As the sun set on Ozzfest, Knotfest arrived and The Carnival of Chaos continued….
And on the Sunday night Main Stage (honorably named “The Lemmy Stage”), chaos certainly did reign… The Gremlins were hard at work making sure that nothing really ran smoothly. At the 3:30 expected start time, the stage was still littered with Slayer’s gear and an extended Soundcheck of Paul Bostaph’s drums led to a delay in the start time for Main Stage openers, Motionless in White. After approximately an hour delay, the Goth-Metal band took to the stage. This ended up a large benefit to the band as this allowed a lot more of the audience time to funnel into the amphitheater.
MOTIONLESS IN WHITE
As a result most of the following acts played truncated sets to make up for the delay. Trivium were up next followed by Anthrax who were plagued by technical difficulties prior to their set. Although the band looked and sounded amazing, their stage time was noticeably shorter than expected and hopefully Joey Belladonna’s promise of a “For All Kings” headline tour next year will make up for the shorter set. During the set Joey pulled an unsuspecting photographer from the wings of the stage to get a couple of crowd shots. (Said photographer is better known as the lead singer of Lamb of God, Randy Blythe).
TRIVIUM
ANTHRAX
The assembly of a large Viking vessel signaled the arrival of Swedish, Melodic-Metal act, Amon Amarth. Singer, Johan Hegg, growled his way through their Go-To-War-Destroy-Everything-and-Everyone-and-Bask-in-Victory themed set.
AMON AMARTH
Next up…The Mighty Slayer. Inverted flaming crosses, red lights, strobes and in your face thrash metal. Nothing more.. nothing less.
SLAYER
The Sweltering Hot, Windy weekend was capped off with headliners Slipknot, who punched everyone in the face with their in-your-face, masked, dark brand of Nu Metal. Finally utilizing the full San Manuel stage, Slipknot were a delight to the eyes providing a non-stop barrage of visual delights. Corey Taylor, showing no signs of wear or tear from his recent spinal surgery, had the ravenous crowd wrapped around every move of his rotted, bloodstained finger.
Watching a Slipknot show is like viewing every child’s nightmare combined with a 3-ring circus… Every slight turn of the head brings a different horror whether it be Evil Clowns, Decaying Zombies, or Gimp Masked Marauders, all adorned in the identical red boiler suits adorned with the silhouette of a satanic goat.
SLIPKNOT
No better way to cap off the 20th anniversary of Ozzfest, than by combining it with the evils of Knotfest.
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