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Knotfest Rattles the Poconos

Knotfest (Featuring Slipknot, Behemoth, Gojira, and Volbeat)
Montage Mountain Pavilion
Scranton, PA
August 24, 2019

Behemoth

Slipknot

Volbeat

Words and photos by Johnny Hall

Hot on the heels of their current number 1 album We Are Not Your Kind, Slipknot are bringing their multi-national music festival across North America. On August 24th, the masked crew from Iowa made a stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania at the Montage Mountain Pavilion with fellow bands Behemoth, Gojira, and Volbeat. The amphitheater, nestled in the woods of the Pocono Mountains, hosted a crowd of over 12,000 fans, and the weather was perfect for the event with just the right amount of sunshine and pleasant temperatures to help prepare for the heat that was ready to rise fast on stage. The road heading up the mountain had already started to fill with waiting cars at 1:30 that afternoon, and once the lots opened for parking they began to fill with the sounds of music being pumped from car stereos, smells wafting from grills as people cooked, and the general sense of a good time while fans passed the time tailgating.

Gates opened at 3 p.m. with the crowd quickly filing in line taking their places waiting for the show to begin. Behemoth hit the stage at 5:30 p.m. The black metal band, who hail from Poland, dressed in black with members' faces painted in white corpse makeup. The lead singer, Nergal, wore a priest cloak and mask for the first song, while a heavy blanket of fog and smoke drifted from the stage. Their set was fantastic, heavy and melodic, accompanied with a great stage presence. Their stage show included Nergal wear a dark priest hat, waving flaming batons, with billowing columns of fire surrounding the band.

Next on the bill for the day we're the French band Gojira. Gojira had a sound that blended both technical death metal and progressive metal. Their time changes and vocals were reminiscent of Slayer and Sepltura. The guys played tight and everything sounded balanced, perfectly recreating the songs off their six studio albums. The Gojira set was 40 minutes of hard hitting in your face metal that left fans wanting more.

7:30 marked the beginning of the Danish section of the night, with Volbeat taking the stage. These guys exuded rock and roll. Dressed in jeans, T-shirts, and cutoff denim jackets they had a look of rockabilly greasers. Opening with "The Devil's Bleeding Crown" and Ripping into "Lola Montez" Volbeat showed they mean to have a good time. Frontman Michael Poulen was great with the crowd, often engaging them to clap and sing along. At one point during their set a fight broke out, Michael stopped the band mid-song to alert the security staff. After the fight was broken he spoke to the crowd stating how everybody is there for a good time and not a boxing match, which elicited cheers from the fans. This didn't slow the pace of the show in the slightest as the band picked up where they stopped, throwing their rock and roll machine back in drive and mashing the gas pedal. Volbeat played a set of both crowd favorites and new material.

After the outstanding Volbeat performance the stage crew dropped a large banner, obscuring the entire stage from the view of the fans. The banner was black and had Slipknot in the center, backlight from lighting in the scaffolding. As the stage was hidden the road crew transformed the stage, leaving the audience wondering what was going on behind the scenes. At 9:15 a recorded version of the AC/DC song " For Those About To Rock " signaled Slipknot was about to take the stage. As soon as the track ended the banner dropped revealing the stage and the masked band on their marks. The band has made a departure from their darker costumes and jumpsuits to a more futuristic feel. Their set was bright with huge LED panels. The scissor lift drum risers on either end of the stage were built solidly into the stage with catwalks. The stage felt like a carnival that was built from a twisted mind. The band was dressed in white, black and red outfits. Each member had their own distinctive look that paired well with their new, updated masks. The new look however, was the only thing that had changed; underneath they were still the aggressive Slipknot fans came to see. The band tore into their set with the energy of an atom bomb. They played an hour and a half set comprised of material from their twenty years as a band as well as new material from "We Are Not Your Kind". Frontman Corey Taylor remarked to the audience how thankful he and the band were to all their fans for allowing them to do what they love.