On Saturday, I met up with Stephanie Miller, who held the office of Loud Music Director for WMHC for three years, and we left for Worcester. She graciously agreed to do all the driving that day, as the previous night I had been informed by a cop that one of my headlights was burned out.

Despite traffic, we got there in time to see New York death metallers Immolation, who turned in a good, tight performance. She introduced me to one of the promoters from Heavy Hitter, and I showed her the Palladium, and pointed out the metalcore moshers after I told her the story of the previous day and my face’s encounter with one of them. (She, not having seen ‘core style moshing before this, agreed with me that it looks silly.) Unfortunately, she started feeling ill, and decided she would come back after Arch Enemy and pick me up.

Skinless came on and brought more death metal with them, and had a very...frenetic performance, I suppose would be the best word for it; much looser stylistically than Immolation. More metalcore, to which I didn’t pay a great deal of attention, then Hate Eternal, who absolutely dominated. (A particularly zealous audience member informed all of us that Eric Rutan is God; apparently Lemmy has competition.) They definitely gave the best performance of Saturday, and one of the best performances of the festival. I only wish I could have seen more of them. After them was God Forbid, who turned in a good performance, and Suffocation, who fell somewhere in between Immolation and Skinless in terms of performance style. Very good, though, regardless.

Terror was next, followed by Overcast, which was one of the Masscore frontrunners, and is only recently reunited (when they broke up, the members went on to such bands as Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall). Brain Fair is their vocalist; let me tell you, watching a man with five-foot dreds windmill is a sight to behold. The crowd went nuts for them, too; I think only DragonForce managed to get a more energetic audience.

Exodus was one of the most no-nonsense bands. All the 'core bands had a lot of stage patter ("No one is better than anyone else, including the people on the stage! We're kids just like you!") and it was refreshing when Exodus came, thrashed, and left, and did it extremely well. Lots of new stuff (Raze, I Am Abomination, 44 Magnum Opus) as well as a couple older ones (War Is My Shepherd). Chimaira had the penultimate slot; not being a fan of theirs, I was unwilling to be blinded by their utterly over-the-top light show, so I didn’t watch too closely.

The headliners, Arch Enemy, were killer. Unfortunately, Angela Gossow's mic kept having issues; there was a bit of feedback, and it briefly went out a couple times. Despite that, it was a great show. They played plenty from Wages Of Sin (Burning Angel, Dead Bury Their Dead, Savage Messiah), as well as a couple songs from Doomsday Machine (Nemesis, My Apocalypse) and ended with We Will Rise. An excellent closer for the day, and I returned home greatly looking forward to the last day of the fest.

Stay tuned to Metal Reviews for the thrilling conclusion!