Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch

Proving that there's no such thing as too much metal, the Hartford stop of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival's main stage continued the musical assault that had started on the side stages earlier in the day.

Kicking things off was Amon Amarth and nothing says metal quite like a 20-foot high Viking ship in the middle of the stage. The Nordic (of course) five-member band hailing from Sweden made the most of their 30-minute set and judging from the positive reaction, these metal Vikings have made some new friends.

No strangers to the Mayhem Festival, Atlanta's Mastodon were part of the festival's original line up in 2008. Providing a break from the blast beats and lighting fast guitar riffs, Mastodon's groove oriented sludge-metal made for a nice change of pace and broadened the sonic spectrum.

Back in 2008, Five Finger Death Punch was a young band paying their dues on Mayhem's side stage. 2010 saw them opening the main stage. Now moving up a few more slots and with 3 solid albums under their belt FFDP has joined the big boys at the top of the bill. As always, their love of country was proudly on display as singer Ivan Moody said he had a few special guests that he'd like to bring out. To the shock of some soldiers hanging out on the side of the stage he asked them to come on out. To the chants of "U-S-A" the soldiers joined the band on stage where Moody and everyone in attendance thanked them for their service and sacrifice.

Closing out the evening and doing so with an arsenal that could take on a small army, Rob Zombie has outdone even himself with this tour. Each gadget and prop is more spectacular than the last. Of course his most valuable weapon stands to his left. Even in a festival that features one fantastic guitarist after another John 5 stands alone. In keeping with the spirit of unapologetic American pride, the axeman played a version of the National Anthem that surely had Jimi Hendrix looking down and smiling. And after 10 hours of non-stop, pounding metal music, what's there not to smile about. Check out our Mayhem Festival photo gallery from the New York stop below.