by Ken Baumbach
staff writer
The heavy metal concert festival Ozzfest is returning once again this summer to rock cities across North America. For the past seven years, Ozzfest has brought some of the best hard rock and heavy metal acts of the past decade to arenas and amphitheaters across the United States. Ozzfest was one of the biggest tours of last summer, bringing in more than $26 million in ticket sales.
The self-proclaimed “bastard” of festivals will make it’s way across the U.S., playing 32 shows total and will eventually bring all of its raw energy and crunching guitar riffs overseas for a short tour in the U.K.
This year’s lineup includes three stages worth of music for fans to choose from. The prince of darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, hot off the success of his new show, “The Osbournes,” and continuing his Down to Earth World Tour, will headline the show. He returns in a solo act this year, after reuniting with Black Sabbath for last summer’s Ozzfest, with his band comprising of Zakk Wylde, Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin. Other bands included in this year’s festival are System of a Down, P.O.D., Adema, Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society, Down, Hatebreed and Meshuggah, among many others.
One of the most anticipated bands rumored to perform in this year’s Ozzfest, Civilian, has recently dropped out of the tour. Civilian, the Chris Cornell/Rage Against the Machine unit, recently announced that they were not going to be a part of this year’s festivities. Taking their place on the main stage will be Rob Zombie, who says he still wants to keep his show “stripped down” even though he is now on the larger main arena stage.
“As much as I love the big show and all the production, it becomes this huge thing of its own. Sometimes the show is so huge everything else gets lost…I haven’t done anything like [this] in 12 years or something,” Zombie said in an interview about the festival. Many fans are disappointed about not being able to see the new Chris Cornell/RATM outfit.
“Rob Zombie replacing Civilian is ridiculous. It sucks that Civilian isn’t putting out their CD, but Rob Zombie shouldn’t be put on the main stage. Let’s put Sevendust or Mindless Self Indulgence on there,” sophomore, Julian Smoger said.
First-year student Will Shepard is also disappointed in the drop out of Civilian. “Last year’s lineup was better than this year’s. I felt that Civilian would have made this year’s Ozzfest memorable. Now I’m not so sure,” Shepard said.
Even with the dropout of the highly anticipated Chris Cornell/RATM team, there are still plenty of things to experience at this years Ozzfest. Along with the three stages of bands to see, there are many different activities that fans may participate in as well. In addition to the music, The Village of the Damned, a circus-like gathering of attractions and exhibitors featuring, as always, piercing booths and tattoo parlors will remain popular among the fans. Exhibitionists (breast painting anyone?) will also return with its diversions for the restless. With it’s dedication to continuously rock every summer, the Ozzfest continues to remain popular despite any kind of critical acclaim or widespread coverage by the media. This year’s Ozzfest is shaping up to deliver the same type of positive reactions. ROCK ON.
