This past Thursday night at The Key Club was total shear Metal Mayhem in Hollywood. The Key Club was packed to the hilt with shear core head bangers and hard core rockers.
Many of Metals top musicians graced the event: Anthrax’s Frank Bello and Charlie Benante, Megadeth’s Dave Ellefson and Chris Broderick and Slayer’s Dave Lombardo and Kerry King, as well as former Dream Theater and current Adrenaline Mob drummer Mike Portnoy. Besides music, the event also included a question and answering session. As if members of Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer weren’t enough, this masterful lineup also featured surprise appearances by former Pantera and current Down front man Phil Anselmo on vocals, Black Sabbath‘s Geezer Butler on bass and Megadeth guitarist Chris Broderick.
When Phil Anselmo hit the stage, the Key Club lit up and mosh pits broke out immediately. During the Pantera classic “Mouth for War,” he threw down the mic because it just wasn’t working for him. During this break, fans were still entertained through the humorous antics of Anselmo and his bromance with Bello onstage. When a new microphone was in his hands, the band picked up where they left off and so did the mosh pits. He had an all-star band of three drummers, two guitarists and two bassists backing him as he played classic Pantera songs like “Walk,” “This Love,” “A New Level” and more.
Dave Lombardo, Charlie Benante and Mike Portnoy in my opinion are three of the best drummers around period. There were drum battles and the Anthrax guys kept it interesting by switching instruments. Charlie Benante played some guitar and Frank Bello did some singing.
Dave Lombardo played “Holy Wars” with Megadeth players Ellefson and Broderick. That was part of the bass clinic. They really enjoyed showing the fans some of their world class playing.
“Moby Dick” was played by all three drummers. Each doing a different change of the song. That was the showstopper of the evening. This really got the crowd going. These Metal Masters also acknowledged and honored the memory of guitar masters Dimebag Darrell and Kerry King’s beloved guitar tech Armand Crump. King held up laminates with the picture of his late pal Crump to show his love.
At the end, the musicians threw out Metal Masters drum heads like Frisbees! A very cool collectable if you were able to get your hands on one.
All in all the event was very informative and to see such talent gather under one roof its a win win situation not only for the musicians who get to play together, but the fans to witness this in person.
Set List:
Raining Blood (Slayer cover)
Angel of Death(Slayer cover)
Mouth for War (Pantera cover)
A New Level (Pantera cover)
This Love (Pantera cover)
Walk (Pantera cover)
Fucking Hostile (Pantera cover)
Hole in the Sky (Black Sabbath cover)
We would like to thank Kevin Chairamonte from Paul Freundlich Associates for allowing BackstageAxxess.com to review the show.
