Written by Alex Stojanovic Photography by Rob Botten (C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com SLAYER, LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX, BEHEMOTH & TESTAMENT @ Budweiser Stage Toronto, ON, Canada May 29, 2018 Presented by Live Nation Back in January, Slayer raised everyone's eyebrows when they announced that 2018 and 2019 will be the years they will be saying farewell to the world with one final global tour. For a lot of us, we knew this day was coming. Before we get into the festivities, there's something I wanted to get off my chest. I always pride myself on honesty, but don't take this as disrespect towards Slayer because first of all I'm a fan, and secondly, I'm not a person to show disrespect to a band. Doesn't matter if I'm a fan or not. If I have criticisms, I'll address them, but not in a disrespectful way. |
Anyway, that's not what this is about, so I apologize for digressing. This is all about the fantastic show that came through Toronto on May 29th at the Budweiser Stage. The grounds were filled with scorching heat and the smell of weed. Many people took the day off work to bid farewell to Slayer. The show was sold out and drew in people of all ages. It's rare that an arena/amphitheatre metal show would sell out on a Tuesday, but when you have a monstrous lineup with Slayer as the headliners, with special guests Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Behemoth and Testament, that is a bill that you simply cannot miss. Kids, let this be a lesson to you. This lineup has proven to not only be the heaviest and hottest tour of the summer, but the metal tour of the year. With the exception of Behemoth, I've seen all the bands live multiple times. This lineup is a combination of tours Slayer has done over the past couple of years, and bills that I've seen in the past. For me, there was a nostalgic element to this show, because the Budweiser Stage was where I first saw both Slayer and Testament back in 2010 on the Canadian Carnage tour (back when it was the Molson Amphitheatre), with Megadeth on the bill as well. As a result, I couldn't think of a better way to book-end seeing Slayer than by seeing them for the last time ever at the same place I saw them the first time around.
TESTAMENT (C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo credit: Rob Botten | With the doors opening pretty early at 4:00, the first bunch of fans gathered in the amphitheatre and a good bunch of people went to see local favourites Panzerfaust at the River Bar Stage, who served as an appetizer for the main course, and were a last minute addition to the bill. I wasn't able to catch their set, but I heard that people enjoyed it. As 5:00 rolled around, it was time for this gigantic metal extravaganza to begin. Testament kicked the night off with a fierce dose of thrash, opening their set with "Brotherhood Of The Snake". Testament made good use of the limited stage space they had at the front, delivering a short but killer 7-song set of new school tunes like "Rise Up" and "The Pale King", as well as old school fan favourites like "Into The Pit", "The New Order", "Practice What You Preach" and "Disciples Of The Watch". It was during "Into The Pit" that the first mosh pit of the evening happened. The dual guitar attack of Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick and the rhythm section of Gene Hoglan and Steve DiGiorgio are both as deadly as ever and Chuck Billy is still a beast on the vocals and one of the best frontmen in metal. This marked my eighth time seeing Testament. I could see them 100 times and not get tired of it. I look forward to their return. |
Up next was Behemoth, bringing a slight change in style from energetic thrash, to dark, heavy and moody black metal. Songs we were treated to included "Ov Fire & The Void", "Demigod", "Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer" and "Chant For Eschaton 2000", as well as "Wolves Ov Siberia", a new song from their upcoming album. I've never seen Behemoth live, and as a matter of fact, I never listened to too much of their material, except for a couple of songs, but seeing them live has given me the urge to check out more of their stuff. Nergal didn't interact with the crowd much, with the exception of a couple of song introductions, and thanking the fans during "Chant For Eschaton 2000". It was also after this song that the band lined up side by side at the front of the stage, holding their guitars and drumsticks in the air for about 30 seconds, which would've made for a truly epic picture. Just when we thought Behemoth's set was finished, they returned for an encore and treated us to "O Father O Satan O Son". Now, it's usually frowned upon for the opening act to perform an encore, but I guess when you're as big a band as Behemoth, you can get away with that. | BEHEMOTH (C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo credit: Rob Botten |
ANTHRAX (C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo credit: Rob Botten | As the evening continued on, it was now Anthrax's turn. Gene Hoglan from Testament has been sitting in for Charlie Benante for the last few dates of the tour, because as most people know, and for those that don't, Charlie has been battling carpal tunnel syndrome in his hands for the last few years and he's only able to play a certain amount of shows before his hands start to hurt. By the time Anthrax hit the stage, the amount of people inside the venue had doubled. Their set was kept primarily old school with several signature fan favourites like "Caught In A Mosh", "Got The Time", "Madhouse", "I Am The Law", "Antisocial" and "Indians", with "Evil Twin" being the only new song in the set. The band as a whole were as energetic as they've always been. Vocally, Joey Belladonna still sounds amazing after all these years. During his speech, Scott Ian announced that this was the largest crowd the band have ever played for in Toronto. As the band was exiting the stage, Joey got the crowd to sing the national anthem, and everyone stood up and sang along while either having their horns in the air, or hands over their hearts. A truly epic moment. |
With tons of energy still left in the fans, Lamb Of God took the stage next, bringing the stage set of a headliner with two staircases of multiple steps on both sides of the drum riser. The band kicked off their set with "Omerta". The crowd cheered loud as Randy Blythe started reciting the opening spoken word dialogue of the song while behind the stage. At this point, the venue was filled to capacity, and from the first note to the last, the entire amphitheatre was up on their feet, throwing the horns, headbanging, moshing, crowd-surfing and singing along. We were treated to a couple of deep cuts like "Engage The Fear Machine" and "Blacken The Cursed Sun" and several fan favourites like "Ruin", "Walk With Me In Hell", "Now You've Got Something To Die For", "512", "Laid To Rest" and "Redneck". It was during "Redneck" that Lamb Of God won the award for the biggest and craziest mosh pit of the evening. If I could've requested a song or two, I would've requested "The Duke" and "Desolation". This marked the fourth time I've seen Lamb Of God live, and they always put on a fantastic show. I can't wait to see them again when they come back. | LAMB OF GOD (C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo credit: Rob Botten |
SLAYER (C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo credit: Rob Botten | Finally, it was time for the main event: Slayer! "Delusions Of Savior" played on the P.A., while lights in the shape of inverted crosses, pentagrams and the Slayer logo shined on the black curtain covering the stage. The curtain then dropped and "Repentless" kicked off the set. As this is a farewell tour, at least one song from every one of the band's studio albums, with the exception of Diabolus In Musica, was featured in the set. Their set consisted of 19 songs with a handful of nice surprises and rarities like "Blood Red", "Jihad", "Dittohead" and "Payback", as well as all the signature fan favourites the band have been playing for years and have become both permanent and frequent setlist staples like "Disciple", "War Ensemble", "Black Magic", "Postmortem", "Dead Skin Mask", "Seasons In The Abyss", "Hell Awaits", "South Of Heaven", "Raining Blood" and "Chemical Warfare". Their 1.5-hour-long set honestly felt shorter than it actually was. The visuals with the great amount of fire and flame spurts enhanced the show even more. One of the coolest visual effects with the fire was that there were flames that would spurt in the form of inverted crosses and the sword blades from the classic Slayer pentagram logo. |
As a fan, it does bum me out to know that this is the end of Slayer, and I think I can speak for all the fans worldwide, but I think it's best that they hang it up now because Tom seems like he's been going through the motions for the last few years, and that's not something the fans want to see. Like I said, this is no disrespect to Slayer. I'm just being honest in a respectful way. However, one other thing that's worth noting is that anyone who has seen this tour, either in person or on YouTube videos, knows that Tom got rid of his big grey beard and is looking a lot skinnier. As a result, he looks younger now.
All I can say to Slayer is that on behalf of all us fans, thank you for all the great music and memories. We will miss you, but your music will always live on. Thank you and farewell!
SLAYER Tom Araya - Vocals & bass Kerry King - Guitars Gary Holt - Guitars Paul Bostaph - Drums Label: Nuclear Blast Records Website: www.slayer.net www.facebook.com/slayer | LAMB OF GOD Randy Blythe - Vocals Mark Morton - Lead guitars Willie Adler - Rhythm guitars John Campbell - Bass Chris Adler - Drums Label: Epic Records Website: www.lamb-of-god.com |
ANTHRAX Joey Belladonna - Vocals Scott Ian - Guitars & backing vocals Charlie Benante - Drums (absent) Frank Bello - Bass & backing vocals Jon Donais - Lead guitars Label: Megaforce Records Website: www.anthrax.com www.facebook.com/anthrax | BEHEMOTH Adam "Nergal" Darksi - Lead vocals & guitars Zbigniew "Inferno" Prominski - Drums Tomasz "Orion" Wroblewski - Bass & backing vocals Patryk "Seth" Sztyber - Guitars & backing vocals Label: Metal Blade Records Website: www.behemoth.pl www.facebook.com/behemoth | TESTAMENT Chuck Billy - Vocals Alex Skolnick - Guitars Eric Peterson - Guitars Steve DiGiorgio - Bass Gene Hoglan - Drums Label: Nuclear Blast Records Website: www.testamentlegions.com www.facebook.com/testamentlegions |