By David Lucas, Rock At Night Orlando
Live Review: Anthrax with Black Label Society and Hatebreed-“40th Anniversary Tour” – House of Blues, Orlando-August 12, 2022
If you like heavy metal, power metal and thrash metal then, Friday August 12, 2022 the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida was the place to be. The doors opened at 6:00 PM and the fans started pouring in, in a race to get to the front of the stage.
7:10 PM the lights go down and Hatebreed makes their way to the stage with “Proven”. The sound was nothing short of amazing. Knowing how short some of Hatebreed’s songs are, it’s not a simple job knowing that you only have three songs to get your photos when you are also wanting to witness the metal chaos going on only feet in front of you. Needless to say, “Destroy Everything” and “A Stroke of Red” blew right by. Standing back watching the show and those in front of the stage, I realize that this is not just some opening act trying to make their way into the main stage, it is already happening. Circle pits, mosh pits, heads moving with the beat of the drums, singing word for word from what looks like most everyone in the venue. Hatebreed is an absolute must see show when they come to your town.
8:25 PM Guitar starts to the sound of “Funeral Bell” and the curtain drops with Black Label Society in full gear with Zakk Wylde center stage. The roar from the crowd nearly matches the loudness of the music coming from the stage. Zakk, being no stranger to solos and catchy guitar licks, jumps into a heavy solo to start “Heart of Darkness”. Slowing it down a bit with a tribute to Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, the band segues to “In This River”. Picking up back up, it wasn’t long before one of the best guitar duels were about to take place. Finishing “Fire It Up” both Zakk and guitarist Dario Lorina met at the center stage facing each other and holding their guitars over and behind their head while dueling it out for a little over five minutes leading into “Suicide Messiah”. Finishing the set with “Stillborn” Zakk walks over to the edge up the stage and laid his guitar down giving it a quick strum and walks away. While throwing up souvenirs to the audience, each of the band members step over to hit the guitar strings to keep the sound going until they finally exit the stage.
10:05 PM July 18, 1981 was the beginning of Anthrax. Clips from the 40th Anniversary Celebrations projected on the white curtain that is drawn across the stage. Stage spotlight opens and through the curtain, from my viewpoint I can see Scott Ian going hard on his guitar to “Among the Living” and the curtain drops… It’s Anthrax with one of the largest stage setups I have seen setup in the House of Blues Orlando. The next song up, “Caught in a Mosh”, is exactly what the floor started to look like. The mosh pits have started and kept going right into what the room was feeling like, a “Madhouse”. Listening to the vocals of Joey Belladonna sounded like back in the early days of going to see them live. Joey then asked the big question “Do any of you like thrash metal?” The audience screams and the guitars of “Metal Thrashing Mad” start up. The complete set is full of classics and later songs alike from several albums that ranging from 1984 to 2011 including Fistful of Metal, Among the Living, Attack of the Killer B’s, Sound of White Noise, Worship Music, State of Euphoria, Persistence of Time and Spreading the Disease. If you had to rate the noise level, my guess would be close if not tied between Antisocial and Indians. Anthrax is one of those bands that you can listen to on the way to see them live, watch the show and listen to them again on the way home. You just can’t get enough.
Gallery
Anthrax
Black Label Society
Hatebreed
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