Gods of Metal Festival in Monza, Italy
By
Sefany Jones,
Contributing Editor
Sunday, June 23, 2002 @ 7:50 PM
| Slayer, Halford, My Dying Brid
|
 |
|
REVIEW BY: Quireboy
Gods of Metal Festival is without any doubt the most important heavy metal happening here in Italy and, probably, one of most respected across all Europe. According to the numerous foreign fans I saw at the show, I believe its fame is growing stronger and stronger.
Though I really love Manowar (2nd day headliners), this year I decided to go to the 1st day, because I wanted to see some new (for me) live stuff. Unfortunately, the second band on the bill, Rammstein, had to cancel their show just the day before the festival and that was really, really disappointing, for Rammstein are one of my favourite bands and they never came here in Italy!
This year the concert was held in Monza (near Milan) at the local soccer stadium and here I'll post a full review of the shows:
I arrived at 4 pm at the show and so I couldn’t catch some bands, but to what I heard from the people at the show, I can say that Soil rocked the place, Ill-Nino were quite good, but Anti-Product were really, really bad! The attendance threw all kinds of objects on stage during the show and the lead singer tried to begin a fight with the front row guys…!!
I arrived just in time to see Tom Angelripper and his Sodom totally blasting the amps and the audience supporting them. The first show I saw in its entirety was from Kreator: I have to admit I didn’t know any song but they really impressed me, with their full thrash metal that made all the audience satisfied.
Next was My Dying Bride’s turn, and I have to say that even they were probably really talented under the technical point of view, they were totally inadequate to the place and slot on the bill.
Their dark doomed heavy stuff made all the people bored and I (like most of the presence) spent the time of their show eating and looking at the stands.
Just before Halford the rain started to flow!! “Well, an epic concert under a dark sky is waiting for me…” I thought, and so it was. Rob came out dressed like a true metal-god (totally exaggerated!!!) and, after joking with the crowd for some minutes, he said the fatal words: “…and now…the PAINKILLER!!” My God, the Metal-God is at his best!!!
Halford and his band put on a tremendous show, one of the best I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen Ozzy, Kiss, D.Theater, Def Leppard, Dio, Fear Factory, Deep Purple, the same Halford on the Resurrection tour…) and all the people couldn’t believe their eyes and ears…
Their setlist was:
Painkiller
Jawbreaker
Resurrection
Made in Hell
Into the Pit
Nailed to the Gun
Exciter
Sinner
Cyberworld
The Hellion/Electric Eye
Freewheel Burning
Riding on the Wind
I must say Halford is one of the greatest metal bands now.
The headliner slot was for Slayer: I’d never seen them live and I was very curious. Well, though I thought they had a little more fury on stage, their concert was awesome. They performed all their classic and new tunes to a crazy crowd. The highest moments of the show were: “Disciple” (opening song), “Angel of Death” (last one), “Post Mortem,” “Raining Blood” (Aaaaargghh!!! Everyone was doing “pogo”!!!), “South of Heaven” and “Hell Awaits.” And remember: Dave Lombardo was behind the drums!!!
So, in conclusion, it was a great, epic (except for the rain) day of metal, doubled by the 2nd day (Manowar had a 15,000+ audience!!) that demonstrated once again the great state of Metal here in Europe.
For you having an idea, the total numbers were of 27,000 people on the two days!!
All I can say is: God bless the GODS of METAL!!
Send your live reviews to [email protected]
|
