by Cary Gordon
Last night at the Verizon Theater in downtown Houston, metal rained down on a crowded amphitheater full of eager and head banging metal fans, old and young alike. On September 26th, the Jagermeister MusicTour paid a visit to our fine city, featuring the return of Anthrax with Joey Belladonna back at the helm; the mighty Megadeth, and the hellish sounds of Slayer.
The show started promptly at 7 pm with Anthrax pounding into their first song of their 45 minute set, “Caught in a Mosh”, and turning the crowd into frenzy. Anthrax is here to make a statement that they are back, and the only thing that matters is they are bringing the metal. Joey Belladonna was really in top notch form this evening. His vocals were powerful and were there to prove there was some life left in the band. The band continued to plow through some of the greatest songs of their early career, “Indians”, Antisocial”, “Metal Thrashing Mad”, and ending the ending too soon set with “I Am the Law”. The biggest surprise was when Anthrax performed the song, “only” from the Sound of White Noise album which was released after Belladonna had left the band in the 90’s. Not many vocalists will actually perform songs they did not perform originally, but Belladonna did and really made it his own version.
After a very short load out, Megadeth stormed the stage with the first riff of “Holy Wars – The Punishment Due” from the now 20 year old classic thrash album, Rust in Peace. In fact, Megadeth has been playing this album in its entirety for the past few tours, and tonight was no different. They played the album with such intensity that you would hardly believe that they have been playing it live almost every night for the past year or so. They love to perform, and deliver their thrash-y brand of metal riffage to the masses, and it really does show. After the album concluded, they soldiered on with some more classic Megadeth tracks including “Trust”, “A Tout Le Monde”, “Symphony of Destruction” and the anthemic “Peace Sells”. Chris Broderick, the new-ish guitarist, formerly of Nevermore and Jag Panzer, was on fire this evening, and proved he has the metal chops to go toe to toe with Dave Mustaine every night. Also back in the fold after a log split from the band is longtime collaborator and bassist, Dave Ellefson. Yes, both Dave’s are back where they belong, and the audience were definitely the benefactors. What else can you say, Megadeth is Megadeth, and Dave is still Dave.
With what seemed like an eternity between bands, Slayer finally graced their fans with their evil presence. Starting things off were two tracks from the latest release, World Painted Blood, was the title track and “Hate Worldwide”. They wasted no time by invoking “War Ensemble” and powered through the entire Seasons in the Abyss album perfectly, note for note. This is also almost a 20 year old album, but still sounds every bit as heavy and progressive as it did back when it was first released. The almighty Slayer were not content to end it there, and continued to tear into some classic tracks like “South Of Heaven”, “Raining Blood” and the song featuring the most recognized metal riff ever, “Angel of Death”. There was not one disappointed metal fan by Slayer’s set that evening.
This was definitely an amazing lineup, and one that hasn’t toured with that exact lineup since the Clash of the Titans tour almost 20 years ago. All of the bands were in top form, but Slayer really did steal the show. Metal bands as they get older, do not lose any of the intensity and ferociousness they had 20 years ago, they just get more metal. Metal is forever.
