On the eve of July 4th I drove 5 hours so I could go see something Ozzfest fell woefully short of this year-kickass metal!

We got there when everything started. At 6:00. I've never heard any Morbid Angel before so I didn't know the songs they were playing, but I can assure you they were full of intensity and played extremely fast. Skrape was up next and I gotta say, I wasn't very impressed. They walked onto stage with one guy quickly picking muted E, so I was hoping they were influenced by early Slayer material. Soon after they started rapping over two chords and I felt like I was at Ozzfest '01 again. Seizing the moment, I used their set for a piss break and started a "Slayer" chant when I got back. They seem like a bad cross between Limp Bizkit's first album and I guess Godsmack.

Static-X put on a pretty good show after having some sound problem early on. They fucked around for like 3 minutes after playing their first song. They got a decent pit going when they played Bled for Days and Push It I thought they played two songs too many though.

Then the real concert was about to start. This was my second time seeing Slayer. (I saw them for another short set on Ozzfest '99, at that time though I only had Reign In Blood). The three friends I came with were scared of being in the pit for Slayer and went to sit in the stands, so I was on my own for a trip through pure fucking brutality. They were a lot of people there to see Slayer. A good chant started as the lights went out. Familiar drum beats were heard. When Raining Blood's guitar riffs kicked in it was pure fucking mayham. My friends said the whole floor turned into a mosh pit. They went straight into Chemical Warfare as the pit raged on. They played Disciple and Bloodline from the new album. Disciple was one heavy motherfucker. I can't wait to hear it on the new album. I though Bloodline sounded great live. "Bleed your death upon me!!!" They played Stain of Mind next. I was hoping for Bitter Peace but was glad they didn't play Death's Head. I don't understand why so many don't like Stain of Mind. It's great to headbang to and they were a lot of people singing along. The crowd knew nearly all of the words for the second half of the set. One disappointment was they didn't play the intro to Seasons. They went straight from Dead Skin Mask to the thrash riff about 1:15 into the song. They had better not cut it because of Static-X's fuck up. My friends' said it was crazy in the stands with people moshing during South. When they were done playing Angel of Death you could tell everyone wanted more. Sound wise, I thought they should have turned Tom's mic up a little. I don't know why the hell they didn't kick Skrape off and let Slayer play longer. It was an adrenaline filled set that was just way too short. I wanted to hear Bitter Peace, Hell Awaits, Black Magic, Post Mortem, Killing Fields, etc. Hopefully they'll do a long set when the tour alone.

Pantera was up like 35 minutes later and played a long set, probably 40 mins longer than Slayer's. Kerry came out for the outro solo on Goddam Electric only to find out the guitar wasn't hooked up. He came back to play Fucking Hostile with a working guitar later. They had a lot of pyro shit and I thought they played a great set. The crowd was real into them. Phil seemed sober and screamed on key all night (is that an oxymoron?). They played some stuff I wasn't expecting like Primal Concrete Sledge, Slaughtered, and I'll Cast A Shadow. A year ago I didn't care for them, but after seeing them play great shows at Ozzfest and this night, and getting all their albums. They've gotten right up with my faves ( Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth). Anyway, go to this show and if you go to Ozzfest don't expecting much past two or three good bands.