Ozzfest 2016

San Bernardino, CA

September 24th, 2016

Reviews and photos by Travis Baumann

Ozzfest really needs no introduction. For twenty years Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne have provided Metal fans everywhere an escape into pure Metal Mayhem for the Masses.

While it has become less of an annual event, it has resurrected this year in combination with Slipknot's Knotfest to provide the Metal community two days of Metal music with a different world renowned roster each day.

Below you will find an overview of the festival from the point of view of a massive Metal fan (me) and the bands and events I encountered.  

Links in each section will take you to a dedicated review and photo spread for each band I saw that day.

Arrival and the Grounds

I arrived just after 11:00 in the morning as I wanted to get in a full day and there were some great bands playing in the early afternoon. I had splurged for a 2 Day VIP PASS with PIT access which set me back half a grand! This is the most I have ever spent on a concert or festival so I was going to make the most of the pass as well.

The VIP entrance was actually on the opposite side of the entire arena sized venue from the VIP parking so after a long trek by a nice pond I finally made it to the check-in. In the initial description when I bought the ticket, it said I would get a 2 day commemorative laminate but they changed this idea somewhere along the line and you had to get a separate laminate for each day, which meant I would have to walk by the lake and around the venue again tomorrow for Knotfest. Not exactly VIP treatment but whatever.

I was also supposed to get VIP fast entrance into the VIP area but when I tried to do that I was denied and sent through the main entrance with lots of other people, again not the biggest deal but this thing cost me $500! So finally in the venue (after returning to the car all the way around the venue and back because my two allowed waters were "too frozen and could be used as a projectile" despite them thawing in under half hour in the triple digit heat and being a necessity) I proceeded through the main plaza area down onto the field where the three smaller stages were set up.

At Ozzfest this year, we were going to have two Monster Energy Drink stages side by side and one Nuclear Blast stage a little ways off from those two. The three stages would host the onslaught of rapid change-overs to fill the afternoon until the main "Lemmy" stage would open up. I walked by an area where two huge Monster Trucks would periodically whip around, crush cars, launch into the air, fly at the fence seemingly into the onlookers and then turn away at the last second, and do general tricks. They were far more fun than I ever thought they would be.

The first band I was interested in went on at 12 noon and from there it was one band after another until near midnight!

Allegaeon

These guys hail from Colorado and play Melodic, Technical Death Metal.

Check out their entire set here:

Huntress

I am a huge fan of Huntress. They were my favorite band playing the early stages today and Jill Janus was in her usual epic form.

Check out their entire set here:

Kataklysm

These guys play "Northern Hyperblast" Metal. I have seen them before and I am a big fan. They were great on the Nuclear Blast stage.

Check out their entire set here:

Hatebreed

I am new to these guys but they put on one hell of a show. They play their own breed of East Coast Metalcore and have a rabid fan base.

Check out their entire set here:

Suicidal Tendencies

Old School Metal Crossover Skate Punks, Suicidal Tendencies played all the classics and then some for an ultra-high energy blast from the past set.

Check out their entire set here:

A Brief Respite in the VIP Lounge

I had a moment before the next band went on to go check out the VIP area. It was right off the side of the main "Lemmy" stage, so close to the action for the rest of the evening. It provided some shaded areas (a hard to come by commodity in the blazing heat), several bars, a food truck, separate bathrooms, and at one point a live band.

Having somewhere to sit down in the shade was awesome. The ludicrous prices for refreshments was not. A bottled water would set you back $5, a domestic beer $12 and anything crafty would cost you an arm and a leg (22oz bomber of Laguinitas IPA was $16, one of Stone Ruination was $26.50!). The security check to get into VIP each time was also crazy, no less than 5 people would check your laminate front and back to get in there. It made going at any point between bands extremely difficult but the shade and bathrooms were nice.

Pit access was not direct from VIP so you had to go out one long line to get into another to actually go see the bands but once I was used to it, it went pretty smoothly until all the other patrons got really drunk, then security got even more strict and the bottlenecks increased tenfold. Still worth it I guess, as being out on the lawn so far from stage would have been tough after anticipating seeing some of these bands for literally decades.  

One last note about the VIP area, they had a DJ spinning Metal and Rock in there which was cool between bands but it continued even while the bands were playing.  I am not sure why they would not have the feed from the stage piped back here so you could still hear the awesome bands playing while hanging out in the VIP area. They had TV's as well playing sports which should have been the video feeds they projected up on the side walls of the main stage... now that would have been awesome.

On to the Main Event!

Rival Sons

These guys were the first band to play the main "Lemmy" stage in the late afternoon/early evening slot. They are more Blues Rock than Metal but are also the direct support for Black Sabbath on the entire "The End" tour so must be doing something right.

Check out their entire set here:

Black Label Society

I try to see Zakk Wilde and his Black Label Society any chance I can, I love these guys. They put on an awesome show.

Check out their entire set here:

Opeth

Super trippy, Progressive, Doom/Death Metal legends from Sweden. This was my first time seeing them live and they are really good.

Check out their entire set here:

Megadeth

Megadeth were easily one of my favorite moments of the entire weekend. They kicked ass and were so good live. Absolutely loved them.

Check out their entire set here:

Disturbed

Blow me away performance. These guys were amazing.

Check out their entire set here:

Black Sabbath

The pioneers and Godfathers of Heavy Metal music. Headlining the entire Ozzfest and performing their final concert on the West Coast, we got a dose of their best classic songs in an epic show. It was amazing.

Check out their entire set here:

Ozzfest is Over

(for now)

Ozzfest concluded with the amazing Black Sabbath and we all wandered out into the wilderness (or at least the parking lots) to what would be a three hour exercise in frustration trying to get out of the lots and go to the hotel to sleep for a few hours before we return for Knotfest the next day.

It was an awesome day though, so many bands, so many hours, so many people. Tomorrow will bring an entirely new set of bands to these stages, I could hardly wait.

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