Anthrax have been thrashing their way to metal royalty for over four decades, and have long established themselves as icons in the thrash metal scene. Resident metalhead Jake Longhurst offers his thoughts on the band's latest visit to one of heavy music's favourite venues.
Rock City is a venue that has played host to some of history’s greatest performers of heavy music; Nirvana, Megadeth, and many times over the years, Anthrax. On their latest return to Nottingham’s premier heavy music venue, they were performing a special set in commemoration of forty years of the band, with support provided by two brilliant groups, Sworn Enemy and Municipal Waste.
Sworn Enemy were a band that I hadn’t ever given any proper listening time to, but after their fiery live set I will be heavily revising the amount of time I spend listening to the band, as they were excellent. Playing plenty of thrash and hardcore crossover, including a couple of Slayer breakdowns, most notably the Raining Blood drum break, and half of Pantera’s Domination, the band pandered shamelessly to the crowd and it was a joyous experience. There was moshing aplenty, crowd surfers, and beers being flung. With an opening act as raucous as this, the rest of the show looked bright.
The show wasn’t labelled as such, but may well have been a greatest hits tour.
Up next were the party thrash band Municipal Waste, who did not waste any time pushing their
infectious brand of metal through the speakers as fast and loud as possible. Songs like Wave Of
Death and The Art Of Partying are firm fan favourites and predictably went down a storm, with
the aforementioned Wave Of Death causing more crowdsurfers than I have seen in a mighty
long time! The band were very much a group I’ve been curious to see for some time, as with
their lack of seriousness I was intrigued to see just how good they would actually be live...but all
credit to the Richmond, Virginia band as they brought the noise and then some!
Headliners Anthrax started the show with an 8-10 minute long video celebrating the band, featuring plenty of the band's biggest fans and supporters, one of whom was the legendary Dave Mustaine of Megadeath! As the final notes of the video rang out, the first few notes of the brilliant Among The Living played out from Scott Ian’s guitar, and Joey Belladonna’s voice rang out across the room. The show wasn’t labelled as such, but may well have been a greatest hits tour. In their forty years, the band have put out some incredible releases, and second in the set was the commonly lauded Caught In A
Mosh followed swiftly by Madhouse. This was naturally a very popular start to the set, and the
band did not let up with plenty more bangers to follow.
Songs six, seven, and eight were particular highlights for myself, as they were three of the first
songs I ever listened to by Anthrax, including one off the first Anthrax record I ever listened to in
full! The sixth song was the cover Antisocial which is now an absolute staple of their live shows
and drew one of the biggest chants of the entire evening, with song seven being the inimitable I
Am The Law. Song eight was the previously mentioned song off of the first Anthrax LP that I ever
listened to, In The End , off of the comeback album Worship Music that was released in
2011. This was my personal favourite moment of the whole set.
The band didn’t do an encore, instead condensing their set into fourteen songs played straight in a
row. The final four songs were also another run of especially strong tracks, starting with a cover
of Public Enemy’s Bring The Noise, one of the first (if not the first!) true crossover moments
between metal and hip-hop back in the day, so to see that live was an awesome experience!
Next up were two absolute staples, with Indians being part of an epic one-two punch that was
closed by Got The Time, the hugely popular cover of the Joe Jackson song. As the band
announced their final song, they launched into the bizarrely named Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) as the
set closer, and gave us one more burst of exuberant energy to cement their status as the most
enjoyable of the Big Four of thrash metal. And also, to send everyone home with beaming smiles
plastered across our faces.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by: Jodie Averis
Cover image courtesy of Music Trend and Talent.
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