Finally after a long, hot day it was KORN’s turn to play. I was interested to see how they would be received by the crowd of varying tastes. They certainly are great enough to headline this type of show, but even though they transcended “nu-metal” long ago they are still guilty by association to some modern metal fans. While my tastes have certainly changed in the ten years since I last saw them live, I have remained impressed with their musical output. As the lights went down for the last time of the day their massive stage was revealed. Never a political band in their career, their entire set was fashioned into an oil refinery complete with burning wells, drums and pipelines. This also also the theme of their new album’s artwork. They started playing right away and to my mild surprise most of the venue was into it. “Right Now” was a great choice to open with as the song is brutal, uptempo and had everybody in the place moving. Saying little to the crowd and blasting through cool renditions of “Here to Stay” and “Did My Time” KORN definitely kept the energy high. There were definitely a few hecklers that hung around to diss them and I don’t understand why they would. Why not just beat the traffic home? However, just like last year when MARILYN MANSON totally upstaged SLAYER in the face of boos, KORN took no prisoners and they owned the night anyway. After addressing the crowd lead singer Jonathan Davis introduced their first new song of the night “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)”. Fitting right in with their older material, the song went over big with the entire place joining Davis in his anguished wail for the chorus.

Sixteen years into KORN’s career Davis still rocks the track suit, still has the sick HR Geiger microphone stand and still delivers as one of the best singers ever in heavy music. Whether it’s rapping, singing, screaming, crying or bringing the deathly growls, Davis is a true artist. He is joined by remaining founding members Fieldy on bass and Munky on guitar. Between his Les Claypool inspired rhythmic thunks, great stage presence and his tuneful bass work, Fieldy is the heart and soul of the band. Munky now shoulders a lot of the playing and singing responsibility since Brian “Head” Welch departed a while back. The band is also joined by backup musicians Shane Gibson on second guitar and Zac Baird on keyboards, samples and additional vocals.

“Falling Away From Me” was introduced with a beautiful piano melody by Gibson before the entire band kicked in with that haunting, memorable riff. Another song from fan-favorite album Issues (Epic) was “Somebody Someone”. The track built to a slow boil and contrasts between a super funky baseline and a cool vocal line. The ending and has a crushing, dirge-like quality to it that I just love. Drummer Ray Luzier is truly a beast and really killed with his performance on this song. With his little mop of blond hair and his crazy, alternating over-handed stick style he kind of looks like Animal from The Muppet Show. He played a two-minute solo at the end of the song that was nuts and the crowd loved it.
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Coming to the stage next was the shoehorned into the line-up AVENGED SEVENFOLD who played this date of the tour to celebrate the release of their new record Nightmare (Warner Bros). Based on what the band has been through with the death of their best friend/drummer/mastermind Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan you knew it would be an emotional show for them and their fans. There were definitely some holdouts and haters of their presence, perhaps some old schoolers not wanting to forget that the bands’ beloved “devilbat” mascot was stolen from the mighty OVERKILL. Nonetheless, during the day I noticed many homemade band shirts and bought ones too, many of them tributes to The Rev. As the lights went down the biggest crowd reaction of the entire day was heard by this force of fans who also along to every song of the set. The curtain dropped and the band played “Nightmare” on an impressive stage set that included a giant drum riser, walls of amps and tons of pyro flames, bombs and what seemed like giant roman candles.

Musically speaking my first reaction the band was how much heavier they sounded live than on their records. “Critical Acclaim” showed off the strong musical chops of the band, Synyster Gates on lead guitar in particular and singer M. Shadows very impressive vocal range. Sitting in The Rev’s drum throne for the new album and tour is DREAM THEATER’s Mike Portnoy. Every time he was shown on the video screen a cheer went up and he appreciated it. Portnoy kept it simple on the kit and faithful to the man he was sitting in for. Another new song, “Welcome to the Family” and the rocking “Beast and the Harlot” help to illustrate that A7X is more of a hard rock band now with some occasional metal parts like a lot of millennial era bands. I often think of their sound as what GUNS`N ROSES could have sounded like today if they never fell apart. The did new song “Buried Alive” was another tribute to Sullivan and they replaced their backdrop with huge picture of him which was really touching. Closing out with their hardest two songs of the night “Unholy Confessions” and “Almost Easy” they thanked the fans for sticking by them, hugged, bowed and off they went.
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Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA

Sadly I had to miss THREE INCHES OF BLOOD as the third stage finale in order to make it for the rest of the main stage on time. They are always a fun band to hear if you like power metal so check them out if you ever have the chance. Hopefully next year Mayhem will coordinate the stages just a little bit better. Usually they are the best I’ve ever seen at this stuff As the main stage area filled up following the end of FFDP and people were filling in something funny happened. Three Oompa-Loompas right out of Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory took the stage and danced around to music. First they danced to their theme music, but then a rap version of the song played and it was really hilarious!

Once the intro music to “The Passing” came on it was time for LAMB OF GOD to take center stage and the fun and games were over. Randy Blythe wasted no time roaring the lyrics to opener “In Your Words” into the microphone and letting everyone know they came for blood. Using the same staging as their last club tour and essentially the same set list from last fall when they opened for METALLICA, LoG was ready to unleash a can of whup-ass on their fans. Next came the thrash and groove of “Set to Fail” with its relentless pace and beats. As a result of graduating to bigger stages recently they took full advantage of the big production that Mayhemfest allows. Randy prowls the scene like a psychopath while the rest of the band also plays to the entire crowd like arena veterans.

Taking a second between songs to give props and name check all of the prominent Massachusetts based bands like SHADOWS FALL, ALL THAT REMAINS, UNEARTH, SEEMLESS (RIP), THE ACACIA STRAIN and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE was a nice way for Randy to thank the bands and fans for creating a good scene here. He then invited everyone to “Walk With Me In Hell”! As the highlight piece of the set the razor sharp riffs grooved and had everybody in the place head-banging. Tremendous riffing by Mark Morton et all here led to not only the best moshing in the pit area, but also behind me on the lawn. After plowing quickly through their hits “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For”, “Laid to Rest” and the scorching “Redneck” the set was fast coming to a close. Even though they always seem to close with “Black Label” I am always really psyched to hear it. The crushing ending and the now played out “wall of death” mosh part (three other bands did it earlier in the day) is now expected of them. It was over way too soon, but it was a great show and similar to SLAYER last year, some people left when LoG were done. I suppose that is as big a sign of respect as any these days.
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