Slipknot is more than just a musical performance, it is more than a visual experience, it is an epiphany that cannot and will not be experienced elsewhere. From their sound of beautiful and brutal organized chaos, their intense stage presence and interaction, Slipknot is all you have to say when referencing this group.

8/28 at Jones Beach will be known as the day this venue almost plunged into the Atlantic. Four bands all delivering intensity and power that left the audience mesmerized, fueled and practically limping away. Behemoth, Gojira, Volbeat and Slipknot, all you can say is Goats, Flying Whales, Guitar Gangsters and Maggots, OH MY!!!!!

After hours of rainfall and disgusting weather, 5:30 PM and instead of a storm of rain, Satan reigns amongst us all when we get the storm of Behemoth. While they were the opening band, they are an arena band in their own right. After touring constantly with Slayer last year and selling out arena after arena on their headlining tour, they took all the Maggots at the front row and owned them for 35 minutes as they dragged them to the catacombs of hell.

They did not hold back in production at all. With their inverted cross hanging above the drums, Nergal, Seth, Orion and Inferno decimated the entire venue with constant fog and pyro launching off and around the stage. Opening with Wolves ov Siberia, instantly darkness surrounded Jones Beach. They were able to make the raw and atmospheric music sound crisp at this venue. Seth’s guitar soloing was note for note, nailed to a T. When they moved a slower song such as Bartzabel, the harmonies that were sung by the band and the audience made the beach a haunting place to be. All goosebumps were shattered when they kicked in with Conquer All. The fog from their stage emerged with the foggy sky and consumed us all into the storm we experienced before. Though it was a seven song set, they left their mark.

Next we get the Flying Whales from France, the almighty Gojira. They instantly delivered the heaviest matter in the universe on this performance. How appropriate to play Toxic Garbage Island when we were practically on an island itself. The intense riffing of this band combined with Mario’s drums that will cut through souls of many, anybody that was left sitting was hit one way or another. Even if you were in the farthest seat in the back of the venue, chances are, it felt like you were in the pit.

This is when you see just how crazy of a crowd we had when there was one crowdsurfer after another. Their hypnotizing backdrop to stun the crowd while rushes of fog launched out into the crowd is another part of their show that was truly remarkable.  The audience gave security a run for its money for sure. With their 2016 release, Magma still having much life in it, many fans were practically took over the vocals for Joe when they kicked into songs such as Stranded and Silvera.

Nothing is more haunting than hearing an entire audience harmonize, “Time to open your eyes to this genocide”. Harmonies with a song like Stranded and Silvera, combined with the riffs of a song like The Cell, Gojira further cemented the audience into a night of brutal music.

After a trip to Poland to France, we now hit Denmark with Volbeat. Once they stage after two pulverizing sets with Behemoth and Gojira, Volbeat was a nice, easy and fun set to watch to give many moshers and headbangers a chance to breathe. Still, they delivered pure metal that had catchiness and power. The production is turned up to 11 with even more hypnotic lights and interesting projections.

Opening with The Devil’s Bleeding Crown, vocalist Michael Poulsen goes full range while the rest of the band did not have a static moment. Michael, Rob and Kaspar did not remain in one single spot for the entire set. They managed to keep the whole hour long set interesting with heavy riffs and catchy melodies with many different vibes. Three tracks in with Sad Man’s Tongue followed by a cover Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. Nothing like a familiar, yet fresh intro as well with their classic version of Reign in Blood by Slayer. When they got into A Warriors Call, they got the whole arena chanting, FIGHT, FIGHT. With their catchy and fun vibe, they managed to get the whole crowd into their set with their perfect bridge between modern and classic rock. Melodic, powerful and fun is the perfect formula behind a Volbeat set, hence why they were able to tour with classic metal acts such as Metallica or Megadeth, or heavier bands such as Killswitch Engage or Slipknot.

At last, we finally get the set all the maggots have been waiting for. The almighty Slipknot. On this day, it was also the 18^th birthday of their classic album Iowa. That combined with their newest album, We are not your Kind, there was much to be celebrated and much to be enjoyed. After Volbeat did their thing, the curtain with the classic Slipknot logo rose. We heard ACDC’s For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) followed by the recording of (515). Once those lights dimmed and the logo glows up, all hell breaks loose.

Kicking right into People = Shit. No buildup in production was used as all lights began to flicker and pyro and fog goes all up in flames. Then taking a trip back into their first record with (Sic) We all screamed, “HERE COMES THE PAIN” as the pure essence of chaos reigned amongst us all. All while they are destroying everything, lightning from the storm earlier is blazing the horizon in the Atlantic behind the stage. It does not get more metal than that.

We get a first taste of the newer material live when they kicked right into Unsainted. Even with the album only two weeks old, it seems it has been fully processed. It felt like a metal choir singing along with Corey Taylor, singing “Ill never kill myself to save my soul” After we get a trip to The Subliminal Verses with Before I Forget. Pyro is constantly flying while Corey is moving from one side of the stage to the other. Shawn and “Tortilla Man” constantly rotating their percussion sets, Jim and Mick and V-Man hitting the material note for note while Sid is simply just being Sid behind the turntables and moving all around. There was not a single static moment on that stage.

Another new song follows with Solway Firth, the soft and somber and yet haunting clean vocals of Corey lead us into the catacomb of dark melodies and sonic savagery this song demonstrates. Afterwards we get the formula of metal, if your 555 I am 666. The Heretic Anthem kicks in and you hear 6’s all around you and they continue the heavy aspects with Psychosocial. Then things slowly dim down with their moody track off The Grey Chapter, The Devil in I. This is when darkness consumes every inch of the venue. Mick leads us in with the signature melodic riffs that pull us in and BOOM. The song that can rock you to sleep and scare you to death at the same time. After this song does its thing, we get about a minute of silence before the final chorus, probably creating the ultimate breakdown and leaving with the most evil laugh that has ever cursed Jones Beach.

After a blast from the past with Vermillion and Prosthetics, they bring back the ultimate classic. A song that so many have wanted to hear, and now we finally get it. Corey simply asks the audience to sing along and all of a sudden we get one of the greatest opening verses in the history of metal, “I’ve felt the hate rise up in me, kneel down and clear the stone of leaves, I wander out where you can’t see, inside my shell I wait and bleed”. That is right! We finally get to hear their classic, Wait and Bleed and so much energy was released, people were able to feel the energy from the parking lot.

After a brutal yet melodic classic with Sulfur, a pulverizing track with All out Life, Shawn, AKA Clown, lights his bat on fire and then Corey leads us in with, “I push my fingers into my EYES” and boom, we kick in with Duality. Every maggot went nuts and sang along with that entire chorus at full range.

The lights dimmed signifying that the end was near. People eagerly awaited for more. We wanted more and we got it. Spit it Out and Surfacing ends the show on a brutal note and that is when the show went down in history and up in flames. The maggots were either killed or granted a new lease of life. It was the end to the perfect setlist to a perfect show. Knotfest Roadshow 2019.

This show was a testament rock and metal is anything but dead. With Slipknot’s new album, We are not your Kind debuting at Number 1 on all charts and the venue filling up to near capacity, even Corey Taylor said that you cannot kill this genre. It wasn’t just the perfect setlist, execution of the material live, and the insane production and live show to support it, it is the brotherhood of the maggots that make a Slipknot show so amazing. Before kicking into All out Life, Corey told everyone to look around eachother, this is our metal family and no one is here alone, in fact, we have brothers and sisters all over the world. New friends were instantly made that night, showing that at a metal show, there are no strangers, it is just friends we haven’t made yet.

Slipknot is the only thing you have to say when it comes to a Slipknot show, you are not going to get something more raw, true and entertaining as a Slipknot show. Behemoth, Gojira, Volbeat and Slipknot all left their mark and then some.