{"id":11882,"date":"2011-04-28T18:39:14","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T01:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=11882"},"modified":"2020-10-03T17:12:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T22:12:34","slug":"metallica-megadeth-slayer-anthrax-the-big-4-or-the-big-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2011\/metallica-megadeth-slayer-anthrax-the-big-4-or-the-big-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer & Anthrax : The Big 4 or The Big Fail?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Cynthia Gomez<\/span>
\nStaff Writer<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer & Anthrax : The Big 4 or The Big Fail?<\/h3>\n

\"DaveMetalhead\u2019s would do anything to see the biggest of thrash\/metal bands play the same stage– pay $116 for the ticket, drive a total of 6 hours when gas prices average $4.15 a gallon, walk roughly 2 miles to the venues entrance, and even after all that spend half an hour searching for a parked car in a lot with other 500 cars with no lighting hoping it wasn\u2019t stolen.<\/p>\n

Yes, in order to see Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax make history– that\u2019s what about 50,000 people had to go through Saturday in Indio, CA. For those highly devoted to the metal masses, going through all that seems pretty feasible, but for those who had to work that day or simply have a life, one question came to mind after the show, was it worth it?<\/p>\n

Because of the 3-hour drive one had to take to get to the venue that a week prior hosted a copious amount of indie hipsters for the Coachella Festival missing Anthrax who went on roughly at 4 in the afternoon was at first the biggest discontent of the evening. Why was Anthrax first missed? Well, like mentioned before getting to the main entrance was a mission, and before anyone points the finger, who the hell starts a metal festival with one of the greatest bands at 4 pm? If, the festival was at a more reasonable venue closer to where more than 80% of people live like the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl, maybe more than 55,000 tickets would have been sold, and curfew for a Saturday wouldn\u2019t have been an issue.<\/p>\n

Now, the music that was witnessed. Megadeth sounded like Megadeth. Technically complex yet brazenly melodic symphonies exemplified Chris Broderick only brought the crowd to sing along with \u201cHanger 18\u201d and \u201cWake Up Dead.\u201d For the youngsters who are only familiar with their most recent work \u201cHeadcrusher\u201d was the ultimate favorite. Ending the night with legendary \u201cPeace Sells\u201d funny man and leader Dave Mustaine made sure to leave a trail of his classic phrases: \u201cYou guys have been great, and we have been Megadave.\u201d Just kidding, he said Megadeth.<\/p>\n

\"TomAs soon as the two screens displayed red letters that read Slayer, fans were pumped. Tom Araya\u2019s health problems that prevent him from headbanging were clear as he hurried off stage and didn\u2019t quite show the energy Kerry King\u2019s and Dave Lombardo\u2019s evidently showed. Everyone screamed \u201cWar!\u201d during \u201cWar Ensemble\u201d which was followed by \u201cPostmodern\u201d and crowd favorite \u201cRaining Blood.\u201d Tracks that set spanned for Slayer\u2019s career such as \u201cSilent Scream,\u201d \u201cSeasons in the Abyss,\u201d and \u201cDead Skin Mask\u201d were the highlights for their 65-minute set. What was a bit strange but exciting was the appearance of guitarist Jeff Hanneman. He had no introduction or acknowledgement from other members. Gary Holt was great, but Tom Araya not saying anything to the crowd about the legend\u2019s appearance seemed odd.<\/p>\n

So Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer all got a 65 minute set. Metallica, got a 2-hour set, which brought up the rhetorical question: was this festival The Big Four, or The Big Three headlining, Metallica?<\/p>\n

Metallica, love them or hate them were the only band that clearly demonstrated the excitement that was expected. With a theatrical beginning of Ennio Morricone\u2019s \u201cThe Ecstasy of Gold\u201d from \u201cThe Good, The Bad and The Ugly\u201d for once in the entire evening the mellow crowd finally showed the energy that should\u2019ve been there all throughout. Their set was totally unpredictable. You, know playing songs that no one has heard before like \u201cFade to Black,\u201d \u201cFor Whom the Bell Tolls,\u201d \u201cFuel,\u201d and \u201cMaster of Puppets.\u201d One of their most honorable moments was when the great Kirk Hammett foregoing solos transitioned perfectly into \u201cNothing Else Matters.\u201d Metallica ended that set with the unfamiliar \u201cEnter Sandman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Metallica,Even after waiting for so long to see all band members together perform as one, like they do on the platinum selling Big 4<\/em> DVD, disappointment still lingered on stage. Yes, watching the biggest metal bands perform Diamond Head\u2019s classic \u201cAm I Evil?\u201d was every metalhead\u2019s dream, but, why were most of Slayer missing throughout the entire song? Kerry King did manage to come on to the last five seconds of the song, but there is no reason why overall participation lacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I Evil?\u201d was the only 3-minutes The Big Four were on stage as one– perhaps the group of friends\/rivals\/ex-bandmates that embraced one another was only possible in Sofia, Bulgaria, or too many big heads in one bill.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the crowd wanted more. So as James Hetfield said thanks because there was a curfew before 11 pm, many walked-out to a dark parking lot as they played \u201cSeek and Destroy.\u201d Lars Ulrich claims that this is the first of Big 4 festivals in the US, in thoughts of the majority this was big enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Cynthia Gomez Staff Writer Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer & Anthrax : The Big 4 or The Big Fail? Metalhead\u2019s would do anything to see the biggest of thrash\/metal bands play the same stage– pay $116 […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6971],"tags":[1508,715,1929,562,529,443,2279],"class_list":{"0":"post-11882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main-articles","8":"tag-chris-broderick","9":"tag-dave-mustaine","10":"tag-kerry-king","11":"tag-megadeth","12":"tag-metallica","13":"tag-slayer","14":"tag-tom-araya"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}