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In the current landscape of metal bands who will guarantee a passionate, capacity crowd, there are few as consistent as Lamb of God, and the quintet proved their mettle once again, opening with a savage rendition of \u201cLaid to Rest.\u201d Vocalist Randy Blythe never runs out of energy, and his passionate performances of tracks like \u201c512\u201d and \u201cEngage the Fear Machine\u201d (which Blythe dedicated to the \u2018fake news media\u2019), alongside the airtight rhythm section of drummer Chris Adler (an unsung talent in the industry, to be sure) and bassist John Campbell had the field at near capacity during daylight hours, which is no small feat. Given that Lamb of God\u2019s future was in question just a few short years ago, it was a triumphant performance that should have solidified the band\u2019s stature for the uninitiated.<\/p>\n
Corey Taylor is surely one of the hardest working men in rock (alongside Gary Holt, who we\u2019ll get to in a minute), and Stone Sour\u2019s return to the concert stage following Taylor\u2019s exhaustive stint with Slipknot was more than welcome. The band\u2019s new album Hydrograd<\/em> features some of the best elements of Taylor\u2019s \u201cother band,\u201d with king-sized hooks over massive-sounding riffs, and while Stone Sour\u2019s sound is a bit more stripped than Slipknot, Taylor\u2019s voice is unmistakable; live, the line is even blurrier as Taylor growled his way through tracks like Hydrograd<\/em> opener \u201cTaipei Person \/ Allah Tea\u201d and new single \u201cSong #3,\u201d as well as older fan favorites like \u201cMade of Scars\u201d and \u201cSay You\u2019ll Haunt Me.\u201d Taylor\u2019s enthusiasm for being onstage is infectious, and the set was one of the weekend\u2019s biggest highlights.<\/p>\n The hour had then come for thrash metal royalty to take the Blackcraft Stage. Slayer remain the most stalwart in their dedication to style and craft of all the old-school thrash bands, and the band\u2019s perseverance over both the departure of original drummer Dave Lombardo and the death of founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman before the release of 2015\u2019s Repentless speaks to both their love of the music as well as their fans, perhaps the most vocally dedicated demographic in all of metal. Raging through an hour-long set of some of the most well-known slabs of evil in the heavy metal canon (\u201cChemical Warfare,\u201d \u201cHate Worldwide,\u201d and \u201cDisciple\u201d among the highlights), the foursome of Tom Araya, Kerry King, Paul Bostaph, and Gary Holt (who remains a full-time member of his original band Exodus) remain nearly unrivaled. As Holt raised his fists to the sky in triumph during the breakdown in set closer \u201cAngel of Death,\u201d he spoke for everyone in the massive crowd gathered in the concrete field \u2013 Slayer have emerged triumphant from the troubles of their past, and the metal community is better for it. (If there was a single scheduling misstep on COA\u2019s part, it was relegating Slayer to the second stage, which would have been borderline insulting if not for the fact that it was hard to argue with the sky-high Blackcraft pentagrams flanking the stage.)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n