SLIPKNOT | VOLBEAT | BEHEMOTH | GOJIRA
Knotfest Roadshow
Xfinity Center
Mansfield, Massachusetts
August 27, 2019
Photos & Review by Michael LaFleche
In a show with fog, fire, blood, sweat and gore, I don’t know if you can ask for a more entertaining night. The Xfinity Center in Mansfield was completely full on a Tuesday night for a lineup that should have you sign a waiver before watching. I am pretty sure everybody survived. Let’s go through the festivities.
BEHEMOTH Photo Gallery
The amphitheater became the seventh circle of hell as Behemoth lit the stage on fire. Behemoth engaged in ritualistic symphonics with the thousands of devotees in attendance playing the deep grooves of Wolves ov Siberia from their latest album early in the set. The dark frequencies were set by Orion on bass, Seth on guitar, and Inferno hamming his drums, which were like calls to summon only what the imagination can tell. Negral led the black mass with fiery and guttural spell casting.
GOJIRA Photo Gallery
After Behemoth called darkness to southeastern Massachusetts, Gojira’s excellent technical metal roused the audience with additional energy needed to enjoy a mini festival that had been scheduled. The French band led by Joe Duplantier led the audience through some of the bands best examples of what classical french speed metal should be including “Garbage Island”, “Backbone” and “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe”. Brother to Joe, Mario was firing on his drum faster than anything I have ever heard, and Jean-Michel on bass with Christian also on guitars with Joe made sure that the drumming was not to overwhelm the rest of the band. People were telling me on the walk to the stage that Gogira was one of the best shows they ever saw, pure music wise, and this was really not that far off, it was incredible who talented this band is.
VOLBEAT Photo Gallery
The popular metal/punk/rockabilly band Volbeat was next on the list for Mansfield to handle, as they whiplashed the amphitheatre going from the speedmetal that Gojira was laying down. The crowd was in lock step with the beats that Jon Larsen was hitting on drums and Kaspar plucking the bass with all the songs that have thought that you have heard before, because their music is so infectiously good. Of course you have heard a lot of their music before… They mixed in a little bit of Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” as an interlude to Black Rose. Michael Poulson had all 20,000 fans pumping their fists reminiscent of Radio Ga Ga from Queen at Wembley during Live Aid. They finished their hour long set with “Still Counting” with everybody in the pit covered in sweat…
SLIPKNOT Photo Gallery
Slipknot is why this festival is happening. So yet again, for another complete about face in style from Volbeat, Corey Taylor and Slipknot took the stage. Last week Slipknot’s new album We Are Not Your Kind debuted at number 1 all over the world. By the way the stage was incredible. It looked like a flashy discotheque was taken over by the undead. Bright oranges and reds of the stage gave way to insanely brightly lit percussion and mixing stations 30 feet above each side of the stage. With a massive drum set in center as well. They have added more percussion in 2017, Max Weinfield’s son Jay, A wide open space in the middle was ample room for crazed jaunts by Corey, Alessandro on bass and Mick and Jim on guitars, and the occasional stage dive by Shawn, Craig Sid and the now infamous Tortilla Man that everybody has been talking about.
For the music, Corey and the team completely had the whole audience on edge as he ran like a crazed masked psychopath, enchanting us with the opener People = Sh*t, followed by (sic) and Get This.
The whole set list is here:
● People = Sh*t
● (sic)
● Get This
● Unsainted
● Before I Forget
● Solway Firth
● The Heretic Anthem
● Psychosocial
● The Devil in I
● Prosthetics
● Vermilion
● Custer
● Sulfur
● All Out Life
● Duality ●
Encore
● Spit It Out
● Surfacing
There are as few more dates left on the “Knotfest” tour in the states in September, so make sure to catch them if you can!