2nd Annual Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival Rocks DTE Energy Music Theatre

For the second year in a row, Rockstar Energy drink brought their metal Mayhem festival to Clarkston, Michigan at the DTE Energy Music Theatre on Sunday, August 2.

Last year's Mayhem festival was easily the highlight of the Summer concert season and filled the metal gap left by the absent Ozzfest. Cheap ticket prices and a wide variety of metal acts made the festival hard to pass up.

This year's festival drew an even bigger crowd despite Michigan's hard hit economy which goes to prove that people will still invest their money if they are provided with a high quality lineup.

This year's Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival featured thirteen metal bands on three stages from every aspect of the metal world.

Besides the music acts the festival once again featured a number of merch and label booths, autograph signings, the Metal Mulisha BMX team and wrestling.

Although there were some sound problems throughout the day, most of the bands sounded good and put on a great show.

The show opened on the Hot Topic stage with death metal band White Chapel. Although they got the crowd going with the first Wall of Death most pit, they were pretty disappointing.

Personally, music filled with just screaming is hard to listen to but there are some bands that can pull it off. You have to have a great band to back you up and you have to have some style. White Chapel is lacking in both.

First up on the Jagermeister stage was the local Jager band Know Lyfe. They were also the first band to suffer from sound problems but they were still pretty impressive for a local opener.

Next up on the Hot Topic stage was thrash metal group Black Dahlia Murder. The band is from Michigan so they got a pretty loud crowd reaction. Their brand of rock is nothing special but they do it well.

Over on the Jagermeister stage it was God Forbid, who put on a notable perfomance. I wasn't familiar with them prior to the show but I will definitely be checking out more of their music. Although they perform thrash metal they do it in a unique melodic way and they really had the crowd moving.

Job For A Cowboy were up on the Hot Topic stage but I missed their set. I can say that they were one of the loudest bands of the day as they could clearly be heard at the main stage.

I got back in time to see All That Remains on the Jagermeister stage. As usual, they put on a great show. Their vocalist Phil Labonte has a great voice with a huge range. "Two Weeks" was a standout..

Death metal pioneers Behemoth were the highlight of the Hot Topic stage as they tore through their brand of epic rock in full face paint. They use the screaming method but they do it with the style that I talked about earlier.

Trivium closed out the Jagermeister stage with another solid performance. I saw them with Slipknot earlier this year and have been a fan ever since. Really enjoyed "When All Light Dies".

Cannibal Corpse finished the day with a high energy set of hardcore death metal. The band has been around for two decades and remain extremely popular. The highlight of their set was a rendition of "I Cum Blood". Unfortunately, had to miss the last couple of songs in order to get over to the main stage.

Mushroomhead opened up the mainstage for their last date of the tour. The rest of the tour Bullet For My Valentine will be taking their place.

Mushroomhead is a great live act but I was a little disappointed this time. Their bass was a little too loud and it overshadowed the vocals and the setlist could have been better. They did do a great job with "Sun Doesn't Rise" and despite being the opener they drew a decent crowd.

The standout set of the night did not come from either of the headliners but from Killswitch Engage. In the past, the band has been criticized for some of it's live shows but they did everything right this time.

They had a cool set with a towering walkway that lead vocalist Howard Jones took full advantage of. They also had plenty of pyro that helped keep things at a high energy level.

The crowd was on it's feet from start to finish singing along and guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz provided non-stop comedy throughout the set trying to make sure that everyone was getting in on the fun.

Killswitch Engage's ballad "My Curse" drew the biggest crowd reaction but I think that the opener "My Last Serenade" and their cover of Dio's "Holy Diver" were the highlights.

Slayer and Marilyn Manson were the co-headliners this year and Slayer kicked things off with a hour long set of their thunderous brand of thrash metal. They truly are the pioneers of the genre and they remain a strong presence with a new cd coming out soon.

There was plenty of fire and headbanging throughout Slayer's set. They managed to cover every area of their catalogue and played some new songs but it was the final trio of "Angel of Death", "South of Heaven" and the metal classic "Raining Blood" that had the crowd going insane and kicked the lawn sod throwing into high gear.

The Mayhem tour has been highly criticized for having Manson close the show and at some of the dates much of the crowd has left beforehand but most of the Detroit crowd stayed through his set. Although he's not quite as entertaining as he was in his heyday he still put on a good show after the disappointing opener, "We're From America" off of his new cd The High End of Low.

His past drug use has hurt his voice a bit, making him stop to get oxygen throughout the set but he used it to his advantage prompting the crowd with, "Don't do drugs!" and making the handing off of the oxygen part of his production.

Manson also took the time to pay tribute to Detroit, speaking about how he almost went to jail here because of criminal sexual conduct after exposing himself on stage.

"Detroit made my penis a felonious instrument!"

His band sounded great, particularly returning guitarist Twiggy Ramirez. Manson tore through all of the hits including "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" and "Dope Show", which was the highlight of the night. He closed with a haunting version of his cover of the Eurythmic's "Sweet Dreams" complete with candlight and his popular anthem "Beautiful People".