ANTHRAX, MEGADETH Members Discuss 'Big Four' American Concert Debut (Video)

April 25, 2011

Artisan News Service spoke to members of ANTHRAX and MEGADETH about this past Saturday's (April 23) debut performance on American soil by the "Big Four" bands of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX — at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California in front of a capacity crowd of more than 50,000 metalheads. Check out the footage below.

SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who was forced miss all of the band's shows this year after undergoing emergency surgery on his right arm in January, made a surprise appearance during the group's set Saturday night, joining his bandmates on stage for the two-song encore of "South Of Heaven" and "Angel Of Death" (EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt filled in for Hanneman during SLAYER's main set).

The highly anticipated onstage performance of all four bands at the same time happened near the end of METALLICA's set, between "Enter Sandman" and "Hit The Lights". Members of ANTHRAX, SLAYER and MEGADETH joined METALLICA on stage for a cover of DIAMOND HEAD's "Am I Evil?" before METALLICA ended the night with its perennial set-closer, "Seek And Destroy" from the band's 1983 debut, "Kill 'Em All".

Photos:

* PE.com
* Examiner.com
* OC Reloaded
* KPSP-TV

Reviews:

* MTV.com
* The Hollywood Reporter
* Los Angeles Times
* ARTISTdirect
* Phoenix New Times
* Metal Shop Rocks
* The Desert Sun

The "Big Four" tour first played selected dates in Eastern Europe last summer to an fantastic response, which led to the scheduling of shows this year in the U.S. and other parts of Europe. There's no word yet on whether more "Big Four" events are in the works.

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio the "Big Four" tour idea first came up in 2009. "We were sitting around and we were feeling pretty nostalgic at the time because it was right around the old Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Cleveland, induction thing there," he said. "So as you sit around and talk about your past and whatever, the idea of playing shows with the other, you know, members of the so-called 'Big Four' just came up, and it finally came together just over a year later."

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).