Well, it has come to this. Bands once dismissed as disposable nu metal upstarts have become legacy acts. Nearly thirty years after the genre first exploded, groups like Korn, Deftones, Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach now occupy roughly the same place in the cultural landscape that classic rock bands did for previous generations. With the benefit of hindsight, that evolution makes perfect sense. Whatever one thinks of the aesthetics, these bands understood hooks and they spoke directly to a particular strain of suburban frustration and alienation that resonated with millions of listeners. Those teenagers have since grown up, inherited the steering wheel and acquired disposable income. Inevitably, angst has given way to nostalgia.
But reducing the phenomenon to demographics and market forces misses the point entirely. Standing in front of a hundred thousand people at Hellfest, watching bodies surf overhead and hearing entire choruses sung back at the band, theory quickly gives way to experience. Jacoby Shaddix remains an irrepressible frontman, radiating positivity and enthusiasm while the spectacular pyro punctuates one anthem after another. Whatever cynicism one might harbour about nostalgia and the music business, this kind of communion cannot be manufactured in a boardroom.
Perhaps that is the ultimate irony. For decades, critics dismissed this music as generic, shallow or manufactured. Yet manufactured things rarely inspire this kind of devotion. Three decades later, Papa Roach finds itself in the strange position once occupied by the classic rock bands it grew up admiring. The kids who screamed these songs in their bedrooms now scream them with their own children on their shoulders. Sooner or later, everybody becomes the grown-ups.
TesseracT @ Main Stage 2 (Photos, setlist)
Point Mort @ Warzone (Photo)
Queensrÿche @ Main Stage 1 (Photos, review, setlist)
Stoned Jesus @ Valley Stage (Photos, review, setlist)
Bloodywood @ Main Stage 2 (Photos, setlist)
Accept @ Main Stage 1 (Photos, review, setlist)
Sepultura @ Main Stage 2 (Photos, review, setlist)
Helloween @ Main Stage 1 (Photos, review, setlist)
Opeth @ Main Stage 2 (Photos, review, setlist)
Iron Maiden @ Main Stage 1 (Photos, review, setlist)
DAY FOUR
Scour @ Temple Stage (Photos, review, setlist)
Eyehategod @ Valley Stage (Photos, review)
Six Feet Under @ Altar Stage (Photos, review, setlist)
Corrosion Of Conformity @ Valley Stage (Photos, review)
Possessed @ Altar Stage (Photos, setlist)
Agnostic Front @ Warzone - (Photos, setlist)
Acid Bath @Valley Stage (Photos, review, setlist)
Marduk @ Altar Stage (Photos, setlist)
Napalm Death @ Altar Stage (Photos, review, setlist)
Down @ Valley Stage (Photos, review, setlist)