Soundwave Festival -- Sydney, Australia -- February 26th, 2012

[fletchzer]

Arrived after a rather large evening of drinking the night before to a sunny day in Olympic Park, an extremely long queue around the venue and the sound of Chimaira opening the metal stage near the entrance.

Caught the last couple of songs, Year of the Snake & Resurrection I believe. They seemed relatively tight, and they had a guest vocalist in for Resurrection but I was a bit far away so had no idea who it was.

Up next was The Black Dahlia Murder, on at the lovely time of 11:45am. They packed seven songs into 30 minutes and didn't stop the audience from headbanging the whole time:

1. Moonlight Equilibrium
2. What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
3. Malenchantments of the Necrosphere
4. Necropolis
5. Everything Went Black
6. On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood
7. I Will Return

I left the metal stage for half an hour to catch CKY, off on an annex stage where the sound was horrid. Bam came on for a song or too, entertaining but not amazing.

1. Rio Bravo
2. Flesh Into Gear
3. Sink Into the Underground
4. Disengage the Simulator
5. 96 Quite Bitter Beings
6. Bite It, You Scum
7. Knee Deep

Gojira were up next on the metal stage, pulling a fairly decent sized crowd for another 30 min. set. Another great show, their first time in Australia & hopefully they're back out again soon with the new album.

1. Oroborus
2. Backbone
3. Love
4. Flying Whales
5. The Heaviest Matter of the Universe
6. Toxic Garbage Island

I skipped Hellyeah to go and see Heaven Shall Burn on the shitty annex stage, great show but again, let down by the sound. Due to the crappy acoustics everything was just tinny sounding highs and blasts.

Went back to the metal stage to catch the end of Shadows Fall, who put on an incredibly tight set, and cracked a couple of jokes about having to buy matching guitars out here because they forgot their own (pretty hilarious matching yellow EVH-style strats!).

1. Power Of I & I
2. Still I Rise
3. Destroyer of Senses
4. Fire From the Sky
5. King of Nothing
6. Stepping Outside the Circle
7. The Light That Blinds

Meshuggah came up next, this was the fourth time I've seen them, and I was dying to see NMCC live, so ticking that box off my list was awesome! They killed it live, tight as ever. The new track also destroyed live, can't wait for Koloss next month!

1. Rational Gaze
2. Pravus
3. New Millennium Cyanide Christ
4. Combustion
5. Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion
6. Bleed

Watched the first few songs of Coal Chamber after Meshuggah, they were alright (Loco did go off!), but I'm much more partial to Dez in DevilDriver!

Spent an hour on the main stage killing a bit of time by checking out the last half of Bush & the first half of Bad Religion. Both bands put on good shows but neither were particularly my cup of tea.

By the time I was back at the metal stage we saw the last few songs of In Flames. They seemed a little tired to be honest, not the best performance I've seen them do (they were waaaaay better at the Wiltern show a couple of weeks ago!)

1. Sounds of a Playground Fading
2. Deliver Us
3. The Mirror's Truth
4. Fear Is the Weakness
5. Where the Dead Ships Dwell
6. Cloud Connected
7. Take This Life

Trivium took the alternate stage after, playing a pretty energetic set to follow up In Flames.

1. In Waves
2. Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
3. Black
4. Forsake Not the Dream
5. Like Light to the Flies
6. Caustic Are the Ties That Bind
7. Down From the Sky
8. Throes of Perdition

Mastodon came on with a pretty Hunter-heavy set next, we watched half the set before heading over to the main stage because my friend wanted to check out Limp Bizkit. Whilst they were a bit of a fun throwback, Fred just talked way too much between songs and it didn't do much to keep the audience going. Thankfully I get to see Mastodon again at their sideshow and also at Soundwave in Adelaide! They sounded awesome as usual, musicianship is all there and the new tracks going down well.

Mastodon:

1. Dry Bone Valley
2. Black Tongue
3. Crystal Skull
4. Megalodon
5. Thickening
6. Blasteroid
7. All the Heavy Lifting
8. Spectrelight
9. Curl of the Burl
10. Bedazzled Fingernails
11. Circle of Cysquatch
12. Aqua Dementia
13. Crack the Skye
14. Blood and Thunder
15. Creature Lives

Limp Bizkit:

1. Why Try
2. Hot Dog
3. My Generation
4. Livin' It Up
5. Hold On
6. Take a Look Around
7. Nookie
8. My Way
9. Faith
10. Rollin'

Went and checked out Kvelertak after, I'd seen them last year, and they were as good as ever. Played to a pretty small crowd but they certainly got everyone going! Unfortunately Black Veil Brides who were on the stage before them went overtime, so Kvelertak (who only had 30 mins to begin with) were late. We stayed for the first 20 mins, but they only got about 3 songs out in that time.

Trevor from TBDM was hanging around the mosh at the start too, good to see the support!

1. Sjøhyenar (Havets herrer)
2. Fossegrim
3. Blodtørst

The Dillinger Escape Plan were on another smaller stage next, epic live show as always. No new stuff, but a good set of bits & pieces. Mics were out at the start of the first song, which just got the band and the audience riled up even more.

1. Farewell, Mona Lisa
2. Milk Lizard
3. Chinese Whispers
4. Panasonic Youth
5. Room Full of Eyes
6. Gold Teeth on a Bum
7. Black Bubblegum
8. 43% Burnt

By the time we got back to the main stage Slipknot had just got into (sic) and you could see the whole arena going apeshit. Pyrotechnics, alternating backdrops, Joey's upside-down drum thing, Slipknot brought the full show. The set went for about 75 mins. of the allocated 90, leaving plenty of time to get to Devin Townsend's stage.

1. (sic)
2. Eyeless
3. Wait and Bleed
4. The Blister Exists
5. Liberate
6. Before I Forget
7. Pulse of the Maggots
8. Left Behind
9. Disasterpiece
10. Psychosocial
11. The Heretic Anthem
12. Duality
13. Spit It Out
14. People = Shit
15. Surfacing

Devin didn't stop playing from start to finish. I'd never seen him before & I was blown away. The set was preceded by some pretty funny sock-puppet Ziltoid hilarity on the projectors, which went on & off throughout the show. Definitely one of the highlights of the day.

1. Truth
2. Om
3. By Your Command
4. Supercrush!
5. Kingdom
6. The Mighty Masturbator
7. Bad Devil

After Devin had finished we checked out the last hour of System of a Down. They did a pretty decent set, but didn't match up to many of the bands throughout the day. Still, a pretty fun closer to the night and good to see them packing in so many songs in 90 mins, but I'll definitely be seeing Machine Head instead in Adelaide!

1. Prison Song
2. Soldier Side - Intro
3. B.Y.O.B.
4. Revenga
5. Needles
6. Deer Dance
7. Radio/Video
8. Hypnotize
9. Question!
10. Suggestions
11. Psycho
12. Chop Suey!
13. Lonely Day
14. Bounce
15. Kill Rock 'n Roll
16. Lost in Hollywood
17. Forest
18. Science
19. Holy Mountains
20. Aerials
21. Tentative
22. Suite-Pee
23. War?
24. Toxicity
25. Sugar

[VelvetHarry]

Did Greg Puciato perform "Mighty Masturbator" with Devin since Dillinger was on the same bill? So jealous... Devin is my all time hero and DEP is definitely in my top 5 favorite bands...

[fletchzer]

Nope, no guest appearance! I was thinking the same thing, especially since they were on the same stage. No Meshuggah / Gojira appearances either!

[Natrlhi]

Gojira, Mastodon, Meshuggah and System of a Down?

Yes, please.

[fletchzer]

Amount of bands to choose from was ridiculous.

Will be going in Adelaide and catching even more. Didn't get to see Lamb of God or Machine Head in Sydney, which I'll be rectifying!

[x-voltage]

Chimaira set?

[fletchzer]

I only got there for the end of the set so I can't account for the whole thing (they only had 30 mins). setlist.fm says

Power Trip
Pure Hatred
Year of the Snake
The Dehumanizing Process (?)
Resurrection

They're getting a longer set supporting Machine Head tomorrow night, will see if I can get a setlist.

[hellawaits77ny]

Very cool review Man!! I'm jealous of you Aussie folk!

[bobbie solo]

wow this sounds so friggin cool. yeah there's gonna be some overlaps but that lineup is alot of heavy hitters. very cool.

[rjturtle9]

That Slipknot set is full of songs from the first three albums only. I dig it.