Driven Far Off

Photos from this year’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival can now be seen in Driven Far Off’s photos section. These photos were taken at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Bands at the festival included Underoath, The Red Chord, Black Tide, Disturbed, DragonForce, 36 Crazyfists, Mastodon, Machine Head, Walls of Jericho, Suicide Silence, Slipknot, Five Finger Death Punch, and Airbourne.

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The Rockstar Mayhem Festival is a brand new summer festival created by none other than Kevin Lyman a.k.a the founder of Warped Tour. However Mayhem Festival was not like Warped Tour at all to say the least it’s a metal tour. I mean come on Slipknot at Warped Tour would be a little odd.

At Mayhem there was one band that has always gotten my attention and their name is Underoath, a Christian metal band from Florida who are releasing their new full length album Lost In The Sound Of Separation in early September. I’ve seen Underoath several times and they’ve always put on a great live performance and there was no exception at Mayhem Fest. On stage they were very energetic, their frontman Spencer Chamberlain danced around, their guitarist Tim McTague went crazy on stage as well as their keyboardist Chris Dudley. Underoath’s future is looking bright with their new album on the way and a great bunch of fans and if you catch them on tour they’ll play a brand new song for you.

Another band that definitely caught my attention at Mayhem Fest was Black Tide. I recently read an article on them and found that their frontman/guitarist is only 15 years old. His name is Gabriel and I don’t know any other 15 year old in the buisness that can sing like him. If you closed your eyes during their set you’d think it was a older guy singing not him. It’s not just his age that interested me, but they’re all really talented and their bassist Zakk really connected with their audience during their set. Overall Black Tide had a great performance at Mayhem they were entertaining and their guitarist Alex was very into it to say the least. All I can say is that Black Tide are definitely a band to see live and if you haven’t heard them yet, I’d listen to their single “Shockwave” or “Black Abyss” which are both great songs in my opinion.

As far as the main stagers go DragonForce commanded attention and really were great live, I mean they’re EPIC. Their shredder Herman Li is a guitar hero not just because he’s on the game, but he’s insane. I must admit I’m not really into DragonForce, but seeing them live changed my opinion a little. I still think their songs are way too long, but the musicianship is breathtaking. Now there was also Slipknot who I really can’t say I enjoy, but they can put on a show and from a fan I heard they got new masks too. So if you’re a die-hard Slipknot fan I’d go see them since they are headlining which mean they play for a long period time almost as long as a DragonForce song.

Overall Mayhem Festival is definately a great alternative to Ozzfest and even if you don’t like the bands the Metal Mulisha is there as well and they do some pretty sick tricks and if you’re wondering what that is it’s motocross.