Mandatory Sentimental Metal Farewell

Slayer, Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Obituary

Final World Tour 2018 presented by Barracuda Music, Wiener Stadthalle – Halle D, Austria 20181123

Farewell tours are something difficult. What if the band returns? And is it better to know that it will be the final tour or not for the fan? This band announced their goodbye because of health issues after years of being regular guests especially on the big European Festivals like Rock im Park, Sonisphere, Rock in Vienna or Nova Rock.

Black Sabbath filled the Stadthalle at their The End-Tour and Elton John will soon, but this evening even comes with four genre institutions in total for comparatively little money. First one is Florida-Death-Machine Obituary. Their phenomenal extreme groove in tunes like “I’m in Pain” and the title track from the 1989 debut “Slowly We Rot” are completely worth to show up early.

Also Anthrax, one of the Big Four of Thrash Metal of their mark, convince with their famous sound combination of Heavy Metal and Punk. The band around original member Scott Ian scores with tracks like “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t” from their album “Worship Music” or “Antisocial”. Then Lamb Of God follow. Under the banner “Pure American Metal”, singer Randy Blythe presents himself full of energy. The band got a respectable catalogue, of which they can’t play much but highlights from “Ashes Of The Wake”, “Walk With Me In Hell” from “Sacrament” and “512” from the latest record (apart of the cover album “Legion: XX” as Burn The Priest).

Also the reason for the evening got a lot of output to choose from: Slayer did not only release “the ultimate evil” as Boris Kaiser from the Rock Hard called “Reign In Blood”, but also “South Of Heaven”, “God Hates Us All”, “Christ Illusion” and the amazing “Repentless”, that starts the farewell show. Beautiful backdrops with enlightening colours are the visual part as well as a lot of fire – for “Hell Awaits” the whole stage is burning. For sure everyone can find his own highlight in the set (“Mandatory Suicide”!), before this awesome concert ends. And as Tom Araya shows his final smile to the audience and tells in German “I will miss you”, it gets bit sentimental too. The band defined Thrash Metal and even though Jeff Hanneman (R.I.P.) and Dave Lombardo (Dead Cross) are gone, with Gary Holt (Exodus) and Paul Bostaph (From Hell) they went on with their “dark reflections” as Tom said in “A Headbangers Journey“.