Review By: Brigit Haugen 

Photos By: Brandon Marshall 

  

 The American Carnage Tour finally made its way to the Mile High City. Featuring Slayer, Megadeth, and Testament, this spectacle was originally slated to bring us joy and happiness last January, but was canceled due to Tom Araya's (bass, vocals--Slayer) health issues. Super-stoked that it thankfully got rescheduled for August; I made my way up to Denver to be part of a semi-Clash of the Titans reunion show.

 Magness Arena, which is the collegiate sports venue for the University of Denver, was  the chosen site for the gig. Not looking forward to finding parking around the college campus, I was utterly surprised that the lots were FREE, with plenty of parking available. Walking toward the venue, it

  

was perfectly clear who the tour favorite was among the Front Range metal heads. The closer I got to the entrance the louder the chants "Slayer! Slayer! Slayer!" echoed in the wind and "SLAYER UBER ALLES" shirts worn byyoung and old. Finally inside, I made my way up to the stands. In my opinion, the Magness Arena doesn't have a bad seat in the house, not like some other arenas where one needs binoculars to watch the stage. Overall attendance was really good, for a Wednesday night in Denver, and the general admission floor was about three quarters filled by the time the first band came on.

 

  And so it started, the stage got pitch black; the sound of drumsticks, one, two, three, four; lights; and there he was. Chuck Billy of Testament was standing next to the drum kit and opening the evening with the intro and "More than Meets the Eye" from their latest (2008) album. It was not an easy task to warm up the crowd for this evening of excellence, but Testament had absolutely no problem bringing everybody to their feet. They powered through classics like "Trial by Fire" and "The New Order", but since they only had a limited time to play, Testament stuck with more new songs. Nevertheless, their performance was superb.

 

  Seeing Paul Bostaph behind the kit again was a delight for every Testament fan in the audience. Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick were shredding their guitars like no others. The riffs and solos sounded crisp and clear, kudos to the sound tech. Chuck Billy was all over the place and clearly had fun during their performance. No one plays better air guitar than he does, and he had the crowd all on his side when he ordered them to perform the Wall of Death during the last song, "The Formation of Damnation". On a side note here, weak, fucking weak, Wall of Death, the mosh pits looked better than this abortion. But hey, that's my opinion.

 And so it started, the stage got pitch black; the sound of drumsticks, one, two, three, four; lights; and there he was. Chuck Billy of Testament was standing next to the drum kit and opening the evening with the intro and "More than Meets the Eye" from their latest (2008) album. It was not an easy task to warm up the crowd for this evening of excellence, but Testament had absolutely no problem bringing everybody to their feet. They powered through classics like "Trial by Fire" and "The New Order", but since they only had a limited time to play, Testament stuck with more new songs. Nevertheless, their performance was superb.

 

 

 

  

 

 In all, Testament's set could have been a bit stronger, but, since I saw them on their headlining tour a while back, I was fine with what they did.

 

 Next up was the band that yours truly came to see in the first place, Megadeth! Not to take anything away from the headliner, but I haven't seen Dave and the boys since 2004. And after it was announced that they would be playing Rust in Peace in its entirety, I was more than stoked. AND, as this fact alone was reason for euphoria, to top it off,

 

Junior was once again in the fold playing the bass guitar. The crowd went nuts during the first riff of "Holy Wars", and it did not let off from that point forward. I was wondering how Chris Broderick would do with playing Rust in Peace. It clearly can't be an easy task filling the shoes of Marty Friedman, whose guitar work was phenomenal on that record. But holy shit, Chris hit it right on, didn't miss a beat. That I was impressed is an understatement. Megadeth played the entire album flawlessly. The only thing that could have been better, Dave's vocals were not that high in the mix, but the sound engineer fixed that for the encore. During "Dawn Patrol", their mascot "Vic Rattlehead" came on stage, which was pretty sweet. He was dressed in a business suit, standing on the risers and interacting with the audience.

 

  Shawn Drover behind the drums gave 200 percent during every song, and Dave Mustaine and Chris Broderick valued each other's space and the limelight during their respective solos. Having David Ellefson (Junior) back on bass just tied that whole thing together. His bass came over loud and clear in the mix, oh my god it was great. After the last song of the album, Dave firmly declared, "And this was Rust in Peace", lights off on stage.

 

  Quick change of guitars, backdrop, and shirt and they immediately went into "Trust", from their 1997 album Cryptic Writings. The crowd went nuts seeing Dave play his signature double neck guitar. While playing Rust in Peace, he changed his guitar maybe three times, so Dave made sure that during the encore Mr. Willie Gee was busy supplying him with several choice axes. And if you have to ask who Willie Gee is, you wouldn't understand! (inside joke) The mosh pits were non-stop from the get go, but how one can mosh during "A Tout Le Monde" is still a mystery to me.

 

 

 Megadeth played "Headcrusher" from their 2009 album Endgame and finished the set with the crowd pleasers "Symphony of Destruction" and "Peace Sells".

 All in all, it was a super performance, and the crowd rewarded the band with Megadeth chants well into intermission.

 Now it was time for another beer and to get ready to see the headliner slay the living shit out of the already well headbanged, conditioned crowd. Since it was the 20th anniversary for the release of Megadeth's Rust in Peace, Slayer also played one of their albums from front to back, Seasons in the Abyss. Got it, got it, but a better album to play in its entirety would have been 1985's Hell Awaits, or even South of Heaven, but this is just my non nut-swinging opinion.

 

  Slayer had a pretty simple backdrop, two of their eagle band logos on each side of the stage, that's it. Dave Lombardo was just like the other drummers, seated on a riser high above the stage, and the wall of amps seemed never ending. They didn't start right away with Seasons in the Abyss, but rather opened their set with "World Painted Blood" to get the crowd into the right mood. And just like their predecessors, the crowd was moshing to every song.

 Tom Araya, the god-like creature (and I am not even a Slayer fan) looked and sounded great. By shear stature, he and his bass took command of the entire stage and it was a delight to see him healthy and enjoying himself. Jeff Hanneman, with his signature Heineken logo guitar (replaced by the word Hanneman) and sporting his usual baseball catcher's shin guards, flanked one side of the stage. Co-founder Kerry King, sans spikes, but still with chains, took stand on the other side to round out the beast named Slayer. Dave Lombardo was his usual self; but come on, who would expect anything less from him. His drumming was flawless and right to the point. Jeff and Kerry's overall guitar tones were awesome.

 

 

  From the get go they really brought out that unmistakable Slayer sound. But during some songs, the solo sections (both solos and backing riffs) sounded less then coherent. Guitar solos were sloppier than usual, and the backing riffs were practically buried. I had the opportunity to see them several times last year during the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, and I thought they sounded better then.

 After pushing through the Seasons of the Abyss album, they rewarded the audience with an encore of their stable song "South of Heaven". Of course, no Slayer concert is complete without "Reign in Blood" and "Angel of Death", which the band chose to finish their set with. It was kind of weird how the evening ended though. The second "Angel of Death" ended, Dave came out from behind his drum kit, and they all went to the middle of the stage, thank you; good night; done; exit stage left. All seemed very abrupt to me.

 

 

 

 Nevertheless, it was a great night for any Slayer fan. I'm positive that everybody went home satisfied about the performance of each and every band on the bill. And for a few of us, this night will linger on longer because of the severe pain in our necks from the relentless headbanging.

 

 

 

 


  

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