Monday, July 14, 2008
One-third the crowd, three times the mayhem
Review: While turnout is low, the inaugural Mayhem Festival sharpens the Ozzfest formula with relevant performers.
By NIYAZ PIRANI
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER


SUN, SWEAT AND DUST: Fans brave the heat and dust of the side stage area during the Mayhem festival in Devore on Sunday.

KELLY A. SWIFT, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER


Two horns up to Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos creator Kevin Lyman as his first attempt at throwing a metal festival was a successful one.

For years Lyman has organized punk, emo and hardcore shindigs, but the summer metal market had always been owned by the power couple of darkness, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.

Until now, that is.

With Ozzfest loosing much of the swagger and star power it had in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was high time a competitor came into the ring. Enter Lyman's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Tour which tore through Glen Helen Pavilion in Devore on Sunday touting a lineup of relevant performers (no Ozzy puppet show here) ready to shred the eardrums of any willing to listen.

And while the attendance was nearly a third of what Ozzfest has pulled at the same venue in years past, those who came to rock were readily prepared.

Fistfights and fires on the lawn became standard behavior Sunday night as the tattooed and sunburned crowd was ignited by an aural beatdown helmed by the nine-member Slipknot.

The band, readying its fourth full-length "All Hope is Gone" for an August release, hit the stage ready to remind the crowd what the outfit is all about.

All nine members, masked and in matching coveralls, gave their fans (referred to lovingly as "maggots) a career retrospective from the band's roots ("Prosthetics" and "Surfacing") to the new single "Psychosocial."

Lead singer Corey Taylor, here fashioned as a macabre Crash Test Dummy, stuck to the center of the stage, barking out lyrics, while seven of the eight other members created as much noise as possible with samples, marching drums and a beer keg slammed repeatedly with a baseball bat.

Typically animated DJ Sid Wilson was the only one unable to move around with his band mates. He sat in a wheelchair behind his turntables because he broke both heels while jumping off a stage riser at the tour's first stop in Washington – he refused to stop touring, however.

Guitarists Mick Thompson and Jim Root were in top form here too, churning out blazing solos, but drummer Joey Jordison, with his thunderous double-kick and hyperspeed kit pounding was the star of the show.

While the band stayed away from revealing too much new stuff, the older material got a little sprucing up. "Heretic Anthem," "Duality" and "The Blister Exists" were highlights from this renewed unit.

Disturbed, which played second to Slipknot, found itself in the same position – ready to play new tunes from the recent "Indestructible," yet needing to satiate the crowd with favorites from the past.

The Chicago quartet did both perfectly. The record's title track was a potent take on the band's lasting nu-metal and the back-to-back onslaught of "Prayer" and "Stupify" was met with a flood of pumped fists from nearly all in attendance.

Power metal got its spot on the lineup too with a performance from English act Dragonforce. The band, which may have two of the fastest guitarists to ever play the instrument, is obviously technically skilled, but the sextet's formulaic songwriting tends to blur its set into one long, high-pitched guitar solo after another.

Before the sun went down, strong showings from small stage acts proved better than the average second-stage Ozzfest fare.

Riverside grindcore pushers Suicide Silence and female-led metalcore-makers Walls of Jericho had standout sets, but it was Atlanta thrash group Mastodon, which opened the main stage, that made the most noise from the pile of rising bands.

Mastodon omitted the epic "Sleeping Giant," instead running through the most aggressive material from its acclaimed third concept record "Blood Mountain."

Ozzfest may have been reduced this year to a single-day event to be held in August in Dallas, but the rumor is that the venerable metal giant will return to the road in 2009.

Hopefully, Lyman and his team can keep the Mayhem going until then – maybe a little competition will keep both promoters pushing to top each other to the benefit of metalheads nationwide.


Check Out The Slideshow! http://www.ocregister.com/slideshow/rockstar-mayhem-tour-2093214-review-devore?pos=0