Yes, indeed, I do feel a little out of place.

I say this because, well, there are posts a plenty about the hip indie music scene and the like. Although I do listen and love this music, my heart lies in the violent pits of the mosh pit and the sheer punch in the face that metal music offers.

This is originally where I was thinking of ending this post. Until, I realzied something. This is a community of people wholove music. Nothing more. There is no catering to anyone, because really, everyone does cater to everyone. Upon this drastic realization, I no longer feel out of place and no more do I worry whether people find interest in any news from the deep dark world of heavy metal.

Keeping this in mind, I bring you another review. Last Friday afternoon I made my way over to the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival at Downsview Park in Toronto. I didn't manage to make it at doors to see all the bands but what I did see, I loved every minute of. It was also cool that Herman Li of DragonForce was hanging out outside the front gates when I got there. My friend Adam and I arrived just as Australian rockers Airbourne were taking the stage. Now, I'm not too sure what I think here. They had incredible stage presence (possibly due to the rhythm guitarist drinking Jagermeister straight out of the bottle during the entire performance) and really got the crowd going, but I was slightly disillusioned because they are AC/DC Jr. Not only does the singer carry the same sing-scream style as Brian Johnson, but the guitarist solos and seemingly mimics Angus Young in all aspects of playing. I liked it, but, I'm not sure how much I liked it. Next we headed on to another stage to get in the mix as 36 Crazyfists took the stage. Wow, was this ever wicked. They were incredible to watch as they got the crowd going right off the first note. Adam is a huge 36 fan and was really drawn to this show because they were there. I didn't really have any prior experience with them but was impressed. In fact, when they announced they were comming back to Canada in November with In Flames I nearly cried. Expect a review of that concert.

As they finished up and we made sure we still had all our teeth, we made our way over to the mainstage (Underoath didn't really interest us and we sacrificed seeing Machine Head as to get close for my favourite band on the bill...) and just caught the end of Mastadon's set. Now, I was somewhat excited to see Mastadon as I thoroughly enjoyed Blood Mountatin, their latest release. The crowd seemed to be not moving and even kind of confused. In my opinion, this was due to the fact that this seemed like a heavy metal Phish concert. There was barely any singing, and what singing there was was being run through a vocoder and being completely distorted, among a few other effects. At this point, the main stage was still running through a sound check and the balance wasn't there. I think most people were disappointed or confused, but I feel like they deserve a second chance, so I may go see them again if I get the chance. As the crowd started to disapate, Adam and I made a blitz to get to the front. Third row, stage left was what we got, but hell, good enough.

As we started to get ancy wondering what time it was, Beethoven's fifth symphony started. We were wondering what was going on when a thick British accent could be heard over the PA: "Hello. This is DragonForce. And we hate it when bands use stupid introductions like this... We also hate it, when bands use pretentious introductions like this...(enter 'O Fortuna') So, we have decided to use an introduction like this...(and from here begins some bluegrass and farting sound effects)." Never the less, we got a good chuckle out of that. As this was all happening the six gods of speed metal made their way onto the stage. And needless to say, the next 45 minutes of my life couldn't have been better. This was the third time I've seen DragonForce live and like the others, did not disappoint. We got all walks of songs including the new single "Heroes of Our Time," the song that "made guitar hero famous" in "Through the Fire and the Flames" and their first single in "Valley of the Damned." This last track was awesome because it included the keyboardist taking out his keytar and joining along side Herman, Sam and the bassist to play each others guitars while strumming their own and standing in a circle. SO EFFING COOL! Highlight of the night for me. Or so I thought.

Next came another ct I had previously seen with DragonForce at Ozzfest a few years back, Disturbed. Now comming in to this performance I was a little nervous. The first time I had seen them, I was floored. I had heard that David Draiman couldn't sing and blah blah blah, but wow, they were incredible. So this time around, after a wicked album in Industructable I was looking forward to the show. But I also remembered David had surgery on his larynx a year or so ago, so I was concerned as to how that would sound. As they took the stage all the sound problems had been cleared up and the band was as tight as could be, but as I had hpoed wouldn't happen, David couldn't quite grasp all of the notes. For most of the performance he was a little flat to the band but made up for it in his amazing stage presence. Although the vocals weren't all there, I must say, Distrubed was just as good as I had hoped and played a wicked setlist including "Down With the Sickness," "Prayer," "Ten Thousand Fists" and a somewhat electronic version of "The Game." After they cleared out, it was time to prepare to be murdered in what has been described as the most insane pit in all of mainstream metal.

After our little wait and some pushing and shoving already beginning (why can't we do The Twist instead of fighting each other!!??) the drone began and the crowd goes crazy. Taking the stage in Toronto for the first time in 3 years was the nine man Slipknot. This show just floored me. They were incredible. Absolutely incredible. SO much energy and rawness in their music showed through and the crowd loved it. Not only this, but Corey Taylor was at points speechless to the magnitude of fans out for his show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jyZ6gVcBOM). Earlier they announced that there were 36000 people in attendance. That's nuts. Never the less, the energy was there and it showed. In fact, the DJ tried to jump off his setup a few shows earlier and broke both his heels, but cast and all, he was there and still givin 'er with energy out the wazoo. As they came back out to play "(sic)" as an encore it featured a Joey Jordinson drum feature on a rotating stage which moved around and spun and put his sideways and ugh, so cool (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1kI66cVM50). This was the moment of the night for me.

So here I am, 4 days later, voice still hurts, ears still ringing a little bit (I also had an exam for summer school the next day, icky!!) but thoroughly in love with this show. Best concert I've been to? Maybe, Ozzfest and Daft Punk surely give it a good run, but wow, this is definately up there. Worth every penny and every second.

-hb.