When I found out that this year’s Mayhem Fest would consist of Marilyn Manson and Slayer on the same bill, I jumped at the chance to see them live. I attended last year’s Fest which had Slipknot and Disturbed as the headliners so I figured I knew more or less what to expect. While the setup was similar, the difference in the bands playing really made for a different experience than before. Slayer is known for bringing the Mayhem and boy did they bring it. Their set list was raw in your face metal. Lead singer Tom Araya did little talking and let the music say it all. Their set lasted for an hour and covered a variety of songs from their 28 year career. Some notable highlights from their set came when they played Jihad off the Christ Illusion album. Lead singer Tom Araya introduced the next song Pyschopathy Red which will be included on their new album “World Painted Blood,” due out later this summer. South of Heaven was my second favorite song of the night next to Raining Blood. They used heavy pyro with large flames shooting above the bands heads. To know body’s surprise they played Raining Blood as their last song.
Set list
1)The Darkness of Christ (intro)
2) Disciple
3) War Ensemble
4) Jihad
5) Psychopathy Red
6) Born of Fire
7) Mandatory Suicide
8) Dead Skin Mask
9) Hell Awaits
10) Angel Of Death
11) South of Heaven
12) Raining Blood
Manson was last to take the stage and started off with a huge black curtain that covered the main stage. An eerie industrial soundtrack played in the background for a couple of minutes building up the suspense. Then the beginning of “We’re From America started to play and the curtain dropped. Manson came out in a jacket with a large hood covering his face. The crowd went wild at the first glimpse of the shock rocker. Manson then went into Disposable Teens off the Holy Wood album. The crowd went crazy which made it apparent that they wanted to hear more of his older material. Manson separated his set list with a couple of songs off his new album “The High End of Low.” Between songs Manson had someone come up to him with what looked like an oxygen tank. We can only assume that he was out of breath and needed his oxygen fix between songs. Some of his songs were intro’d with atmospheric sounds or with distorted sound bites from movies. A clever sound bite was used from the movie “Walk Hard,” where the word Cocaine was repeated over and over, which was used to introduce the Dope Show. Surprisingly the crowd was very much into the next song “Arma-Goddamn-Motherfucking-Geddon,” off his new album. I used the word surprisingly as the crowd was not too into the other tracks from his new album. He closed his set with a haunting rendition of Sweet Dreams which he sang with a white sheet over his head. This led into the last song of the night “The Beautiful People. Everyone in the crowd was up and singing along with Manson. Overall a good night and great experience for me besides the 110 degree heat I endured.
Set list
1)We're From America
2)Disposable Teens
3)Little Horn
4)Four Rusted Horses
5)Tourniquet
6)The Dope Show
7)Arma-Goddamn-Motherfucking-Geddon
8)Rock Is Dead
9)Irresponsible Hate Anthem
10)Sweet Dreams
11)The Beautiful People
--Steven Duarte
