Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival

Mayhem Festival Featuring: Slayer, Marylin Manson, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, All That Remains, Black Dahlia Murder, Mushroomhead, White Chapel, God Forbid
Reviewed by: Jeff Deth
Rating: 3.75 out of 4 Pentagrams


No Gigantour, no Sounds of the Underground, no Ozzfest. I even had hope last years Metal Masters would come back. No such luck. With no other great metal package tours coming around this year, Rockstar Energy Drinks Mayhem Festival was my summer concert priority.

The daylong festival packed in 10 bands across three stages with tons of merch and vendor booths. I quite enjoyed the booths as most tours only come with one standard tour shirt booth. At this festival you could buy anything from CD’s to belts to smoking paraphernalia. There was plenty to do and see all-day in between bands or when you just needed a break from all that metal.

Mayhem has done a great job of bringing in the best of all worlds of metal. While they can’t showcase really underground acts they bring together fairly disparate styles.
This year you get Marylin Manson, Slayer, Killswitch Engage, Mushroomhead, Trivium, Cannibal Corpse, All That Remains, Behemoth, Black Dahlia Murder, White Chapel and God Forbid. No I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of all those bands but more than enough to justify the ticket price. Any day when you can hear both “Hammer Smashed Face” and “Angel of Death” live is day in metal heaven (or Hell). Shit, for Slayer alone it would have been worth it.

The quality of the entertainment was very high. Rockstar came with a free drink bar dispensing an endless supply of cans to rabid metal kids, keeping the pits buzzing with energy. There was a dirt bike show going on off to the side of the two outdoor stages providing an added attraction. If that wasn’t enough there was even a wrestling ring with actual matches going on in the back. Crazy. Revolver Magazine gave away free concert books with features on all the bands and a schedule breakdown of the set times.

The thing that made me the happiest out of anything was the fact that I had the opportunity to see every band perform. My concern going in was that at some point I would have to choose between seeing one band or the other. Never happened. They organized it so that the bands alternated between the two outdoor stages all afternoon. No bands ever had to play on top of each other, which was awesome. It went from extreme metal on the left stage to more “mainstream” metal on the right stage. After all the opening bands played those stages the entertainment moved down to the main stage for the headliners. A great way to do a festival. I remember Lollapalooza being at the same venue years ago and the second stage had to compete with the main stage all day long.

You pay to see all the bands not some of them. That’s the whole point and I’m glad that the organizers of this event understand that.

As for the bands themselves we have some clear highlights. Slayer absolutely and unequivocally stole the festival. You just can’t top them, I don’t care how much younger you are. If anyone was going to it would have to be Trivium but given a shortened set list, there was no comparison. They played all the expected classics that have defined them as one of the top five most important metal bands of all-time. Its just mind blowing to hear the most metal riffs ever being played one after another. They had the place going ballistic with a non-stop thrashing assault on the senses. Not to take anything away from Trivium who bested all of the opening performances. They have amazing energy on-stage and an incredible chemistry as a band. This is the band of present day metal and sure to completely take-over the scene once bands like Metallica and Slayer hang it up. They not only have the songwriting ability and records but they pass the true test of metal by out performing their peers. In terms of shear intensity and brutality, Cannibal Corpse pulled no punches on this day either. They literally killed and maimed. Behemoth and All That Remains put on fine performances as well but nothing to write home about. A band I was on the fence about, Killswitch Engage created the single most memorable moment of the day when guitarist Adam D. got the lawn to split down the middle and creating a huge hole; then had both sides charge at each other ala a kickoff during a football game. These people fucking went into each other like two colliding semi-trucks. I had never seen such a thing in all the concerts I’ve ever been to over the last 15 years. Insane. Killswitch gets grief for their goofy stage show, specifically Adam D.’s parody of the “tough metal guy.”
He screamed at the audience incessantly between songs to stop acting like a bunch of bloody pussy’s, etc. He was a little much but other than that I can’t knock the integrity of their performance. Their music is really good and they something can be said for not taking yourself to seriously.

On the downside of things Mushroomhead performed on place of the Welsh Thrashers Bullet For My Valentine. Yawn. I’m surprised they could get booked for this gig. On the main stage no less. They were an utterly derivative imitation of Slipknot with sprinklings of industrial nonsense. I barley paid them any attention. And then there was Marylin. I expected much more from him to be honest. For being the most controversial musician of my generation, He didn’t bring anything new to the fold for this tour. Maybe it had to do with him almost going to prison the last time he visited Detroit. I just wasn’t blown away by their stage show. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to the hype I had heard of. Many of the songs didn’t hold up very well for me in this setting of an outdoor arena. I hoped to hear something more from his first record. He seems to be past his prime at this point even with Twiggy back in the band. As it was I only recognized three or four of his songs. But I don’t profess to be a Manson fan at all so I may be a pour judge.

Overall this was a great day of metal that fulfilled my need for a metal festival. Comparatively it offered much more than any of the package bill tours I’ve seen before. Mayhem has their shit together.