Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Fest 2012

As I pulled in to the gravel parking lot of Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta, GA, Saturday July 14^th, 2012 at 1:30 in the afternoon, I looked at the temperature gauge; 98F. I opened the car door and sucked in a nice blast of humid air. Clearing my throat, I drank the last of my water, grabbed my camera, and headed to the box office to pick up my tickets. Once I had secured my tickets, I waited in the long line to get through the gates. The closer I got, the more excitement began building inside me. The line up for the day was phenomenal; WhiteChapel, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Anthrax, As I Lay Dying, MotorHead, Slayer, and Slipknot! That was just on the two main stages. Before I knew it, I was passing through the main gates, and into the belly of the beast.

The festival grounds were a sea of black shirts and half naked women, to which I fit right in; with the black shirt, not the half naked women part. Surrounding the second stage were booths set up by the bands and other vendors. A couple booths worth noting were the Metal of Honor booth, honoring the men and women of the US Armed forces. At the booth, they collected donations to help veterans gain employment after their enlistment is up, and were raffling off a VIP/backstage package for the show. Another large booth was the Rockstar Energy Drink tent. In the tent, they were giving away free samples of Rockstar. Though there were many other booths, these two were the two I spent most of my time at (when not watching bands).

While wandering around the festival grounds, I heard the unmistakeable thump, thump, thump of drums. “Atlanta! We are Whitechapel!” I had somehow managed to wander off from the stage and now had to follow the crowd back to watch what I thought was the opening show of Mayhem Fest 2012. I have since learned that I missed the Jager Band and Betraying the Martyrs. Unfortunately, being late to shows plagued most of my day. Undeterred, I stood in the back of the crowd, watching as a sea of men, women, teens and adults jumped up and down, bobbing their heads to the music. They started things off strong with Possession and finished just as strong with Possibilities of an Impossible Existence. Judging by the crowd, I would say they gained quite a few fans and truly impressed me with their high energy and thrashing metal sound.

Barely having enough time to reflect on what I had seen, Asking Alexandria blasted on to stage, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. I counted no less than two mosh pits within the first few minutes of them taking stage. While they played Breathless, I looked to my right and saw a man wearing a camouflage hat and a Bill Elliot shirt plugging his ears. He looked over at me and yelled “Man, what happened to rock music?” I shrugged and turned my attention back to the stage and watched the kids being pulled from in front of the stage from crowd surfing; their faces red and covered in sweat. Asking Alexandria never let up, finishing with Morte et Dabo. I looked back over to my camo friend and noticed his hands were now flying in the air, devil horns thrown, head slamming back and forth at break neck speeds. “God Damn! This shit is awesome!” he yelled to me. I laughed a little and agreed as I went looking for the Press tent, to find my times for interviewing Slipknot and Slayer. Behind me The Devil Wears Prada was taking the stage to a frantic fan base and secretly, I wanted to be deep in the crowd rather than trying to find my way to the tent.

After what seemed like an hour, I found the little white paper that read “Press Only”. I wiped the sweat from my face and stepped into the press area. After standing around watching Joey Belladonna give an interview, I turned and came face to face with Nick Hipa of As I Lay Dying. He was quickly escorted off to another interview. A few minutes of me walking around looking really dumbstruck, I finally asked what times I would be doing my interviews. I a sad twist, I was not scheduled to do any interviews. Between me being late and me not following up with the right people, I missed my chance to do interviews. Bummer!

Feeling a little dejected, I left the press area and headed back just in time to see The Devil Wears Prada finish up their last song of the set. I was upset, but determined to still have a great time. As the crowd dispersed a little, I heard the roar of a dirt bike.
 Sure enough, The Metal Mulisha teams were doing their jumps. Bike after bike jumped into the air and landed with surgeon like precision. The oohs and ahhhs were drowned out by the cheers as Anthrax took the stage.

Scott Ian and Joey Belladonna emerged followed by other members Charlie Benanta, Rob Caggiano, and Frank Bello. The seven song setlist flew by much too quickly for a band that has been around 30 years this year, I found myself wanting more, as did the crowd. Another issue I had with the Anthrax performance, actually had nothing to do with the act itself and more of a head scratching question that I heard numerous times. Why was Anthrax on the second stage and not the main stage?

Having baked in the sun all day, I was excited to move to the main stage where I would get the chance to get out of the sun. Before I get into the main stage, I did want to talk a minute about the Sumerian stage acts. These were lesser known acts, but in my opinion, they could have easily taken the second stage with no problems at all. One act from the Sumerian stage I want to point out is a band I had never heard of; Dirtfedd. The band from Lincoln, Nebraska, took the stage and rocked, hard. For me, they were what Mayhem fest was all about. Sure, I go to these shows to see the headliners, but to see true metal before it really breaks out, this is where you see it, and Dirtfedd delivered in ass kicking bucket loads. I don't frequently make predictions, but mark my words, this is a band to keep an eye on.

Back at the main stage, As I Lay Dying took their turns entertaining everyone. Between singer Tim Lambesis screaming lyrics and Nick Hipa's guitar riffs, there wasn't a single person in the audience that wasn't up on their feet, jamming to the tunes.
 I kept hearing throughout the performance about As I Lay Dying being a Christian band, as if that were what people should focus on. Had no one told me that, I would have never known, as they rocked just as hard as every other band on that stage.

After As I Lay Dying, Lemmy Kilmister and Motorhead slowly walked on to the stage. Once on stage, they bursy into Bomber, with the gruff, dirty sound that can only be described as Motorhead. Between songs, Limmy would talk to the crowd and get everyone cheering and screaming for more. Finally, after 9 songs, Lemmy introduced his band mates and then kicked off the one song everyone in the audience had been waiting for, Ace of Spades. They finished the set off with Overkill, and immediately, an excitement began to build in the crowd.

“Slayer!” Some one screamed. Followed by a long drawn out

"SSSLLLLLAAAAYYYYYEEEEERRRRRR.”

The lights went out in the amphitheater and a low rumble rose out from below; it was as if Hell were opening up, allowing a few of its demons out. A large white sheet draped over the stage, blocking the view as the demons took their place. The intro to Disciple started and the sheet dropped. Like a horse race, the music and energy burst through the speakers and into the audience. Looking out over the crowd, it was like a wave of people, jumping up and down, thrashing around to the music. As exhausted as I was from the heat and walking around, every ounce of tiredness left my body at once, as Vocalist/bassist Tom Araya screamed “God Hates Us All.” Behind the band, two large speakers were set up as upside down crosses, of which flames would shoot out during songs, none more so than during the final encore song Raining Blood, when I was a little concerned the stage was going to be completely engulfed in flames.
By the end, I could feel my heart still pounding and I could barely wipe the smile off my face. I could have gone home happy, having had one kick ass festival experience, but Mayhem wasn't done with me just yet. 

A bright red curtain was raised over the stage as the roadies set the stage for the main act.

By this time, the sun and mercifully gone down and a nice cool breeze blew through the venue. Looking around the lawn, I saw clown masks and other S&M masks. Having never experienced a Slipknot concert before, I was a little nervous and excited at the same time. Without a warning, the lights went out everywhere except on stage, where the red curtain and red lights illuminated the pit crowd in a bloody red color. (sic) began playing behind the curtain. The crowd exploded as a loud bang of pyrotechnics blasted on stage and the curtain came down. Song after song in the 14 song setlist kept the audience enthralled, hitting both the sense of sight and sound. So much was going on stage-side, it was hard to keep up with everything. Corey Taylors' voice was top notch as always is. Moving between screaming and harmonizing with ease, makes him one of the top vocalists in this genera and it is easy to see why. I never just judge a band by their songs, to me, in order to call it a great concert, I need some interaction between the bands and the audience. Slipknot did not disappoint. A drum set on a crane, lifted in the air and spun around during all the songs, and periodically other band members would run and jump on the drums to catch a ride.

Most of the songs had the audience slamming around and really getting into the music, but nothing could compare to Before I forget, which almost brought the amphitheater crumbling down. Everyone in the place was singing along, including a few of the security guards and EMTs.

The only lull in the entire show was when Corey Taylor silenced the crowd to dedicate the song Duality to bassist Paul Gray, who passed away last year. Corey wanted everyone to know that even though Paul wasn't there in person, he was most definitely there in spirit. It was a truly heartfelt moment in all the chaos, and won massive amounts of respect from the audience.

After Duality, the band went straight into Spit It Out, during which, Corey asked everyone to sit on the ground. T was the first time I had ever been to a concert where everyone on the lawn sat down. It was a little creepy and surreal. We were given instructions that when he said jump, everyone was to jump up in the air. Even with my bad knee, I squatted down with everyone else. Corey sang a few lines of the song while everyone sat completely still, until he screamed “JUMP!” The lawn erupted with everyone jumping up at one time. The rest of the concert went on with out slowing down. By the last song, I had forgotten that I had been there for almost 10 hours. I had forgotten how exhausted I was and how tired I was. I practically ran back to my car and flipped through my songs until I could find Slipknot, where I listened to them non stop for the hour and a half drive back home.

With this years epic line up of new and old bands, this is the show to see of the summer! Do not miss this one, you may not see a line up this strong for many years to come.