The Big Four Review

After all these years of head banging to Metallica and Megadeth separately, I could once do it at the same time albeit in a virtual setting removed thousands of miles from where it was happening. In the true spirit of metal thrashing madness, Hetfield and Mustaine played together on one stage, next to each other. I think its the big heart of Metallica that ultimately made this possible (contrary to popular belief). This mega-band has no single reason to take Anthrax and Slayer with them but they probably did, for creating some history.

And it happened on the night of June 22nd in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was digitally beamed to select theaters across the world. I watched it in AMC Cupertino on the replay. Much to my chagrin, some of these songs were cut (I wonder whose discretion) and only a select were beamed. The individual reviews follow.

Anthrax

Anthrax, a band I very much admired during the John Bush years and still do, played a set-list from the beginning of their career. Joey Bellodona, whose voice, music and albums I never cared for, looked old and out of place on stage. He also looked quite ludicrous with his funny mannerisms. Now, Anthrax is a strange band. Its quite common among metal bands to change lineups a bit here and there, but this band had an incredible seven vocalist changes, six guitarists play merry-go-round with four bassies and three drummers. Can the real Anthrax please stand up?

Anyways, my pet peeve is this. John Bush, who in my opinion (I really know my metal history well), made the best Anthrax albums from Sound of White Noise to We've Come Back For You All (only to break up again) was re-instated into the band in 2009. He played Australia and some random dates in Europe and was getting prepared to do Sonisphere 2010. Kaboom, in comes in Belladona and out goes Bush, ONCE AGAIN. This band is a frigging joke. To have no stability at all is a problem. Come one, even Megadeth changed lineups but Anthrax is an extreme. Do these guys even know who is in the band at any given time? After the incredible WCFYA album, so many years were wasted. That momentum was never taken advantage of. Bush was in and out, and all of a sudden they find Belladona? I was sick in my stomach when Belladona left the stage saying, "Anthrax is back". Yeah right buddy, from where and till when?

Megadeth

Been into Megadeth since about 20 years now. But why the hell did they play before Slayer? It's easily a bigger band (both in terms of quality and number of records sold). Anyways, Megaman took the stage like the seasoned pro that he is and ripped that flying V apart. Helped by the supremely talented Chris Broderick, and long-time ally Davidson on bass and Drover on drums, Megadeth nailed the Rust in Peace set-list. Mustaine has been doing a RiP 20 years anniversary tour and so was on top of his game. An incredible guitarist, his live playing is superb as he unplucks those complicated leads meticulously. My biggest complaint about this band, is again the lineup. I understand the limitations but no matter how talented Chris is basically playing Marty's leads right? All those incredible leads from RiP/Countdown they played were composed by the peerless Marty. Anyways, its an imperfect metal world out there.Mustaine lost no venom in his voice and he nails those intricate leads note for note, live. Megaman indeed!

Slayer

I hate Slayer. I have never ever liked them and I never will. Slayer to me represents everything that is disgusting about metal music. The pseudo-biker persona, the tough-guy exterior, disgusting lyrical content, arrogant smack-talk all come in a nice package of ZERO musical ability. That right, Slayer music is crass. There most popular riffs are what Mustaine can compose when taking a crap and their most popular lead is worse than a good quality YouTube amateur composition. This is a band that gained popularity through notoriety. Due to a serious lack of musical talent, these guys resort to controversialism. Araya should call it a day, he is old, sick and trying too hard to put that tough metal dude pose. Hanneman's and King's guitaring is a joke. If you know the basics of lead guitar playing you would know that their leads are essentially fast pentatonic runs with loads of whammy induced atonal noise pollution. I hate Slayer so much, I personally banned them from any aspect of my life. I even skipped watching Megadeth live since they are touring with Slayer. Slayer is bad for health. The day this band quits, will be the day I will get myself something nice. I fell asleep watching Slayer till I was awakened by the Ecstasy of Gold. Again, I hate Slayer.

Metallica

There is a reason why Metallica is the greatest metal band ever. Probably the most cliched topic you will ever hear when two idiot metalheads come together is "Metallica sold out dude". That right dudes, they did and I never complained and look what I got. I got Death Magnetic. I skipped St. Anger but I do enjoy a lot of songs from Load and one or two from Reload. Thats ok with me. Its 2010 and if you watch them live, you will know why band has no peers in this kind of music. If ever there will be a "Built to Last" kind of book on rock music, Metallica will be a prominent feature. The Beatles had no line up changes, Led Zeppelin broke up when the drummer died and Pink Floyd managed without Roger Waters. Somethings in life are irreplaceable. Nobody can take the place of Cliff Burton and nobody will. In that sense, Jason Newstead (that was the line up for me growing me, James, Jason, Kirk, Lars) was a place holder. But remember, this is a perfectionist band that is tightly controlled by the creative abilities of James and Lars. Even Kirk has a side-role to play. So as long as James/Lars/Kirk are together, thats Metallica for me. As far as I am concerned, Godzilla could be playing bass in place of Robert Trujillo, I could care less.

Here is the set-list from Sofia, Bulgaria. * represents the songs that were cut from the live beam.


1. Creeping Death
2. For Whom The Bell Tolls
3. Fuel
4. Harvester Of Sorrow
5. Fade To Black
6. That Was Just Your Life*
7. Cyanide
8. Sad But True*
9. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)*
10. All Nightmare Long*
11. One
12. Master Of Puppets
13. Blackened*
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter Sandman
16. Encore:
16. Am I Evil? with Megadeth, Anthrax and Dave Lombardo
17. Hit The Lights
18. Seek & Destroy

What kind of an idiot would skip Blackened, Sanitarium and All Nightmare Long? But they were skipped from the theaters. Watching Metallica live is a treat. I did in 1999 in England and I will never forget it. They truly put a lot of effort into their performance. James showed the audience the Big Four pluck during Noting Else Matters. Its incredible how this band still sounds fresh and good after all these years. James' voice was excellent and Kirk's picked his notes perfectly (except missing that harmonic squeal in the second solo of MoP, for you hardcores). There is probably an element or two of jealousy when it comes to this band for all their success. But lets not forget their musical talent. Its only Megadeth that comes close to matching that among the "big four". The set-list was similar to what I saw myself all those years back except a song here and there. But ending with Hit the Lights and Seek was a complete pleasure to watch. Nostalgic and just plain simple metal riffing.

The big moment was to watch Mustaine and Hetfield play together with all the others running around and hugging each other. I am sure it was all done in good spirit. It looked genuine and heartfelt. Is there a reason why Slayer was missing from the mix except from the only talented member of the band, Dave Lombardo? I surely did not miss them on stage. Probably Hanneman and King felt too proud to share the stage with the others. Or more closer to the truth, they were just being themselves, pricks that is.

All in all, it was all worth it just to watch Metallica and Megadeth share the stage. I am sure there will be a next time, and there is my YouTube video for times I miss this. Too bad there was no such thing in 1999. Thank you technology for spreading some good music...