Written by:	D.T. Metal
Published:	July 29, 2014
Event:	Rockstar Energy Drink Taste Of Mayhem Festival 2014
Location:	Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO, USA
Galleries:	Taste Of Mayhem - Fillmore Theater, Denver USA - 13 Jul 2014 by D.T. Metal (78) Rockstar Mayhem Festival - Mountain View, CA USA - 6th July 2014 by 8bitglitch (198)

The annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival! Great variety of bands, I always have a blast, it's always fun, the weather is always way too hot and this year's event was almost no exception. Yes, almost no exception; the timing of the festival couldn't be worse and the decision to split the Colorado show into two events didn't help the cause neither.

All of the side stage acts (minus Body Count) played INDOORS at the Fillmore Auditorium in downtown Denver while the main stage acts did their thing a day later at the famous and beautiful Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Lame sauce, but oh well. Red Rocks was sold out, while the Fillmore not so much. Don't get wrong, there were still a good amount of people present, but since one had to pay essentially double the amount, of what in prior years was a one day gig, some metal heads chose one event over the other.




Since we made arrangements to cover the show in California as well, I opted just to watch the side stage acts, since ?Cannibal Corpse - duuuh. BUT, and at this point I wave my 'I-told-you-so-last-year' card, since it wasn't just an empty threat what I wrote at the end of the article, I actually followed through. Normally I wouldn't let the bands down in such a way and don't write a detailed review, but in my defense, the day of the Denver show was also the day of the FIFA World Cup final - long story short, let's just say there was partying to be done, since ? Wir Sind Weltmeister


I did manage to watch a couple sets and actually was able to shoot a couple pics as well. Thankfully during the festival stop in California our contributor Justin Williams over at 8bitglitch was waaaay more professional (and probably more sober) than I was here in Denver and you can check out all his visuals RIGHT HERE.

Due to the broadcast schedule of the game, watching King 810, Erimha, Islander and Wretched was unfortunately not in the cards for me. I really did want to watch Wretched again since their last album Cannibal is actually quite good but I assume they will come around sooner rather than later, in support of it. I honestly had the full intention of watching Upon A Burning Body but - yah, this didn't happen. They actually played on [url= http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/article.php?article_id=1134] Rockstar Mayhem Festival in 2012[/url] and it would have been nice to see them again.

In California, 8bitglitch had scheduling conflicts as well and had to pick and choose; below are some pictures from Erimha who played the same time as Upon A Burning Body.





Veil Of Maya was the first band I got to see; and since I haven't seen them in years, there was no way I was going to miss them anyways. Marc is still the god on guitar and vocalist Brandon had the crowd going in no time.





Love 'em or hate 'em, but Darkest Hour can do no wrong in my opinion, period! John Henry and cohorts put on an outstanding show and did play songs of their upcoming self-titled album Darkest Hour. Seriously, buy it.





Ill Niño was up next for me and I honestly enjoyed their set very much. Personal fail - I had never seen them and therefore didn't know what to expect. They just dropped their new album and I assume they will be touring for it after this run of shows.





Mushroomhead - seen them about a million times; for some reason they like The Black Sheep (our local venue) and play there all the time. Not that there is anything wrong with the venue, it's just that the 500 capacity seems a tad small for their size. But fricking Tech N9ne does the same thing; before playing at a sold-out 5000-seater, he plays two sold-out gigs at The Black Sheep. Whatever floats your boat I guess. Regardless, Mushroomhead was cool to watch.





Miss May I? No, you may not since I needed to eat something. Apparently so did 8bitglitch when they played in California since he didn't cover them neither. Luckily we both were able to catch Suicide Silence and to be honest, I wouldn't have missed them anyways. True, nobody will ever be able to fully replace Mitch Lurker (R.I.P. brother ), but let me tell you this, Eddie Hermida (ex-All Shall Perish) does a fucking great job fronting the band.

He got rid of his 'mountain man' look and now sports a sleek, and maybe to some, non-metal haircut; I dig it. A little birdy told me that Suicide Silence will venture on a North American headlining tour later this year, so keep your eyes open. Coincidentally, All Shall Perish's drummer Adam Pierce was drum-whoring for Emmure, who played right before Miss May I in Denver.





Why on earth Texas Hippie Coalition went on right before the headliner is beyond me, but it didn't matter anyways; I missed them. So, the ending to a perfect day was presented by the mighty Cannibal Corpse. Unfortunately the dude who did lights that day apparently left early, since ? holy hell, literally, hell, as in red lights, as in 'you have got to be kidding me'.

The side-stage bands did play in the daytime during the Rockstar Mayhem Festival and of course didn't bring their own lighting tech and since Denver, CO was one of the indoor gigs of the tour, the local house guy was enlisted. Or maybe Cannibal Corpse wanted to play in the mystic red, then my argument is invalid. Either way, besides the lighting issues, George and Co. kicked major ass that night. For some reason a lot of people left after Suicide Silence, or maybe after the first song of Texas Hippie Coalition , but for those who stayed until the end, they witnessed a really good show.





That's all I got, but below are some pictures from the main stage acts when the festival came through California; enjoy.

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That's a wrap. Another Rockstar Mayhem Festival under the belt. I might not work next year neither since I had way, way to much fun just hanging out.