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To host a quintet of heavy metal bands on a Sunday night is risky business. To bring in the punters, the first band was on at 6.30pm and lights were out at midnight.
New Yorker’s Blood Simple was the first of Sunday’s all-American acts. As the crowd attendance built, so too did the gusto onstage, with frontman Tim Williams ripping into songs from their albums A Cruel World and Red Harvest such as Blood In, Blood Out and Red Harvest, with Dead Man Walking being their best received song.
A brief set change and Orange County metalcore outfit Throwdown were loud and proud onstage, spurning out Pantera-meets-Sepultura aggression. They belted out numbers from their latest release Venom and Tears to include Holly Roller and Americana. A nice touch to the song list was a cover of Sepultura’s Roots, played with great zeal.
Having played with Chimaira before, it was a natural progression for Throwdown to be followed by the Cleveland metal heads. Despite most of the audience present for the headline act, Chimaira nevertheless blew the audience away and introduced Australia to a “new wave of American heavy metal”. Meaty riffs and hearty vocals reigned supreme as the crowd built up and illustrated their approval via lots of fist throwing. Thunder Stomper’s Resurrection, The Flame and Black Heart were heaved on the back of their latest album Resurrection.
Mark Hunter and his Chimaira foot soldiers left an imprint on the audience that needed some Brooklyn attitude to solidify. Biohazard was in their element, throwing their weight around onstage as bassist and vocalist Evan Seinfeld announced, “We’re Biohazard from Brooklyn, New York” after playing Buried Under Time and Sand. Milestones were achieved as Biohazard was celebrating their 20th anniversary, having reached our shores for the third time.
Guitarist Bobby Hambel was a pleasure to watch, switching from the silent assassin executing killer riffs to the madman spinning and galloping onstage before he asked, “What’s up?” in an effort to entice the audience to make some noise. Seinfeld’s contribution was to get the audience to clear the floor and make a pit. Guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziedei screamed out, “I fuckin love this city and I fuckin love Australia”, as he attempted to wrap an Australian flag around him before launching into Black And White And Red all over from 2004’s Urban Disciple album.
The mixture of hip hop and hardcore metal was well received as legions of fans thrashed about as War That Can’t Be Won and Unified were played with great vigour. With the end of their set complete, Seinfeld, Graziedei and Hambel jumped offstage for a meet and greet with their fans.
As props were exposed and the full extent of the stage was in usage, Korn swivelled into their first song Got The Life. Vocalist Jonathon Davis’ vocals were as lethal as they were eerie, ranging in pitch and lingering in mystique. Davis stood out like a sore thumb in his all black outfit, comprising a sleeveless top and knee high socks on a black leather knee-high pleated skirt that screamed of Prada’s 2002 winter collection. Fashion commentary aside, the California trio jumped into A.D.I.D.A.S and those on the floor went into frenzy as the area reached maximum capacity.
There was pure pandemonium as hit after hit was released and sheer jubilation reached its peak. Touring on the back of their latest release Evolution, Korn were in their element catering to the audiences needs with Blind, Somebody, Someone and Freak On a Leash. Bassist Fieldy was solid in his role providing bottom end, as James “Munky” Shaffer enjoyed playing to the audience. Davis was a force to be reckoned with, his customised microphone shaped as an elongated silver woman.
Korn’s performance was outstanding – first class, the crème de la crème and so forth. Words cannot describe how superb the show was.
