Slayer/Megadeth/Testament at the Izod Center (Aug. 12, 2010)

Being the first leg of the American Carnage Tour this half features Testament as the opening act, while they will be replaced with Anthrax for the last half.   Starting punctually at 7pm, Testament delivered a incredible 40 minute set to a somewhat empty crowd.  Granted by the end of their set the seats were filling up, but attendance-wise the start was slow.  And let me emphasize that this only is attendance-wise.  No matter if Testament are playing to 10 people or ten thousand people, they always seem to give it their heart.  They opened with "More Than Meets The Eye" (following it's musical intro song, "For The Glory Of") the single off of their latest album From Formation to Damnation.  Sprinkling some new song in between older standards they easily proved throughout the set that the new material stands up to older classics like "The New Order" and "Trial By Fire".

Up next were my personal favorites, Megadeth.  Even for those who aren't total bitches for Megadeth like myself, the band still caught every one's attention due to two major factors of tonight's set - the band performed classic album Rust In Peace in it's entirety and featured Dave Ellefson back on bass. There was essentially NO banter from Holy Wars... The Punishment Due to Rust In Peace... Polaris when my angel Dave Mustaine declared "So, that was Rust In Peace!".   The continuity of set made the show surreal, but sound problems during the first few songs did set things off to shakier start.  Nothing tragic like mics or speakers blowing, but the sound wasn't crisp and the vocals were hidden for the first few tracks.   By the encore the sound guy had gotten his shit together and the band came back with a nice mix of new and old including "Trust", "Headcrusher", "A Tout Le Monde", "Symphony Of Destruction", and "Peace Sells" in that order.

Closing the night out Slayer hit the stage to a roaring crowd with "World Painted Blood" and "Hate Worldwide and then proceeded on with the entire Seasons In The Abyss album straight through.  Technically, the sounded great. Dave always kills it behind the kit, Kerry King did his Kerry-king-headbanging-neckthrashing-thing, and Jeff guitar flopped happily over his growing Buddha belly.  The only difference really was Tom Araya's stage presence, which was a lot stiff and more controller than usual due to his recent back surgery.  No surprises here though.  They followed formula with Megadeth and ended with a encore of classics and new old.  Even though Megadeth are my easily my favorites on the bill, Slayer took the night for me.

Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil, and yes, Disturbed at the Izod Center, NJ, 4/22/09

Last night I went to a Disturbed concert.  I'm not proud....  The intention was to see Chimaira and Killswitch Engage, although that plan went straight to shit when we got stuck in rush hour traffic for over an hour and missed Chimaira's set completely.  By the time Pee, Rich and I finally got to our seats Lacuna Coil was midway through their set.  Pee pointed out that the sound quality was bad and from then on out that's all I could notice.  At one point the mic completely crapped out on Andrea (the dude that sings) and Cristina Scabbia (the more famous chick singer) gave him a replacement.  Cristina's voice is very hit or miss to me.  For some songs I like it, other times I think it's a bit whiny.  I got to say though, live these guys are fun and even though she's always running around on stage, Cristina's voice was dead on.   Plus, she's hot.

After them was the boys I came here to see- Killswitch Engage.  Howard Jones sounded awesome live.  I much more a fan of their harder songs ("The End of Heartache") rather than their slower more melodic songs ("The Arms of Sorrow"- which actual just sounds emo to me). Live the songs translated the same way.  Keep it heavy, boys!  I had heard that guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz was having back troubles, but there was absolutely no sign of this at all. The boy was running around on stage like a 10 year with severe ADD.   The set finished up with their cover of "Holy Diver", which got an amazing crowd reaction.  Despite the fact that everyone in attendance seemed to be at the show for Disturbed, the pit was the most intense for these guys.

Up next, Disturbed.  This is a love 'em or hate 'em band, and the two people I was with were each at opposite ends of the spectrum.  I don't loathe these guys, but I certainly find them extremely uncool and would not have stuck around if my ride wasn't.  David Draiman is terrible to watch live.  He looks like a tool, but he does run around a lot and repeatedly insists on the audience raising their fists (everyone listens), so it's not all bad.  They certainly are doing something right though, because everyone loved it and they sell A LOT of records.  Draiman's voice was suspiciously flawless through out the show.  After a pretty shitty drum solo, was the last song "Down With The Sickness".  For the big finale Draiman appeared on top of a platform that rose up in the middle of the crowd. I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty cool.  While he ran back to the stage singing that was the moment I realized there was some serious backing tracks helping out his vocals.  Ah well, the crowd ate it up.