Loading ...It wasn’t beyond me and buddies of mine to all pile into a truck and drive out of this state to go see our favorite bands live. Camden, New Jersey one of the most “dangerous cities in America”, and they are actually trying to bring in drunken metal heads from all of the region. With two second stages - The Jaegermeister Stage and the Hot Topic Stage, the music was nonstop and building up to a great finale (Disturbed followed by Slipknot). Here’s a review of the bands I was able to get a good listen to and my experience:
Second Stage -
Five Finger Death Punch - Though Slipknot was the main stage, this was the band I came to hear. 5FDP did not disappoint, rocking the house with every powerful, bass-blasting song. It was more than disappointing when The Bleeding, the band’s first single and staple of their concert, was over. The pits were great and vocalist Ivan Moody works a crowd with the best of them. Most importantly, it’s obvious he enjoys what he does and firing a Super soaker into the crowd just makes the experience all the more better. (Yes, I got his right in the face with it)
36 Crazyfists - Honestly, I was not excited to hear them. I listen to a few of their songs, but I thought they were going to be punky and mediocre live, and thank God I was wrong. Once the various circle pits all got morphed into one huge one, things really got crazy. (There was even an all-girl pit - imagine that). Leading with “Let’s Go, Flyers” chants, 36 Crazyfists exceeded my expectations.
Machine Head - I was not able to get into the crowd for most of their songs, as they came on relatively late and I was on my way to the mainstage for a good spot. I heard the first half of their set, and it was amazing. They sound great live and blew away their studio sound.
Walls of Jericho - It was hard to migrate through all the people after 36 Crazyfists to get to their set, but from what I heard without the bass blasting my ears out they had a good set. I haven’t listened to their studio albums and I wasn’t able to get a feel in the crowd, but the music was enjoyable.
Main Stage - To understand, you have to know I was very disappointed in Dragonforce - not too disappointed, as I didn’t have high expectations of them.
Mastodon - An odd first band for the mainstage, as I thought they’d definitely be in front of Dragonforce. They played a great set and their songs came off clean.
Dragonforce - For all you Guitar Heroes who are frustrated cause you can’t play “Through the Fire and Flames”, don’t worry - they can’t either. From the sound of it, they could barely fire on all cylinders once they got outside of the studio and, with all other songs on the set, they proved their music is more about being faster than you at guitar than making that speed sound good. Their songs lack a certain quality that every other band at Mayhem brought, and I thought 5FDP should have replaced them on the main stage, with Dragonforce’s band members in the audience taking notes rather than on stage.
Disturbed - Wheeling vocalist David Draiman out on a handtruck with a Hannibal Lecter mask and a straight jacket on came over me as a funny and original idea. They came right out of the gates firing with single “Inside the Fire” and the band got increasingly better until peaking around the middle of their set, where they seemed to lose a certain amount of punch to their songs. Near the end they got it back and finished off stronger than they started with “Down With the Sickness” wrapping up the set.
Slipknot - The main band, and fro good reason. Unleashing their newest single “Psychosocial” was amazing, as vocalist Corey Taylor’s clean singing sounded better than the studio version. The band played old favorites like “Wait and Bleed”, “People = Shit”, “(sic)”, and, of course, “The Heretic Anthem” and I was forced by my metal side to go into the pits during the band’s third song “Before I Forget”, which got my adrenaline pumping live. The crowd begged for an encore after the long set and it got it, and Slipknot went out with the fan’s begging for a second encore. A fantastic set. DJ Sid was wheeled out in a wheelchair after breaking both his legs in a previous show and, being the great guys they are, he was dumped out of the chair in the middle of the stage and forced to crawl to his spot. In true Slipknot fashion, drummer Joey Jordison thrashed his set on what would later be revealed as a broken ankle.
Experience and music - 9.5/10