Last Saturday August 24, the summers hottest traveling metal festival, Slipknot’s: Knotfest Roadshow made a stop at the Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton Pennsylvania. Even though its being billed as a traveling festival, the Knotfest Roadshow is more than just that, it’s a full-on interactive metal music experience complete with a Slipknot traveling museum that showcases treasured artifacts from the bands 20+ year career making this more than your average package deal. Fans packed the venue proving that metal is not dead.
Opening the day’s festivities was a band I have been looking forward to seeing live for a long time. Amidst the heavy smoke covered stage as the sound of creepy voices echoed out of the amps, the Polish metal titans, Behemoth took to the stage! Front man and guitarist Nergal and bandmates started their set off with “Wolves of Siberia.” Watching them live for the first time was absolutely incredible, especially since Nergal commands the audience’s attention by carrying fire and incorporating multiple outfit changes into the routine. Bandmates Orion (bass), Inferno(drums) and Seth’s (guitar) terrifying appearances made it difficult to look away. The band played a great set with such songs like, “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer,” “Bartzabel” and one of my personal favorites “Chant for Eschaton” all the while spitting blood. Behemoth played a very intense set, leaving the fans that came out early wanting more. I look forward to catching them on their own headlining tour.
Next to take to the stage was the French metal band Gojira. Gojira brought their unique blend of extreme groove metal to the masses at Montage. With front man/guitarist Joe Duplantier’s effortless skills on guitar and heavy vocals combined with his brother Mario Duplantier’s amazing drum skills they brought a new version of heavy metal. From the time they hit stage ripping into “Toxic Garbage Island” to the final song of their set, “The Gift of Guilt,” fans didn’t stop head banging and moving around.
The final opening act to take the stage before Slipknot, was Danish hard rock band Volbeat. They had no trouble at all showing the crowd they can rock as hard as any band on the bill. Although their sound has elements of rockabilly and hard rock, you can’t deny that Volbeat puts on one hell of a show. Vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen and bandmates focus was completely music driven, giving the crowd a mix of some heavy songs like “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown,” “A Warriors Call” and “Dead but Rising.” The band also treated fans to a couple new songs “Last Day Under the Sun” and “Cheapside Sloggers” off their newest release Rewind, Replay, Rebound. Volbeat continues to give fans great live performances.
Finally, the time has come for the festival’s headliner, Slipknot, to take the stage! I have seen Slipknot countless times throughout their career, so it’s hard for me to say something that hasn’t already been said about their live shows. From the moment the intro ended, and their banner dropped, the band unleashed one of their best live shows that I have seen to date! With a giant 2-story stage, treadmills, and two keg/percussion kits, not to mention tons of pyro, the band puts every inch of the stage to use. Slipknot who is currently supporting their Billboard 200 No.1 album We Are Not Your Kind, demonstrates that the Iowa metal legends are at the top of their game!
Corey Taylor and bandmates played a near perfect mix of career spanning songs such as “People = Shit,” “Psychosocial” and “Spit It Out” along with mixing in some new songs “Solway Firth” and “All Out Life.” With a near two hours set of face melting metal, Slipknot finished their set with “Surfacing” which left fans on their feet screaming for more. With the success of this tour I’m hopeful that the Knotfest Roadshow will turn into a yearly traveling festival and continue giving fans the brutal metal they love. Thank you and please check out my photo highlights from the festival.
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