“Slipknot is no longer a band, they are a culture.” Birthed from that culture is the experience known as KNOTFEST.

It’s been three days since the transcendent experience that was Knotfest 2014 and I can’t get those evil genius mother fuckers out of my head. After a ticket mixup, I managed to score pit passes for myself and a friend for a minimal upgrade fee. No complaints from this maggot. It’s interesting how experiencing live metal of this caliber exhilarates the senses to such an extreme degree. Who needs drugs when the music’s that loud, can I get a hail Satan? This was my first time seeing Slipknot play live and was hands down one of the best shows I’ve ever attended. After getting home and sleeping off the weekend’s insanity, I found myself already searching the web for tickets to do it all over again.

While our dear friend Ozzy is busy frying his last 2 remaining brain cells, Slipknot has risen to the challenge of creating their own brand of metal madness in the same vein as Ozzfest. This is Knotfest’s third year and tickets have already become a staple in any self respecting metal head’s ticket stub collection. Or so I gathered from conversations with some masked fans in the pit on Sunday night. We enthused about the future of metal as the stage crew scrambled behind a scarlet curtain to set up Slipknot’s fire shooting stairways to hell, complete with a two-story demon, pyrotechnics and enough lasers to make Roger Waters proud.

From Saturday morning to Sunday night, there was a continuous and just plain awesome lineup. I was particularly impressed with King 810, In This Moment, and Nothing More who all played the smaller side stages on the lawn leading up to the headlining performers on the main stage. I always enjoy festivals like Knotfest and Mayhem because of the opportunities to discover new favorites. You can tell a lot about a band by the way they play live and the experience of being there is so much richer than head bobbing along to a digitally tweaked, edited, and auto-tuned recording through a set of headphones.

King 810 played stage 05 in the early afternoon on Saturday, and I was fortunate enough to get up front and close to the stage. Crackling recordings of news bites reporting murders and various grisly crimes crept out of the speakers with an ominous background track as the band stood still, silent and stone faced at the side of the stage. Two white sheets lay draped over props beside the drum set, one reading “welcome to murder town” and the other, “god help us, god save us.”

The crackling news reports gradually evolved into a drum beat which was joined by machine gun bursts of heavy guitar and a pounding bass. The crowd pulsed as lead singer David Gunn came out from the side stage and began growling into the microphone from behind a chain link fence stage prop.

I’m the motherfucking boogeyman – God cannot save you, he’s way up in the sky, I’m right here leaning over your body, so when i say you die, you die….Sometimes late at night, my hand still wants around the knife, and when that things flips open everything moves in slow motion. it’s not right, it’s not right, i know i need to change, but its this life. and i still feel like I’m chosen to rip this mother fucker open…You’re fat around the heart – are you scared motherfucker, are you scared of the dark?? The devil is real and i wear his mark…I kill everything that I touch so don’t you shake hands with that demon from the mud. You’ll become part of something you want nothing of; Your ass will lose everything you love. This is war this is war this is war war war…

A scrawny kid in front of me moved violently to the music, alternately raising a hand to his head in the shape of a gun, and acting out the slitting of his own throat. He knew every lyric, every bass riff, every guitar squeal, every drum roll. Now, it’s a fairly common occurrence to observe this brand of wild-eyed insanity at a concert of this nature, but it was the first time I’d ever stopped to wonder – what is it about such commercial violence and murderous musings that appeals to such a diverse group and creates such a following? I mean, all these cats are totally into the music but most of them function normally in day to day life without acting on any of it’s messages. So what’s the catch?

It occurs to me that the downtrodden crave a sense of control. The oppressed – whether oppressed in reality or merely in the dark passages of the mind – need this emotional turn of the tables; need to become the predator rather than the prey; need to quench their thirst for blood, even if only in the questionable comfort and brittle confines of their own troubled minds.

Sixteen hours later…..

I push my fingers into my eyes, it’s the only thing that slowly stops the ache, but its made of all the things i have to take, jesus it never ends, it works its way inside, if the pain goes on I’m not gonna make it

Fists high in the air voice raised to the sky with Corey Taylor’s, it hit me – in the same way that as a teenager I embraced the fury and pain with KoRn, Marilyn Manson, and Metallica, daydreaming of revenge and finally feeling okay with the slime I believed myself to be – in that very same way do people from all directions congregate at the holy church of metal to exorcize their demons. Knotfest truly is “a happening that will awake your darkest senses.” It is fifty thousand people from all walks of life unleashing their inner demons and letting the monster off the chain. Because we all have demons. We all have monsters. And we all must find an outlet to vent the pressure – all the pent up fury and frustration that comes along with our lives. Whether it be from white collar corporate life, struggle for survival in the slums, or trust fund kids who’s struggle is that they’ve never been allowed to struggle. We all must release our demons, see the monsters we are, look them in the eye, maybe even feed them for a bit and let them play, only to realize that now is the time to push them back down into the depths of hell.

And when we do so, there is first a sense of rage, pure evil, searing pain, then a certain degree of relief only to be followed by a panic at what we’ve lost and a desire to embrace the rage once more. But don’t worry – the demons will be back. And so will Slipknot next year, inviting you to “step inside and see the devil in I” at Knotfest 2015.

© Olivia Feliciano 2014. All rights reserved.