Last night I saw what can only be described as the loudest show I've ever been to. The venue was superb, and I was right above the stage in a balcony with the perfect view. There were mosh pits, crowd surfers, and unfortunately juggaloes (I guess you can never escape them) and it was a hell of a night all around. Here's my review of the show band by band:  
 
-High on Fire: I had heard some of their songs through my friends, though the only one I really knew was "Fury Whip" which they opened with. They sounded fine, and the whole band just seems like a bunch of really cool guys. I found myself often fixated on the drummer, who was going absolutely apeshit.  
 
-Converge: I hadn't bothered to get into these guys before the show, mainly because I'm not a huge hardcore fan (or whatever genre you want to put them in, don't flame me). While musically they sounded really tight, the vocals were just noise to me. I will give them this, they had the greatest stage prescence out of any band that had played that night. Jacob Bannon, the singer, was whipping the mic around like a nunchuck (spelling fail) never stayed in the same place for more than a few seconds. At one point he called out to a guy in face paint (more than likely Juggalo paint) and asked what his favorite metal band was. He responded "Dinmu Boigeer". Bannon responded with "It's Dimmu Borgir, and you call yourself a fucking fan?!" and then continued to thrash about the stage. Even though I didn't know the music, the show they put on made up for it. 
 
-Mastodon: You can go ahead and say it: I'm a bandwagon Mastodon fan. I loved Crack the Skye when it came out earlier this year, and hearing the entire album live was absolutely phenomenal. I got goosebumps when the opening keyboard for "The Czar" came on. The trippy video that played in the background was immersive and proved to be a very effective addition to the performance. After Crack the Skye finished, they played a set of five or so songs from their previous albums, one from Blood Mountain, two from Leviathan, and two from Remission (MOTHER PUNCHER!!!). They closed on a Melvins cover (I think?).  
 
While Mastodon is a group of very talented musicians, I felt that they weren't very lively on stage. It was pretty awesome to see Brann Dailor going nuts on his drum kit, but the rest of the band just sort of stood there. Troy Sanders would occassionaly look out to the crowd to throw up the metal horns, but other than that they really didn't do much. Brann threw his drumsticks out to the crowd at the end, and they only said three words during their whole set: "See You Tommorow." It was great to see them live, but I kind of wish they had said.....something. 
 
-Dethklok: After an intermission/backstage view of the band, Brendon Small came out and opened with "Blood Ties". Their set was pretty well divided between old and new material. All of the best songs from The Dethalbum were played like Awaken, Birthday Dethday, Thunderhorse, Murmaider, Hatredcopter, and Fansong. Awaken and Murmaider were particularly fun live, as they got the crowd involved. Awakening ancient trolls and listing off weapons to kill mermaids with is pretty fun when you're screaming it in a packed venue. The Gears, Burn the Earth, and Dethsupport were also played from the Dethalbum II. They were fun to see, but I think Mastodon had the best set over all.  
 
So it was a phenomenal show all things considered. 
 
Have you seen any of these bands live? Do you have any stories from the shows?

There are those that love the Saw franchise, and those that loath it. Some will be in line for the midnight showing of the latest film, while others blame it for singlehandedly starting off the “gorno” sub-genre and defacing the horror genre. Still there are others like myself that watch each film each year simply out of curiosity. What character have they resurrected this time? What crazy traps do they have this year? How do they plan on confusing us even more? After the third installment I’ve been largely indifferent on the franchise. I don’t explicitly hate it, but the bloated plot lines and increasingly dull traps have shortened my level of patience for this once proud series (by which I mean the first two films).

Still, Lionsgate pumps a new film out each year the weekend before Halloween like clockwork, and people still flock to the cinema opening weekend to check them out. After the abysmal 5 installment you’d think you’d be hard pressed to find anything likeable about another sequel, and you’d be right. The problem with this is that I didn’t really find much to hate either. The film certainly won’t earn any new converts, but the fans of previous films will undoubtedly like it more than the last film, and will probably find something to like about it.

Don’t get me wrong here, Saw VI has a lot of flaws, most of which stem from its convoluted and now absurd plot line. Now that Agent Strahm is dead Agent Hoffman is now Jigsaw’s last living apprentice. The film revolves around Hoffman covering his tracks, blaming his crimes on the dead Strahm and making sure the “last” pieces of Jigsaw’s game fall into place. All the while the insurance mogul who denied Jigsaw coverage is put through a series of grueling tests for his “crimes” against the sick people he has denied coverage to. Poor use of political commentary aside, series veterans will know exactly what to expect here. William the insurance agent is faced with decisions that will leave one or more people dead but will save the life(s) of others in the process.

The strangest part of the film is that despite the constant jump between storylines, nothing really ever gets answered. Yes, the contents of the box revealed in Saw V are revealed, but we’re never told why they’re there and why they’re used on whom they’re used on. It’s a shame, because there’s little pay off. I expected something to be in the box worthy of a year’s wait, but ended up feeling ripped-off and confused.

Even if you go with the loony story line to see the traps, there’s a noticeable decrease in quality with each test. One of these is a maze where the subject must walk through white hot jets of steam to reach the end. The trap feels like it was ripped straight from a video game, and demonstrates that the filmmakers have been running out of ideas since Saw IV. Another trap has two subjects having to place a pound of flesh onto a scale to grant their freedom. This reminded me of a very similar scene in a far superior movie: 1995’s Seven. In that film, a lawyer is forced to give a pound of flesh as an act of contrition for their ‘crimes” against society. The only difference between the two is the subject’s job description. Even the carousel trap from the posters is disappointing, and being one of the last traps of the film makes it even worse.

Even with all the negative aspects of the film, and the sheer lack of positive ones, I still felt my eyes glued to the screen. I didn’t check my phone to see what time it was, and I never really found myself bored. At the very least, it didn’t overstay its welcome. Fans of the previous entries will probably like this, but newcomers will hate it and ultimately just become more confused as to why we watch these every year.