Ozzfest 05, Columbus, Ohio

[semillama]

I took my friend Mike to Ozzfest this year, as he had never seen Iron Maiden live. The one letdown of the show was that Black Sabbath canceled - guess Sharon was afraid Ozzy would drop dead on stage from the heat or something.

Overall, it was a great show, over 12 hours of metal. There were some bands I could have done without, and some bands that were really better than I thought they were going to be. The best sets in my opinion were Iron Maiden and Mudvayne on the main stage, and on the second stage Mastodon, Arch Enemy, Rob Zombie, Killswitch Engage, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Haunted, and Soilwork.

One band that surprised me was Wicked Wisdom, which is Jada Pinkett Smith's band. DAMN! it was straight up heavy. I was thinking it would be a hard rock band, maybe like Evanenscence, but they really brought it. I have to give them props, as rough as they were.

People went absolutely apeshit for Maiden. They owned the crowd. I think that some folks left early because Sabbath wasn't playing, but Maiden more than made up for it in my book. Those guys put out more energy than the rest of the bands combined.

Definitely a great experience, a "heavy metal christmas" as the singer from Mudvayne put it!