Mayhem Festival

As a result of going to go see the Mayhem Festival yesterday, I am tired, scraggly, half-deaf, and more than a little sunburnt. However, I got to:

• See Shadows Fall. They put on an awesome show. And a giant crowd chanting "Shadows Motherfucking Goddamn Fall" is pretty entertaining too.
• Ignore Norma Jean, Winds of Plague, and Atreyu. They're all a bunch of post-hardcore, screamo horseshit. Norma Jean at least is from Atlanta, and they sounded alright, but I'm not standing in Georgia's hot-ass high-noon sun to see a band that I don't even halfway enjoy.
• See Hatebreed. I'd never really listened to them before, but they put on a monster live show. Plus, Jamie Jasta has an awesome beard. Seriously, that thing is cool.
• Stood right up next to the stage for Three Inches of Blood. Those dudes are awesome, and when I get the pictures up, I'm putting them here. 3IOB was insanely good. Seriously, if you're reading this, you at least like the subject matter, with songs like The Goatrider's Horde and Trial of Champions and Forest King. They're like a heavier Iron Maiden, if you will.
• Saw Lamb of God live again, and got in a sweet circle pit. I can't help it, I love circle pits. People start going around and around and then I start going around and around and then horrible things happen. It's a disease, I swear!
• Then I stood in line for half an hour and got to meet Jamey Jasta and *GASP* Randy Blythe, who are both really cool. They liked my girlfriend, and when they found out I was in the service, they both shook my hand and told me they were glad I made it home safe. My girlfriend was walking on clouds the rest of the night. My brother got my Kuwait hat signed. (Which is his hat? He stole it/I gave it to him when I got back, so whatever) Point is, I met a couple of metal superstars. Dudes headline stages and stuff. It's awesome. I'd only ever seen Jamie on Headbanger's Ball where I made fun of his totally indifferent attitude, but seeing him in person he was animated and seemed to be enjoying himself. Randy looked tired as hell, but he did just get off from playing on the main stage, so he was probably sore and tired and about half deaf. Holy fuck, it was cool. I can't stop thinking about how cool those dudes were.
• Saw Rob "Motherfucking" Zombie live. That was pretty cool. He puts on a good live show. The part where his guitarist soloed for like ten straight minutes was lame as hell, but the rest was good fun. They had ten foot high fireballs and a giant robot spewing exhaust and screens with rediculous shit on it and all sorts of cool stuff.
• Also saw Korn for the first three songs. None of us like Korn that much, and we all like sleep, so we took off. They were pretty good live, though, so at least there was that.

I apologize for the profanity, but I went to see some of the top bands in metal last night for my birthday, so there was that.