While this is a lovely topic, I think it's time for me to give my little review of Mayhem Festival.
Lots of drunk people. Lots of strange smells (my aunt pointed out pot, which I didn't recognize.) Lots of women not wearing much. Lots of foul language. So, the attendees were pretty much as I'd expected them, right down to a few fights occurring during the course of the day.
I ended up going to four bands in their entirety, and listened to few others from a distance.
First up, we stood towards the back of crowd for Five Finger Death Punch. "Fuck" sums up the lead singers vocabulary when addressing the crowd quite nicely. Some woman screamed "white power" when he initiated a moment of silence for the troops and he got seriously pissed at her. The music itself was... pretty screamy at times, but the singing was decent, and they had good guitar work. The Bleeding stood out as being a pretty good song. All in all, a good way to start actually going to specific bands.
Short break for my friend and aunt to eat (I didn't want to waste the time due to the next band we were seeing). I went to Airbourne while they were still eating and got pretty close to the front. They were a large part of why I was there - Aussies, reminiscent of AC/DC and Kix. Ended up seeing my friend's older brother when I got there. The music? YES. SO GREAT. Great stage antics - beer and Jägermeister a-plenty, lots of jumping. The vocals were so good live, and the instruments were all excellent. Lots of love for Runnin' Wild in particular, though the whole performance was just awesome. The fact that I can't definitively call them the best part of the day speaks of how great the main stage bands were.
Then I went and inhaled a chili dog, and we went to our pretty good main stage seats for the main reason my friend came - Dragonforce. Let me start by saying that yes, the guitar playing really DOES sound like that live. Incredible power metal guitar, complete with theatrical leaping strums, and the keyboardist was fun to watch too. Awesome how well Herman and Sam play in sync together, really incredible to see it up on stage. Vocals were, sadly, a bit weak and drowned out - ZP Theart's voice is tragically underused, as much as I love the band as a whole. Song selection was solid too - Through the Fire and the Flames is overplayed for sure, but fun to see in action. They also played Heroes of our Times, a new single that's coming with their new album on the 26th, Ultra Beatdown, and was probably the best song they played. I say this because they didn't play either of my two favorites, but it does make me hopeful for the new album. Great performance overall, shame they only had 40 minutes on stage.
The last band we stayed for was one of the two bands that the tour was really highlighting, and an old favorite of mine - Disturbed. An old favorite of my friend, aunt, and myself, ever since Down with the Sickness. Utterly amazing live performers. Draiman, the lead singer, was as intense as the bright light of a thousand suns. Such a cool voice, and his crazy cackle/howl/yell thing seriously sounds just like that live. So incredible to hear live, and really the highlight of the band's performance. The guitarist was also excellent, nailed all the solos just right. They played tons of their best songs; Down with the Sickness, Land of Confusion, Prayer, and a few others including my personal favorite, Voices. So much win.
Left before Slipknot went on; none of us really cared for 'em, so no big loss, though I kinda wanted to see the masks in person.
So yeah, really happy I went, totally worth the time and money put into it. Got a cool shirt with a skull that had axes and saw blades behind it, all rust colored.
Oh, and on the way out there was a big stand with anime merchandise. Uh... ended up walking out with a Christina Sierra figure, and two little round buttons; a Geass, and Renji. My friend bought a half dozen buttons, an Asuka figure, and a Crossbone Gundam master grade model. We are such incredible geeks, though at least I still spent more on my shirt than on animu.
