The perennial bridesmaids of metal hit Melbourne with the Gigantour tour. Playing to a near-full Festival Hall, this most recent visit by one of the “big 4” of 80’s thrash metal was their third in two and a half years.
The crowd consisted of an interesting combination of traditional metal fans, some nu-metal crew joined by a bunch of goths to bang their heads to Lacuna Coil’s first tour down under.
Although most punters didn’t roll in until later in the evening, first to hit the stage was Bring Me The Horizon who put up a fair fight. I had the opportunity to see them perform at the Hi-Fi Bar the following night and I can assure you, they are one force not to be reckoned with. Frontman Oliver Sykes can sure put out a hell of a growl for a slim fella and he was certainly full of bounce around the stage.
Second support was one of my long time favourites, Lacuna Coil. Although the female vocalist may be considered to have a similar tone to that of Evanescence vocalist Amy Lee, I still give her additional credit as Lacuna seem to have more of a punch about them, not to mention Cristina Scabbia not being too bad on the eye! Highlights of their set was definitely some of the originals, ‘Swamped’ and ‘Heaven’s A Lie’.
Followers, DevilDriver and Static-X are no strangers to Australian soil, both playing in Melbourne over the last 18 months. On this monstrous evening, they have together joined forces for another heavy night of punishment and were here for one vicious frenzy of metal.
For those who may not be familiar but ex- Coal Chamber vocalist Dez Fafara (now of DevilDriver) was one man that I did not want to miss. His stage movement is simply to be described as an oddity and this was always a reflection of his original Coal Chamber film clips but I simply had to see him in the flesh.
Static-X…what more can I say? Exceptional performance only to be powered by original member and main man Wayne Static. The band has gone through some lineup changes since their debut but they still have maintained their simple yet unique riffs.
Time to bring out the big guns. The mighty Megadeth opened to rapturous applause and chanting then proceeded to assault the eardrums of the crowd with a very Rust in Peace era sound. While it was a very guitar heavy mix all and sundry were appreciative of the classic thrash that was dished out with much aplomb.
The current line up of lead/rhythm guitar and lead vocals Dave Mustaine, additional lead guitarist Glen Drover, bassist James Lomenzo and Shawn Drover, who was endlessly punishing the drums seemed very settled, and were focused on playing several new tracks of the upcoming United Abominations album. Mustaine spoke to the crowd briefly between groups of tracks but was not particularly engaging; he just let the music speak for itself. The electrifying and virtuosic guitar styles of the Megadeth back catalogue was a pleasure to see played effortlessly live by Drover and Mustaine. In particular, the eerie diminished scales of ‘Hangar 18’ and the brutal efficiency of ‘Tornado of Souls’ was played out with undoubtedly one of the greatest guitar solos to witness live for any guitar fan.
Fans of the older hits may have been disappointed with the only tracks prior to the Rust In Peace album coming in the form of ‘Wake Up Dead’, ‘My Darkest Hour’ and ‘Peace Sells’, but who’s buying? Yet these tracks are classics in their own right and had fans swinging from the proverbial rafters.
After over an hour of head banging, thrash loving fun and following a brief interlude, the night was completed with the predictable yet bulletproof rendition of ‘Holy Wars’. They had taken a leaf out of the book of one the best tracks of the night and literally took no prisoners and took no shit.
A great night for metal fans of several sub-genres and most importantly a clear indication that one of the greats of metal (Mustaine) can still match it with the best of them.
