Knotfest 2016

San Bernardino, CA

September 25th, 2016

Reviews and photos by Travis Baumann

This year's Knotfest was combined with Ozzfest, each festival taking up a full day in it's own right over the sunny weekend in San Bernardino. Sunday was proving to be even hotter and windier than the day before so many concert goers moved into survival mode seeking shade and wearing bandanas over their mouth and nose.

Today's lineup boasted another roster of excellent bands and I had every intention of getting the most out of my two day VIP pass.

On the Grounds

I did a pretty extensive overview of the VIP area, entrance, and initial impression in my Ozzfest review so check it out for those details. Today was much smoother entrance having already been through it the day before so I was able to get in and get down to the outer lawn area where the early stages were set up by noon. It was insane hot but I was here for the music so I was ready for the first band to start.

Man On A Mission

First up was Man On A Mission. They are a quirky Pop-Rock style of band whose biggest draw is that they all wear wolf heads except one guy who wears a white ghost-like mask. They had guitar, bass, drums, and a DJ who added samples and scratching.

They were definitely amusing and had a good turnout that early in the day. They are not really my thing but it was a good start to what would be a long day of music. They must have been really hot under those masks!

Butcher Babies

I caught the Butcher Babies set next but got horrible photos because the mosh pit was so insane, there was literally a huge dust cloud getting kicked up to the point where the photos were just a white-brown haze.

The Butcher Babies know how to rally a crowd and the intensity did not stop for the entire duration of their show. Featuring two attractive and extremely bad ass women co-fronting the onslaught, there is a lot to look at, so I wish I could have gotten some images.

Carla and Heidi both run around the stage and growl and scream with the occasional bout of clean singing. They are really dynamic on stage, which has resulted in a large fan base at all their shows, including this early time slot at the festival.

Overkill

"I got one rule; I'm in charge", says vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth in his gravelly, New Jersey accented voice. They took charge and ruled the stage for an all too short of a set, but we got to hear some of my favorite songs.

They started off the set with "Armorist" coming from their latest album, "White Devil Armory". I love the new album, so I was glad that they played something off of it. Festival set lists can end up being a greatest-hits full of old stuff. Speaking of which, their set list today would not actually fall far from that load-out! They did one of their golden oldies next, "Rotten to the Core".

They played my favorite song of theirs next, "Electric Rattlesnake", so I was content no matter what came next. Keeping it old school for the fans, and there were a lot of them present, they did "Hello From the Gutter" followed by "Hammerhead". Bobbie said that we were all together here today, so from now on, we are connected, we are "Ironbound"!

Bobby is quite the comedian and talked a bit between songs, usually ending or beginning his soliloquies with the above mentioned quote, letting us know "he's in charge". They finished out the set with "Elimination", a fitting end to an awesome show.

They gave us Overkill in full, with all of Bobby's flare and attitude, in blazing daylight instead of the dank, green-lit stages we normally get to see them in. OK, so I am a sucker for the old shit too.  I am looking forward to their next headliner tour though, more "Armory" and "Electric Age" stuff too please.

Sabaton

Sabaton are one of my favorite bands to see live ever. They are so dynamic and their songs so full of energy, they are really a blast ,and today - in the sun, was no different.  Hailing from Sweden, these guys write songs about historic conflicts like no other band in the world, and turn them into hymns and anthems.

They just released a new album, "The Last Stand", and we got to hear a nice dose of material from it at this show, which is so cool because this is my sixth time seeing them and the best part is to get to hear new songs almost every single time!

They started off the set with one of the old favorites, "Ghost Division", which the audience sang along with. They gave us the awesome "Sparta" from the new album, which was so powerful and intense to hear live.

We got another new one with "Blood of Bannockburn" about the Scottish Revolution. I was singing this song for the next three days, it is very moving and really stuck in my head.

Joakim Brodén was his usual comedic self, first commenting on the insane heat saying up in Sweden it never gets close to this hot and it was really tough to handle (which it was for all of us; insane without shade really). He introduced their new touring guitarist and said since it was his first North American tour, he could pick the next song. He started playing the opening to "Swedish Pagans" which had the audience chanting along immediately. Joakim said that he hated that song and this will also be the new guitarist's last North American tour. But now that everyone was singing it, he "didn't want to look like a dick" so they played the song, much to the audience's delight.

Then came the moment I was waiting for, they played my favorite Sabaton song of all time (and one of my favorite songs of any band really), "Carolus Rex". It is so powerful, you feel why countries go to war with the convictions shown here. We got another new song with "Winged Hussars" before they fell back to the previous album, "Heroes", for two moving tales; "To Hell and Back", followed by a song where the you know you love it by the name alone, "Night Witches".

They were pretty much out of time but they were going to give us one more: one of their earliest hits, the fantastic, "Primo Victoria". It was a great show and a lot of people who were not familiar with them prior to this appearance walked away fans. They are definitely a unique and awesome force to be reckoned with.

A Brief Respite in the VIP Lounge

I was starting to feel really bad from the heat out by the lawn stages.  After the mighty Sabaton, it was time to hit the shade and chug waters to try to recover, there were still a lot of bands to go!

When I came in earlier this morning, I noticed that for some reason they had disassembled the entire PA and sound system on the main stage from the night before.  I thought that was pretty weird for a two day festival, but it seemed to cause quite a few problems as, Motionless in White were already an hour late going on. I just chilled in the VIP lounge area and was starting to regain some of my energy, almost time to have a beer maybe.

When Motionless in White finally went on, it seemed that there were a bunch of technical problems. I was in the Pit and it sounded OK, but I heard from friends back on the grass that the sound towers that had the speakers projecting the audio out to the back of the huge place had a massive delay, which sounded terrible. Apparently a few songs in, they just cut the towers so everyone in back had to hear the muffled stage amps/side speakers, which I guess sucked.

I dipped back into the Lounge for another break before the next band hit the "Lemmy" stage.

Trivium

Trivium was up next, and having just had a really good new album come out, "Silence in the Snow", I was looking forward to catching their set. Trivium are somewhere between Metalcore, Melodic Death Metal, and Progressive Metal depending on the song and album. Their latest album has a lot more of the Progressive side in my opinion, with a bit less of the harsh Metalcore feeling. I personally really like the new album so I guess I am digging on this side of things.

Trivium's lineup consists of Matt Heafy on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Corey Beaulieu on lead guitar and growled backing vocals, Paolo Gregoletto on bass guitar and clean backing vocals, and Paul Wandtke on drums.

They opened the set with "Strife", which sounded great live and played "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation" next. They seemed to hit at least one song off of every album they have put out, playing "Forsake Not the Dream" and "Until the World Goes Cold" (off of the latest release) before finishing the set with "Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr" , breaking into "In Waves".  

It was a good set and was one of the two bands leading up to headliners, "Slipknot", that I did not notice any technical issues during the performance, but I am not sure how they sounded towards the back of the amphitheater.

Anthrax

It would be no lie to say that Anthrax was my absolute most anticipated band playing the Knotfest day of the festival. I have been a fan of theirs since I first heard S.O.D., Scott and Charlie's hardcore band, which lead me to listen to "Spreading the Disease" so many years ago.

Last year they put out the most amazing album of their entire careers with "For All Kings". It transcends what Anthrax is for me as a band and I cannot stop listening to it. So with all that being said, the biggest disappointment of the entire festival is that Anthrax was plagued with technical difficulties and could not get their sound setup to work.

Eventually they did come on after a huge delay and with extremely muffled sound. They started the set with "Caught in a Mosh", an old favorite that got the crowd moving to the point where people were literally puking all over down in the main pit area.

They played an extremely odd choice next with "Got the Time", a Joe Jackson cover. Half way through this song, the actual arena sized PA system kicked in, which brought cheers from those in the far back as they could actually hear. For their third song they finally played something recent with "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't", from the also amazing album, "Worship Music".

Due to the technical difficulties they had an extremely shortened set so they played "Antisocial", originally by Trust, but has become their own anthem, followed by crowd favorite, "Indians". That was it, they left the stage.  

I was so disappointed that they did not do a single song from "For All Kings". They have the album cover as their backdrop, they sold really expensive shirts exclusively from that album, it is the best thing they have ever done, yet not a single song.

I get technical difficulties happen (although I have never seen it on this scale at a major festival like this, especially when the day before went off without a hitch), but they should have played three out of the five songs they had time for from the new magnum opus they have created.

Well, I can't wait for a headlining tour I guess.  Hopefully then I will finally get to hear some material from their awesome new outputting.

Amon Amarth

Swedish Viking lords, Amon Amarth, stole the show. Hands down, the most impressive band of the entire Knotfest day of the festival. I have seen these guys multiple times in the past, and they never cease to amaze.

Amon Amarth are technically a Melodic Death Metal band, but since all of their songs are about Viking lore and tales of both the warriors themselves as well as the gods that influence their lives, they have been dubbed Viking Metal.

Their name itself is taken from J.R.R. Tolkien's tales, it is Sindarin (one of two races of Elves) for Mount Doom, where the One Ring was forged and eventually destroyed. The band centers around the formative figure, and voice of Johan Hegg, who embodies the Vikings he sings about in every way. Bringing the Metal, we have Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg on dual guitar onslaught, and Ted Lundström on bass guitar. Fairly new to the bunch is Jocke Wallgren on drums.

Last year they released their tenth album, "Jomsviking", and have been touring in support of that album with other heavy weight Metal acts like Megadeth, who played the previous day of the festival (and kicked ass by the way). Their billing slot on this festival alone should show how far they have climbed in the global Metal scene, right between two of the Big Four, Anthrax and Slayer.

They started the set with my favorite song of theirs, "Twilight of the Thunder God", from the album of the same name. They followed it up with what they usually save for their set-closer, "The Pursuit of Vikings", both of which were amazing live (as they are every time I see them). I was content with the set already, but luckily they were given a good set length, and gave us some other Viking gems.

They played "As Loke Falls" followed by "First Kill" off the new album. "The Way of Vikings" brought Johann to a brief banter with the crowd; he said, "You guys are really tough. Today was so hot, way hotter than we ever get in Sweden". Then they played "Death in Fire", which seemed appropriate since we nearly died in the triple digit heat while we watched all the other bands today.

They finished up the set with a powerful trio; "Varyags of Miklagaard", the awesome "Deceiver of the Gods", and finally, a great drinking song for a great finale, "Raise Your Horns". It was an appreciable set, and they absolutely stole the show. These guys know how it's done. They are also the only band besides Slipknot that had absolutely no sound or technical issues, they sounded great.

Slayer

Slayer needs no introduction. For a long time they have been a force of nature in the Metal scene. I saw them headline Mayhem festival last year and quite frankly, that show was a million times better.  They had a huge projection screen behind them with all kinds of cool imagery, they had twice the length of set time (partially that was due to the set being shortened thanks, once again, to technical difficulties for Knotfest), the light show was better, and Tom's voice sounded better.

I certainly don't want to throw Slayer under the bus, not least due to their rabid fan base most likely wanting to kick my ass if I do, but it was just a disappointing show. Not nearly as much so as Anthrax earlier in the evening, but after such an awesome performance as Amon Amarth just put on... well, you have to bring it, you're Slayer for crying out loud.

They gave us ten songs in total; two from "Repentless", their latest, including the title track, two from "Reign In Blood", and a few fan favorites from other albums like "Hell Awaits", which Tom forgot the lyrics to, and their finishing number, "Angel of Death" in tribute to the late Jeff Hanneman.

I mean, they are still Slayer, it was still cool, but they can totally do better. I saw it last year and that was a pretty great show, check out my coverage of it after this and see why.

Slipknot

Slipknot closed out the festival named after them, and did so on the 15th anniversary of their sophomore album, "Iowa". In celebration, they performed the album in its entirety, which brought about several songs being debuted in a live setting, as well as a return to some songs that had been retired from their live set lists altogether.

This was my first time seeing them live and while I thought they were cool, it also seemed a bit like a dark circus routine, with nine guys on stage in costume and masks. They had hydralic powered drum risers on either side of the stage that raised and lowered, they had a large screen in the back of the stage showing crazy stuff featuring gore and bloody footage from inside slaughtering houses... I know the kids and noobies might dig this, but I saw Skinny Puppy do this WAY better in the late 1990's.

My favorite song of the set was the opening track, "People = Shit" and from there I sort of lost track of the song by song of the album. My favorite song of theirs altogether is "Sulphur" so I was a bit disappointed that it would not be done because it came from a later album, but if this is special to them, then let them do what they want.

All in all, it was an alright show. Having not seen them before, I am glad that I finally got the chance.

And so the massive two day festival came to a close. I sure wish things would have gone off for Knotfest like they did the day before for Ozzfest in terms of technical issues, but what can you do?

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