***FRIDAY***

Chicago was pretty well represented this weekend, starting off with death-doomers AVERNUS. Hilariously true to genre, they were able to squeeze in only 3 tracks for their whole setlist. Still releasing new music after all these years, so that's pretty cool.

ROTTING CHRIST played up on the main stage, and I personally don't get the love for these guys. I appreciate that they are foreign and it's a big deal to nab bands like that will the added complexity of travel and costs and visas and all that shit. Good for them, good for their fans, but I don't get it.

PENTAGRAM have apparently hit a whole new level of mainstream with their frontman becoming a meme recently. They sounded great and had a very solid crowd on the middle stage (probably the best to play at, all things considered). I was pumped to a catch 60% of their set, and they sounded really good.

SUICIDE SILENCE had a large gathering up next on the main stage, but I thought they sounded like shit. The kiddies were out in numbers for them and didn't seem to care. I honestly don't recall anything memorable about this set. Sometimes less is more when you're in this kind of environment, but everybody just wants to be soooo brootal.

I stuck around in the same room to catch Scott Ian, Danny Lilker, and Jamey Jasta doing a tribute S.O.D. set, which was really fucking awesome, and hilarious given the difference in political attitudes nowadays and how sensitive everybody is, not to mention that there's literally a war going on between Israel and Hamas, so having them break into Fuck The Middle East was especially delightful. They literally had a 13 y/o red headed kid playing drums. Not sure he's Jamey's kid or what, but that dude ripped it up!

Timing got a little wonky after this (waiting on girls to use the bathroom doesn't help, fml) but I then caught the last half of the PARADISE LOST set. The sound on that middle stage really is the best when it's dialed in, and they sounded so full and crisp. Wish I could've seen the rest, but what I did see was super good. What polite and polished vampires they are.

CHIMAIRA played second to last on the main stage, and were quite insane. However, I thought they were kind of plagued in the same way that Suicide Silence was. Again, the kiddies didn't seem to care. But even being familiar with their music a bit, it was all a garbled mess. A girl I was with was apparently able to make more sense of it and had a good time watching them.

My one and only trip to the small bar stage today was for LEFT TO DIE, a Death tribute focused on the early-era material featuring Rick Rozz, Terry Butler, and Matt Harvey. It was almost perfect, except that the retards working the sound board had Rick's guitars almost entirely inaudible when it came time for him to play his leads. That said, 10 songs from Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy with a shit ton of stage diving and moshing was an A+ time.

I'll update more when I sort through my phone..

***SATURDAY***

REVOCATION

MACABRE

NECROT

OPPRESSOR

DEMOLITION HAMMER

EVILDEAD

DEATH ANGEL

EXODUS

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY

***SUNDAY***

EXHORDER

MORBID SAINT

HARMS WAY

TOXIC HOLOCAUST

DECEASED

TROUBLE

SCOUR

ARCH ENEMY

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5727108&forum_id=2#48943108)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5727108&forum_id=2#48943131)