Anthrax, along with Death Angel, have spent the better part of the last 2 months on the road-supporting and pumping up their new album For All King’s (Megaforce) and as well as supporting their brothers in metal crime the almighty Slayer. But what is a thrash metal band suppose to do once a Big 3 metal assault across the USA comes to an end? Grab Death Angel and do it some more… And that’s what Anthrax set out to do. Continue on and melt the faces of more metal heads!
The tour brought them through Flagstaff, AZ to a pretty cool little venue called the Orpheum Theater, which is settled in a small little area in Lumberjack country near Northern Arizona University. The venue itself opened in 1911, rehabbed in 2002, and is the hot spot originally known for dance and performing arts, will now forever be etched in time as the venue that delivers a Fist Full of Metal.
As the festivities where getting under way, or as fans (me included) where still in line waiting to get into the venue. We heard the sounds of a local band, never got into the venue in time to check them out (long line, which was great for an Anthrax ‘Indians’ wardance). However, this was still going to be a very special night, more so to having Anthrax and Death Angel split your ears… Avatar was a late add to the bill. Avatar just wrapped up a show in Phoenix, and unbeknownst to me, made they’re way to Flagstaff and voilà; surprised all (well me at least).
Avatar from Göteborg, Sweden took the stage and the crowd went wild. Touring in support of their latest album, Feathers & Flesh (eOne), the band ripped through a set that drew from several of their releases. Which included, ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and ‘House of Eternal Hunt,’ and many other like ‘Hail the Apocalypse,’, ‘Bloody Angel’, and ‘Smells Like a Freakshow.’
Shortly after the stage was cleared and Fabreezed from the Smell of a Freakshow, Death Angel took the stage. A very no-nonsense, in your face metal meltdown kind of show. Death Angel has a new album called The Evil Divide, released this May via Nuclear Blast, Which is just a brilliant piece of thrash metal that a true metal head will raise the horns over. Death Angel was given about 30 minutes for the killing, and they didn’t waste anytime. They played a well-rounded set that included fan favorites and closed out with ‘The Moth,’ off their new release The Evil Divide. Which did leave the fans wanting more, or maybe well sweated and amp’ed for what was about to blast next.
Anthrax took to the stage and delivered a great, high-energy show full of hits from the past like ‘Antisocial,’ ‘Caught In A Mosh’ and ‘Medusa’ alongside songs from their latest, For All Kings.While the whole band put on a remarkable performance, Anthrax founder and rhythm guitarist Scott Ian and vocalist Joey Belladonna stood out the most for me. Ian stomping around in perfect time to the dance and Belladonna had his vocals primed, pumped and ready. Rolling through songs like ‘Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t,’, ‘Got the Time’ and an especially killer version of ‘Indians’ that kept the more than 2,000 fans who packed the Orpheum moshing like a reservation preparing for a war. No longer a “second class citizen”… Anthrax moshed and pounded to a great pumped up crowd that was there for one thing and one thing only. To Thrash and Mosh. Anthrax more than met the call.
A show to end all mosh shows by far…
Set list:
Intro
A.I.R.
Monster at the End
Caught in a Mosh
Madhouse
Got the Time (Joe Jackson cover)
Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t
NFL
Medusa
March of the S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death cover)
In The End
Antisocial
Be All, End All
Breathing Lighting
Encore: Indians
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY RICK TRIANA