Mayhem Festival

Mayhem Festival
8/12/2009
Event Rating: ★★★½☆
Venue: Cruzan Amphitheatre – West Palm Beach, FL
Presented by: Live Nation

Oh, Mayhem Festival, a night of insane guitar riffs and gratuitous head banging. The night opened on the main stage with Welsh metal heads, Bullet for My Valentine. The four rockers put on a good show headed by front man Matt Tuck. The guy’s really know how to crank those break neck riffs which, by the way, are the most visually engaging thing about the band, they’re almost hypnotic. Visually, the setup was quite well done with a ridiculous amount of speakers and amps encasing the band while their album cover for, “Scream, Aim, Fire” was displayed on a huge tarp in the background. Speaking of sound, I was quite glad to see Matt’s distinct voice translates quite well live and isn’t just a by-product of recording studio filters. Overall, the band put on a solid show and closed out their set with the latest single; Scream, Aim, Fire.

Following Bullet for My Valentine, Massachusetts metal heads, Killswitch Engage stormed the stage opening up with, “My Last Serenade.” Killswitch played it by the book with their set list and it definitely wasn’t a bad thing. All the big singles were there and really helped the crowd “engage” with the band. On a side note, Howard seemed to genuinely want to be there. During the entire set, he had this grin laced to his face of just pure enjoyment which I found rather genuine. Killswitch was definitely the most personable band out of the four I saw. Guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz is all showmen. He had his vintage short shorts on, and crazy on-stage antics that really brought a great element of fun to the show, though his overuse of repeating the band’s name did wear a little bit. He called for a “wall of death” which led to the demise of an inflated energy drink can.

The set design for the band was quite well done. A huge metal grate platform with video surrounded the band that was able to be walked on as well, flames also shot out every now and then Killswitch Engage put on a great show and really showed that they deserve the immense popularity they have received over the past few years.

On next, were metal legends; Slayer. Remember how I called Bullet’s guitars riffs almost hypnotic? With Slayer, they’re chaotically mesmerizing. The instrumental prowess these California metal heads possess is ridiculous. They know their instruments like the back of their hands and it shows. The band had a crazy lights show with plenty of pyrotechnics that with the music, I wasn’t sure would either melt my face or summon Satan. Joking aside, the band put on a solid show though there was one negative. As good as the band is instrumentally, the music overshadowed Tom Araya’s vocals, as to whether this was due to illness or poor setup, I couldn’t tell, but it did take away a bit away from the show. The band put on a no-nonsense show with blistering instrumentals that really electrified the audience.

The headliner of the night was, of course, the infamous Marilyn Manson. Manson’s show has become quite the production. The music is there but the showmen in Manson for costume changes and set design has become quite prevalent. An American flag hung across the back of the stage with an encircled bolt and various light stands stood across the stage. The man definitely knows how to use light and smoke machines to their fullest extent. At the start of show, he burst onto to the stage wearing a trench coat with words, “Hell etc.” draped across the back. Manson was quite energetic though his vocals fell a bit short. Overall, Manson put on a decent show but a bit more was expected.

Reviewed by: Justin Roach

Tags: Adam Dutkiewicz, Aim, Bullet for My Valentine, Cruzan Amphitheatre, Fire, Howard, Justin Roach, Killswitch Engage, live nation, Marilyn Manson, Matt Tuck, mayhem festival, metal, music, music reviews, My Last Serenade, review, ROCK, Scream, slayer, themo, themo.org, Tom Araya, wall of death, West Palm Beach, www.bulletformyvalentine1.com/, www.killswitchengage.com/, www.livenation.com/, www.marilynmanson.com/, www.slayer.net/