Slipknot
Marilyn Manson
Mansfield, MA
July 5, 2016

For the first time since 2001, two of the largest and most controversial metal bands of the 1990’s are touring together, Slipknot and Marilyn Manson. Supporting them on this trek is Of Mice and Men.

---

Of Mice and Men

California metalcore band Of Mice and Men is releasing their fourth studio album, Cold World, this September.

Setlist
Public Service Announcement
The Flood
Glass Hearts
Never Giving Up
Bones Exposed
You Make Me Sick
Pain
The Depths

---

Marilyn Manson

I saw Marilyn Manson once, back on Ozzfest 2003, when he was around the peak of his popularity. He was fantastic that day! After some clips I’ve seen over the last few years, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about seeing him now. After having seen him, I’m still not sure.

Manson gave off an appearance of being intoxicated and not really caring about his performance, however I’m almost positive it was just part of his act. I tried really hard to get behind the act, but unfortunately I felt like his vocals just weren’t there a lot of the time. If you pretend hard enough to not care, you cross a line to where you actually don’t care, which isn’t what anyone wants to hear. There were moments in the set where Manson switched himself on, and when he did, he was PHENOMENAL on those tracks. Stand out performances included “Sweet Dreams” and “The Beautiful People.” He really nailed those songs.

I’m honestly not sure how I would rate his set, or how I would feel about seeing him again. It ranged from a mess to amazing to mediocre and back. As I said, I’m pretty sure his performance was exactly what he was trying to do, but despite being a fan (a casual fan, but still a fan) I guess just didn’t get it.

Setlist
Angel With the Scabbed Wings
Disposable Teens
No Reflection
mOBSCENE
Deep Six
This Is the New Shit
The Dope Show
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Antichrist Superstar
—
The Beautiful People

---

Slipknot

Slipknot are back in New England for the third time supporting .5: The Gray Chapter, which has been out for nearly two years now.

Last time we covered the band, bass player Alessandro Venturella was rushed to the hospital after suffering from dehydration on stage. This time, the show went off without any major incident. Despite singer Corey Taylor wearing a neck brace after his recent spinal surgery, they were fantastic. Corey didn’t move around the stage as much as usual, mostly staying near the center riser, but his vocals didn’t seem to be affected at all. Besides the addition of a neck brace, his mask has been updated a little bit since last year. It’s very similar, but has many more wrinkles and a bit more depth to the ‘skin’ of the mask.

Slipknot’s last two visits had setlists that were fairly similar to each other, but this time they moved around and replaced quite a few things. One of the highlights for me was hearing “Everything Ends,” off of Iowa. That’s a song I haven’t heard them perform in over a decade!

The lower half of their stage show remains the same, however the backdrops were replaced with a giant video screen, which had various artistic videos playing in the background with each song. The video during “Pulse of the Maggots” is sure to make anyone lose their lunch. I was disappointed, however, that pyro was removed from the show this time around. Either way, the whole performance is great!

I suspect this is the last time we’ll see Slipknot before they record a new album. When the tour was announced, Mansfield was not on the list of dates, but rather was added a few weeks after the initial on sale. The lawn was empty and the back section of seats was very sparse, so perhaps they’d had good reason to skip this time. The people who were there, however, certainly were glad that the tour stopped here!

Setlist
The Negative One
Disasterpiece
Eyeless
Skeptic
Before I Forget
Killpop
Dead Memories
Everything Ends
Psychosocial
Pulse of the Maggots
Left Behind
The Devil in I
Wait and Bleed
(sic)
—
Surfacing
Duality
Spit It Out