I set out on my Journey thursday morning around 8am. There was alot bands I wanted to check out that day including the mighty Mudvayne, Evanescence, P.O.D. and a band I just booked for the fall Miss May I. The trip was pretty easy as it was a straight shot and I was able to get there in five hours.
I rolled up, off the highway around 2:30ish and was ushered into the parking area where I had Premium parking. It didn’t take but five minutes to get to the parking spot. It was extremely easy. I was able to park within two minutes of the entrance which was awesome since I’m out of shape and didn’t wanna expend half my energy getting to the gates like I did at that piece of shit festival down in Virginia. Getting in was super easy too. I had VIP passes so I had my own area to enter with no lines at all, although at this point there was really no lines at all because it was the first day and kind of an odd time in the day to be arriving. I feel like between 11 and 12 is pretty busy as the all day rangers get there and then later around 7ish more of the late crowd piles in, which was very noticable by the size of the crowds at the stages.
Walking in there was so much cool stuff all around. They had merch set upon right on your path to the stages. Off the the left was alot of merch stands such as the Corey Taylor Foundation among others. I was pretty eager to see some bands so I didn’t really pay to much attention at that time. If you continue walking straight in you’ll come up on the big 2nd stage called the Cathedral stage, this is where Judas Priest would be headlining this particular night, as well as bands like Rise Against, Sleep Token, Sum 41 and others would be on that stage throughout the weekend. Turning left you’d see huge standee’s of some famous albums by bands playing like Pantera’s “Vulgar Display of Power”, Slipknots “Iowa”, Limp Bizkit’s “Significant Other” among others. Many food venders were over this way as well including Grilled Cheese, Chicken, Pizza and other stuff along w/ the Alcohol as well. Alcohol stands were like starbucks, they were everywhere.
Picture an L shape parking lot, you’d have Cathedral stage at the bottom and turn left into the foot of the L you’d have the two other side stages called the Citadel and Sanctuary stages. These stages featured up and coming bands w/ some heavy hitter headliners. Bands like Slaughter To Prevail, Machinehead, Cypress Hill would be headlining these stages while others on these side stages were bands like Soulfly, New Years Day, Drain and others.

Mudvayne Performing at the Temple Stage inside the stadium on Thursday May 16th as part of the Sonic Temple Music + Arts Festival in Columbus Ohio.

Me w/ the Metal Ambassador Himself Jose Mangin at Sonic Temple

Cypress Hill Headlining the Citidal Stage at Sonic Temple on May 16th in Columbus Ohio.

Now that I’ve described a few things I was pretty much heading straight to the side stages for some bands I was interested in seeing. I walked in just as lovedrafts alumni band Catch Your Breath was finishing up thier set. They closed w/ “Dialtone” as you’d probably expect. I caught 2 or 3 songs. They sounded fantastic. Sadly I had already missed Nita Strauss, Gideon and Hotbox. Those were three I really wanted to catch but alas its a long drive. So after scoping out the side stages and catching a bit of Catch Your Breath I spotted the VIP area. It was located between the side stages and the stadium. Stadium is obviously the biggest stage and features all the headliners of the weekend such as Bizkit, Slipknot, Pantera, Falling in Reverse. VIP area was pretty solid, it had some great food, air conditioned bathrooms, some tables outside, air conditioned tent w/ lots of seating, special merch spot, lockers and easy access to the stadium. I decided to head in to check out P.O.D. who always put on a stellar show. They didn’t dissappoint as they blasted through some hits and a new track or two from the recently released “Veritas” album. I was able to stay for about 20 minutes before I headed back out to the side stages as I wanted to see what we are in for when Miss May I comes to town. These guys are brutal live. I cannot wait to see them in a club setting like lovedrafts. At this point I was really looking forward to Fire From The Gods, however I had some time to kill so I headed over to the Second stage and caught some Nova Twins. These girls are great. Dance type heavy music. I really enjoyed them. I’m gonna try to bring them into town at some point.

It was time to head over and see Fire From The Gods. Ive only ever seen them once and it was last year at Inkcarceration Festival. Its odd because I don’t listen to them all that much but damn do they crush it live. Its one of those sets that feels like 10 minutes even though its not. After FFTGs. I had three choices. 01. The Ghost Inside. 02. Enter Shakira or 03. Eat. I did all three. Watched ten minutes of each band then headed inside to grab a hot dog or two. Both bands were super good. I’d caught The Ghost inside before and they are always awesome live. They are another one I don’t really listen to but enjoy watching. Enter Shakira was cooler than I thought. Didn’t really know much about them. Planned on watching for 5 minuted and ended up watching 15-20.
Inside they had some concessions as well as in the VIP area, but at the time the lines were a tad long in the VIP section so I hit up the ones inside. Hot dogs, nachos, soft preztels and drinks is all they had from what I remember. Shade was a big thing and there was plenty inside the stadium. No real places to sit, so I just sat on the concrete. I was biding my time for the 45 minutes of Mudvayne coming up next…
Mudvayne is a band that I never got to see back in the day, somehow they elluded me. I caught them back in 2022 at Blue Ridge and honestly thought they were not good. Chad didn’t seem to be in good shape and reminded me of Vince Neil, not that he sucked that bad but he’d fumble the lyrics and sing every 2 or 3 words instead of full sentences like vince does. Somehow even after not enjoying them much the first time they were one of the bands I was most excited for this weekend. They did Not dissappoint. Chad got his shit together and sounds great. I loved his interaction w/ the crowd. I didn’t think “Dull Boy” was a strong opener but they made up for it with the rest of the set. Playing songs like “World So Cold”, “Not Falling”, “Death Blooms” and of course closing w/ “Dig”. Towards the end he asked if the crowd was “Happy?” before playing that song. All in all it was my favorite set on main stage for the day. I’m looking forwad to seeing them again.

After Mudvayne I went and caught a few songs of Kerry King. They sound like Slayer to me and frankly I’ve never been a huge fan of them. He sounded great but just not my thing. Headed over to one of the smaller stages for Electric Callboy and holy shit did they pack that area. It was as dense as i’d seen it and honestly will see it all weekend. The boys put on a amazing set. I have a special place for them as they took out our boys in If Not For Me on a few dates. After that I was inside to see Evanescence. Amy Lee sounds better then she ever has. She is one of the best vocalists I’ve heard live. They played alot of new songs which I wasn’t familiar w/ but the classics sounded incredible. The hightlight was Sonny of P.O.D. coming out to sing “Bring Me To Life” w/ them to close out the set. Over to the Second stage to see a band I never thought I’d see live. Judas Priest. I can honestly say I’ve never been a fan but it was damn cool seeing the legends live. I only stayed for about 15 minutes as I went over to see Cypress Hill. These guys put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. They played all the hits and had a huge crowd. Sen Dog and B-Real are probably my favorite Hip Hop artists of all time. After them I watched a bit of Machine Head and three or four songs of Disturbed and then headed back to the Hotel.
Day 1 was a great day. I was able to get the lay of the land and see alot of great bands. Hightlights for me were Cypress Hill, Mudvayne, Evanescence, Fire From The Gods and P.O.D. It was also awesome to see Judas Priest and Electric Callboy for the first time as well. Good night for now…