Ozzfest '98 @ PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, July 4th Weekend What did you do over the 4th of July weekend? I was at a lovely spot in the middle of New Jersey, surrounded by trees, soaked in sunshine, music playing in the background while burgers and hot dogs grilled nearby. Kids were running around playing, parents were carrying toddlers on their shoulders, and good friends were sitting idly, drinking beer, laughing, and chatting, while a few feet away, a man emerged from a giant toilet to lead hundreds of sweaty drunks in an impromptu moshpit. Oh, did I tell you I was at OzzFest '98? Forgot to mention that. While backstage at the kickoff date of OZZY OSBOURNE's gigantic movable metal blowout did have the feel of a family picnic (except for the state police lingering around), band after band out front was doing its best to make this OzzFest as successful as last year's, which surprised everyone by being one of the highest-grossing concert tours of 1997. And they said metal was dead. Judging from the 20,000 or so who packed the PNC Bank Arts Center, the venerable genre ain't about to lay down in its coffin just yet. Sixteen bands on two stages provided ample proof of heavy music's continuing vitality, as well as the fairly graceful aging of some of its icons. (More on that below.) Second stage bands MONSTER VOODOO MACHINE and ULTRASPANK were the sacrificial "park the car" acts, with the festivities really commencing on the mainstage with LIFE OF AGONY. Sporting new singer Whitfield Crane (ex-UGLY KID JOE, as we like to keep reminding him), the band proved more than capable of playing a big space. Unfortunately, they and the next mainstage band, SEVENDUST, were victims of an early, gnarly sound mix. No one was quite sure why MOTORHEAD, whose legendary frontman, Lemmy Kilmister, is one of the spiritual fathers of every other musician on the tour, wasn't on the mainstage, but they closed the second stage with professionalism and power, if a little less enthusiasm than usual. Best second-stringers of the day were undoubtedly SYSTEM OF A DOWN, whose manic blend of speed metal and Armenian folk music, delivered by a singer who looks like he just walked out of the desert carrying a few Commandments, was electrifying. Back on the mainstage, ex-SEPULTURA frontman Max Cavalera's new band, SOULFLY, proved just as adept at combining Brazilian roots music with raw metal and even a little hint of hip-hop. The hip-hop trend reached its peak with LIMP BIZKIT, five suburban Florida gangsta wannabes with doubtful musical skills but sharp theatrical acumen. Emerging from that 20-foot-tall prop toilet, into which he later flushed replicas of Posh Spice and Zak Hanson, singer Fred Durst wasn't happy until he had sprinted to the far reaches of the venue, nearly causing a riot along the way (for which he reportedly got in trouble with tour organizers later). Continues here