SLAYER
MEGADETH
TESTAM ENT
IZOD CENTER

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ AUGUST 12TH, 2010

By Morgan Y. Evans
band member photos courtesy of Slayer
live arena photo by Whitney Shewolf Luedtke

The combination of Slayer, Megadeth and Testament in one night is almost too much to process, but that’s precisely what the AMERICAN CARNAGE tour has going for it. Basically a sort of modern celebration of the classic CLASH OF THE TITANS tour, AMERICAN CARNAGE was bound to be a lot of blood slinging fun. The fact that a few weeks later I’d also get to witness an Ozzfest leaning heavily towards choice vintage bands like Halford, Motley Crue and a currently in great form solo Ozzy made me downright spoiled with good metal this summer. As James Hetfield recently said at Sonisphere regarding the Big 4 of Thrash, these bands are all still alive and on the road. Truly I always thought it should be “the big 5”, because Testament are legendary beasts and are just as good (and many people say better) than their old school thrash peers.
Anthrax and Metallica may have been ghosts in the room on this rowdy night in New Jersey (though Metallica never played CLASH OF THE TITANS), but the acts playing certainly held it down without them. If anything, for accuracy it would’ve been great to have Suicidal Tendencies or Alice In Chains play as well if we’re really talking CLASH OF THE TITANS, but this show was killer anyway. Testament, Megadeth and Slayer all recently released some of the best material of their careers via much of the THE FORMATION OF DAMNATION, ENDGAME and WORLD PAINTED BLOOD records, so it was bound to be a top form kind of occasion. I always rant about how I hate when bands have crappy opening acts to make themselves look better and always will support or prefer to be at a show full of solid talent. That way, you know everyone on stage is going to be thinking about their A game. It’s what made this tour, this years Ozzfest or the SUMMER OF SLAUGHTER tour (which had acts ranging from Veil Of Maya to Vital Remains and Cephalic Carnage) so appealing for fans.

Gotta hand it to Jersey. While virtually no one from that state can drive worth a shit they certainly know how to tailgate. Dudes who weren’t even going to the show seemed to have raided the $20 parking lot just to party with metal heads. People were walking around being ignored completely by security with bottles of everything from Magic Hat to Mad Dog 20/20. Of course you had cars having blaring showdowns between the acts on the tour as well, with the only setback being that cars were sort of veering any which way through the parking lot in a Jersey way (thank God that Dave Mustaine at least acknowledged from the stage that it would be a good idea for people to try and get home safe). I ran into a few rocker types I know once inside, including Johnny Hawaiian, the heavily tattooed singer from NYC bad ass scuz rock champs Panzie.

Testament opened the night and hammered the crowd with the most energized and rowdy set of the night. It was awesome to hear the returned to the ranks Alex Skolnick effortlessly playing “D.N.R.” and “Dog Faced Gods” despite not being on the albums they appeared on. Of course it also was cool to see Paul Bostaph AND Dave Lombardo in one night for fans of both drummers (who at different points have both recorded for Slayer and Testament). Eric Peterson is a personal favorite metal guitarist of mine both for his skill and also for how long he held Testament together, and the level of showmanship the whole band provided had the general admission ticket kids moshing by the second song of the whole night! Chuck Billy was fired up as hell and provoked the crowd to deliver a HUGE arena worthy wall of death that had many people safely seated in their arena chairs above the fray gaping in disbelief. It was awesome. “The Formation Of Damnation” sounded downright reckless and Greg, Chuck, Eric, Alex and Paul all proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they still have it.

Megadeth put on quite a show but overall had the poorest set. It wasn’t due for trying because the band was incredibly fluid, playing RUST IN PEACE in its’ entirety without blinking. The sound for Megadeth was rather cavernous however, oddly right up until they finished the RUST material. Dave Mustaine was great to watch and anyone with half a brain can tell in five seconds that he is a metal veteran by the way he does his thing with such a relaxed and yet precise focus. “Symphony Of Destruction” and a powerful “Dawn Patrol” that saw the band obscured by clouds of evil green smoke (I think it was that song) were definite highlights, though I would have loved to hear “44 Minutes” from ENDGAME over “Head Crusher”. The current Megadeth lineup is truly frightening, overflowing with talent. I am also specifically a big fan of Dave Ellefson and he did not disappoint.

The coolest moment of Megadeth’s set other than the massive “Peace Sells” crowd participation was maybe when Mustaine simply walked the front of the stage applauding the crowd, dividing the barrier between performer and audience and eliciting a huge roar from said fans. Mustaine remarked that trying to pick songs in the 70 minute time slot they had after having so many records is like deciding on what children to save from a sinking ship. I am looking forward to reading Mustaine’s new autobiography and was even more stoked to go buy a copy after being immersed back into their solo seeped songs at this concert.

Slayer is…well, Slayer. Their truly is only one and they can never be stopped. SEASONS IN THE ABYSS was always one of their coolest and darkest excursions into the depths, so it was brilliant to hear the full record played live. Opening first with two songs from the killer WORLD PAINTED BLOOD record, Slayer had everyone seeing red right away. “Hate Worldwide” was my favorite song off that album and was a great choice for a single so it was awesome to see them execute it in this setting. I also had only ever seen Slayer with Bostaph and while I had seen Lombardo kick ass with Fantomas, Slayer is truly his firstborn baby and rightful home. The rumbling, undeniable level of force he produces via his economical playing style filling a cavernous arena is pretty damn intimidating. There may be plenty of evil sounding bands out nowadays from the lush ritual darkness of Secrets Of The Moon’s song “Sulphur” to the pure onslaught of any given Behemoth tune, but Slayer stuff like “War Ensemble” and “Skeletons Of Society” is always going to hold up (horns). “Expendable Youth” remains near invincible and the debate rages on about if that song or “Disposable Heroes” is better.

Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman barely ever have to look at one another during the course of a set, pacing the stage like ghoul overlords. I saw a truly drunken and very tall girl flipping out so hard while walking up narrow aisle stairs during one of King’s solos that she literally fell backwards several feet down the stairs and would have been badly injured if not for the lucky job a big security dude did of catching her drunk ass out of mid flight! It was fairly fun to watch, though would’ve been more metal if she threw up on him.

Tom Araya’s vocal bark gets even more fun as time goes on. He is clearly always glad for the bands fans and that he has gotten to have such a crazy life singing for the most feared band of maybe all time. Araya’s evil wit and social commentary on the aforementioned “Hateworldwide” and particularly on the (sadly missing from the Lombardo era set list) material from the GOD HATES US ALL record show that even in recent years he has not lost his touch.

After deafening the assembled devotees with the WORLD PAINTED BLOOD and SEASONS material, Slayer tore through a demonic “South Of Heaven” as crosses inverted themselves onstage before putting two in the back of the head of the head of the night with back to back heat seeking and death defying versions of “Raining Blood” and of course “Angel Of Death”. Metal lives. You die.