Mayhem Fest 2014, just the name is metal. It's not quite Bloodstock, Wacken, or Hell Fest, but for an American Metal Fest, it's rather large. It drew a crowd of 30,000 – 40,000 people to Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow Va. This year's line-up definitely brought forth diversity including Local band GHOST OF WAR, from Gettysburg.

There were 4 stages of great music; the Victory Records stage, the Sumerian stage, the Coldcock Herbal Whiskey stage, and the Rockstar Energy Main stage. Of course there were vendors with all kinds of cool shit for sale, expensive food and beer, and of course all of the free Rockstar Energy drinks you could handle. (As long as you stayed in the tent with it.)

The local opener, and winner of the Head bang for the Highway (Battle for Mayhem), was the ever awesome GHOST OF WAR. It was a fantastic delight getting to see a band from my neck of the woods, especially that I have personally interacted with, get a spot in the festival. I was taken by surprise though, as I noticed for the first time that Jim Mathis was not behind the drum kit. Either way they tore up the stage, and definitely laid a strong foundation for the rest of the day. This is a band that I feel has some real potential. They played their hearts out, then made their way to the merch booth to interact with fans, and new fans. They even helped me hand out business cards for the TEMPLE.
 

I will admit that this festival did make writing the live report a little difficult. They did have two stages going at once at times so it was hard to catch every band myself. Of the bands that I caught (not including the main stage), TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION really stands out with their thc infused doom stoner metal. I had not really heard a lot from them prior to the fest, but they were pretty damn good. They were heavy enough to head bang to, yet at the same time you could just blaze amd groove to them, all depending on the mood.
 

ISLANDER, EHRIMHA, UPON ABURNING BODY, and VEIL OF MAYA are all bands that I was not familiar with prior to this show. And even though I was running around from stage to stage and trying to promote Metal Temple as well, I was not disappointed at all by any of these guys. They all brought great energy, and just massacred their sets. I did get to meet the fellows of EHRIMHA at their merch tent, and get a photo with them. Of course it's always fun to meet the bands. Stage performance is always a key factor to the successful career of a touring band. I recall seeing Spiderman on stage, as well as plenty of lights and fog machines. The bottom line is that all of these bands did a great job, and put on wonderful performances. Unfortunately I myself had some issues with the interviews, causing me to miss the rest of the bands up until KORN took the stage, but all is well, Mayhem Fest was all over the North American continent, thusly some of my fellow Metal Monks were able to share in the live reporting. A special thanks to Aaron Price who attended in Canada.
 

Some of the bands I missed, but my photographers were able to grab photos, CANNIBAL CORPSE, ICE T AND BODY COUNT, EMMURE, WRETCHED, ILL NINO, DARKEST HOUR, KING 810, SUICIDE SILENCE and MISS MAY I.
 

ASKING ALEXANDRIA were the black sheep for me attending Mayhem Fest 2014, this band was set to follow bands I love; CANNIBAL CORPSE, DARKEST HOUR, ERIMHA, and TRIVIUM. With this noted, I loved them live. Ben Bruce and Cameron Liddell were graceful on the guitar, killing every song without missing a beat. Sam Bettley showed the crowd that a bass player has more to offer than just standing around plucking the same string being almost as much as a show person as Danny Worsnop. Before we talk about the front man let me mention the killer beats that James Cassells puts out on drums, between fast and slow songs he never over complicates things and everything he does matches every mood well. Danny Worsnop was the most surprising of all, coming up from this little scene kid (being the reason I use to hate ASKING ALEXANDRIA) he has come so far musically. The band started with "Don't Pray For Me" and "Run Free" both offering different perspectives on what the band is like live with heavier and lighter songs, "Run Free" was also very emotional to the crowd for everyone who's followed the band for a long time but it wouldn't be the last time the crowd felt emotional. A couple songs later we hit "The Final Episode (Let's Change The Channel)" one of the bands first songs, and clearly the most popular song. I was worried, this was a scene phase song, the album that made me hate this band because the album was horrid. Danny Worsnop made me enjoy this song for the first time ever, the song was the same, his vocal style though has completely changed and the song was incredible live. "Moving On" made the crowd very emotional, for a simple reason; everyone misses someone. Danny played an acoustic guitar through half the song, and for the other have Sam and Ben played electric guitar, this was a cool way to hear this song and I really enjoyed it. Not to mention I could look in any direction and there was some girl who followed the band for a long time crying to this song. "The Death Of Me" closed out the show with a punch, each member of the band showed they had a reason that Asking Alexandria was so well loved by so many people and honestly, made me a fan of them as well. Incredible show from a great band.

Setlist:
1. Don't Pray For Me
2. Run Free
3. To The Stage
4. The Final Episode (Let's Change The Channel)
5. Moving On
6. Killing You
7. The Death Of Me

KORN the one headliner of Mayhem Fest I didn't really go for, not really knowing their music all to well I was surprised by their stage presence. The band brought out their own floor to play on, brought out walls of lights to sit on either side of them and bam, although Toronto had gotten dark the amphitheater lit right up. Bassist Brian Welch had glow in the dark green strings on his bass and was a true showman. Jonathan Davis, was as wacky on stage as I had expected him to me, absolutely crazy and moved around a ton. The band played a good mix from older and new, obviously supporting their new album but they didn't let it dominate their set list like some bands have previously. "Falling Away From Me" "Twist" and "Got The Life" got the crowd warmed up to the madness that is KORN, the band went strong without issues through song after song. "Hater" the song that was premiered live on Mayhem Fest was brilliant live, although it technically came out after the most recent album "The Paradigm Shift" it's one of their better new songs along with "Spike In My Veins" which was the other new song I knew rather well going to see KORN. After "Hater" the band left the stage, a few seconds later we are welcomed with Jonathan Davis marching across the stage playing bagpipes for the intro of "Shoots And Ladders" this was a great treat, something I had looked forward to when it comes to KORN was hoping he would play the bagpipes live instead of just using some background noise like most bands do. A few songs later we were presented with the song everyone knows, "Freak On A Leash" of course I was thrilled, the whole "breakdown" section where Jonathan Davis is just making a ton of strange noises is hilarious live. The band closed out with classic song "Blind" and after Brian and his son came out on stage to toss out drum sticks, guitar picks, setlists, pretty much anything they could give people. KORN live were cool, I look forward to seeing them again in a few months. Needless to say, after their spectacular performance I definitely got more into KORN.

Set list:
1. Falling Away From Me
2. Twist
3. Got The Life
4. Did My Time
5. Spike In My Veins
6. Hater
7. Shoots And Ladders
8. Come Undone
9. Here To Stay
10. Never Never
11. Freak On A Leash
12. Blind
 

Time for the headliners, Avenged Sevenfold. Giant flag covering the stage, lights start to dim and AC/DC's "Back In Black" starts to blast through the speakers. The flag drops, the lights go out, solid blackness what's next is what got me pumped, from the back of the stage flames began to rise, the intro to "Shepherds Of Fire" begins the crowd is going nuts already, then out from side stage comes the band everyone besides M. Shadows, the crowd screaming and after a couple bars of the first riff out comes the front man himself and into the song they go. The "prayer" section of the song is absolutely chilling, after the song closes out we are welcomed to what is the last band of Mayhem Festival 2014. The band plays at least one song from every album except "Sounding The Seventh Trumpet", song after song the band slayed going into "Nightmare", "Bat Country" and finally, the song everyone either loves or hates, "Hail To The King" the middle screen on the back of the amazing stage set rises and out of the back comes the skeleton king himself as seen on the single cover. After a couple more songs, including one of my favourite songs by Avenged "Buried Alive", the band goes into "So Far Away" as a tribute to late drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. I've followed the band for years upon years and was so saddened when I heard of the passing, so needless to say I, along with many other fans in the audience, felt very emotional seeing the bands loving tribute to their fallen brother. The band played two more songs before leaving the stage, the fan loved track "Afterlife" then my favourite song from the new album "This Means War" not to mention after the short quiet section the band set off a firework and scared the living shit out of me. The band has now left the stage and after a ton of chanting, M. Shadows walks back out, introduces us to a "heavy song about love, death, and necrophilia." "A Little Piece Of Heaven" is the first encore, with the music video playing on the screens and the crowd singing along AVENGED SEVENFOLD got exactly what they wanted from Toronto tonight. The final song of the night, the band went into "Unholy Confessions" bringing an end to a night of madness, but not without a huge moshpit. Near the end of the song the band stopped and went into "Crossroads" turning the entire floor area of the Molson Amphitheater into a giant moshpit. Finally, the band closed out "Unholy Confessions" and called it a night, and one hell of a night it was.

Set list:
1. Shepherds Of Fire
2. Nightmare
3. Bat Country
4. Hail To The King
5. Almost Easy
6. Buried Alive
7. So Far Away
8. Afterlife
9. This Means War
10. A Little Piece Of Heaven
11. Unholy Confessions (with heavy riff from Crossroads for a huge moshpit)