Rockstar Mayhem Festival -- Kansas City, KS -- July 21st, 2009

Running very low on sleep, so I'll try and be as thorough as I can. I'm worn out.

There was a really, really long line when I got to Sandstone Amphitheater, but it actually moved very, very fast. I got in and browsed the kiosks until the first band started.

Whitechapel started the day off, but they were bad. No, they were pretty terrible. Actually, they were one of the worst metal bands I've seen live. Every Whitechapel song has 148 breakdowns in it. And they have THREE GUITARISTS. What? Are they the Iron Maiden of wigger-slam? A few songs had some good moments, but ultimately, they were terrible. 3/10

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. Possession
5. Vicer Exciser
6. Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation
7. ?
8. This Is Exile

After them was the Jaeger band, and for us it was Continent of Ash. I went and bought the Cannibal Corpse comic book and got in line to meet them, so I could just hear the band, but they sounded terrible as well. If I see them again, I'll review them for real.

Luckily, the Hot Topic booth was right in front of its' stage, so I got to see Behemoth. Unlike the night before where their sound was messing up, they absolutely slayed today. They know how to work a crowd and all their songs sounded spot-on perfect. Same set as the night before, however. 9/10

1. Slaves Shall Serve
2. At The Left Hand Ov God
3. Conquer All
4. Demigod
5. Ov Fire And The Void
6. Chant For Eschaton 2000

After meeting all the guys from Cannibal Corpse and getting their autographs, I saw God Forbid again. They changed up their set some from the night before. And they sounded better this time. The crowd seemed pretty into them. Still not great, but better than the night before. 6/10

1. Star Wars Intro/?
2. ?
3. Walk Alone
4. Broken Promise
5. To The Fallen Hero
6. The End Of The World

I hate myself for it, but I actually enjoy The Black Dahlia Murder live. They were better the night before in front of a smaller crowd because of all the stage divers, but their energy was still there. Everything up to the new song was good, but everything after it was really, really good. They do start to sound the same after a while, but they had a perfect set length so that it was awesome. 8/10

1. Tim And Eric Intro/?
2. Everything Went Black
3. Necropolis
4. A Vulgar Picture
5. Miasma
6. What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse
7. Funeral Thirst

I have a lot of friends who are big fans of All That Remains, so I was eager to hear them for myself. While I really dig the song Six (because of Guitar Hero!) the rest of their stuff is just okay. The clean vocals sound like Linkin Park, to me, but the vocalist does really nice harsh vocals as well. They probably had the biggest crowd reaction of the 2nd stage all day. 7/10

1. ?
2. Chiron
3. Forever In Your Hands
4. Six
5. ?
6. Two Weeks

Job for a Cowboy was the 2nd to last band on the Hot Topic stage. I had higher than average hopes for them because I thought they'd change from a crappy deathcore band to a pseudo-respectable death metal band. Was I right? Eh, no. Not really. Their bass player isn't too much of a tool anymore and some of their songs sound better, but that's about it. The new stuff sounds very bad live, and they're still just a deathcore band. 4/10

1. Knee Deep
2. ?
3. Unfurling A Darkened Gospel
4. Constitutional Masturbation
5. Entombment of a Machine
6. Embedded

Never listened to Trivium before today. I heard that their newest album was good, that they're a metalcore band, and that they're a Metallica knock-off band. I just heard the metalcore side, today. It wasn't terrible: there were no breakdowns and some actually pretty good solos. But nothing special. They said they'd be back with a really good tour in the fall, so we'll have to see. 7/10

1. ?
2. ? (something from the first album)
3. Down From The Sky
4. Throes of Perdition (part of this was real good)
5. Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr

Cannibal Corpse. Still just as awesome as they were the night before. All newer stuff except for the excellent closer of Hammer Smashed Face and Stripped, Raped & Strangled. Awesome. 9/10

1. Evisceration Plague
2. The Time To Kill Is Now
3. I Cum Blood
4. Sentenced To Burn
5. Make Them Suffer
6. Priests Of Sodom
7. Hammer Smashed Face
8. Stripped, Raped, & Strangled

Now time for the mainstage. Well, that is after some nachos and a hot dog. I got to the lawn when Bullet For My Valentine were 2 songs into their set. They seemed alright, a lot better live than on album. The vocalist's accent is amusing to me, too. But overall, alright band. 7/10

1. ?
2. ?
3. Tears Don't Fall
4. Waking The Demon (I think)
5. Take It Out On Me
6. Scream, Aim, Fire

I don't really want to get into it here; I might write an "essay" or so later, but I can say this: Killswitch Engage is the worst band I have ever seen live, metal or not. The whole band is full of douchebags, what they play is killing "heavy music" and I feel sad to know that some people actually like them and will grow up thinking they are metal. They are worse than Annotations of an Autopsy, Panther and Cobra Starship. One point for one good solo during their horrendous Holy Diver cover. It's true: metalcore is the glam metal of the 2000's. It's all about trendy shit to get money. 1/10

1. My Last Serenade
2. ?
3. Rose of Sharyn
4. ?
5. ?
6. My Curse
7.?
8. Holy Diver

Is there something wrong with metal band's sound equipment these days or what? Behemoth the night before was bad, but what happened to the first half of Slayer's set was embarassing. Sometimes the guitars would be really loud, and then fade almost completely out. Sometimes the drums would be silent. Sometimes all the sound would cut out except for Tom's mic. It was extremely unprofessional and a lot of people were pissed off. It ruined many songs which should have been awesome (Chemical Warfare, Born Of Fire, etc.) Luckily, they fixed it halfway through, during Ghosts Of War, and Slayer kicked ass for the rest of the set. Nothing was their fault, they were awesome. 8.5/10

1. Darkness Of Christ/Disciple
2. War Ensemble
3. Jihad
4. Psychopathy Red
5. Born Of Fire
6. Mandatory Suicide
7. Chemical Warfare
8. Ghosts Of War
9. Dead Skin Mask
10. Hell Awaits
11. Angel Of Death
12. South Of Heaven
13. Raining Blood

I really hope Slayer comes back here and has a more competent person working the soundboard than whatever joker was tonight. All in all, though, the day was awesome. I can't wait to see who's on Mayhem Fest 3.

Thus concludes day 2 of 5 of my metal journey. Tomorrow is a day of rest, then it's off to Skeletonwitch! Stay tuned!