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Mayhem Festival hits harder note at Verizon
Written by Robert Herrington
Thursday, 14 August 2008


Looks can be deceiving and sounds can be misleading. This was especially true at the inaugural Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival at Verizon Wireless Music Center Wednesday.


Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor, also known as No. 8, sings the lyrics to
“The Blister Exists” as the band co-headlines the inaugural Rockstar Energy
Mayhem Festival at Verizon Wireless Music Center Wednesday. All band members
wear homemade masks and matching jumpsuits when performing live.
Robert Herrington

No polo shirts were worn by the crowd – black was the color of choice for most (if they wore a shirt). Spiked or dyed hair and tattoos were the “it” accessory instead of expensive wristwatches, shoes or handbags. And none of the musicians on stage looked like they shaved that day, or for several days.

But no matter how it looks to the outside world, inside Verizon it didn’t matter what one was wearing, or not wearing, as long as the music invoked some emotion and your hand made the horns sign and was thrown into the air as a symbol of applause.

The hardcore sound could be construed as turbulent, overly loud noise with incomprehensible screaming to untrained metal ears. Three stages, which all had Grammy nominated or award-winners playing on them, played host to a metal buffet of 14 bands.

The three stages also contained four bands – Machine Head, Mastodon, The Red Chord and Slipknot – considered pioneers in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, a mixture of hardcore punk, trash metal, groove metal, metalcore, death metal and melodic metal.

On the Jagermeister side stage, Machine Head headlined. The four-person band, which features two guitars, a bass guitar and a double-drum, enthralled the audience as the last side stage act before the three main stage artists played with their intense, aggressive and inescapable sound. The quartet’s 2007 single “Halo,” which features several guitar solos, was a definite crowd pleaser.

The interaction with the crowd overflowed for several artists during Wednesday’s Mayhem Festival. Both 36 Crazyfists and Airbourne’s lead singers got up close and personal with their fans. 36 Crazyfists Brock Lindow jumped from the stage over the security pit to crowd surf and with security guards trying to catch up, Airbourne’s Joel O’Keeffe ran around the metal barriers to perform a guitar solo in the middle of a mosh pit.

Of all the groups, Disturbed possess the most radio singles with 15. The Chicago-based band is also considered the least metal of the Mayhem artists – most, including Disturbed, would classify their genre as hard rock and not heavy metal due to their more melodic songs.

During their hour-long set, Disturbed packed a musical punch mixing four songs off 2008’s Indestructible with classic singles – “Perfect Insanity,” “Liberate,” “Just Stop,” “Voices,” “Indestructible,” “Prayer,” “Stupify,” “Ten Thousand Fists,” “The Game,” “Inside the Fire” and “Stricken.” The lone non-radio hit included in the band’s set was “Criminal.”

“Evidently, the entire state of Indiana is infected with the sickness,” lead singer David Draiman told the audience.

Ending with “Down with the Sickness,” Disturbed concluded its stage time with one of its heavier, more aggressive tracks. Continuing the heavier sound was Mayhem co-headliner Slipknot, known for its attention-grabbing image – the members wear matching uniform jumpsuits and homemade masks and aside from their real names, are referred to by numbers zero through eight.

Other Mayhem Festival artists included Dead Broke, Walls of Jericho, Five Finger Death Punch, Suicide Silence, Black Tide, Underoath and Dragonforce.