July 20, Columbus, OH Germain Amphitheatre

Our party of 7 arrived early, but the line had already formed to get in, but things moved fast once they started to let us in.
The only band I saw on the 2nd stage was Lacuna Coil and they were quite good, the female vocalist has a special quality to her voice that stands out.
There was nothing else that interested me at the 2nd stage, so most out party headed out into midway and to the VIP area.
Two people from our group spent most the day at the 2nd stage though and enjoyed theirselves, it just isnt my style of music, I like a little melody with my metal .
My daughter and her boyfriend wondered around and bought some shirts and checked out the sights and then we made some new friends from New York that bought the Party LIke a Rock Star passes and spent quite a bit of the day with them in the VIP area.
One friend decided he had found heaven and spent most of the afternoon having some beers and watching probably 100 women getting their breasts painted, he was quite content!!

Finally the main stage opened and were all headed in there.

Zakk and BLS opened and did their four songs quite well, the mix was off some with the drums being overbearing, but it was still enjoyable. I am not going to do set lists, not that good of typist.

Superjoint Ritual was next and they did nothing but insult my eardrums, they were horrible to me, nothing but overamped bass drums and growling vocals and very mediocre guitar.

Zakk and Phil did both mention the USA troops in the war zones and expressed support for them.

Dimmu Borgir was rather interesting, they had some good melodic riffs with very good organ and keyboard backing and completely made up in goth attire.

Once again the growling vocals detract for me, but when their bass player sang it was quite good and enjoyable.

Slayer was Slayer,quite fast and heavy, almost pulverizing.

Judas Priest came out and Rob Halford was the top of the stage setup standing in the middle of an electric eye backdrop in his leather and metal outfit.
He stalked the stage while singing and did robot like movements, his vocals were excellent and spot on as was the rest of band.
At times Halford would stand at a certain spot and just sink into the floor and pop back up,a cool effect and them he came out on the motorcycle and they did their encore.
I did not think I would enjoy Priest that much, but they were excellent live and had the crowd going wild, beating on the seats and chanting PRIEST!!!!!!!!

Next up was the mighty Sabbath and I really didnt think they could keep with Preist after their performance and the shape Ozzy's vocals were in last year.
They had a curtain across the stage with the flying Satan logo and lights going off behind it.
Then we heard the " I can't ******* hear you" and the crowd went wild.
Ozzy's shadow was projected onto the curtain and he pretended to ********** and stick the microphone up has anal cavity, all the time pschying the crowd up, quite funny!
When War Pigs began and the curtain opened there was the whole band and Ozz was in FINE form!
His vocals were superb all night, his energy unmatched by any other frontman, he mooned us, he loved us, he made us dance, wave, shout and sing.
The band was Phenomenal, Butler playing a Fender bass and shaking the earth (literally), Ward attacking the drums like a 30 year old athelete and Iommi slowly walking around and shredding some of the best riffs and leads ever heard. Iommi did have some problems with feedback and tuning for a short time, but it was resolved.
On Faires Wear Boots Ozzy started doing a jazzy rock n roll dance and was bopping all over the stage.

Black Sabbath absolutely blew Judas Priest out of the water, I was utterly amazed and I have seen them many times.
ALmir, I lifted my glass and toasted you during Sabbath's set my friend.
This was a great day and Black Sabbath are still the unmatched kings of hard rock!!!!!!!!

Review : by Drip