, pretty damn close. If he comes back with Alice Cooper, that tour has the potential to be one of the best shows I will ever see. 10/10
Korn - After the completely dominating performance by Zombie, the forum crew (with the exception of Ed....) pretty much agreed Korn wasn't going to be able to do better, no matter what they did. Well, they sure as hell didn't do themselves any favors at this show. Apparently Zombie went over his allowed time slightly, but still, he was off by 9:35, at the latest. Korn didn't take the stage until about 10:15, meaning they had about 45 minutes to beat curfew. Sure enough, they just came out, blazed through 10 songs, said goodbye, and that was that. Definitely a buzzkill after what Zombie did. That being said, it wasn't all bad. The stage setup, with its many oil rigs, was very cool and, while not as good as Zombie's, was definitely better than the setup Slipknot or Manson had in previous years. The setlist, for the most part, was very good, consisting of mostly old stuff, like Shoots and Ladders, Blind, Freak On A Leash, and Got The Life. While all of them were songs I'd seen the last time I saw them headlining in May of last year, they're all good songs and head over heels better than anything they've put out lately. They opened up with Right Now and Here To Stay, more recent songs that don't suck that got the crowd, who was probably anxious after waiting so long for them, going and into the show. The lowest points of the set were, as expected, the new songs. Going into this tour, I had hoped that Korn would just keep the new stuff down to the single, Oildale, which is annoying enough as it is. But no, they had to include more, and the other new song ended up being Let The Guilt Go. Both of them were pretty bad. Oildale was a downer after opening up with two well-liked hits. I initially thought the song was alright when I first heard it, but now it's flat-out annoying, and it wasn't much better live. Jonathan Davis's cries of "Why don't you just leave meeeeee alooooooooooooone?" just got on my nerves and I couldn't wait for the song to finish. Mercifully, it did, and they followed it up with the solid Falling Away From Me. However, they then came back with Let The Guilt Go, a song that is probably on par with Oildale as far as suck. The lyrics in this song are just as laughable, with the chorus consisting of lines such as, "I tell you one thing which leads to another thing." Really deep stuff. Fortunately, Dayna and I made light of the situation with some awesome synchronized dancing during said chorus, which occurred about three times. Props to Brad for assisting on the choreography as well. If anything got taped, I wish it would have been that. It was awesome, despite looks of disapproval from Ed. After that song was done, the set was great, with Freak On A Leash quickly erasing the bad taste of the previous song. Jonathan Davis sounded just as good as he did last year vocally, and I thought he moved around a bit more than last time. Munky could never hope to be better than John 5, but he still sounded pretty solid on the guitar, and Fieldy's bass was ever present in the mix as usual and sounded great. The latter half of the set brought a couple of nice surprises, with the end of Shoots and Ladders leading into the fast section of Metallica's One. While it was pretty random, it flowed together well and was pretty cool to hear. Jonathan also brought out the bagpipes before Shoots and Ladders, which drew large cheers from the sell-out crowd. All this, combined with some unnecessary jamming in between a lot of songs, led to them starting Got The Life, their last song, at a little past 11, at which point part of the sound cut off and the volume dropped. Still, they got through it, ending a shortened but good set and capping off another great day of Mayhem. 8/10
Mike and Ed bolted after Korn finished, and Dayna and Brad had peaced out after Freak, so I said later to Chuck and headed to the parking lot to begin what would become an hour wait to leave. I'm not sure where I would rank this Mayhem compared to the other two, but meeting the whole crew again and chilling with them for the mainstage performances definitely made it even better. I can't wait to do it again next year.
3 Inches of Blood had sound problems that I'm not sure were ever resolved. They'd play something on guitar and it would sound fine to us up front, but the sound guy said that they could barely hear anything in back.
When I talked to Chimaira and told a few of them they should headline Toledo again, some of them shrugged it off and some said they'd like to. Rob said to look for them in the winter and then handed me his card with his instruction dvd info on it lol
Comments
That's golden
Please Note: I was the one who started the "fuck that stage"....so proud of myself
me: lets tell um
eddie: i dunno man
me: fuck that we did it last year! *turns around and starts scream EVERYONE...FUCK THAT STAGE
wish ya'll would have been at the auburn hills mall the next day...was yelling slayer at all the people in mayhem shirts...most responded with..uhhh that was last year...fail...slayer is every year
666 has THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST RAWWWWWW
and 999 has..I'm only evil when I do handstands
do not pass go send me directly to hell....:)
EDIT: Actually at 0:10 you can see my face in the very corner for about 1/16 of a second.
Winds of Plague - I didn't really expect these guys to be any different from any other deathcore band I've seen live, and I was mostly right. The keyboard added something to their sound, but other than that, I thought it was the usual deathcore formula that I've come to strongly dislike. The vocals were no different from any other deathcore band, nor were the guitars and drums. They managed to get a wall of death going, and while I didn't get a good enough view of it to judge for myself, I'm sure it was the best wall of death on this day. More on that later. Anyway, I would say they're better than Suicide Silence or Whitechapel, but that's not saying much. 3/10
Shadows Fall - Right after Winds finished, this Massachusetts band, the first one I was interested in seeing on the day, ran on stage. I have heard mixed reviews of these guys, but I thought they were pretty solid. Brian Fair dominated the stage with his dreads that stretched all the way to the floor, the second vocalist in a few weeks that I had seen sporting this look. Brian's seemed to be a bit longer than Mark Osegueda's, however, and many times during the set he showed them off by windmilling in front of the stage. He was competent vocally as well, nothing amazing, but he sounded pretty much as well as he does on CDs. A couple of the songs they played were pretty thrashy, which I appreciated. The one major problem I had with the set were the guitars sometimes being drowned out by the thudding of the drums, which I thought were a bit overbearing. Their Bark At The Moon cover, which I was dreading coming into this set, was not as bad as I expected it to be, though I couldn't really hear the main solo at all, which bugged me. I still would have rather seen them play their own songs, but it wasn't a total waste. Overall, definitely not the best metalcore act I've seen, but I enjoyed them. 6/10
Right after Shadows Fall finished, I hopped in the line for the Zombie meet and greet, which was already stretching past the Jager tent and nearly to the east entrance. We didn't move until 4 pm, when Zombie was scheduled to arrive, so I watched the next band from a distance.
3 Inches of Blood - Because of my distance from the stage, the bass drum was booming over pretty much everything else at times. But when that didn't get in the way, I enjoyed what I heard from the Canadian quartet. They were the rare band at the festival to have guitar melodies that weren't just heavy, heavy, heavy, but offered some variety, which I greatly appreciated. While I heard a lot of people mocking the vocals, I really liked them and found them to be a lot better than the vocals of most of the bands playing at this festival. I can't really give a fair review on the sound because of where I was standing, but I enjoyed my brief introduction to this band and would enjoy seeing them again when I'm not in a huge line waiting to meet a band. 6/10
After 3IOB got off, the line started to move slowly but surely, as all of us tried to stay in line in spite of the mass of people moving around and a lot of times through the line. By the time the next band on Jager started to play, I was near the back of the pit area, in very good position to watch while I slowly inched forward in line.
Chimaira - One of the bands I was most looking forward to seeing at the festival, this was my third time seeing them and they were as good as ever. Their sound was much improved over Shadows Fall, with the guitars coming in very clearly, along with the keyboard in the background and the drums. Mark's vocals, a turnoff for some people, were as strong as they usually are. The band changed up some songs from the previous two times I saw them, opening with the Resurrection track Black Heart. While I'm in the camp that believes they should have just opened with The Venom Inside as opposed to a pretty obscure track from their previous album, Black Heart seemed to go over really well with the crowd and sounded awesome. The band's energy was consistently high for the whole set, and the crowd responded with constant movement and energy off their own. As good as the more obscure tracks were live, the best songs of the set were the ones they usually do: Power Trip, Resurrection, and Pure Hatred. All three of those songs never fail to get me pumped up, and the crowd seemed to agree as the energy definitely reached a peak on those songs. I realized after the set that this was the furthest away I've seen Chimaira (I saw them from the rail at Music As A Weapon and Trivium's last tour), yet I enjoyed them as much as I did the first two times. Perhaps it's because I saw this time how good their stage presence really is and how well they can work a crowd with it and their music. I'm hoping they headline a tour soon, I'd love to see a full set from them. One of the must-see bands on the sidestages this year. 8/10
Near the end of Chimaira's set, I finally reached the Roadrunner tent and met Rob Zombie and his band. Zombie seemed to be in a pretty good mood, smiling and laughing, as did John 5. When I asked him how his foot, which he broke in North Carolina, was feeling, he shrugged and showed off the nice boot he was wearing. The other half of the band, including Joey, were silent and seemed less interested, and we weren't allowed to take pictures. Nevertheless, I thought my only meet and greet of the day was well worth $15.
I quickly made my way through the dissolving Chimaira pit to the Rockstar drink area, which I thought was in a better location this year, to get a quick drink. They only had two flavors this year: Cola, which sucked, and Lemonade, which was pretty damn good. During this time, I ran into Mike for the first time on the day. After a quick chat, I moved back towards the Jager stage to wait for Hatebreed. While waiting, I had to endure the horror that was the remainder of Atreyu's set. I didn't really watch them, so I won't honor them with a full review, but the songs I did hear were bad. Their Bon Jovi cover was not only out of place, it was just flat-out horrible. It seemed like their set would never end, and they ended up going over their allowed time a bit, but finally, they mercifully finished, giving the green light to the chaos that was about to ensue on the Jager stage...
Hatebreed - Definitely worthy of the hype that has been placed on their live show. As soon as Jamey Jasta got on stage and yelled, "You fucking bleed now!", all hell broke loose. I ended right in the middle of the first huge pit that broke out right when the song kicked in. After moshing for a little bit, I took advantage of the large pit size to get a few rows back from the rail. Space was tight, and there was a constant push from all sides the whole time, but I managed to hold my position for a few songs. The band has an awesome stage presence and energy, with Jasta as the ringmaster. "If you're not moving right now, you're a fucking Blackhawks fan!", he yelled out as the crowd responded with a loud roar and kept the push going. Musically, they weren't as loud as I might have expected, but they made up for it with its intensity, its straight-to-the-point aggression, and, of course, the presence of the band onstage. Admittedly, with bands like this, songs do tend to blur together and sound the same, which is probably why I don't really listen to them on CD, but live it's probably an advantage for them. They can stop one song and start the next without the crowd missing a beat, and the intensity never wavered throughout the whole set. After Destroy Everything, one of the songs I had been waiting to hear them play, I decided to save whatever energy I had left and started heading away from the stage, where I could watch the performance more comfortably. Though I wasn't in the pit anymore, the rest of the set was just as good from a distance, as almost everyone was getting into their set, and the feeling was infectious. I saw many people come out of the pit with a little blood, the worst being a guy with a little gash right above his right eyebrow that was covering half his face with blood. If that doesn't give you an idea of crazy it was, nothing will. Although I'm glad they didn't, Hatebreed deserves to close the sidestages, for nothing any of the bands on Silver Star do can top the high point these guys bring. I probably won't ever listen to them regularly, but live, they set the bar very high. Highlights of the set were Everyone Bleeds Now, In Ashes They Shall Reap, Destroy Everything, and I Will Be Heard. 8.5/10
After the set ended, I quickly headed over to the Rockstar drink area again, where I met Brad and Dayna for the first time on the day, Mike again, Ed for the first time evar (I was like O_O), Will for the first time all day, who was still raving about Hatebreed, and eventually Chuck, who had run off to meet Chimaira. Now, this is where we started to fail: we split up the group. Dayna, Brad, Will, and I moved up to the hill to find a spot to take the picture, while the rest of them hung back to wait for Drew, who still hadn't shown up yet. So it became one big clusterfuck trying to get this damn picture taken. Once we found a spot, we had to get everyone else to our position, which was harder than I thought it would be. First Dayna got Chuck to find us, then Ed, then the rest of them finally found us. Once we were all there, there was the issue of whose camera we were going to use, who was going to take the picture....we really did plan this out well. Not to mention I had to go and pull Ed back to take the picture because the allure of Five Finger Death Punch, who had already taken the stage at this point, had drawn him away from us. Anyway, we finally got the picture(s) taken, then snaked our way through the crowd to some open spots on the hill, where we watched the rest of the main stage opener.
Five Finger Death Punch - My perception of these guys has changed a lot since I was introduced to them with their solid performance at Mayhem 2008. Their first album was decent, but their offering last year turned me off on them pretty much completely. Still, I was curious to see if I viewed their live performance any differently. As it turned out, the answer is somewhat. As opposed to Mastodon in 2008 and Mushroomhead in 2009, they didn't seem to be plagued with the shitty mix the opening mainstage bands usually get at DTE. The sound from the guitars and drums seemed clean, for once. As for the band themselves, they were definitely much more entertaining to watch from the sidestage two years ago. Not much of a stage presence from them this time and not as much energy as I remember them having. Still, they were able to get a good portion of the crowd into it; there were people all around me screaming every word of every song they played. Shows you what a mainstream CD like War Is The Answer will get you. The music was decent, with even the songs from the second album carrying more power than they do on the album. They definitely don't break any new ground with what they're playing, but they deliver it pretty well, and I really don't have a problem with Ivan's vocals like everyone who hates the band with a passion seems to. I will almost definitely be seeing them again if the Godsmack tour comes around, so hopefully those stage presence problems were just an effect of opening the mainstage. Either way, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Highlights of the set were Bad Company and Way of the Fist. 6/10
After FFDP finished, for some reason, the group decided to venture farther down the hill. We ended up right at the foot of it, dead center, which would turn out to be a good vantage point for viewing the action on the hill during this next band.
Lamb of God - Probably the band I was least looking forward to seeing on this stage. Having already seen Lamb of God headline once and thought they were upstaged by their support, there really wasn't much to look forward to with this set except for maybe the pits. Still, Lamb of God is still Lamb of God, and no matter how much I dislike their latest work, they can still manage to make it work in a live setting. Just like when I saw them last year, they opened with The Passing/In Your Words, probably the worst part of their set for me, as I find the latter to be just a big buzzkill. They followed it up with Set To Fail, probably one of the better songs off Wrath in my opinion, and their performance of it was pretty well done, except for vocally, I didn't really think Randy was doing the screams very well at all. The trend continued in Walk With Me In Hell and Now You've Got Something To Die For; even though I enjoyed both songs, there was just something missing from their performance this time, and Randy was still struggling a bit. For Laid To Rest, a song that I'm pretty sick of at this point, they brought up the drummer for Winds of Plague to play this one, which was cool, except Chris Adler is probably one of the biggest reasons people watch this band. They followed it up with Redneck, one of my favorite songs on Sacrament, but once again, it just didn't seem like the band was on its game today, and it wasn't as good as I had hoped. Afterwards, they announced that they had one more song, which for anyone who knows anything about Lamb of God means one thing: Black Label and Wall of Death. Well, they got the first part....but the second part was an epic fail. What I envisioned as a wall stretching from the bottom of the hill to the top never came to fruition. Instead, we got this mini-wall of death just above where we were standing. As soon as Black Label kicked in, the two sides converged on each other....then tumbled down to the bottom of the hill in one big heap. It was hilariously bad. Overall, Lamb of God was probably the biggest disappointment on the main stage for me, even though I had pretty low expectations to begin with. Their performance just lacked the energy and aggression that had become their trademark, and Randy didn't sound as good to me as he did last year. I think they need a break before I see them again. 6.5/10
Rob Zombie - The band I was most looking forward on this night. Even when the lineup was announced back in January, probably the biggest incentive to buy a ticket was to see Rob Zombie after I missed out on his headlining tour last November. After reading many reviews of Mayhem saying that Zombie was amazing and should be closing the show instead of Korn, my expectations and excitement for his set were through the roof. The band responded with probably the best and most complete set of any of the six co-headlining bands to play this festival so far. As a mix of some of Zombie's intros played, the curtain dropped to reveal probably the best stage setup of any band to play Mayhem so far, with video screens, a few robots, including a walking one that spewed jets of air, and a healthy dose of pyro. Zombie himself appeared near the end of the intro with a large claw-like appendage, and soon, the intro cut right into the beginning of Superbeast, one of my favorite Zombie songs. Any concerns about Zombie's vocals were quickly put to rest for me as he sounded solid from the beginning to the end of the song and really throughout the whole set. His set ranged from some essential Zombie, such as Living Dead Girl and Scum of the Earth, to some White Zombie material in Thunder Kiss '65 and More Human Than Human, to a couple songs from his latest album. All were delivered with good vocal performances by Zombie and great guitarwork by John 5, who I was seeing live for the first time as well. Behind the kit, Joey was holding everything down and proved to me he has more talent than he gets credit for due to the Slipknot hate. After House of 1000 Corpses, he did the usual drum solo routine. Nothing spectacular or anything, but good enough to show that he's more than just a one-trick pony with Slipknot. No zero-gravity drumming necessary. In addition to the songs, Zombie did a pretty good amount of talking in between a lot of songs. He was pretty damn funny too, much much better than the comedian who came on after Five Finger Death Punch and quickly overstayed his welcome by pounding one joke into the ground. He poked fun at John 5 on numerous occasions, who had broken his foot in North Carolina and was sporting a boot. He also had some fun with Joey at one point. The video screens he had set up displayed various things throughout the set, with the screens near the amps typically displaying lyrics during the chorus of songs and the bigger screen behind him displaying something more elaborate. This ranged from some creepy horror footage during House of 1000 Corpses to some odd anime footage during Never Gonna Stop. Everything was incredibly stimulating visually. The highlight of the set for me was Thunderkiss '65, which probably took 10 minutes longer than the actual song to complete because there was so much going on. First, the actual song, which is one of the best songs Zombie has made in either band. Then John 5 ripped out an extended solo which last a good five minutes or so. Meanwhile, Zombie went out to the walkway in front of the lawn to greet us poor people. Finally, when Zombie got back, they did a quick rendition of Alice Cooper's School Out, which concluded with John 5 smashing his guitar. After that entire spectacle, they all left the stage, but Zombie quickly reappeared on another badass platform to finish off the set with Dragula, another awesome song. Zombie's performance was absolutely complete and, if not perfect, pretty damn close. If he comes back with Alice Cooper, that tour has the potential to be one of the best shows I will ever see. 10/10
Korn - After the completely dominating performance by Zombie, the forum crew (with the exception of Ed....) pretty much agreed Korn wasn't going to be able to do better, no matter what they did. Well, they sure as hell didn't do themselves any favors at this show. Apparently Zombie went over his allowed time slightly, but still, he was off by 9:35, at the latest. Korn didn't take the stage until about 10:15, meaning they had about 45 minutes to beat curfew. Sure enough, they just came out, blazed through 10 songs, said goodbye, and that was that. Definitely a buzzkill after what Zombie did. That being said, it wasn't all bad. The stage setup, with its many oil rigs, was very cool and, while not as good as Zombie's, was definitely better than the setup Slipknot or Manson had in previous years. The setlist, for the most part, was very good, consisting of mostly old stuff, like Shoots and Ladders, Blind, Freak On A Leash, and Got The Life. While all of them were songs I'd seen the last time I saw them headlining in May of last year, they're all good songs and head over heels better than anything they've put out lately. They opened up with Right Now and Here To Stay, more recent songs that don't suck that got the crowd, who was probably anxious after waiting so long for them, going and into the show. The lowest points of the set were, as expected, the new songs. Going into this tour, I had hoped that Korn would just keep the new stuff down to the single, Oildale, which is annoying enough as it is. But no, they had to include more, and the other new song ended up being Let The Guilt Go. Both of them were pretty bad. Oildale was a downer after opening up with two well-liked hits. I initially thought the song was alright when I first heard it, but now it's flat-out annoying, and it wasn't much better live. Jonathan Davis's cries of "Why don't you just leave meeeeee alooooooooooooone?" just got on my nerves and I couldn't wait for the song to finish. Mercifully, it did, and they followed it up with the solid Falling Away From Me. However, they then came back with Let The Guilt Go, a song that is probably on par with Oildale as far as suck. The lyrics in this song are just as laughable, with the chorus consisting of lines such as, "I tell you one thing which leads to another thing." Really deep stuff. Fortunately, Dayna and I made light of the situation with some awesome synchronized dancing during said chorus, which occurred about three times. Props to Brad for assisting on the choreography as well. If anything got taped, I wish it would have been that. It was awesome, despite looks of disapproval from Ed. After that song was done, the set was great, with Freak On A Leash quickly erasing the bad taste of the previous song. Jonathan Davis sounded just as good as he did last year vocally, and I thought he moved around a bit more than last time. Munky could never hope to be better than John 5, but he still sounded pretty solid on the guitar, and Fieldy's bass was ever present in the mix as usual and sounded great. The latter half of the set brought a couple of nice surprises, with the end of Shoots and Ladders leading into the fast section of Metallica's One. While it was pretty random, it flowed together well and was pretty cool to hear. Jonathan also brought out the bagpipes before Shoots and Ladders, which drew large cheers from the sell-out crowd. All this, combined with some unnecessary jamming in between a lot of songs, led to them starting Got The Life, their last song, at a little past 11, at which point part of the sound cut off and the volume dropped. Still, they got through it, ending a shortened but good set and capping off another great day of Mayhem. 8/10
Mike and Ed bolted after Korn finished, and Dayna and Brad had peaced out after Freak, so I said later to Chuck and headed to the parking lot to begin what would become an hour wait to leave. I'm not sure where I would rank this Mayhem compared to the other two, but meeting the whole crew again and chilling with them for the mainstage performances definitely made it even better. I can't wait to do it again next year.
And now I shall begin reading
I'm workin on my review right now. Also, My friend wants me to post his review here, so I'll post that after I post mine.