ROCKSTAR MAYHEM FESTIVAL: SLIPKNOT ARE THE NEW KISS, MASTODON AND MACHINE HEAD STILL OWN, AND WALLS OF JERICHO PROVE SURPRISINGLY EFFECTIVE
Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 11:53am by Axl RosenbergA very, very, VERY special thanks to Rosa Henriquez for the awesome photos. Now we’re that much closer to being like a real big kids’ website!
I think one of the things Slipknot’s fans love most about them is one of the very same qualities that their detractors so violently hold against them: their theatricality. I mean, these are nine dudes who dress up in matching outfits and wear “spooky” masks. The band’s members talk about death metal an awful lot, and, musically speaking, that influence is certainly present. But aesthetically, they belong to a line of bands like Kiss and Motley Crue. They’re showmen.
I’ve always found finding fault with Slipknot’s gimmick to be a little odd; I mean, metal is theatrical more often than it isn’t. Slipknot, like their aforementioned predecessors, certainly take it to new heights, but at the end of the day, I’m not convinced that the band’s routine is any less silly than corpse paint or, now that I think of it, giant beards (Although, in all fairness, giant beards are awesome.).
And the fact that Slipknot are so very theatrical is probably one of the reasons they’re now the headliners to this summer’s de facto Ozzfest, the Rockstar Mayhem Tour (which we saw on its Long Island stop at Nassau Coliseum on August 6). It’s not cheating to employ mechanical spinning stage risers and upside down drum solos and pyro and yadda yadda yadda when you have to play to dudes standing thousands of feet away. Our beloved Tool employ a laser light show for a reason – it’s a good way to keep the stoned dudes who couldn’t afford front row tickets entertained.
Slipknot have lost some of the anarchistic joy that came with their show when they played smaller venues; maybe it’s just because DJ Sid Wilson, who usually spends 90% of the show attacking other members of the band and hanging from whatever’s closet to him at any given moment, now sits in a wheelchair with not one but two broken heels, but the chaotic feeling of a live Slipknot show is now somewhat in absence. Still, there’s no denying that an arena stage fits the band well; older tracks like “Sic” and “People = Shit” have lost none of their edge, but more recent, hook-laden tracks, like “Duality” and “All Hope is Gone,” work incredibly well as sing-along anthems. And even if vocalist Corey Taylor still has a tendency to get winded really easily and consequently often resorts to the Vince Neil trick of just blending a few lyrics together in the general pattern of the melody, the band sounded tighter than they did when touring behind Vol. 3. This was a better closing performance than Ozzfest has had in ages.
Besides the ‘Knot, the highlights for the day were undoubtedly Mastodon and Machine Head. Alas, Mastodon aren’t debuting any material from their forthcoming album the way Slipknot did, but they proved almost surprisingly able to command a large stage; their jam band aesthetic loses nothing in translation. In fact, vocal-wise, Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds sounded better than I’ve ever heard them before.
As for MH, well, we only caught the end of their set, but they killed it, as usual. “Halo,” “Imperium” and “Davidian” provide everything you want from a metal show – raw rage expressed through demonic, evil riffs and larger-than-life choruses – and the band’s brute neanderthal energy serves the music well. I only wish we’d gotten to see more.
As for other bands on the second stage, everyone seemed to fare well. This was the first time we’ve managed to catch Suicide Silence live, and they’re already insanely adept at engaging the crowd; they somehow make screaming lyrics like “WHERE IS YOUR GOD? WHERE IS YOUR GOD? WHERE IS YOUR FUCKING GOD?” incredibly fun. 36 Crazyfists and Black Tide both seemed a little more schticky, but their fans didn’t seem to mind, and I guess that’s all that really matters.
The surprise winners for the day, though – besides, of course, Ladder Up an Ass – were Walls of Jericho. Special credit goes to front woman Candace Kucsulain, who elevated the band beyond being just another Slayerized-hardcore Hatebreed wanna-be; Kucsulian is charismatic and clearly a master at getting the crowd pumped up, and, as a result, not only did WOJ have the biggest pit we saw at the second stage all day, but she actually seemed to bring in the biggest crowd, as though she were magnetically attracting dozens of new fans every minute she was on stage. We may not be a fans of Walls of Jericho’s music, but they’ve certainly earned our respect.
Unfortunately, we were conducting interviews with various members of various bands during Disturbed and Dragonforce’s sets, so we can’t tell you much about how they fared compared to their peers. But, hey, here are some more awesome photos, courtesy Rosa Henriquez!
-AR
I sent Axl an email about Disturbeds set and I will glady reiterate how fucking terrible they are. Disturbed could be the worst band live I have ever seen. Ive been to over 20 shows and never witnessed a band that bad. Disturbed almost put me to sleep right on the arena floor. David Draimans act is a boring snoozefest of epic proportions. At one point in the show Draiman yelled out to the people sitting in the back of the arena in there seats claiming ” people shouldnt sit during a metal concert”. Maybe if Disturbed was a legitimate “metal band” people wouldnt have been sitting or sleeping… Aside from the fact that their music is beyond anything that resembles good metal, there stage presence was atrocious. I was at the show with a few friends who actually enjoy Disturbed and even they were surprised to see how bad they were.
Slipknot, Suicide Silence, and Machine Head were the standout bands of the day. Anyone else see Disturbed in the same light as me?
Yeah Disturbed is fucking terrible. As soon as their set started I went back to the bar. I caught their last 5 songs or so. I remember all that shit a couple months back about Dillenger Escape Plan talking about Disturbed’s stage cue’s. I noticed that terd Draimen do a stage cue like 3 times. I’m sure their show is exactly the same every night. I just couldn’t get over how many people were into them. As for the best bands of the day definately Slipknot, Machine fuckin’ Head, Suicidal Horse (Suicide Silence, I just call them that), and hellooooo did anyone happen to catch Kingdom of Sorrow?! They fuckin’ killed it! All in all a pretty sweet fuckin’ show. I just wish these festivals had cheaper prices. I spent $70 on booze alone. Oh and has anyone noticed that that fuckin’ terd David Draimen looks like that guy in the movie “The Machinist”? You know that guy with big toes for fingers.
as a musician i can tell you that being on a big stage is a lot worse than being on a small one. especailly at a metal show. its a different vibe going on when the band is seperated from the crowd. if i had to choose a perfect show it would be in a small club in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of kids moshing. but once you get big you dont get that feeling anymore so you cant blame them for losing that. to fill everybodys needs they need to play in arenas
and metal sucks has credibility how?>
Well I guess I was the only one impressed by Disturbed’s set. For a band I had no interest in seeing, they proved to put on a pretty damn good show.
DragonForce sounded like ass compared to the first time I saw them which was disappointing
Underoath tried far too hard to appeal to the heavy crowd by turning everything up obnoxiously loud…and they still didn’t appeal to anyone there except for me from what I could tell.
I got too bored to make it through Suicide Silence and Walls of Jericho because, quite simply, I can’t stand their music. 36 Crazyfists and Black Tide were good, but they got overshadowed. Machine Head DESTROYED. Mastodon was good, damn good, but no one there(in their own damn city no less) seemed into the band which was sad.
Slipknot were fucking insane.
*I completely forgot Airbourne and Five Finger Donkey Punch were even there…thankfully
OHHH YEEAAA Sweet and Sour I forgot about Kingdom of Sorrow. Maybe it was because they were the first band I saw. They def did kill it thats for sure. But the cues were spot on by Draimen. He stinks and so does his shitty band. And KYE maybe you should give Suicide Silence’s debut another listen. It fucking kills 90% of the shit that came out last year.
Wow. You actually wasted hard earned money on what turned out to be only a small number of watchable bands. %99 of the bands i want to see (Mastodon, MH, WoJ, Dragonforce), I could see for a cheeper price with better supporttng bands. And btw, disturd supporters/fans hate to break it to you but: Ben was right.
Now I have to be a dick again, RayRay, SweetnSourInc, you two are fucking retarded sheep, politely go fuck yourselves, I’ve seen Disturbed live, and barring vocal problems or acoustic problems, they perform quite well.
I love how these awful twits act like their bands don’t use cues, don’t have stage shows, don’t use lights, and don’t play to the audiences. They do, your bands are no different on stage, I’ve seen them perform, they just do crazy shit ALONG WITH their otherwise standard performances. As for Disturbed being terrible on this tour, I’ve seen videos of them performing at Rockstar Mayhem, and though I won’t get to go, the audiences were into it, so you two assholes are creating fantasy to suit your own delusional views.
Oh and I love the “even my friends who are Disturbed fans” line, who really fucking believes that here? Elitist assholes like these don’t have friends who are Disturbed fans.
Great read though, I love the “Unfortunately, we were conducting interviews with various members of various bands” you guys just can’t catch a break can you? Never there when Disturbed performs, you seem to be outside the area whenever Disturbed perform, heaven forbid you hear anything they’ve done since The Sickness eh?
Only caught the mainstage bands…Mastodon and Slipknot were great. Dragonforce was agony. Disturbed….god, they suck.
Yeah KYE, Suicidal Horse is effin’ nasty. And by the looks of your review Im surprised you said you didn’t like Five Fingerblasted Death Horse because they sound right up your alley. Underoath??? Gimme a break…
WHATS IT GONNA’ BE?
PULL THE TRIGGER BITCH!
RayRay declared: “Ive been to over 20 shows…”
Wow, you must be an excellent judge of live bands with that many shows under your belt. Pffffffttttttttttt.
@ Revrant: I’m sorry you’re so sad we were conducting interviews during Disturbed’s set. We were also conducting interviews during the sets of several bands we have spoken positively about here on MS; the scheduling of the interview times was, by and large, very much out of our hands (and I saw journalists from some pretty major media outlets conducting interviews in the press area during Disturbed’s set, so I know we’re not the only ones who missed seeing the band perform that night). Bottom line is, at a big fest like this, people are busy, it’s hard to get all the bands on the same page, and when the publicist/tour manager/whomever tells you it’s time to do the interview, it’s time to do the interview, and if you miss a set, you miss a set. If you want to get angry at someone b/c we didn’t get to see Disturbed play, get angry at the handlers for Underoath, Walls of Jericho and The Red Chord.
I’m not being sarcastic or snarky at all when I say that we love that you come here and express an opinion that is different from our own, and that, most of the time at least, you do so in an intelligent manner (we ourselves often resort to sophomoric insults, so I can’t really fault you there). But it’s silly of you to continue to rely on the argument that we allegedly haven’t heard anything since Disturbed’s first album. I can’t speak for everyone else here at MS, but I’ve heard the first three Disturbed albums in their entirety. I didn’t like them. You don’t like DEP. C’est la vie. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one.
Now, I admit that we could express that dislike as “Gee, I’m sure these are nice guys but we don’t like their music,” but obviously that’s not what we do here at MS.
-AR
Hey yoooo Revrant, eat cock buddy. Keep buying these dickheads cds and keep supporting their shitty music. Oh and we’re sheep, is that right? Your the fuckin’ sheep along with the rest of the retarded heard of shitheads who listen to this garbage. So either man up, move out of your mommy’s basement and listen to some real metal shit or wipe your tears away with your Disturbed Tour T and then hang yourself with it pussy.
You know what…this Revrant terd is probably David Draimen himself. Thats how fuckin’ awful he is.
I think Wayne may be another good example of reality distortion, but I can’t tell, their shows might have actually been lackluster that day.
fortheloveofdog: Right, I’ll be sure to ignore this guy from now on, oh twenty shows, me oh my, I’m fucking metal as hell.
Axl: Well that’s the thing, somehow you guys manage to continually miss them, and by the way, where are all these interviews you guys keep talking about? I demand interviews.
With my explosive debut around here, and considering a few posts mention specifically me, I kind of gathered you guys enjoyed the conflict, it can be pretty damned hilarious. You see, that’s where I’m going to continue banking on that argument, I’m glad you admitted you had only heard the first three otherwise – WHAT SOLOS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, ANYWAY?!?!?!?! – from the DEP v Disturbed article would look really shitty, stuff like that makes me continue to think you and Vince never seriously listened to the band.
Also, in retrospect, as the new album is chock full of guitar solos, he would likely be speaking of those along with the ones present in TTF, so being ignorant of that metal tidbit on a metal blog is also annoying. So that will continue to bother me and though you’ve tempered my opinion I will be looking out for that kind of stuff and calling you guys on it.
Hm, yes I know, you guys are the Engadget of metal blogs, you love the insults and “snarky” talk, and I do too, though unlike Engadget, I don’t think I’ll get banned for calling you on any kind of obvious bias. ;)
Sweetnsourinc: Wow, between those two replies is ten minutes, and that was just from laughing, this is why I keep coming back, when you get idiots like this posting shit that makes you laugh until you bleed – and that’s metal.
I’ll reply for kicks, though I usually just laugh at stupid comments. Eat a cock, Jesus, in some countries they do, and a country we call Fear Factor. I’ve bought every Disturbed CD the very day it came out, I’ll keep doing it, thanks for the support. Heard, *laughing*, “man up” man he’s just macho as hell isn’t he? I’ve listened to your “real metal” and it’s just “really” annoying, I don’t even own a band shirt, I’m not a banner ad or walking free marketing, you keep that all to yourself.
“terd”, this guy cracks me up, I couldn’t possibly be David, I’m not even bald, unless, a wig?! Gasp.
Kills me, haven’t laughed that hard in days.
I will admit, I liked the first Disturbed record. I was one of those people sitting down in the back, cause god fucking dammit I wanted to chill out after the past 6 hrs of headbanging. Didnt really appreciate being yelled at cause I wanted to sit for a second and enjoy my beer. For the record it never bodes well when you can predict a setlist for a band. Disturbed did nothing all that special, at least Slipknot played Prostecicts, something I havent seen since 2000, Every time I see them, its the same 4 songs from this, the same 4 songs from that. Plus I must have seen them about 7 times now and only once did I buy them as the headliner. (RIght after the first alblum came out). I think I have seen Disturbed use that ramp to the drum kit on the last 3 tours. It just seems that it’s a band not want to take chances, only to remain on what has worked in the past. My brothers, MY sisters, My blood. We are DISTURBED, We are DISTURBED. We ALL ARE………….all right we get it.
I had to agree with the above comment of I dont get how so many people are INTO them. LIke the floor went off when they hit the stage. I dont get it, guess I never will.
Ha, i guess Revrant is the Ultimate anti-trendsetter. “I don’t even own a band shirt, I’m not a banner ad or walking free marketing, you keep that all to yourself.” I bet you jerk-off to your own wall posts. Just take the self righteous bullshit somewhere else, nobody here cares.
Walker: Many bands don’t take chances, as experimental as Slipknot could be, they still aren’t as experimental as many of the bands they tour with, and like Disturbed, seek to just better what they’re best at instead of change.
It’s a weakness and a strength, like an definitive direction a musical act takes.
Bomb: I’m the ultimate do-what-the-fuck-I-want without having people tell me what is and what isn’t, you could say I’m openly defiant in some ways. I’ll assume “wall posts” is your weird term for comments, cute insult though, as for self righteous, well that would be what? Someone like Rush Limbaugh? Yeah, I’ve never lorded my opinion over someone, I’ve engaged in plenty of polite debate and discussion here, try reading more of the comments.
Also, learn the meaning of a word before trying to insult someone with it, just a friendly tip. As for nobody caring, that’s sort of ironic of you, considering you’re posting directly in response, so you have to care to some extent, eh?
All of us Tr00 headbangers here on metalsucks need to do one thing. Ignore the Disturd fanboy. Let Vince and Axl talk and deal/make fun of him. Dont waste anymore time or comment space on him. Much like christians and emos, hell eventually just stop talking.
Revrant………..what….the….fuck??? in every post you type like a fucking novel haha. the only reason i read your comments are because there funny and dumb. it’s cool that you like disturbed don’t get me wrong but they do suck..but thats just me and almost everyone here. and for as long as i’ve been checking this site no one seems to agree with you or like you. you type waaaay to fucking much and your too smart. the metal nerd is right but i didnt read his comment till i was this far so ima keep typing..o yea and back when dep and disturbed were in that “feud” thing a majig that was me as the name of xRevrantsxGayx…yeaaaaaa haha…hope that all made sense..
I cannot believe how many of the “so-called” metalheads like or can even stand Slipknot. There is only one good member of the band, Joey the drummer. The rest of the 9 just suck at life entirely. Im not even sure how anyone can consider that Nu-metal shit to be any kind of metal.
With Dragonforce, they are fake. Sure their music is good speed metal, but if they could actually play their solo’s, it would be alot more enjoyable to me. Knowing im listening to posers just kinda ruins part of it for me.
Rev isnt smart. Just long winded. I will say that yeah, while bro-champ is annoying he does a fairly respectable job of defending his tastes, while the lot of us just revert to being the cave men we really are. Now then, About that Dragonforce comment, they arent fake, they just put too much effort into the studio and cant reproduce it live. Unlike TDEP, who mostly do. *sigh* Whats really sad is I actually turned down buttsex to come here. She NEVER lets me do that. wtf is wrong with me?!
The Red Chord is still the best band on this tour
Why the fuck is everyone ignoring them?
At least MetalInjection has the sense to ignore every band BUT them
Just a bunch of shit talkers… Go make music, and the real deal please. Fuck Off
I love the term “Tr00 headbangers”, laughed pretty hard at that nonsense, sounds like a twelve year old behind it.
Chris: Yeah, yet you don’t see me nitpicking people for their complete inability to type, more so their complete inability to express anything worth reading, if I can’t laugh at them or engage them in discussion, I might as well have skipped their comment. You would do well to actually read some of the posts, quite a few have agreed with me to some extent about various things, though never fully, in the past.
Geek, no idea who “bro-champ” is, though thanks for another pathetic attempt at insulting me, I’m sure everyone is getting a kick out of your inability to express a damned thing. Oh, and the machismo of having a gf and not fucking her, and then being all pissed off, we see right through that crap, you can just, keep that in a DEP song, MS doesn’t give a shit about that.
u didnt need to mention the chirstian thing emo i understand. but im chirstian and i listen to machine head etc. no need to bash relgion here. ok
I think it’s an undeniable fact that Disturbed was boring as fuck, at least on this tour. I used to be into them around the time of Believe (i was in jr. high) and if not for them I probably wouldn’t be here or into any metal at all. so I do have a bit of respect for them, and they let me down with their mild performance. Plus for some reason seeing them in a live setting made me fully realize how much all their songs sound exactly the same… anyways enough about disturbed. Machine fucking head KILLED was by far the best band of the day and I’m so glad they were on the second stage because the big stage really crippled mastodon’s show for me, although they were better than ever performance wise.
Also, although I can’t say I really like five finger death punch, they were pretty fun. or at least their pit was.
steal: As for the undeniable fact, no, I’ve seen videos of them performing on this tour, people got into it, if you mean their mosh pit wasn’t as extreme, then yeah, obviously.
Metal Lives is a tool.
dudes r u sayin metal sucks!! oh so i suppose you like POP?? fuck pop! metals awesome and so is slipknot!