Posts Tagged ‘slayer’
Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax – Concert Review – San Antonio, Tx – September 25, 2010
I can practically remember the show like it was yesterday. Anthrax and Testament in 1987 at the Boathouse in Norfolk, VA. Anthrax was touring for Among the Living and testament for The Legacy. To this day it was one of the most incredible shows ever. I had gotten into Anthrax in early 1986 when I found a used copy of the cassette at Unicorn Records (RIP). I practically listened to that album every day driving to and from 
school. Minus Persistence of Time, I loved the Joey Belladonna era of Anthrax. When Bush came in, I was done. He was fine in Armored Saint but not in my beloved Anthrax. I was able to catch Anthrax with Joey on the State of Euphoria and Persistence of Time tours. They were always great live. I also caught them with Bush on the We Have Come For You All tour and it was a really good show.
When the American Carnage Tour was announced there was no doubt that I’d see the show. The first leg of the tour had Testament as the openers. That band never disappoints. This current leg featured Anthrax with the newly re-re-reunited Joey Belladonna on vocals. I was pretty excited about that since it had been since 1991 since I had seen him live.
I will say that even though I love…even adore Megadeth, I wasn’t too excited to see them this time since they are still playing Rust In Peace live. I had just seen it 6 months ago. But Megadeth always delivers. And they did once again last night. More on that in a bit.
So now the adventure of the day begins. I grab my best friend Amelia and her boyfriend Cody and we shuffle down to the other side of town to grab my other best friend, McMaster and head to San Antonio. Good conversation, good music playing and everyone is pretty excited about the concert.
We get to the show, check out the shirts which weren’t all that great so I got to save myself $40. Jason had a floor general admission ticket and we had seats. About 20 minutes before Anthrax hit stage we went to our respective sections and waited for the show to begin. Our seats were pretty decent and we had quick access to the lounge area of the AT&T Center.
The lights go down at 6:55 and Jim Florentine from That Metal Show and Crank Yankers fame is on stage as he is the Jagermeister MC for this tour. He does 5 minutes of comedy about metal and such and next thing you know Anthrax hits the stage.
They come on and open up with Caught In A Mosh. Good times. Anthrax has always been a very tight band as far as their playing and last night was no exception. A big part of that is because of Charlie Benante’s 
drumming. He’s a beast of a drummer. Anthrax only had a 45 minute set so they played the hits that you’d expect. They also added in Only from the Bush era and it was alright. It’s the only song from that era that I like. I have to say how surprised I was of Joey’s voice. He sounded great. He hit the high noted pretty well. Lucky for us it was only the second night of Anthrax being on the tour, so they were all still fresh. They sounded great and I got a little choked up when they played Madhouse. Spreading the Disease, is such an important album to me. I really felt like we flashbacked into the 80s for a brief minute. It was nice to just forget all of the worries of today and rock out like I was 17 again when the only thing I had to worry about was doing enough school work to get by and play drums. Simpler times for sure. But again, Anthrax was great and I actually wish they would have been the headliner to get a longer set and play some deeper cuts. being such a short set, I was only a slight bit disappointed that they played the 2 cover tunes, although they were big songs for them.
Anthrax’s setlist:
- Caught In a Mosh
- Got the Time
- Madhouse
- Antisocial
- Indians
- Only
- Metal Thrashing Mad
- I Am The Law
After Anthrax I head up to the lounge area behind our section to grab a coke and a hot dog. A boy’s gotta eat! Shortly after Florentine is on stage again and Megadeth hit the stage right after he walked off stage. They open up with Holy Wars and the crowd was all over it. People love the Rust In Piece album. Me? Not 
so much. But they sounded great, as always. Dave is one of the greatest metal guitarists ever in my opinion and he was great again last night. The addition of Chris Broderick has been nice as well. They did 5 other songs after playing Rust In Piece and sounded great except at the end of Peace Sells where Drover on drums couldn’t quite get his feet together. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such a nerd and could overlook or not even notice such things, but I can’t.
Megadeth setlist:
- Holy Wars
- Hangar 18
- Take No Prisoners
- Five Magics
- Poison Was The Cure
- Lucretia
- Tornado of Souls
- Dawn Patrol
- Rust In Peace…Polaris
- Trust
- Headcrusher
- A Tout Le Monde
- Symphony of Destruction
- Peace Sells (encore)
- Holy Wars (reprise)(encore)
Now I’ll drop back a little in that during Megadeth’s second song, McMaster walks back to where our seats were and calls me down to the rail. We were only 4 rows up from the floor. He puts something in my hand and tells me to grab Amelia and Cody and meet him in the hallway right now. I didn’t really even look at what he gave me and grabbed the other 2 and we walked out immediately. Upon getting in the hallway I pull the wad of stuff out of my pocket and see that we were given Jagermeister VIP passes courtesy of Jim Florentine. Hot damn! We get escorted upstairs and ushered into a large VIP suite that had about 20 other people in it. It was straight back from the stage. It was stocked with beer, Jager (gross), Jager swag and food. We were told to make ourselves at home and Jason introduced us to his pal, Florentine.
While I’m not the greatest fan of That Metal Show, he’s the bright spot on the show. The dude is really a metalhead and absolutely hilarious. You get the feeling that he’s “one of us.” It was really pretty nice of him to give all 4 of us access. It was totally unexpected and a bit humbling. Certainly I don’t deserve that sort of treatment but will not complain about it. Thanks Jim!
So Megadeth finishes their set and Florentine goes down to the soundboard area and does another quick routine. Shortly after he’s back up in the booth with us hanging out.
Slayer hits the stage and opens up with World Painted Blood. For this tour Slayer was playing Seasons in the Abyss in its entirety. I didn’t care too much for that album when it came and that tour was the only other time I ever saw Slayer. It was also the last time that I was in a mosh pit. My nose is still a little crooked from
Slayer's opening screen
that show! I have a love/hate relationship with Slayer. I love everything up to and including South of Heaven and a few tracks from Seasons. Up until World Painted Blood, I just couldn’t get into any of it. I tried, believe me. I’ve bought every one of their albums and throughout the 90s and 2000s got rid of all of the post-Seasons albums. The new one was a little bit of a return to their late 80s glory. While it’s not great, I can stomach it.
With Slayer doing Seasons I wasn’t too excited about it, but hearing it live again had me pumped up a little bit. I hadn’t listened to that album in 10 years or more and it felt weird knowing every word of an album that I had been slagging for 20 years. After last night, I will call myself a fan of that album now…minus the title track. Still can’t get into it. As for Slayer’s performance, they sounded awesome. Tom’s voice was sharp. He doesn’t headbang anymore because of problems with his back and neck. No biggie. Kerry and Jeff were solid. Slayer has a unique sound and a unique riffing style. Some time during their set, Jason and I looked at each other and both basically said the same thing…”They invented that.” Lombardo was awesome. He’s such a beast of a drummer. I was fortunate enough to see and meet him when he toured with Testament on The Gathering tour. It was cool hearing them to South of Heaven and 
Aggressive Perfector. Slayer kicked everyone’s ass in the building last night. I’m sure that’s a pretty consistent thing. My only criticism of their show is that they got a little off in the intro to Seasons but they figured it out pretty quickly. Slayer!
Slayer setlist:
- World Painted Blood
- Hate Worldwide
- War Ensemble
- Blood Red
- Spirit In Black
- Expendable Youth
- Dead Skin Mask
- Hallowed Point
- Skeletons of Society
- Temptation
- Born of Fire
- Seasons In The Abyss
- South of Heaven
- Raining Blood
- Aggressive Perfector
- Angel of Death
As I saw during the Iron Maiden show a few months back, they have a person on the floor behind the soundboard doing sign language to each band’s lyrics for the hearing impaired folks in the crowd. Florentine 
was sitting next to me during Dead Skin Mask and I point the sign language lady out to him and say, “Dude, you gotta work this into your act. Someone doing sign language to Slayer lyrics!” If any of you faithful readers see him do this line in an upcoming act, you know where it came from! haha
As always, it was a great night with great friends…the ones who came with me and the ones I ran into at the show. Thanks again to Jim Florentine for his awesome act of kindness.
Let’s hope for a full blown Anthrax tour!
Florentine and McMaster
Custom Guitar Picks
So back around 2001 I was at Alpha Music in Virginia Beach and saw that they had custom guitar picks. I thought it would be cool to have some 
for myself even though I wasn’t in a working band at the time. I had only been playing bass since 2000 after having been a drummer from 1984 to 2000. The owner of Alpha gave me the business card for In Tune Guitar Picks.
When I saw the address I thought to myself, Onancock, VA? Really?” Onancock is a tiny little town, almost a village, on the eastern shore of Virginia. I had done several projects in that area while working for the DOT. I knew I had to make another trip up there (2 hours each way) for work and called a day ahead to ask about his picks and to check out his operation. He said, “It’s not much but you can come by.”
So I went to the address and and it was to his house. He had his pick machine in the garage. I thought it was a pretty cool process and Bert was an incredibly nice dude. He gave me some samples and a little while later I was on my way to do some actual work. I placed an order shortly thereafter.
My first picks from him were thin celluloids with a sketch of Phil Lynott on them as he was a huge inspiration on my playing. I always liked getting picks at shows and not long after getting my own picks I landed in this silly band called The Renegades of Sluts. Yes, that was our name and no I didn’t pick it. These were all old friends of mine and we were doing sort of a biker metal thing. As we were playing shows, it was pretty cool to see people scramble when I threw a pick out or if someone would ask me for one after a show.
Through the following years I upsized and switched to the delrin 1.14mm picks. Perfect! I’ve had several different styles made as far as to what is printed on them. Bert has always given me first rate service. He has obviously given a lot of people great service as he has expanded his business quite a bit. He’s got his own shop now and last time I was there (2006) he was running 2 machines and was increasing his staff. His client list is pretty impressive…Motley Crue, Slayer, Gibson Guitars, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, most of the 80s metal bands, lots of country bands…It’s pretty crazy.
Check ’em out. You will not be disappointed. His prices are comparable to buying regular picks from Fender and Dunlop without your custom artwork on them.
Voodoocult – Jesus Killing Machine (1994)
So here’s an odd one from my collection. To be honest I never liked this album that much. The only reason I bought it 
was because of who played on it…Dave Lombardo and Chuck Schuldiner (RIP). The music is pretty pedestrian thrash/death metal and even the drums are pretty boring. Some of Chuck’s solos are pretty good, but in general the album was boring.
That being said I kept this CD because I had both Dave and Chuck sign it on separate occasions. Both guys gave the exact same reaction…”This actually came out?” Chuck asked me to burn a copy for him and send it, which I of course did.
I was pretty sad when Chuck died. When we met him at Jaxx (Springfield, VA) on the Death/Hammerfall Tour, he came outside to meet everyone, soaking wet in a robe and flippy floppies and it was freezing outside. He was very cool. I met Dave at the same place when he was drumming for Testament on The Gathering Tour. Talk about a cool dude. I got to talk to him for a bit with his son. I handed him a stack of CD covers including the River’s Edge soundtrack. “We were on this?” I said, “Dude, it’s half the reason I wanted to see the movie in the first place!” Good times.
Tracks:
- Killer Patrol – 3:57
- Metallized Kids – 4:26
- Jesus Killing Machine – 4:32
- Born Bad and Sliced! – 3:58
- Albert is a Headbanger – 3:50
- Hellatio – 3:15
- Death Don’t Dance With Me – 4:08
- Art Groupie – 4:53
- Blood Surfer City – 5:03
- Voodoocult – 4:09
- Bitchery Bay – 5:32
Band:
- Phillip Boa – Vocals
- Chuck Schuldiner – Guitar
- Gabby Abularach – Guitar
- Waldemar Sorychta – Guitar
- Mille Petrozza – Guitar
- Dave Ball – Bass
- Dave Lombardo – Drums
The Big 4 Tour? Blech!
Seriously? There’s all this talk about Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax doing a tour together. I wouldn’t go no 
matter how “legendary” it might be. Let’s just face facts here (my facts!): Metallica hasn’t put out anything worth listening to since maybe And Justice for all. Slayer hasn’t released anything decent since Seasons in the Abyss. Anthrax was lifeless after State of Euphoria. Megadeth has made a good run of it in the last 5 years, but they wouldn’t be enough for me to want to see the other bands. I believe they are coming near here with Slayer in a few months. I’ll likely go and leave before Slayer comes on, just like I did last year when Judas Priest came on, I was out of there.
Now on the marketing side of this, it would be ideal if all of the egos could work it out. Every band would stand to make a lot of money…mainly by having Metallica on the bill. They sell out everywhere they play (insert easy joke here!). Money wise it’s a no brainer as long as these bands don’t actually have to speak to each other.
There are certainly other thrash bands I’d much rather see than these.
Sometimes I really miss the old days.
The Best of Metal Blade Vol 2
aka “One Of The Greatest Compilations Ever”
Let’s just say that Metal Blade Records really helped shape my metalness during the mid-80s. For the most part up until about 1989, if it was on Metal Blade Records, there was about a 90%+ chance that you were getting quality metal. There were exceptions of course…like Canada’s Sye. Terrible. Really.
But Metal Blade was great at putting out cool compilations like the Metal Massacre series and the Best of Metal Blade series. Today we take an in depth look at the Best of Metal Blade Vol 2.
1. LIZZY BORDEN “Notorious” – Let’s make something clear here…right now. I’m a Lizzy Borden fan and have been since I first heard them. I’m pretty sure the Give ’em the Axe EP was my indoctrination. My interest was first piqued when I saw a little blurb in Circus Magazine about the band and there was Lizzy standing there with the band on a rooftop with this huge double-bladed axe. They looked totally badass. Great albums overall but I’ve always been a little partial to Menace To Society and especially to this song. Great hooks, cool lyrics, nice production. This song has it all.
2. OMEN “Teeth of the Hydra” – Not my introduction to Omen (thanks Daniel!) but one of my favorite songs by them for sure. JD Kimball’s vocals (RIP) really set this band apart from most metal bands. He could add a tone of despair in his voice that I have never heard too many other singers do. Mustaine had that quality on the first 2 Megadeth albums as well. Something about the way they wail, it’s a bit haunting. While not my favorite of the classic 3 Omen albums, this ranks as one of my top songs from them.
3. FATES WARNING “Prelude to Ruin” – John Arch. You are the man. Fates Warning offered us another treat with Awaken the Guardian. As good of a song as this is, it’s certainly not my favorite from this album.
4. HALLOW’S EVE “Lethal Tendencies” – Yes! Great song from a great album. Sure, not the most technically proficient thrash band, but they delivered it well.
5. SLAYER “Black Magic” – (classic) SLAYER! ’nuff said.
6. DESTRUCTION “Eternal Ban” – see below
7. SODOM “Deathlike Silence” – You know, these 2 songs never did much for me. In general, was never much of a fan of either band. I think the production really ruined them for me on this early stuff. One day I’ll revisit their back catalog again…maybe.
8. SENTINEL BEAST “Dogs of War” – Awful.
9. DETENTE “Holy War” – I always dug Detente. One of the few female fronted metal bands that I could tolerate. This album was pretty good as is this song. Dawn Crosby (RIP) was a rough one. My current guitarist lived with some folks from this band back in those days and the stories and video I’ve seen of them is trippy. Talk about drinkers? wow.
10. HIRAX “Criminal Punishment” – Another band I never got into mainly because I never tried. I don’t dislike this song, but I never really paid much attention to the band. I do respect that Caton is still out there proudly flying the flag of metal.
11. FLOTSAM & JETSAM “Der Fuhrer” – Oh man. One of the greatest thrash songs ever. Period. Everything from this album just rules. But this song…oh man.
12. JUGGERNAUT “Slow Death” – Juggernaut was always hit an miss. This song is no exception. Miss!
13. HERETIC “Whitechapel” – But this song is a hit. It’s perfect. It’s mid-paced fist-pounding metal. Nice shrill-style vocals and it was about Jack the Ripper. What more could one want in a metal song?
14. SAVAGE GRACE “Trial By Fire” – Love it!
15. SOUND BARRIER “Gladiator” – I think I am one of the few who actually like these guys. This is a cool song too.
16. CIRITH UNGOL “Blood & Iron” – Ahhhhh…Cirith Ungol. How I have always held a soft spot in my heart for these guys. There were the old men of metal in LA. very unique band, very dark. Plus they had the best album covers (Michael Whelan).
17. LIZZY BORDEN “Live & Let Die” – I detest Paul McCartney.
18. CITIES “Burn Forever” – Burn burn burn…burn foreveeeeeeeer! Awesome song. The album was pretty good too. Love the vocals on this.
19. EXXPLORER “Run For Tomorrow” – Again, out of my circle of metal metal head friends, I think I was/am the only one who got into these guys. Great vocals.
20. KRANK “Rented Heat” – This is one of those songs like Crazy Night (Loudness) or Balls To the Wall (Accept) that just makes you nod your head to the mid-paced beat and want to put your fist in the air and sing along. Too bad the album was one of the worst things Metal Blade ever put out.
21. DEAF DEALER “The Fugitive” – I adore this song. One of these days I hope to run across this on CD. Hey Kelz, you still have yours?
If I think about it later, I’ll upload this for your listening pleasure.
The Metal Files 
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