Rock In Review

Metal Masters plows its way through Bristow, VA…

To say that the Metal Masters Tour stop at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA was the greatest and LOUDEST concert I’ve EVER been to would be a complete understatement. Not only was it the best and loudest concert, it was absolutely surreal to finally see some of my favorite bands from around the ’70s and ’80s in action!

The first band to hit the stage was legendary Thrash metal band Testament. I was lucky to get a photo pass for the first three songs of their set, so I got to experience them up close and personal, and they put on an awesome show! Chuck Billy sounds absolutely incredible these days and the whole band looked great. I didn’t recognize a lot of there set because it was made of a bunch of older material and a few of the new songs, but I did happen to catch “Practice What You Preach” and “The Formation of Damnation” out of their set for sure. Overall, Testament put on a sick show and definitely deserved to be on this tour.

The second band to play also deserved to be on this tour as much as anyone, and they don’t call them “the loudest band in the world” for nothing. The band I’m speaking of is none other than Motörhead! As soon as Lemmy and the gang hit the stage and he announced “We are Motörhead and we play Rock ‘n’ Roll”, I knew “it was on” so to speak. Although Lemmy’s bass and Phil Campbell’s guitar were drowned out a bit by Mikkey Dee’s drums, the whole set was great (even though the only song I REALLY recognized was “Ace of Spades”) and Mikey Dee’s drum solo was the best of the entire night. this performance confirmed my thoughts that I need to look more into more of Motörhead’s material, because they absolutely tore it up!

Next after Motörhead was the third out of four bands to play and it was none other than the legendary Heaven and Hell! I was extremely stoked about seeing these guys live because I love Black Sabbath, Dio, and the mixture of the two from back in the early ’80s and in 1992 when they released Dehumanizer with Ronnie James Dio singing again. Honestly, this was one of the most surreal moments I’ve experienced at a concert because of the magnitude of this band and the fact that I have had such a huge respect and love for the music of Black Sabbath for so long. Although the band is reformed under the name Heaven and Hell, nothing has changed for this line-up of guys since Vinnie Appice started drumming for the band halfway through the tour for Mob Rules. Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler absolutely tore it up as usual with Ronnie James Dio sounded just as good as he ever has as they played through songs from all three studio albums they recorded together (Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, and Dehumanizer). The set started off with “The Mob Rules” and they played songs including (if this isn’t all of the set) “Neon Knights”(encore), “Heaven and Hell”, “The Sign of the Southern Cross”, “I”, “Falling Off the Edge of the World”, “Children of the Sea”, “Time Machine”, and “Die Young”. Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a much better set unless they played a few of the original Black Sabbath songs from the Ozzy years. After they got finished, I couldn’t believe there was still more to go, but my favorite band of all time was coming up next.

That’s right! It was time for JUDAS PRIEST! This set was just as surreal as Heaven and Hell’s since I’ve been a Priest fan for years and this night could not have ended any better than with their amazing set. The set consisted of a few new songs, but it was mostly classics. It all started with the recording of the first track from Nostradamus “Dawn of Creation” until the band ripped into the second track from the album “Prophecy”. After that, I didn’t recognize every song, but I do know they played “Metal Gods”, Breaking the Law”, “Hellbent for Leather” (with Rob Halford on his motorcycle), “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ “, “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)”, and more. Overall, I couldn’t have asked for much more of a greater set from these guys either and it was pretty cool to see Rob Halford in about 10 or 11 different jackets and use the elevator and sliding doors in their awesome stage set up! Overall, Ron Halford sounded incredible and K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton absolutely tore it up with Ian Hill and Scott Travis blasting the outdoor venue with absolute bass power.

All in all, I will say once again that this was the best concert I’ve been to hands down and the whole night was just awesome and totally worth a six hour drive. I hope I get the chance to see any of these bands live again!

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