With more line up changes than Mustaine’s rehab’ sessions, triumphant titans of speed metal, Megadeth, were back on British soil, embarking on the six gig leg of their world tour. The new fearsome foursome brandishing drummer Shaun Drover, guitarist Chris Broderick, former White Lion and David Lee Roth bassist James Lomenzo, with Rock world’s own Jekyll And Hyde, Dave Mustaine on vocals and guitar. This quintessential quartet could be the chosen ones to deliver the weighty metal tunes to the sold out crowd at Manchester’s heavy metal headquarters.
American Conspiracy Theories abound, the packed out Manchester Academy witnessed the metal megastars begin their thought provoking assault on the senses with ‘Sleepwalker’, taken from their latest highly acclaimed album, ‘United Abominations’. The set list was an awesome architecture of aggression with the new killer tunes ‘Washington Is Next’, ‘a Tout Le Monde’, ‘Gears Of War’ and ‘Burnt Ice’, backed up by the classics ‘Take No Prisoners’, ‘Hangar 18’, ‘Skin Of My Teeth’ and ‘Liar’.
One of the highlights of the night proved to be Mustaine’s masterpiece, ‘In My Darkest Hour’. This haunting tribute to former Metallica bassist Cliff Burton struck a deep chord with this knowledgeable audience. One of the last hidden treasures on this subliminal set was the Megadeth anthem, ‘Symphony Of Destruction’. This gave Dave the perfect platform to vent his anger, snarling throughout the vocals whilst thrashing his flying V into submission during the solo, as the crowd became a mass furioso of swirling hair, snapping side to side in brain jolting unison.
Chants of ‘Megadeth’ reverberated throughout the Academy, like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse the masters of mayhem re-emerged on stage. Eager to satisfy the baying throng of hyper- headbangers, Mustaine’s marauding Megadeth rewarded the Manchester Faithful with their infamous thrash metal classic, ‘Peace Sells’.
‘Holy Wars’ brought the eardrum shattering set to a close; leaving some Megadeth disciples denouncing the absence of ‘sweating bullets’. That aside, for any of the absent metal-heads out there still pondering the question, ‘are Megadeth still alive… and well? On tonight’s performance I’d say a resounding yes, they were loved to death!