 | Writer: Alex Stojanovic Photographer: Danielle Carreiro (C)2016 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com @ Sound Academy September 12, 2016 Toronto, ON Canada |
There have been so many great tours that took place this year, but if you ask me which tour I think is the best "thrash" tour of this year, it's without a doubt the Slayer, Anthrax and Death Angel tour taking place right now. On this tour, you had three amazing bands from three of thrash's pivotal scenes. You had L.A thrash with Slayer, New York thrash with Anthrax and Bay Area thrash with Death Angel. This is also Slayer's second North American tour this year on the Repentless cycle, as the first one took place earlier this year with Testament and Carcass as special guests. I personally wished Testament was a part of this leg as well, but that's just me. The Toronto show also took place the day before my birthday, so for me, it was a great gift to see three of my favourite bands in the same show. It was also equally as exciting to see the first metal show at the newly renovated Sound Academy with its bigger new stage, sharper looking interior and slightly increased capacity.
Starting off this gigantic thrash party were Bay Area favourites Death Angel. If you've never seen Death Angel before, you don't know what you're missing out on. Beginning their set with the intro to "The Ultra-Violence", they led the crowd quickly into a mosh frenzy with "Evil Priest". Even though their set was only 30 minutes, it honestly felt shorter than that. I'll have to wait for the headline tour to watch their full set. Other songs performed included "Claws In So Deep", "Thrown To The Wolves", "Left For Dead" and "The Moth", which closed the set. I swear, Death Angel can give a lot of up and coming bands a run for their money with the energy they unleash and the tightness they display in their performances. Vocally, Mark Osegueda sounded as incredible as ever and the guitar tone from both Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar was vicious and clean.
Starting off this gigantic thrash party were Bay Area favourites Death Angel. If you've never seen Death Angel before, you don't know what you're missing out on. Beginning their set with the intro to "The Ultra-Violence", they led the crowd quickly into a mosh frenzy with "Evil Priest". Even though their set was only 30 minutes, it honestly felt shorter than that. I'll have to wait for the headline tour to watch their full set. Other songs performed included "Claws In So Deep", "Thrown To The Wolves", "Left For Dead" and "The Moth", which closed the set. I swear, Death Angel can give a lot of up and coming bands a run for their money with the energy they unleash and the tightness they display in their performances. Vocally, Mark Osegueda sounded as incredible as ever and the guitar tone from both Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar was vicious and clean.
| Continuing the chaos was Anthrax. It's been a long four years since I last saw Anthrax, and many fans, including myself were eagerly anticipating their return to Toronto. The ominous intro of "Impaled" played as the band entered the dark stage before kicking things off with back-to-back new songs: "You Gotta Believe" and "Monster At The End". Vocally, Joey Belladonna sounded amazing as usual and the band as a whole were on fire with a tight and energetic performance. Following the two new starters, the band headed into classic territory with "Caught In A Mosh" and "Got The Time", followed by a return to the recent years with "Fight 'Em Til You Can't" and "Evil Twin". The band then jumped back in time again with "Antisocial", then back to new material with "Breathing Lightning" and ended their set with the war dance anthem, better known as "Indians". Following the second chorus of "Indians", the band stopped after seeing a disappointing first attempt at moshing for the war dance and Scott Ian encouraged the crowd to make a bigger pit and the crowd obeyed with confidence. (C)2016 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photos: Danielle Carreiro | (C)2016 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photos: Danielle Carreiro As 9:30p.m rolls around, and it's the time for the main event: Slayer! Lights in the form of pentagrams, crosses and the Slayer logo shined on the curtain covering the stage as "Delusions Of Saviour" played on the P.A. The crowd roared with fury as the curtain dropped and Slayer started off their set with "Repentless", followed immediately by a jump back in time to Show No Mercy with "The Antichrist". Their long 20-song set consisted of a great variety of tunes from the last 15 years as well as several classics and other fan favourites. Songs that followed included "Disiple", "Postmortem", "Hate Worldwide" and "War Ensemble", and they even surprised us with a couple of classic deep cuts: "Fight Till Death" and "Born Of Fire". Several other fan favourites that were played included "Seasons In The Abyss", "Hell Awaits", "Mandatory Suicide" and "Dead Skin Mask". |
While the performance was really solid, the only slight flaw about the night was that Tom Araya sounded like he was slipping a bit vocally in some songs, but he could still pull it off. The renovation of the Sound Academy brought a huge improvement to the acoustics for the sound. It was much needed. This resulted in the best sounding show I've seen at the Sound Academy. Gary Holt and Kerry King's guitar tones and Tom's bass sounded heavy as hell and Paul Bostaph's drums sounded absolutely destructive. The new songs from Repentless that were performed were the title track, "When The Stillness Comes", "You Against You", "Pride In Prejudice" and "Vices". The encore began with "South Of Heaven", followed by "Raining Blood" and "Black Magic" and ended with "Angel Of Death". As Tom unleashed the scream in "Angel Of Death", the Repentless backdrop dropped, revealing the Jeff Hanneman: Still Reigning tribute backdrop. A great ending to a great night of metal with three of the greatest names in thrash.
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