Marilyn Manson, Slayer & Bleeding Through

August 21st, 2007--The blazing hot Northern California sun made it easy to see how diverse the crowd was at this oddly paired tour featuring metal legends Slayer and America’s favorite shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. Somewhere between the thousands of black T-shirt clad metal-heads screaming, “SLAYER!” at the top of their lungs, and the thousands of black fish-net-, runny makeup-wearing goth-rockers screaming, well nothing really ‘cause that’s not their style, I became very confused as to which act more people were there to see. Regardless, we were all in for a kick-ass evening of rock.

    The opening act was Orange County’s Bleeding Through. Frontman Brandan Schieppati made it very clear that after a month on the road they were glad to be back in California and grateful for having the opportunity to share the stage with such epic bands. With the sun still up and the crowd slowly growing, Bleeding Through took the stage and proceeded to do their best to get everyone riled up. With de-tuned guitars, lots of double-bass, heavy breakdowns and plenty of keys, they did a pretty damn good job. Before the last song of their set, “Kill to Believe” off their most recent album entitled The Truth, Brandon enticed the crowd on the floor to start, “the biggest circle pit you’ve ever seen!” Before the end of the song, I was convinced that nobody knows what an old fashioned circle-pit really is anymore and that’s just sad.

    When Slayer took the stage Tom Araya (bass/vocals) asked, “So, are you ready to get beat up?” Armed with 18 Marshall cabs on each side of the 5-foot drum riser and some of the most ridiculously fast guitar solos I have ever witnessed, courtesy of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, these seasoned pros certainly did beat the shit out of everyone, aurally at least.

    For a little more than an hour Slayer charged through songs like “Chemical Warfare,” “Mandatory Suicide” and crowd favorite “Angel of Death.” After these metal legends were done melting faces, they left the stage having just made myself and the probably 8,000 other dudes in the crowd who play guitar never want to touch one again, because honestly, we all suck compared to those bastards.

    Following Slayer is never a good idea. They play way too loud and way too fast. At least I thought this up until the second Marilyn Manson took the stage and switched the vibe from a metal show to that of a Broadway musical. After every song, there was costume and set changes making their show much more visually appealing than the previous bands. Highlights included: a scary movie-like candlelit entrance; a microphone that was also a 12-inch knife; a robot girl creepily walking around stage until Manson ripped its head off and started making out with it; confetti blasters; a steam lift that took Manson 15 feet above the stage for a whole song; and of course Manson’s burning of a bible while standing on top of a black podium. Manson finished off the mesmerizing set with the song “Beautiful People,” and then left the stage without saying any goodbyes or thanks, but what do you expect from someone who just chased around his band-mates with a giant knife-mic?

See more photos from the show on the Synthesis blog.

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