It has to be cool to be Anthrax right now because the band has clearly been riding a high for the last few months and was getting more attention than they had over the most recent years. The reunion with singer Joey Belladonna found the release of “Worship Music” as their next CD and the response to the album had been terrific. Many sources cited this as the best Metal album of the 2011 year in case you wondered. So after some amazing tours and that small, unknown and hardly discussed Big Four Tour, the band was doing a co-headlining run with the mighty Testament and bringing Death Angel along for the ride. I wasn’t going to miss a moment of this exciting event, and you can check out all the details and concert photos by scrolling past the logo below. Then I encourage you to scroll on down the blog posting to see some of the other items that caught my attention during the night.
Artist: Anthrax
Venue: Best Buy Theater (New York, NY)
Opener: Testament & Death Angel
Date: 2/8/2012
Label: Megaforce Records
I’m willing to bet good money on it having been a really exciting past few months for the guys in Anthrax because not only were they still riding high from the positive reception to their “Worship Music” CD; but they were also now on a headlining trek that immediately followed “The Big Four” event and delivering the Metal Justice with the incredible Testament. The bands had been referring to this as a co-headlining run but Anthrax appeared to be closing all of the shows. Generally with tours like this the bands will swap out on the headlining spot but I had not heard of this happening on this run of shows. Tonight was the final night of the North American Tour and what a way to close it out……being home in New York City. The gigs would be enhanced by the presence of Death Angel and I made sure to get to the Best Buy Theater nice and early to not miss a single note of this killer evening. Here is how it went down.
Death Angel: I had to say that I was really happy to find Death Angel on the bill with these other giants because they have been on a bit of a rise themselves since their “Relentless Retribution” album of 2010 and based on the reaction of the crowd when the band hit the stage, they were very much appreciated by this NYC audience. The band hit the stage like they were on fire. I liked that, and especially since they were the first of three groups. They had a lot to prove to this audience and then again they didn’t have much to prove as the consensus was high on their ass kicking abilities. Singer Mark Osegueda was a flurry of motion and bounded from left to right to left to right on the stage and all the while whipping his lengthy dreadlocks around as he head banged. There was not a lot of time wasted with banter and that was a good thing since the band only seemed to perform for about thirty minutes. Their seven song set featured “I Chose The Sky”, “Mistress Of Pain”, “Truce”, “Claws In So Deep”, “Buried Alive”, “The Ultra Violence”, and “Thrown To The Wolves”. Three of the tunes hailed from the bands most recent album and this is a high recommendation if you do not have it already. This all too brief set proved one thing in the eyes of the New York Metal Republic and that was that Death Angel is welcome back anytime and should visit us again with a headlining set. Now it was time to declare our Testament for Metal.
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