Atheist were heralded by Floyd's "In The Flesh?" before beginning a set that both challenged the mind and immediately opened the pit, the only act that night to get myself and a few others moshing. After all it's just like the man himself Kelly Shaefer said that night: "We're the Van Halen of technical death metal!" They ignored their 2010 record Jupiter, instead digging all the way back to their Beyond demo from 1988 and rampaging through their greatest glories. Shaefer and his younger cohorts - especially bassist Yoav Ruiz Feingold - were energetic and feeling the crowd, with Feingold leaning into the onlookers and repeatedly exhorting us in the pit to circle and slam. At the end of their performance Feingold even held his bass out for some members of the crowd and I to pick at. Even then, Atheist's artistry and technical prowess were beyond question, an almost entirely different band bringing some of metal's best music back to life after 30+ years.

Cynic's set was, well, focused around their masterful 1993 LP Focus, which they played in its entirety. Watched over by portraits of the late great Sean Malone and Sean Reinert, another quasi-ghost band resurrected another vintage prog metal gem, trading the manic energy of Atheist for that more classically prog sentinel flavor, with the crowd now calmed, tight, and watchful. And yet Paul Masvidal was himself greatly animated, feeding off the vigor of the rest of the band and of the audience, kneeling before drummer Matt Lynch's kit and us enraptured fans as he played his music. This was a performance both top-notch and greatly emotional. Focus of course only makes up half a headlining set, so to round out the night Cynic switched gears to some of their newer material, played extra hard to match their debut's metallic crunch.