WOW!!! The second stage started so early that I missed a few of the bands that I really wanted to see and then with all the hoopla around security issues, my photographer almost didn't get in. I have to thank Bernie(WRKO) for helping me out with that. Ok so I went in just in time for Lamb Of God on the second stage and my day begins in pure delightment. These boys are a favorite of mine and from the moment LOG hit the stage there is no doubt as to why. The entire middle front of the crowd was one enormous pit. You could feel the love of metal sweat pouring out from everywhere. LOG did some new stuff too from their upcoming cd, Ashes Of The Wake, due out in August. Let's just say it's definitely going to be as good if not better than As The Palaces Burn. Oh ya, Randy had the crowd go old school for the wall of death. It was sick!!! They kicked everyone's ass into oblivion. I did get to sit down with Randy and Willie for a sneak insider peek of what Ashes Of The Wake will bring to us LOG fans and then had some funny conversations about what they do when and if they get time off, like fishing for Randy and Willie just plays guitar. He doesn't do anything but play guitar, gee isn't that what you do in the band. HaHa!! Ok here comes Hatebreed, and as always they are a hometown group and the fans let them know they are home. F'n Jamie Jasta, what else do you want!!! He brings us MTV2 Headbangers Ball and then got together with some other Ozzfest players to bring us The Edge Fest in Glen Falls Civic Center NY on the 17th & 18th. Hatebreed is one of the hardest working bands in the industry and they got there just desserts by triple headlining on the second stage with LOG and Slipknot. Damn!! Another enormous pit going on, headbanging and horns waving could be seen for miles. The headliners of the second stage are up. Slipknot hit you right where it counts, BANG!!! I didn't expect anything less from these guys, even with the ballads on their new record I knew the Ozzfest set would be insane. Sure enough it was, they did all the hits and brought out Duality, I think everyone was in agreement that Slipknot is still Slipknot.
Now for the main stage. Opening up is none other than Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society. BLS is fucking incredible. And I was so glad he didn't do any ballads from his latest record. He went back deep for some hits and did a great rendetion of Funeral Bell & Suffering Overdue from The Blessed Hellride. Oh ya, Zakk also brought out Randy's White Jackson for a song or two and dedicated the set to Randy. That made me almost cry. Zakk also had a pic of Randy playing the Jackson on his amp, pretty cool. The whole band was really rockin it for the opening of the main stage festivities. They laid the ground work for the next band, SuperJoint Ritual. Hell ya, here comes Phil and the gang ready and willing to rip you apart, and that they did. Ok the evil is creeping up stronger now, by the end of the set I felt my horns burst out of my head. SuperJoint did my favorite song, Personal Insult and that's all it took for me. I met up with Joe and Jim backstage to talk about Ozzfest and when we can expect a new record, "Soon", they tell me. So stay tuned for that. I didn't get to see Dimmu Borgir due to interview times but could hear them and caught up with a Dimmu fan who says they were great metal as usual. so I'll take their word for it. Next up Slayer. Everybody scream it with me, SLAYER!! There is nothing bad to say here, Slayer has always been incredible and will always be evil. No bullshit here, just pure uninhibitted evil metalness. Although they didn't do Angel Of Death I was still happy with the rest of the set list, which of course included Rainning Blood. Oh ya, I also finally got to meet Kerry King, Mr. Evil, and couldn't believe how unevil he really is. In fact we chatted about the show they played the night before in Augusta Maine's Civic Center. You know that's the show they did an hour and fifteen minute set and recorded it for a live DVD due out in September. He told me about how they made it rain blood during Raining Blood, "We did that part with the lights off and when the lights came on I just looked around and saw blood everywhere." Kerry also says they are going to try and do that a few more times when they headline some of the Off Ozzfest dates, so keep checking if they are doing that in your town. Here comes Judas Priest in all their metal glory, starting with Electric Eye and in full leather gear. If you have seen their videos from the 80's you swear that's what you were seeing on this date in 2004. It was a total flashback. All the guitars swinging in motion together and Halford even riding out on his Harley for Hellbent for Leather. As old as they are, I personally think Judas Priest was amazing and stole the show. Green Manalishi(with The Two Pronged Crown) and Painkiller was my favorite of their set. Halford seemed to be hitting all the very high notes, although I think he may have had some help. It didn't matter though they were great and a bunch of fans I talked to after the show agreed with me that they stole the show. I know what you're thinking, the way I described JP that the show was over with them, but alas did you forget about the reunited Black Sabbath. Hell no!!! They hit the stage and started right off with War Pigs, which was a good way to start the set, but, yes there is a but. In my opinion the video they had playing behind BS during that song was very force fed political and offensive to me. Having President Bush along side and comparing him to Hitler is not what I wanted to see at a metal show. It's very hypocritical too, seeing that Ozzy and Sharon were at Bush's Inaugural dinner and Bush even introduced Ozzy as his guest to everyone in attendance. Also everyone in the world is entitled to their own political views, but that was going overboard in my book. You could say what you want about Bush but let's face it you can't even compare Sadaam to Hitler. Ok, I needed to get that off my chest. The rest of the set was great, Into The Void had the whole place dark with nothing but lighters shedding the light. And then Sweet Leaf started with the piped in cough and a video that said the time 4:19 until the vocals kicked in and it went to 4:20, so you can imagine the smell that envoked the Tweeter Center at that time. Also the rain held off to just a light drizzle until the concert ended, so that was good, no mud slinging to be had this year.
All in All, this OZZFEST 2004 was one to go down in the history books as the year that Metal shined through above all others. I definitely give OZZFEST my first triple Metal Horns up.\m/\m/\m/
Stephanie
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