Rediscovering heavy metal, Part 2

Amon Amarth's viking boat set

A few weeks ago my brother and I traveled to Youngstown, Ohio to see Slayer on their final tour.  We had seen them play together a few years before in Cleveland following the release of the album Repentless.  My brother has used the same picture of the backdrop behind the band as the wallpaper on his phone ever since.
Slayer had been through Cleveland once since then on the first part of their final tour but we had skipped it because we had seen them so recently and neither of us was hot on the venue.
I remember texting my brother the day of the show to tell him that I already regretted deciding to skip it. He agreed.  So when Slayer announced that they would be extending the tour to return to America, we made up our minds to see them play again, not matter what.
I was particularly excited to see the show because of the line up.  Cannibal Corpse, Amon Amarth, and Lamb of God were all on the bill to support Slayer.

We ended up missing Cannibal Corpse but arrived at the venue just in time for the beginning of Amon Amarth's set.  I first heard this band a few years ago and have been waiting to see them.  They are Swedish and do not tour America very often, so I was definitely looking forward to seeing them play live.  The sound for this band was incredible.  Everything was crisp and well-balanced.  A lot of metal acts tend to overbalance the low end to help it cut through the treble, and this can muddy the sound.
I discovered Amon Amarth a few years ago and was most familiar with their album Deceiver of the Gods.  All of their songs are very heavily inflected with Norse mythology and evoke viking imagery.  I didn't immediately catch on to this because the lead singer uses a typical death metal growl, but I have been able to hear the lyrics better the more that I listen to them.
They played a lot of songs from their newest album, Berserker, which I had been playing a lot in preparation for the show.  Berserker is a strong album that hits a lot of the same notes that their other albums do: lots of driving drums and bass and loads of doubling on guitar riffs and solos.  
Standout song of night: "Crack the Sky" from Berserker.  It is about Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

Lamb of God followed Amon Amarth.  This band has been around for a while and I knew about them for a long time before I started listening to them.  I like a few of their albums, but they tend to edge a little close to Nu Metal and some other stuff that I don't like.  They put on a good show and played a bunch of songs from their first couple of albums that I recognized.  I have trouble devoting too much time to Lamb of God because their singer, Randy Blythe, was involved in an incident on stage that resulted in a fan's death.  I don't know the particulars of this but it had something to do with the fan falling from stage and landing on his head.  Blythe was not found to be legally responsible for this but this knowledge has always been in the back of my mind when I hear the band and taints the experience.

Slayer took the stage after a short break between acts.  They opened the same way as the last time I had seen them.  The stage is dark and the beginning strains of "Delusions of Saviour" from Relentless  begins playing.  The drums kick in as a series of red crosses appear above the still-darkened stage.  Throughout the opening of the song the crosses slowly rotate until they are all upside down and the band kicks into "Repentless."

Tom Araya and Slayer

Slayer played a long set full of a mix of classic songs and newer material.  Even though the shows is a part of their final tour, and even though I had seen essentially the same show a few years before, everything held up.  The songs were tight and the sound was generally good.  They did not show the wear of a year and a half on the road.

Tom (left) and Kerry King (right).

I was glad to see the show with my brother.  We never really listened to Slayer together when we were young, but we've talked about them a lot since then.
While we were getting ready to go to the show and afterwards, we talked about the some of the shows we had seen recently and we also talked about the bands that we would never get to see. We got to relive some of the excitement of discovery.  Last year when Slayer came through and I opted not to go, I worried that I really had missed my last chance to see them.  If this does turn out to be their last tour -- and I am still not convinced that this is definitely so -- then I am happy with what they have given me.  I would be happy if this was the last time I got to see them play, and I would also be happy to go back and see them again if they decide not to retire from the road after all.
Slayer was not the first metal band that I heard or loved, but they were an entry into a different kind of metal.  Slayer's brand of thrash metal proved a really easy transition into punk and then back into metal again.