Dave Mustaine’s place on metal music’s Mount Rushmore continues to be secure with a career-spanning set of metal excellence.
The metal music genre has grown and matured expansively over the past several decades. Every year rising bands add new sounds and ideas to the original formula and push the boundaries of the “metal” definition. Raleigh, NC was reminded of how the rock-solid foundation of metal was built when the legendary and massively influential Megadeth took over Coastal Credit Union Music Park. Joined by two amazing bands touring alongside Megadeth, where metal has been and where it is going was on full display on this cool late-summer evening.
The show opener, All That Remains, who is based in Springfield, MA, is no newcomer and a surprisingly strong and popular band to have as an opener. The band has released nine full albums and sold over one million copies since their formation in 1988. Fronted by original band member vocalist Philip Labonte, Philip connected instantly with the audience and pulled everyone to their feet. With the body and voice of a professional wrestler, Philip is impossible to ignore unless the jaw-dropping lead guitarist Jason Richardson was shredding like a hall-of-fame metal guitarist. Amazingly fast, incredibly precise, and consistently intense, Jason was a spectacle to watch. Opening with “Now Let Them Tremble” and ripping through a setlist including “Six” and “Two Weeks,” All That Remains opened the evening with a metalcore blast of modern metal music.
Since 1996, Illinois-based Mudvayne is one of the most instantly recognizable metal bands on the planet. Wearing their full face and body paint personas that made them a metal household name back in 2000 with their song “Dig,” Mudvayne performed an hour-long set including “Cold,” “Happy?,” and “Death Blooms.” Lead vocalist Chad Gray looked and sounded fit and strong while bassist Ryan Martinie at nearly fifty years old ran constantly around the stage like a hyperactive alien on speed for the entire set. Chad moved out onto the speakers fronting the stage and sang as close as possible to those lucky fans standing in the front row of the pit. The audience energy and noise level for Mudvayne was non-stop mayhem, easily matching the excitement and connection the audience would soon have with the evening’s headliner. Megadeth is considered one of metal’s “big four” legendary bands for good reason. Dave Mustaine and his huge mane of reddish blonde hair entered the stage during the opening song “The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead” to thunderous applause. For almost two hours, they pummeled Raleigh with the songs and sound that defined early thrash metal and inspired four decades and counting of metal musicians. Mustaine and Teemu Mäntysaari both ripped through fast and complex guitar solos on some of the most legendary metal songs, including “Hangar 18,” “Sweating Bullets,” and “Symphony of Destruction.” Mustaine, now over sixty years old, sang with his signature gravelly tenor voice and his fingers on the guitar fretboard were smooth and quick. Megadeth was joined on stage by a massive light show that filled the stage devoid of any props other than a riser for drummer Dirk Verbeuren’s drum kit with blazing colors.Megadeth’s Destroy All Enemies Tour continues through September 28, 2024, ending at Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
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