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Rating: The concert starts at half past seven, but an hour earlier, my friends and I have already arrived at the Gran Teatro Geox in Padua. Here will take place the second and last Italian leg of the "European Carnage Tour", a sonic carnage perpetrated by two authentic thrash metal icons: Slayer and Megadeth.
As I stroll across the square in front of the theater, surrounded by hundreds of boys and girls wearing black t-shirts and timeless leather jackets, tiny raindrops (unfortunately not of blood) fall from the leaden sky, and muffled noises from the sound-check come from the Gran Teatro. Suddenly, a thunderous roar shakes the gazebos where we've taken shelter, at which some scream "Slayeeeeer!!!" with a crazed look, others burst into irrepeatable curses, while others still persist in downing beer and belching like trombones. All very metal.
After a hearty sandwich with sausage and onion, I enter the theater hall where the Sadist, present as "special guests," have already begun playing. I confess I don't know the Sadist very well: I've listened to something from "Tribe" from '96, the last album, and little else. Anyway, they make an excellent impression on me: Trevor, the singer, flaunts a growl in a high, very assertive register, while the band does a great job with its progressive and atmospheric death metal, among fascinating riffs and keyboards, playing precisely and tightly, supported by a good sound quality (still inferior to that reserved for the headliners). The impression I take from it, as I said, is very positive, to the point that the next day, I decide to buy their latest effort, "Season in Silence."
After the Sadist, it's Megadeth's turn. As the notes of Skin O' My Teeth play, Ellefson, Broderick, and Drover appear first, then Dave Mustaine runs on stage, wielding a double-neck guitar (a Dean? a Jackson?) just in time to start singing. The setlist proposed by Megadeth is a real dive into the past, with many classics from the '86-'92 period (from Wake Up Dead to In My Darkest Hour, from Symphony Of Destruction to Hangar 18), the inevitable power ballad A Tout Le Monde, and only two pieces from "Endgame." The old Megadeth is in top form, playing flawlessly, relaxed and precise even in the most technically challenging passages. The performance reaches its peak when David Ellefson starts the bass line of Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?, Mustaine and the others follow fiercely headbanging (try it at fifty!), and the gloomy figure of Vic Rattlehead, the band's historical mascot, materializes on stage. The crowd is ecstatic, everyone yelling the chorus (tatatatata-tata / "If there's a new way...") and thrashing like maniacs. In total, Megadeth performs twelve/thirteen songs, not many, after a little more than an hour the concert is already over, and the musicians retire backstage. However, the crowd loudly calls out Mustaine, who, as per script, returns to the stage, repeatedly thanks the fans, and strikes the riff of the colossal Holy Wars... The Punishment Due. Damn, seeing the red-maned Dave just a few meters away effortlessly playing the solo of Holy Wars... is truly exhilarating.
The Megadeth leaves after an excellent performance, now it's the Slayer's turn. Time to arrange Lombardo's drum set and the inevitable eagle props, and the sinister notes of World Painted Blood used as the concert's intro resonate in the air. When the red fog enveloping the stage clears, Kerry King and company appear, starting to grind riffs with formidable violence. The only one absent is Jeff Hanneman, still recovering from a right arm infection, apparently caused by a spider bite. In his place is the excellent Gary Holt, guitarist of the Exodus: it will be his last live show with Slayer, who from April 6 will benefit from the contribution of Pat O'Brien (Cannibal Corpse) for the last dates of the European tour. The volume of the guitars is even higher, I feel the double bass pulsing in my chest, it seems like Lombardo's relentless drumming is hitting me straight in the face. Devastating. Furthermore, Araya is really on the ball. On YouTube, it's relatively easy to find videos of him singing with some difficulty, with a low and hoarse voice, skipping some verses; tonight, instead, he spares no effort and sings excellently (which means "similar to studio versions"). The audience begins to heat up - even though from my rather secluded position, on the left side of the stalls, I didn't see any particular mosh pits - and soon everyone indulges in wild headbanging. Slayer also primarily offers tracks from their early period ('83-'90), from The Antichrist to Dead Skin Mask; only one song from the Bostaph era, the terrifying Payback, and four tracks from the last album. The songs follow one another without too long pauses - unlike what happened at the Heineken Jammin Festival four years ago - and, as the best Slayer tradition dictates, they often sound harsher and faster than their studio counterparts. Heart-stopping the concert's final section: the long feedback squeal of South Of Heaven serves as a backdrop to the tom hits of Raining Blood; the last riff of Raining... seamlessly morphs into the lightning-fast intro of Black Magic (almost thirty years and not showing them); a second pause and then Angel Of Death explodes, a worthy epilogue of a deadly performance. I stand there gazing at the stage, with a sore neck, once again amazed at the fury with which Slayer plays their most famous and controversial piece. In the end, Tom Araya thanks the audience in Italian (he tries, at least), and before you know it, the supersonic performance of Slayer has also ended. I walk away from the stage still pumped and almost accidentally notice a small green triangle on the ground; I bend to pick it up and find myself holding a Megadeth guitar pick with Ellefson's signature on the back (not handwritten, mind you!). An impressive stroke of luck.
Well, I'd say it all can be summed up in a few words, simply saying that it was a classic Megadeth and Slayer concert: thrash metal enthusiasts are well aware of the devastating energy these groups can unleash live. What's truly remarkable about this event and the "Carnage Tour 2011" is precisely the fact that Slayer and Megadeth shared the same stage: five or six years ago, such an alliance would have been unlikely, given the ongoing squabbles between King and Mustaine; then age and wisdom (!) contributed to calming the spirits, recreating, albeit to a minimal extent and with all the differences involved, an atmosphere reminiscent of the early eighties, when it was not unusual for the two bands to perform together in the smoky venues of San Francisco. Then, of course, the commercial revival of thrash and "old school" metal that took place in recent years played a decisive role in promoting this and other events, so much so that even those old foxes, Metallica, joined the so-called Big Four bandwagon... But let's avoid controversies: events like this fill every metal-fan with joy, and this concert was, from my point of view, simply magnificent.
Honor to Slayer and Megadeth.
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