First of all, it was fucking cold out, and the doors opened late. My friend and I were out in the cold for upwards of 90 minutes, and those ahead of us in line for much longer. When we were finally let in, we had been sapped of all our energy just trying to keep warm. The results were obvious later on in the show.

First up was Berzerker. The sound was terrible. All anyone could hear was the guitar and the occasional cymbal. Nothing I really wanted to hear anyway. Hyperfast but extremely generic death metal with black and thrash touches. Nothing seperates them from the crowd except for the masks, which failed to impress me.

Next up was SYL, whom I was quite eager to see. Devy came out and immediately began insulting the crowd and making odd remarks. "Do I get $10 for using a big word in this town," and "The altitude is making me horny! Horny for man love!" were some of the more memorable ones. He then proceeded to unleash a huge fucking steamroller of heavy metal. It was all anyone could do just to stand in awe of the insanity. They played a short set consisting of one song from HaaRHT, two from City, and three from the new one (which sounded damn good). Gene Hoglan was especially impressive: just a mass of hair, flab, and drumsticks flying in every direction.

Dark Tranquillity came out, and once again impressed us with their energy and technical ability. They played Punish My Heaven, Zodiakl Light, Wonders At Your Feet, Monocromatic Stains, Final Resistance, and Treason Wall. Once again, nothing from Projector, but they put on a great show so I didn't really care. Tight and energetic all around.

Next up was Napalm Death, whom I've never really listened to. They were loud, tight, and brutal. As I might have expected from a grind band, they played through about thirty songs without having an especially long set. Barney was flipping out, to say the least, and put on an especially good show. He made some anti-war statements between some of the songs, which I didn't really expect from them. The bassist bears an unusual resemblence to Messiah Marcolin. Everyone was digging the show, but they didn't look too into it because no one had the energy to mosh and such. I might pick up some Napalm Death on a future haul.

Finally, the almighty Nile. Very impressive, as expected. They tried very hard to get the crowd a little more active, but to little effect. Their set was like their albums, a massive, hypnotizing slab of chaotic death metal. Sarcophogus had me especially entranced. I got to speak with one of the guitarists after the set (the blonde one, can't remember the name). He was disappointed by the crowd, but was nevertheless friendly and down-to-earth. I finally got to tell him how much they whipped up on CoF last time they came through.