Merry Mayhem

I know I don’t seem like a “metal-head” and to be honest, I’m not. But coming from Mayhem fest made me think “No, I really don’t want to be a metal-head”. Let me explain, I came to this concert wanting to see two bands, Mastodon, who in my opinion, are the kings of thrash metal right now, and Slipknot. Well I got there just in time to see Mastodon play. They got a bad crowd and a bad time slot for a band that is better than everyone else on the lineup. They played for forty five minutes and played material from Blood Mountain and Leviathan, that’s all. The bass overrode all the other sounds, including vocals, but they rocked it, and everyone paying attention to them knew how good they were and why they were on the main stage. Afterwards, I high tailed it to the merchandise booth to buy a reasonably priced Mastodon shirt to add to my endless collection. Little did I know how bad the second stages were going to be.

I walked around for about an hour because I couldn’t find my uncle/buddy, so I got a chance to check out the other stages. Underoath was wrapping up their set which seemed lame. I caught the last three songs, but to be honest, I didn’t know where one ended and began, they all sounded the same and they sucked. After watching their sad set, Machine Head took a stage, I caught their first two songs, but that was enough for me. Nothing ground breaking, just hard rock for your typical metal chow crowd, mindless and boring. I couldn’t take it anymore, I was done.

I made my way back to the main stage where my uncle showed up and we waited and sat through the worse band of the night, Dragonforce. Dragonforce aren’t just bad, they’re something that’s way worse than bad, if that’s possible. Bad Maiden styled riffs and a bad lead singer, but that’s not the worst part, they have a keyboardist. Now, I like a little electro in my music, but this was sad. When the keyboardist wasn’t dancing around like an idiot, he was playing a keytar. No kidding, an actual keytar. I could not take them serious and I really hope this band just disappears or has trouble coming over the states again. They also referred to Beethoven’s Fifth as “gay”.

Disturbed was up next and I was already tired of them. I used to like this band, but they’re bland, blander than bland. Every song has the same formula and it just doesn’t work after three sub par albums. The lead singer came out in full Hannibal Lectar garb complete with mask, jumpsuit, straight jacket and stretcher. Yes it was that ridiculous. I’d seen this bad twice before when they toured for their last album and nothing’s changed. They say the same things they said last time and it was the same basic set list but with a couple of new songs thrown in. NEXT!

Slipknot came on last and killed it. Yes the masks and jumpsuits are goofy, and yes lyrically they’re not good, but heavy is heavy and Slipknot is heavy done right. They played some hits, and some rarities (Prosthetics ruled!) and they played their new song, Psychosocial, which is pretty decent. I loved every minute of their set, including Duality, Before I Forget, The Heretic Anthem, and People = S*it. They were full of energy and great to the crowd and didn’t let down. They were worth the price of admission alone.

Between the hot weather, the obnoxious, overweight, ugly woman right and back of me, and the horrible smell of pot, it was a good show. Definitely not my crowd, but I saw two bands I really enjoy and carry on the true spirit of rock. I wouldn’t recommend this show to everyone, but if you enjoy listening to a good number of the bands and have the money, go for it. Just be sure to check out Slipknot (obviously) and Mastodon who are the best thrash band this side of ‘80’s Metallica.