My downfall is I try to right reviews right after the show, so im still pumped with adrenaline and cant really focus. I just looked at my Mayhem review since writing it...bleh.
If I write them after the show, they're long and unorganized. If I write it the next day, it's set up a little bit better. I don't think I ever put a number review up though.
opening bands: First band Switchblade Suicide i only caught one song which was OK. Willgive them an incomplete. The Envy was OK. I managed to sit thru their set without vomiting. The Academay Is sucked ass. Decided to walk around instead of watching their set. Really horrid
KISS...awesome as always. Setlist:
Modern Day Delilah Cold Gin Let Me Go, Rock 'N' Roll Firehouse Say Yeah Deuce Crazy Crazy Nights Calling Dr. Love Shock Me I'm An Animal 100,000 Years I Love It Loud Love Gun Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover) Black Diamond Detroit Rock City Encore: Beth Lick It Up Shout It Out Loud I Was Made For Lovin' You God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II Rock And Roll All Nite
6 song encores kick ass. Went past the 11PM curfew, so they might of got fined. Great 2 + hours of rock. Tommy still looks uncomfortable doing Ace's guitar solo, but Eric is awesome on the drums. High energy set and a lot of fun. KISS stillkicks ass live. It was my 10th time seeing them.
Didnt get out of the parking lot till after midnight. People are morons and have no idea how to follow signs...
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.
short review of Summer Slaughter from last night in Milwaukee
Awesome night! Most of the bands were flat out awesome! Venue didn't allow cameras so no pics =(
Vital Remains- My favorite band of the night, for only performing three songs! When they perform Dechristianize, it's always perfect! They also performed Devoured Elysium and Hammer Down the Nails. The current line up is a strong line up and should be great for the next album. I talked to Scott Wily and he confirmed that Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and Vital will be doing a tour in the fall, look out for that! 10/10
Animals As Leaders- They were very impressive 9/10
Carnifex-was terrible 0/10
Decrepit Birth- If you have never seen this band live, Get TO IT! They know how to get a crowd going and the new album kicks ass! 9/10
Cephalic Carnage- funny as hell and are pretty much your typical grindcore band on stage, good shit though 8/10
Veil of Maya- eh 6/10
The Red Chord - eh 6/10
All Shall Perish - eh 6/10
The Faceless - officially the best deathcore band I've seen live! They're spot on and very entertaining to see! 8/10
Decapitated - not as good as I expected but wasn't paying too much attention because I was moshing the whole time. They performed almost everything from the latest album which was disappointing but at the end they performed Spheres of Madness! I love how all of the faggotry deathcore guys left before Decapitated went on, shows you that they have no appreciation for death metal. fuckin posers 8/10
merch I bought: Decrepit Birth tour shirt and Polarity CD package - $30 Vital Remains shirt - $20
I had to laugh at the fact that as soon as 11pm hit, they cut the sound down some. Shit, at Meriweather (which is notorious for its strict 11pm curfew) during the manson slayer tour, manson took his sweet ass time setting up (the longest hour and 20 min of my life) and he played well after 11:30 and no sound issues with the volume being cut of anything. My guess is that he just paid whatever fine there was for going passed curfew
Psicosis - I'm jealous of you and everyone else that got to see Decrepit Birth on SS. I got right up front at the Ft Worth date of the tour getting ready for them only to find out they weren't going to play that night :P
Got there around 11:00 AM. Just a few people there when I was but around 12:00-12:30 many people showed up. I made my way to the line and lined up behind a trash can. 2 other groups did the same but everyone else just filed behind them so nobody was behind me. I lol'd because it was definitely a regular line. I then found out since I had presale I had to be in a different line because they were only using one to let presale people in early. Just merged my way through and everything was cool.
Went in and looked around for the Hatewear tent. Couldn't find it. Asked a guy at another tent. He thought I was a complete idiot. He just stared at me, didn't say anything, then said "Hatewear? You mean Hatebreed?". I was caught between saying, no, did I stutter? and just walking away but I said something like "No, the I love vagina/hatewear tent" and he did another one of those pauses and just said idk.
Walked around and looked at literally every tent, the hatewear tent must not have been there because I went to every spot in the venue looking for it and it was no where to be found.
Then I decided to buy a mayhem shirt. Got the white one with that werewolf thing on it and the tour dates on the back. Decided to go over to the Jager rail and when I turned around I saw a couple of my friends so I hooked up with them and we went over to watch Norma Jean.
Norma Jean-Not so bad. Bad when the guy tries to sing. But his screaming wasn't half bad. Got in on a circle pit which was fun. As I was leaving the pit a guy came barreling through and his shoulder blade hit my pelvis bone. Hurt like a bitch but it went away. It's still sore right now actually lol. 6/10
Jager band-I actually liked them a lot. Didn't get into the crowd and left early to get Rockstar with my friends, who thought they sucked. They were a death metal band that kinda sounded the same on each song. I didn't mind that too much because each song was good and they had a lot of energy. 7/10
Winds of Plague-Not a whole lot to say that others haven't said. I really liked them. Thought they, and Hatebreed were the best of the side stages that I watched. They had a lot of energy and I got in on my first wall of death ever which was fun. Fell down and my friend fell on top of me but I just grabbed someone and pulled myself up. Saw someone I work with and talked for a few seconds with him before he kinda got sucked away by the pit. Don't really think the keyboardist is that hot. 8/10
Shadows Fall-Watched them from the silver star stage cuz my friends and I were going to watch 3IOB. Thought they did pretty well but didn't see them up close so.....6/10
3 Inches of Blood-Had some good energy. Liked the songs but didn't like the singer's voice. Lots of crowd surfers and some good pits. 6/10
Chimaira-By this point I was too tired to do anything so my friends and I went over to the bathroom and then just sat down for awhile
Atreyu-On my way back to the side stages I stopped and bought the Hatebreed shirt that says "As Diehard as they Come" and "100% Authentic American Hardcore Metal" tour dates on the back. Didn't watch Atreyu but listened to them cuz I was walking around. Didn't think they were too bad. Kinda the same as when I saw them in '08 at Projekt Revolution. 6/10 since I didn't really watch them
Hatebreed-Friends decided to go get a spot on the rail which is a shame since they were missing Hatebreed and after Hatebreed I pushed my way through the crowd getting right behind them so they could have watched Hatebreed if they wanted to lol. Hatebreed was Hatebreed. Awesome. The whole crowd was constantly moving. The only time I wasn't jumping or being pushed on was when I moved closer to the stage but a little out to the right. Everything was spot on and they had a lot of energy. I loved hearing Destroy Everything and I Will Be Heard live. 10/10
In This Moment-Heard them as I was walking out. They suck. End of story. Maria isn't that hot and can't sing for her life. I took out my ear plugs because it wasn't loud anymore as I was walking away but her singing just pierced my ears as I was leaving. So glad I didn't watch them 0/10
Five Finger Death Punch-Went into the pit. Got close to the front, dead center but I saw my friends a little out to the left so I made my way over there and was behind them for FFDP and LOG. Honestly I thought these guys were pretty good. They have some good energy on stage and I liked the Bad Company cover. I can tell why people don't like them but I'll be checking them out more. 7/10
Lamb of God-Lots of fun. Everyone stayed in about the same spot but the show was loads of fun. Every song sounded great to me and Randy's vocals were spot on at my date. Had some good crowd interaction between songs. Didn't see any wall of death for Black Label, just a big pit, so I now know for myself that the DC area is full of LOG fan posers and just complete idiots who are only there for the mainstream bands and don't know old LOG songs. Took my friend's rail spot and saw a pick in the gutter. Asked the security guy to get it for me. He did but he threw it to me and it bounced off my shaking, tired hands and fell down into the gutter again. The guys behind me started booing and yelling, I lol'd. The guy got it and I thought he was just going to toss it somewhere else but he handed it to me. Thought it might be a FFDP pick but i checked the website and it was definitely a LOG pick but had no LOG logo on it. 10/10
Rob Zombie- Awesome show. Moved to a different spot so I could catch something, didn't but I got in a good spot for when Zombie ran through the crowd. He came down right in front of me and I just patted his arm as he was coming down. Everyone was reaching out for him. Loved the stage show and loved seeing the songs live 10/10
Korn-Letdown since Zombie and LOG did so well but they were still fun. Davis had some great energy. Moving around and sorta dancing like he does. Vocals were spot on. Glad I could hear the bass and all the instruments were great. I could have done without the drum solos. Could have added in a couple more songs like A.D.I.D.A.S. but oh well. I liked the stage setup a lot but it just didn't compare to Zombie's. Moved to Munky's side so I could catch a pick but he threw them to individual people on the rail instead of throwing a bunch in the air so I never caught one. I got to the rail as people were leaving and saw one in the gutter. As security went to get it they saw a box on it so they didn't get it. Said something like they don't move that box ever or whatever. I called BS but I didn't feel like arguing. Best part of the Korn show was when Davis put his bagpipes away and came out with the fire hose. Thinking he would shoot it right at us kinda freaked me out but he shot it at a good angle so he soaked the whole pit which cooled everyone down. Then they moved on to Got the Life (I think). 9/10
Show was fun overall. A lot of fun. Glad I went but next year I think I may hook up with my friends before the show so we all go over at once. If I hadn't gone to the Jager rail when I did I probably wouldn't have seen them the whole day because of the mass amounts of people at the show.
I'm not gonna write about every band, but overall today was a good day.
I liked Norma Jean.
2 bands I wanted to see didn't show.
Pits were a lot better than last year.
The lawn was closed off like last year, but there was a better attendance in the seats.
It was pouring pretty fucking hard, and it turned our grass in to mud. So, there were girls mud wrestling, dudes mud wrestling, and mud fights/throwing.
Got two shirts, the Hatebreed "as Diehard As They Come" tour shirt, and the mayhem tour shirt.
Got some fucking awesome chicken strips.
Got a dollar signed by Randy B. and Jasta. I wanted Randy to write, on the back of the dollar. the letter "B" on the left and his initials on the right so it'll would remotely look like the word "Boner" across. I saw Jamey smile at that one. Randy said "I like Toner better" and wrote t and r and signed the front and passed it to Jamey.
Comments
"Band 1: Okay, but I won't buy any albums
Band 2: Sucked, fuck them
Band 3: OMG THEY WERE FUCKING AMAZING I LOVE THIS BAND OMG FUCKSHIT FUCKFUCK
Band1: 5/10
Band2: 0/10
Band3: 11/10"
Granted, there's some middle ground there to work.
opening bands: First band Switchblade Suicide i only caught one song which was OK. Willgive them an incomplete. The Envy was OK. I managed to sit thru their set without vomiting. The Academay Is sucked ass. Decided to walk around instead of watching their set. Really horrid
KISS...awesome as always. Setlist:
Modern Day Delilah
Cold Gin
Let Me Go, Rock 'N' Roll
Firehouse
Say Yeah
Deuce
Crazy Crazy Nights
Calling Dr. Love
Shock Me
I'm An Animal
100,000 Years
I Love It Loud
Love Gun
Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover)
Black Diamond
Detroit Rock City
Encore:
Beth
Lick It Up
Shout It Out Loud
I Was Made For Lovin' You
God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II
Rock And Roll All Nite
6 song encores kick ass. Went past the 11PM curfew, so they might of got fined. Great 2 + hours of rock. Tommy still looks uncomfortable doing Ace's guitar solo, but Eric is awesome on the drums. High energy set and a lot of fun. KISS stillkicks ass live. It was my 10th time seeing them.
Didnt get out of the parking lot till after midnight. People are morons and have no idea how to follow signs...
Jk, glad you had a good time.
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.
Awesome night! Most of the bands were flat out awesome! Venue didn't allow cameras so no pics =(
Vital Remains- My favorite band of the night, for only performing three songs! When they perform Dechristianize, it's always perfect! They also performed Devoured Elysium and Hammer Down the Nails. The current line up is a strong line up and should be great for the next album. I talked to Scott Wily and he confirmed that Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and Vital will be doing a tour in the fall, look out for that! 10/10
Animals As Leaders- They were very impressive 9/10
Carnifex-was terrible 0/10
Decrepit Birth- If you have never seen this band live, Get TO IT! They know how to get a crowd going and the new album kicks ass! 9/10
Cephalic Carnage- funny as hell and are pretty much your typical grindcore band on stage, good shit though 8/10
Veil of Maya- eh 6/10
The Red Chord - eh 6/10
All Shall Perish - eh 6/10
The Faceless - officially the best deathcore band I've seen live! They're spot on and very entertaining to see! 8/10
Decapitated - not as good as I expected but wasn't paying too much attention because I was moshing the whole time. They performed almost everything from the latest album which was disappointing but at the end they performed Spheres of Madness! I love how all of the faggotry deathcore guys left before Decapitated went on, shows you that they have no appreciation for death metal. fuckin posers 8/10
merch I bought:
Decrepit Birth tour shirt and Polarity CD package - $30
Vital Remains shirt - $20
Psicosis - I'm jealous of you and everyone else that got to see Decrepit Birth on SS. I got right up front at the Ft Worth date of the tour getting ready for them only to find out they weren't going to play that night :P
Got there around 11:00 AM. Just a few people there when I was but around 12:00-12:30 many people showed up. I made my way to the line and lined up behind a trash can. 2 other groups did the same but everyone else just filed behind them so nobody was behind me. I lol'd because it was definitely a regular line. I then found out since I had presale I had to be in a different line because they were only using one to let presale people in early. Just merged my way through and everything was cool.
Went in and looked around for the Hatewear tent. Couldn't find it. Asked a guy at another tent. He thought I was a complete idiot. He just stared at me, didn't say anything, then said "Hatewear? You mean Hatebreed?". I was caught between saying, no, did I stutter? and just walking away but I said something like "No, the I love vagina/hatewear tent" and he did another one of those pauses and just said idk.
Walked around and looked at literally every tent, the hatewear tent must not have been there because I went to every spot in the venue looking for it and it was no where to be found.
Then I decided to buy a mayhem shirt. Got the white one with that werewolf thing on it and the tour dates on the back. Decided to go over to the Jager rail and when I turned around I saw a couple of my friends so I hooked up with them and we went over to watch Norma Jean.
Norma Jean-Not so bad. Bad when the guy tries to sing. But his screaming wasn't half bad. Got in on a circle pit which was fun. As I was leaving the pit a guy came barreling through and his shoulder blade hit my pelvis bone. Hurt like a bitch but it went away. It's still sore right now actually lol. 6/10
Jager band-I actually liked them a lot. Didn't get into the crowd and left early to get Rockstar with my friends, who thought they sucked. They were a death metal band that kinda sounded the same on each song. I didn't mind that too much because each song was good and they had a lot of energy. 7/10
Winds of Plague-Not a whole lot to say that others haven't said. I really liked them. Thought they, and Hatebreed were the best of the side stages that I watched. They had a lot of energy and I got in on my first wall of death ever which was fun. Fell down and my friend fell on top of me but I just grabbed someone and pulled myself up. Saw someone I work with and talked for a few seconds with him before he kinda got sucked away by the pit. Don't really think the keyboardist is that hot. 8/10
Shadows Fall-Watched them from the silver star stage cuz my friends and I were going to watch 3IOB. Thought they did pretty well but didn't see them up close so.....6/10
3 Inches of Blood-Had some good energy. Liked the songs but didn't like the singer's voice. Lots of crowd surfers and some good pits. 6/10
Chimaira-By this point I was too tired to do anything so my friends and I went over to the bathroom and then just sat down for awhile
Atreyu-On my way back to the side stages I stopped and bought the Hatebreed shirt that says "As Diehard as they Come" and "100% Authentic American Hardcore Metal" tour dates on the back. Didn't watch Atreyu but listened to them cuz I was walking around. Didn't think they were too bad. Kinda the same as when I saw them in '08 at Projekt Revolution. 6/10 since I didn't really watch them
Hatebreed-Friends decided to go get a spot on the rail which is a shame since they were missing Hatebreed and after Hatebreed I pushed my way through the crowd getting right behind them so they could have watched Hatebreed if they wanted to lol. Hatebreed was Hatebreed. Awesome. The whole crowd was constantly moving. The only time I wasn't jumping or being pushed on was when I moved closer to the stage but a little out to the right. Everything was spot on and they had a lot of energy. I loved hearing Destroy Everything and I Will Be Heard live. 10/10
In This Moment-Heard them as I was walking out. They suck. End of story. Maria isn't that hot and can't sing for her life. I took out my ear plugs because it wasn't loud anymore as I was walking away but her singing just pierced my ears as I was leaving. So glad I didn't watch them 0/10
Five Finger Death Punch-Went into the pit. Got close to the front, dead center but I saw my friends a little out to the left so I made my way over there and was behind them for FFDP and LOG. Honestly I thought these guys were pretty good. They have some good energy on stage and I liked the Bad Company cover. I can tell why people don't like them but I'll be checking them out more. 7/10
Lamb of God-Lots of fun. Everyone stayed in about the same spot but the show was loads of fun. Every song sounded great to me and Randy's vocals were spot on at my date. Had some good crowd interaction between songs. Didn't see any wall of death for Black Label, just a big pit, so I now know for myself that the DC area is full of LOG fan posers and just complete idiots who are only there for the mainstream bands and don't know old LOG songs. Took my friend's rail spot and saw a pick in the gutter. Asked the security guy to get it for me. He did but he threw it to me and it bounced off my shaking, tired hands and fell down into the gutter again. The guys behind me started booing and yelling, I lol'd. The guy got it and I thought he was just going to toss it somewhere else but he handed it to me. Thought it might be a FFDP pick but i checked the website and it was definitely a LOG pick but had no LOG logo on it. 10/10
Rob Zombie- Awesome show. Moved to a different spot so I could catch something, didn't but I got in a good spot for when Zombie ran through the crowd. He came down right in front of me and I just patted his arm as he was coming down. Everyone was reaching out for him. Loved the stage show and loved seeing the songs live 10/10
Korn-Letdown since Zombie and LOG did so well but they were still fun. Davis had some great energy. Moving around and sorta dancing like he does. Vocals were spot on. Glad I could hear the bass and all the instruments were great. I could have done without the drum solos. Could have added in a couple more songs like A.D.I.D.A.S. but oh well. I liked the stage setup a lot but it just didn't compare to Zombie's. Moved to Munky's side so I could catch a pick but he threw them to individual people on the rail instead of throwing a bunch in the air so I never caught one. I got to the rail as people were leaving and saw one in the gutter. As security went to get it they saw a box on it so they didn't get it. Said something like they don't move that box ever or whatever. I called BS but I didn't feel like arguing. Best part of the Korn show was when Davis put his bagpipes away and came out with the fire hose. Thinking he would shoot it right at us kinda freaked me out but he shot it at a good angle so he soaked the whole pit which cooled everyone down. Then they moved on to Got the Life (I think). 9/10
Show was fun overall. A lot of fun. Glad I went but next year I think I may hook up with my friends before the show so we all go over at once. If I hadn't gone to the Jager rail when I did I probably wouldn't have seen them the whole day because of the mass amounts of people at the show.
Mayhem tour shirt $25
Hatebreed tour shirt $25
I liked Norma Jean.
2 bands I wanted to see didn't show.
Pits were a lot better than last year.
The lawn was closed off like last year, but there was a better attendance in the seats.
It was pouring pretty fucking hard, and it turned our grass in to mud. So, there were girls mud wrestling, dudes mud wrestling, and mud fights/throwing.
Got two shirts, the Hatebreed "as Diehard As They Come" tour shirt, and the mayhem tour shirt.
Got some fucking awesome chicken strips.
Got a dollar signed by Randy B. and Jasta. I wanted Randy to write, on the back of the dollar. the letter "B" on the left and his initials on the right so it'll would remotely look like the word "Boner" across. I saw Jamey smile at that one. Randy said "I like Toner better" and wrote t and r and signed the front and passed it to Jamey.
Felt relieved after the shower i took.
8/10 day.