Concert preview: Mayhem Festival at Superpages.com Center (August 15)

by Justin Press of Justin Press: Dallas Rock Music Examiner

Now that Ozzfest is on sabbatical and Cruefest ain't cutting the metal mustard, ol' Kevin Lyman of Warped and Taste of Chaos fame is carrying the torch (more like a damn bonfire) and has brought forth the second edition of the Mayhem Festival. This year's line-up gets a little meaner, a little darker and a little closer to death with the likes of speed metal titans Slayer, Poland's satanic Behemoth, Florida's death metal father's Cannibal Corpse, Boston's Killswitch Engage, UK's Bullet For My Valentine, and Disneyland's Marilyn Manson, plus many others including Trivium, Job For A Cowboy and God Forbid. Plus Jagermeister has about 10 bands on their stage as well. It's basically one big devilish sonic boom.

In addition, the Metal Mulisha stunt team will be jumping their motorbikes into insane situations. It makes most festivals look like sad hippie dwellings. No need to define the bands and explain their situations because all are either fast or faster, heavy or heavier, dark or darker, or just plain off the charts (thank you Slayer). Of course, the odd man out here is Manson, who after closing the joint tour with Slayer a few years back, should know better than to have to go on after them -- it's pure lambs to the lions. And no amount of rim-jobbing, bible tearing, and make-up smearing is going to change the fact that "Sweet Dreams" and "Disposable Teens" somehow have to match up to "Mandatory Suicide" and "Angel of Death." It's just not even a level playing field at that point.

Whatever your flavor of metal, I am sure you can find it here, and if not, you can always close your eyes ever so slightly and imagine what hell would be like -- no not dealing with a Live Nation venue, the other one.