{"id":9093,"date":"2015-10-28T14:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T21:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/?p=9093"},"modified":"2015-10-29T21:32:49","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T04:32:49","slug":"knotfest-returns-to-san-bernardino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/2015\/10\/28\/knotfest-returns-to-san-bernardino\/","title":{"rendered":"Knotfest Returns To San Bernardino"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review by Lisa Burke & Brad Worsham, photos by Brad Worsham<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

October 24th-25th 2015, San Manuel Amphitheater, San Bernardino CA: <\/strong>After a successful 2014 edition, Knotfest returned to San Bernardino, California for the second consecutive year. The Metal Assault team was out in full force to capture the action for your reading and viewing pleasure. Check it out below:<\/p>\n

Intro (by Lisa Burke):<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last weekend I spent the majority of my time at one of the many festivals raging in full force, at Knotfest with more metal than you would expect to be able to handle in two days with each day consisting of over twenty bands spanned over four stages at the San Manuel Amphitheater near the hills of San Bernardino. The festival opened Friday night for the pre-party\/private show, and continued through Sunday night ending with headliners and festival creators Slipknot.<\/p>\n

If I had to redo this again I would have arrived late friday night to be ready for the early afternoon metal on Saturday despite the extra sun and dust exposure I would have encountered at this event. The ‘Headbang For The Highway’ stage was the first to open on Saturday, the smallest stage consisting of mostly local bands and the competition winners from previous battle for Knotfest shows. Among these openers on Saturday were Grand Lord High Master and Kaustik. Saturday at this festival seemed to be the favored day for most fans, with excitement arising from bands like Khaotika, Battlecross, Inquisition, Kataklsym, Belphegor, Red Fang, Goatwhore, At The Gates, GWAR, Corrosion Of Conformity, Mastodon, and metal gods Judas Priest. I couldn’t arrive at the venue until the main stage action began, but here’s Brad’s recap of part 1 of day 1:<\/p>\n

Day 1 (10\/24), Part 1 (by Brad Worsham):<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the initial chaos of parking and navigating security, I immediately made my way to the side stage field which had already been whipped into a dusty frenzy. Stage 2\/3 shared a rotating stage in order to keep the music going with very little downtime. It was hot, humid, and dusty and crowds had gotten there early for nonstop barrage of music on three stages giving you plenty of choices. The fact that I had no previous knowledge of most of the earlier bands did not hinder the experience. Festivals are a great place to experience new bands and open yourself up to finding something new you like.<\/p>\n

Band signing tents provided opportunities to meet your favorite side stage artists. Rockstar Energy had their tent setup giving away as many drinks as you could suck down, but helping very little with the overwhelming thirst caused by the heat and dust. $4.75 water was available for purchase, $12 beer, or a long walk back to the water fountains at the entrance to the venue. The greatest revelation of the day was that the \u201cpress\u201d is allowed water from backstage. I could get used to this.<\/p>\n

\"Goatwhore\"<\/a>
Goatwhore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Due to overlapping times, I was not able to catch all performances on Stages 4 and 5. Of the bands I saw, the highlights for me were Skyburial<\/strong> playing early on stage 5 and Abysmal Dawn<\/strong>\u2019s completely frenzied crowd. Stage 2 opened strong with Battlecross<\/strong> and Red Fang<\/strong>, but kicked into a new gear for Goatwhore<\/strong>. Circle pits kicked dust into the air, crowd surfers made their way to the front and tossed over the barrier, the crowd loving every minute of it. Body Count<\/strong>\u2019s guitar riffs were possibly only overshadowed by Ice-T\u2019s off-colored, SVU inspired pedophilia jokes that he told during technical difficulties. As the Body Count stage rotated away, plastic tarps were spread across the front of the stage, security put on ponchos and GWAR<\/strong> took the stage. The decapitation occurred only one minute into the set, setting off a never ending spewing of liquid into the crowd.<\/p>\n

Battlecross photos:<\/strong><\/p>\n