For those of you who stumbled upon this article, this is the second part of an analysis of the Sick New World festival that took place at the end of April in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the first part festival debut of Brazilian Eloy Casagrande Slipknot .
By now you probably know the latest chapters in the recent story about Brazilian Eloy Casagrande joining Slipknot. Well, if you don't, here's a summary:
After his somewhat sudden departure from Sepultura after more than 12 years as the band's drummer, and several weeks of widespread media speculation about how the timing of this departure was opportune in relation to the open position in the same role in Slipknot since the end of 2023, the secret that Eloy Casagrande was indeed the new drummer for Slipknot was revealed.
There's already been an official post from the band welcoming him. There's already been a post from Eloy himself . Foreigners are already going crazy over the thousands of Brazilian fans flooding Slipknot's Instagram with comments in Portuguese celebrating the announcement, and they're even talking about new compositions from the band involving the Brazilian. And of course, the first shows with Eloy on drums have already taken place. A smaller one in Pioneertown, California , and also the first major show at the Sick New World Festival in Las Vegas on April 27th, which is what we have a little more to share about.
And what can we tell you here about Eloy's debut with Slipknot at major festivals, and about Sick New World itself, that you may not have already read in some article or seen in videos? Our two-person team personally went to Las Vegas on a special mission collaborating with Wikimetal to show you what the festival and the band's new lineup were like.
Eloy Casagrande in Slipknot
I mentioned before that we had decided to stay straight from the previous show on the stage where Slipknot would be playing, to guarantee a good spot to see the show and the Brazilian's debut on drums. That's what we did. And despite our tired legs after a long day of going back and forth under the Las Vegas sun, the good spot and the possibility of getting a nice picture of that crucial moment of the festival continued to provide us with the energy we needed to keep going.
Where we were, which wasn't quite right by the barrier, but we could already see the people on stage more than an inch (stretched out) high, the crowd was already quite tightly packed. Everyone who was there had been in the same place for quite some time, and a sort of unspoken agreement of peaceful coexistence for the foreseeable future had formed.
As the show approached, some unwanted commotion began around us (or more precisely, behind where we were). An extremely unpleasant guy, posing as a cheerful drunk and Slipknot's number one fan, slowly and persistently tried to force his way through our group, even telling us that his friend was further ahead and that he couldn't lose him. But our group reacted with collective indignation and blocked his path. It was something like 20 minutes of persistence, and at least four of us, including myself, argued with the guy and told him to go back where he came from.
With only a few minutes to go before the show started, other versions of this disgusting guy began to emerge from the depths of hell, and soon we had a horde of beastly-looking creatures breathing down our necks and pressing us forward together.
Our group's shouts demanding the horde retreat fell on completely deaf ears. One of our fellow resistance fighters, a rather large man, lost what little composure he had left and, yelling loudly, threw his body against the shapeless mass advancing towards us. For a moment, a clearing about 3 meters in diameter opened up, but I think less than a second later, the people resumed advancing across the empty space with redoubled force and speed, like a wave that swells and breaks just after the receding sea that feeds it.
At that moment, the pushing and shoving became widespread, and we had to hold onto each other to avoid falling. Our comrade, who had faced the ongoing tidal wave head-on, finally threw in the towel, yelling "Fuck this shit!" and , along with our other trench mates, made his way towards more peaceful territory.
Of that group that had been in that same spot for a good two hours waiting for Slipknot, only our pair of intrepid war correspondents remained, tasked with getting at least an acceptable picture of the beginning of the show. We thought about abandoning ship too, but consciously decided against it, despite the discomfort. A few more minutes of unpleasant apprehension followed.
The first chords rang out, followed by the first barrage of drum hits. Instantly, the insanity around us jumped to inhuman levels, and everything began to shake. My arm gripped my cell phone tightly—a good device, excellent camera. Our position was very good.
Despite all these favorable conditions, it was as if I had suddenly been struck by such severe Parkinson's disease that it was impossible for me to keep my hand still. Not for two seconds. Not for a second. Constant trembling. I did my best. We tried for, I don't know, about two minutes, but the tremor showed no signs of abating. We decided to abandon ship. Fuck this shit!
We began a slow and arduous retreat, moving away from the stage. For a moment, when I decided to end the ordeal, I was fueled by the illusion that simply stopping the mistake would make everything better, as if only from that point onward would the sardine-in-a-can charade continue. What a delusion.
The journey back seemed almost as difficult as the one ahead would be. We passed through about three mosh pits along the way, and in one of them I possibly even saved a life, quickly helping to lift the girl who had fallen into the middle of the mosh pit at my feet. Let's just say the chances of her being trampled there were more than minimal.
I'm not very good at estimating distances covered, but it must have been about a hundred meters (which felt like a thousand) of that "defeat walk" backwards, leading a group of about five other people who stuck to us and facing, in addition to the sudden bursts of energy caused by the mosh pits, waves and waves of maggots with disapproving expressions, a mixture of annoyance at having to make way for us to pass and bewilderment at moving backwards so early in the show. We did, it's true, have some sublime moments of communion with the people most invested in the show along the way, jumping here and there in the mosh pits and letting ourselves be carried away by the music and the general excitement, but the truth is that it was a relief to reach an area where the ground wasn't shaking.
We watched the rest of the show from a safe distance and it was truly an amazing show, with the flavor of old-school Slipknot. Eloy killed it.
You might be wondering at this point how much truth there is in this account and why we haven't heard more about this ordeal we went through. Or even, why, instead of all this reflection, you aren't reading the account of someone who was thoroughly enjoying being part of that horde of maggots. All valid questions.
All that came out in other media outlets was the show's setlist, a few words from Corey Taylor , and how everyone present thoroughly enjoyed every second. Now, what each person feels is always something personal and subjective, of course, and it's obvious that if you ask that annoying guy from the beginning of this story what he felt, the account will be completely different. In fact, here's an original coverage idea: follow the adventures and misadventures of a super fan who arrives at the show just as it's about to start and makes his way through however he can to get a good view right at the front, by the barrier. If anyone does this, remember I suggested it first.
My point is that even this account from my arch-enemy of the moment would be more interesting than the superficial and generally complimentary way we're used to hearing about what happened at concerts and festivals.
As I said in the first part of this coverage, if you just want to know which songs were played at show X and that it was truly incredible, that's fine. Just be aware that this information can be generated from a computer keyboard. Here, we offer a critical perspective from someone who was there to witness and experience it all.
