Review by Hugh Spence for MPM
This is arguably the biggest metal gig on the Irish calendar for this year, its most definitely the biggest thrash gig of the year with all 3 bands being as legendary as they are, they bring out fan of all ages, the old school grey haired or no haired metal head mixing seamlessly with the young moshers.
This tour was announced back at the start of the year and has been a long time coming. The crowds gather early outside for the 5.30pm door openings and slowly file their way in, Testament don’t hit the stage until 6.30pm so it gives plenty of time to visit the merch stand and spend our hard earned cash.
At 6.25pm, with the 3Arena fairly filled up, the lights drop and we get treated to the Beastie Boy’s Fight for your Right, a fun way to get the crowd pumped although the anticipation is already high for this show.
Testament kick off with “D.N.R” from 1999’s “The Gathering”, with flames flying and the crowd going wild its a mighty way to start, unfortunately the vocals are quite low but that doesn’t Chuck from giving it his all, the sound issues continue through “3 Days of Darkness” and “WWIII” but by the time Testament get to the forth song all issues seem to be resolved.
Chuck climbs up to the next level of the stage to fire into “Children of the Next Level” from 2020′ Titan of Creation and I’m sure that was no accident, the set and stage is very cleverly designed and the band make full use of.
Continuing with the more modern era of Testament we get treated to “The Formation of the Damnation”, hard, heavy and with the band loving every moment, the flames are flying again and the crowd are headbanging from start to finish.
Testament then treat us to “Return to Serenity” from 1992’s “The Ritual”, the first time its been a regular on their set list since 2000, a song much appreciated by the older Testament fan, and in a change to the set list they have been playing this tour is “Souls of Black” from the 1990 album of the same name, we then get deeper and slower for “Low” followed by a quick story from Chuck “I’m from Dublin too, but Dublin in California where its much much warmer”, this leads us into “Native Blood” from 2012’s “Dark Roots of Earth”, Alex Skolnick’s solo’s and every other aspect of his playing throughout tonight’s performance has been absolutely on point, Eric, Steve and Chris look to be enjoying every moment of the night.
This would be Testaments biggest performance in Ireland, they have played this venue before in 2009 but as an opener for Judas Priest and with very little production and stage time whereas this may as well been a headlining performance, an hour long set, full production and a huge crowd there to see them.
Next up, much to the delight of the crowd, is “Electric Crown” followed by “More Than Meets the Eye”, obviously Chuck has to make sure we can all sing first so he gets the crowd chanting first, the energy in the arena is electric as its time to finish up this hugely successful show, of course it has to be “Into the Pit” which opens up the first huge circle pit of the night. Testament walk off the stage to enormous cheers from the crowd,
The Kreator curtain drops down in front of the stage and the quick changeover happens, this is by far Kreator’s biggest show in Ireland, having played everywhere from the Temple Bar Music Centre and Eamon Dorans in the early 2000’s to The Academy in 2013 and 2014 and their last time in Ireland was Vicar Street in 2017, they promised their biggest stage show and production to date and they did not let us down.
The lights dim as we Iron Maiden’s Run to the Hills plays to lead us into the legendary German thrash metal set, the curtain drops, the pyro blows and we are smacked with “Hate Über Alles” from their most recent album of the same name released in 2022, sending the crowd into a fist pumping frenzy, with no let up they follow it up with “Phobia” from 1997’s “Outcast”, the very singable song has the crowd singing along with every lyric as hanging corpses drop from the ceiling and are left there dying for the rest of tonight’s performance.
Judging by the reactions and listening to people talk before Kreator started their set a lot of people had never seen Kreator live before and some had not heard much of their music at all, despite being around since 1982 and pretty much everyone was blown away and we were only 2 songs into a 75 minute set.
The intro for “Coma of Souls” plays in the background as Mille welcomed everyone and opened up the first wall of death for the night, this leads us into “Enemy of God” from the 2005 album sending the crowd into a warzone with bodies flying everywhere and the band nailing every note, they are incredibly tight and relentless, without a break they lead us into “666 – A World Divided” and sure who doesn’t love to shout 666 at the top of their lungs, in an unrelenting performance we are hit with “Hordes of Chaos” and “Hail to the Hordes” which has the crowd punching the sky and singing in unity, brothers of metal uniting is a beautiful thing to witness.
We get a short break to breathe and take in the production on stage, between hanging corpses, 2 giant devils and the occasional appearance of 2 demons holding flaming torches just to add to the atmosphere. Mille comes to talk to the crowd again, uniting the old metalheads with the young moshers, he says they are playing a song for the old metalhead but wants the young moshers to crowd surf as much as possible, so we get treated to the 1989 classic “Betrayer” from the Extreme Aggression album and the bodies just pile up on top of the crowd, the song is fast and furious, as are the speed of the crowd surfers overhead, we come back to a more modern era of Kreator then with 2017’s “Satan is Real”, a catchy but thankfully slower song to give us a bit of a break again.
The arena falls dark again as the demons reappear and “Mars Mantra” plays bring us into “Phantom Antichrist” from the 2012 album of the same name, throughout tonight’s performance all band members, Mille, Venor, Sami and the latest addition Frederic look to be enjoying themselves and lapping up every moment. Sticking with the more modern Kreator we get “Strongest than the Strong” from the most recent album but closely followed by the classic 1987 “Terrible Certainty”. The set has a great flow to it of modern and classic material all blended together with an average of 1-2 songs from their huge back catalogue of albums, keeping the young and old alike very happy.
As the set starts to draw to a close we are delivered “Violent Revolution” from the 2001 album, the song the kind of kicked off the 2nd era of Kreator and their progression through thrash and very obviously a fan favourite, the mosh pits and circle pits have been continuous throughout the performance, showing that after over 40 years the band can still pack a punch everywhere they go.
Kreator finish the set the best way they know how with possibly their most popular song, 1986’s “Pleasure to Kill”, overall this performance has been flawless, Mille still has his voice and can still hit all the notes. Personally this is the 10th time I’ve seen Kreator in the last 23 years and this was possibly their best performance, they never you down. When the set ends the crowd file out looking for water, looking exhausted, spent and blown away by the performance.
After a quick change over, the final band for the night is up in this thrashtastic tour, the legendary Americans Anthrax but before they hit the stage we are shown a 5 minute hype video of metal legends and celebrities talking about Anthrax over the 40+ years as a band.
This works out great as tonights set is pretty much all classics, kicking off with “A.I.R” from Spreading the Disease and with Scott Ian doing his signature stomping around the stage you know you’re in for a great show. this is quickly followed up with the ever popular “Got the Time”, which has the crowd going nuts and Joey singing his heart out.
“Caught in a Mosh” follows this up from 1986’s Among the Living, this is all crowd favourites tonight as they lap it up. We then get the first of 2 modern songs from Anthrax with “Fight’Em Til You Can’t” from 2011’s Worship Music album, this kind of calms the crowd down a bit but Joey has many years of getting the crowd going and has everyone clapping along in no time. Then we’re back to the classic fan favourites with “Madhouse” and “Be All, End All” from Spreading the Disease and 1988’s State of Euphoria respectively.
Joey goes on to tell us what a privilege it is to be headlining the 3Arena, it is after all Anthrax’s biggest headline show in Ireland as other times they were supporting Slayer.
Anthrax hit us with 2 more classics with “Metal Thrashing Mad” and “I am the Law” but probably the longest version I’ve ever heard of I Am the Law. It’s then back to 2011’s Worship Music with “The Devil you Know”. Anthrax don’t have the same stage set or production of either Kreator or Testament buy reply on their legacy and musical talent to put on a show and it works.
Coming towards the end of the show its “Anti Social” which is impossible not to sing along with and fist punch the air. We then get “Indians” but with a slightly different intro, its the “Cowboy Song” from the legendary Thin Lizzy to play us into it.
Anthrax finish off the night with the fast and furious “Gung-Ho” from Spreading the Disease , just to burn off whatever energy the crowd has left. As the show ends the band look truly appreciative of the large Irish crowd as they take their bows.
Tonight overall was an amazing night and a must for an thrash fan out there, the last date of the UK & Ireland leg of the tour is Glasgow on the 27th November before heading over to the european mainland for dates in Paris, Düsseldorf, Munich, Esch-sur, Zurich, Milan, Stuttgart, Berlin, Budapest, Katowice, Frankfurt, Hamburg and then finishing in Den Bosch, NL.
Testament set
D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
3 Days in Darkness
WWIII
Children of the Next Level
The Formation of Damnation
Return to Serenity
Souls of Black
Low
Native Blood
Electric Crown
More Than Meets the Eye
Into the Pit
Kreator Set
Hate Über Alles
Phobia
Coma of Souls
(Intro only)
Enemy of God
666 – World Divided
Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)
Hail to the Hordes
Betrayer
Satan Is Real
Mars Mantra
Phantom Antichrist
Strongest of the Strong
Terrible Certainty
Violent Revolution
Pleasure to Kill
Anthrax Set
A.I.R.
Got the Time
Caught in a Mosh
Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t
Madhouse
Be All, End All
Metal Thrashing Mad
I Am the Law
The Devil You Know
Antisocial
Indians
Gung-Ho
Photography by Eamonn Smyth for MPM
