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This year, unlike any other year, the tour's namesake Ozzy Osbourne - touring with his solo band instead of as Black Sabbath's vocalist for the first time in three years - decided he wanted to headline the side stage instead of the main stage. Ozzy only performed at about half of the tour's 24 dates, and in doing so, he wanted to try something new and be much closer to the fans.
Those who wanted to see Ozzy up close had to arrive early enough to receive green paper bracelets, allowing them access into the semi-barricaded area in front of the stage one he performed.
All That Remains led off the stage with pulverizing riffs from the rhythm section and screeching vocals courtesy of lead-throat Phil Labonte. The band managed to rock hard enough to induce the first mosh pit of the day around 9:20 a.m., when waffles were still cooking for many on that Sunday morning.
By the end of their 20-minute set, hundreds of fans had made their way through entrance gates and toward the side stage area, where not only a stage awaited them, but a series of tents lined the perimeter of the fence as well.
"Are you ready for some brutal death metal?!" growled The Red Chord vocalist, who followed All That Remains on the second stage for another 20 minutes of head-pounding riffs.
The "other" heaviest band of the day followed The Red Chord on the side stage: Strapping Young Lad. The maniacal and often-times hilarious musings of guitarist-vocalist Devin Townsend led the Canadian band into a barrage of riffs neatly packed together like a live grenade.
"We're getting through this tour slowly but surely," Townsend said after the show. However, according to Townsend, some things about the tour make it less fun for bands than it appears; for instance, some of the side stage bands have to pay $80,000 to perform for only 20 minutes in front of sometimes sparse audiences.
Compared to Ozzfest, regular touring for Strapping Young Lad, which has released five studio albums, a live album and a DVD, have "less bureaucratic BS that comes along with it." Ozzfest is more like an "advertising ride," he said. "You end up feeling like a fish out of water."
Crowd surfers from those in the mosh pit area kicked up some dust from the gravel as they made their way over heads and bodies to the barricade in front of the stage, where one or two of 15 security guards would grab them, pull them down to safety and have the attendee run off to the side of the stage and back into the pit.
For each of the last five years of Ozzfest, one band or another has found an innovative way for those in the crowd to express their love for each other by asking them to beat each other senseless in a unique way. For instance, in 2003, Mark "Metal Moses" Hunter of Chimaira instigated the festival's first-ever "Wall of Death," a mosh move where the front man splits the crowd in two (like Moses did the Red Sea) and, not unlike the battle scenes in "Braveheart," the fans charge head-first at each other on the vocalist's count.
This year, Full Blown Chaos asked for chicken fights. Yes, chicken fights - the wrestling match that children do in the pool, where one person climbs onto another's shoulders to try to topple another similarly paired duo.
The only difference between the pool and Ozzfest side stage was instead of water as a base, there was gravel. At first, only two pairs of fans were brave enough to attempt this battle. Then a third joined in, tackling the other two. Then, almost out of nowhere, chicken fights began springing up almost everywhere in front of the stage, with as many as a dozen of them going at the same time, while Full Blown Chaos plowed forth with vicious hardcore laced with metal overtones. The chicken fight: certainly a first for Ozzfest.
Later, the temperature kept on rising and the crowd kept on sweating as the third Massachusetts-based band of the day Unearth had its turn to keep up the intensity for 40 minutes. Thousands of fists pumped in air as the band repeatedly yelled "Fight!" during the chorus of band's triumphant anthem "Endless." The crowd roared with delight as guitarist Ken Susi began smashing amplifiers on the stage-left floor.
Then, Ozzy's set began. The crowd surge inside the semi-barricade was enough to pulverize those in the front row while producing enough heat for some of those in the middle to have to crowd-surf their ways out so they could breathe. As only Ozzy could do, he whipped up his adoring audience into a frenzy with countless chants of "I can't f****** hear you," as is his catchphrase.
For 50 minutes, Ozzy and his band cruised their way through classics such as "Mama I'm Coming Home," "Crazy Train" and "Paranoid," Ozzy soaking those in the front row with a water gun and buckets of ice-cold water periodically.
Later, Italian goth-metalers Lacuna Coil engaged the crowd with enthusiasm and were treated in kind to the first main stage mosh pits by those in the general admission area up front and from a few - though not many - moshers on the lawn.
"All the Ozzfests have been great so far," vocalist Cristina Scabbia said. She said the band having to adjust to the main stage after rocking out on the side stage in 2004 was a bit of a transition.
"The difference is that you have to give 100 percent of yourself, even if people won't react."
The absolute hysteria from the crowd echoed throughout the pavilion's outer concourse as Disturbed then took to the stage. One of the last-remaining "nu-metal" acts from the beginning of the decade to have taken their show to sold-out arenas across the world, Disturbed rocked the audience with an array of tracks from each of their three albums.
"We are..." vocalist David Drainman said to the crowd.
"Disturbed!" the crowd yelled back.
Even though the tour's name sake was not closing out the main stage this year, it seemed as if nearly everyone in the near-sold out crowd who had bought a ticket stayed for the whole show, as System of a Down performed to a packed house.
The band's usually talkative frontman did not banter at all this time; instead, guitarist Daron Malakian addressed the crowd himself, and only once at that.
"The most important thing you can remember," the guitarist said to the crowd about their Ozzfest experience, "is where you parked your car."
A fitting end to what would be a jammed-packed free-for-all of vehicles attempting to leave a crowded parking lot, closing out another 13 hours of heavy metal, which, like Christmas in Hell, is set to return next summer for the metal masses.
