Mark Morton @ Mayhem Festival 2010

Mark Morton @ Mayhem Festival 2010
Originally uploaded by Tormentia Photography

So it has been a while since the Mayhem festival and I have totally ignored posting any of my shots.

I really felt that I had to try and make every post to this blog EPIC and really.. I should just be sharing some of my favorite shots and be as casual as if I was talking to a friend about a shot that I liked.

There are soo many shots from Mayhem that I love. Lamb of God is obviously one of my favorite bands, so I naturally love my pics of them the best. Mark and Randy are so much fun to shoot because they just have that energy that translates well into a still. I really feel like I capture something special when I shoot this band, so here is one of the pics I like from the PNC show. Enjoy!

The Mayhem Festival

To say that the day was a hot one, is the understatement of the year. My good friend Fern and I headed down to Camden midday and were ready to see some amazing music. The lineup this year was a great one, and I couldn't wait to snap away. We got to do it again 5 days later at the PNC in Holmdel. We were lucky to be able to go to the after parties and I got to chat with some of my favorite musicians. And well, yeah I took a ton of pics.

Understand that these festivals are EXTREMELY tiring. It not only sucks because the heat is unbearable, the pavement that you stand on just amplifies the heat. Add lots of added on weight of a camera/lens or two, and that calls for a long day.

I grabbed a bunch of shots from both shows. I think that the final count was about 2800 pics from both dates. I have only posted about half of the shots right now on my site. Of course, the first band I posted were my friends in Lamb of God. I was sad to have them play such a short set. I really forgot what it was like to see them play for less than an hour.

I got to see Korn and White Zombie again. I have not seen them on a big stage before and they did not disappoint.

Check out the pics of Lamb of God, Chimaira, Shadow's Fall, and 3 Inches of blood. The first 3 bands listed have both sets from both dates up. I only got to catch 3 Inches of Blood down in Camden.

I am chugging along with the other bands, so be patient with me. I unfortunately have to work a day job that eats up most of my time. One day I will be able to afford to do photography full time, and I will be quicker about my upload times!

Crap.. so many shows.. so many pictures, so little time!

So, overwhelmed doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about how backlogged I am. I just went out last night to see Children of Bodom and The Black Dahlia Murder at the Starland Ballroom. Last weekend, I went to see Trivium in Allentown at the Crocodile Rock. Like the last post said, I am still working on pics from the Mayhem Tour. Somewhere between these last two shows, I celebrated a birthday.

I am not complaining. I love all of this work. It thrills me to be able to capture these moments in time for other people to look at. I was a woman on a mission the last few shows. I had a decision to make about what lenses to buy. The store where I get my gear was nice enough to let me buy 2 similar lenses and told me to return the one I didn't like. It was pretty cool to be able to do this. I used both at Trivium and was impressed with both lenses. If you are interested in finding out more about my gear, just message me. I will try to keep this to just about the bands and shows. The Trivium show was on September 12th, so one could say I went to celebrate there for my birthday. I found out that Paolo's birthday is the same day, September 14th. Cool people are born that day!

I realized at that show that I really wish I could get on stage more often to get behind the drum kit. Drummers get left out of so many cool shots because us photographers are not allowed back there. I met Travis after the show and was really surprised at how good looking he is. He is usually hiding behind the drum kit with sunglasses and a bandana. I saw him sans his stage uniform and was taken aback. Watch out ladies.. he is a hottie!

Well I really should get back to playing with my pictures. Still have about 5 bands from the West Palm Mayhem show, the Trivium gig, and last nights festivities with Children of Bodom and Black Dahlia Murder.

Oh did I mention I am going to go see Lamb of God/Gwar/Job For a Cowboy on Tuesday! Whew.. more good times.. a mountain of pics to go through...

Till next time.

Trying to Play Catch Up

I took a small break from editing pictures and putting them up. Doing the 2 dates of the Mayhem Festival is a ton of hours of work after the show. I feel ready to tackle them again and I am working on the West Palm date now.

I figured I would start with the bands that I didn't get to take while I was in Tampa. The first set is Killswitch Engage. What a great band to see. I love their "uniforms". They make for an entertaining picture. You can really appreciate the clarity of these pics. I had bought a new lens that would do well in low light specifically with these 2 shows in mind. This lens is a beast and weights a few lbs by itself.

Please enjoy these fun pics. I hope to be able to photograph them again. Follow link to the entire album: Killswitch Enage.

God Forbid blows the crowd away in Tampa

Out of all the pictures I took in Tampa for the Mayhem festival, I think I like the God Forbid batch as a whole. I got some great pics of every member and that is a rare feat for me! This one of Byron really knocks my socks off. I love the detail, colors, and the overall feel of the pic:

Doc shows off his new guitar in this one.. he is looking hot with his new hot guitar!

Here John looks like heaven is shining down on him

This pic of Corey is self explanatory

And last but not least.. Matt.. God Forbid's new addition.. A nice seamless transition

The entire album for this show can be found at God Forbid

All I have to say is fucking SLAYER!!!

This is probably the most exciting thing I have gotten to do in the music world, photograph Slayer. I have to say that it was a dream come true to be able to capture this night. I got some pretty amazing pics that I would love to share with ya!

This one is my favorite of Kerry- He is a fun person to photograph. He has so many cool features about him.

I just love the expression that Tom has on his face in this pic. The blue light around him just makes this pic pop!

The colors that were used for the lighting of this show just brought out interesting sides of all the members of Slayer. The color green suits Jeff well:

Last but not least, here is one of our two favorite guitarists together:

Please do go and see the entire album. There are so many cool pics in this album. Check them out here!

Slayer!!!

Behemoth and All That Remains added from Tampa Show!

I finished these two bands first because I have never seen them live before and they impressed me the most! I really enjoyed both their sets and feel like they are going to be in heavy rotation in my iPod.

Behemoth -they are truly a brutal band. I was dying in my tank top and shorts at this show and complained about the heat. Tampa is definitely not a place you want to be in the Summer. The humidity was high and not only did you sweat, but it just stuck to you and made it worse. These guys walk on stage in corpsepaint and full gear and I got hot just looking at them! They put on an amazing show and had an endurance anyone can admire. If it were me up there, I would have passed out. Later on I find out that they are from Poland! (I am part polish too). That is why they are warriors! The crowd welcomed them with a great pit and I think all had a great time.

Nergal, Orion and Seth were the only ones that I could take great pics of. Poor Inferno was hidden behind the kit, so I did the best I could. Did I mention that I happened to be right under Seth when he spit out "blood" and I got bathed in it? I didn't bother washing it off and a lady came up to me later and asked me if I realized I had blood all over me. I told her yes and kept walking. That was too funny. Here are a few pics from that show:

Behemoth Album on Tormentia Photography

All That Remains puts on an interactive show. They have a great cohesion with each other and Phil really stirs the crowd up and gets them involved. I have to say I really love Oli and Mike's guitar work. Jason just makes drumming look easy; we know its not. I save Jeanne for last because she is living my childhood dream. Back when I was growing up, you didn't see girls in metal, other than Lita Ford and the other chick "hair" bands. It's so cool that she will give a generation of girls out there the hope that they too can shred with the boys. Jeanne, you are one my new heroes!

All That Remains album on Tormentia Photography

Whew.. recovering from all the Mayhem!

So in the last week, I have attended 3 different stops on the Rockstar Mayhem Tour. I attended the one in NJ just as a fan so that I could enjoy watching all the cool bands on this bill. I then flew down to see the Tampa and West Palm Beach stops in Florida. I went armed with my photo passes and went crazy trying to take pics of all the bands. It is going to take at least a week of sorting pics and deciding which ones make the cut.

Just a thought; I understand that the summertime is the time that these all day festival concerts are supposed to go around. Who decided that? Especially in brutally hot states in the south? Wouldn't it be kinder to everyone involved to do these gigs in the fall up north and after hurricane season in the south? I think I must have sweat gallons for those two shows on the 11th and 12th.

Be patient with me as I sort through all of these. I must have shot over 4000 pics in 2 days. That is alot of work when you have a day job.

Lamb of God- Oh My God

So let me just tell you that never in a million years would I ever imagine that music would move me the way that it did at this show. Lamb of God opened up with the first few songs off of their new album, Wrath, in the exact same order as on the CD. The intro got me all excited as my heart began to pound in my throat. I had 3 songs to get this right, and of course I was worried I was not going to do well. This was my first concert where I could bring my DSLR camera, and I am still learning how to use it, so I was not sure what to expect.

Well LoG came on and it blew my mind that I was lucky enough to be in the photo pit. My jaw dropped open as they exploded into their first song, In Your Words. I had to remember the reason I was there, to take pics! I jammed out and had a hard time keeping my body still enough to take the pictures properly.

Now this part is a little personal, but I have to share so that you can appreciate and understand the feeling that washed over me. Around 3:50 seconds into this song, the boys begin to jam. The last minute in a half of this song has no singing and no words, but it speaks to me in a way that I can't describe. The way all the instruments meld into this melody brings tingles throughout my body, gives me goosebumps, and makes my hair stand up on end. Now I had a visual to go along with this feeling that this song brings out of me. The spotlight shines on Mark as he plays this part of the song and I thought I was on another plane of existence - me with my camera and him with his guitar. It looked a little like this:

The morning after the show, I was able to review my shots and I was pretty impressed with some of the shots I managed to land. They were good, but I didn't feel that I "captured" that feeling that I was describing above. By the grace of God, or of an amazing friend on this tour that I will be forever grateful to, I was able to figure out what I didn't do right the night before and correct it for the next stop on this tour. These shots that I got at the Electric Factory capture how that minute and a half felt for me and I am happy that will be able to enjoy this moment again and again:

The rest of the pictures from these two shows can be found here

Roseland Ballroom- May 8th 2009

Electric Factory- May 9th 2009