METAL ALLEGIANCE Joined By SEPULTURA, OVERKILL, ARCH ENEMY, MISFITS Members At Anaheim Concert: Pro-Shot Video

METAL ALLEGIANCE — the all-star collective anchored by Mike Portnoy (SONS OF APOLLO, ex-DREAM THEATER),Alex Skolnick (TESTAMENT),David Ellefson (MEGADETH) and Mark Menghi — assembled last night (Thursday, January 24) at the House Of Blues in Anaheim, California for its annual winter assault. This marked the bands fifth year performing annually in Anaheim. A number of special guests made an appearance during the concert, including Andreas Kisser (SEPULTURA),Mark Osegueda (DEATH ANGEL),John Bush (ARMORED SAINT, ex-ANTHRAX),Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT),Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth (OVERKILL),Trevor Strnad (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER),Mark Tornillo (ACCEPT),Phil Demmel (VIO-LENCE, ex-MACHINE HEAD),Alissa White-Gluz (ARCH ENEMY) and Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankstenstein (MISFITS).

Professionally filmed video footage of the entire show can be seen below.

METAL ALLEGIANCE began as a celebration of heavy metal, powered by the almost tribal bond shared between the extreme music community's most revered trailblazers, armed with a list of contributors onstage (and off) that read like a Wikipedia entry on the genre itself.

Ellefson told Metal Insider about METAL ALLEGIANCE: "I've been in a group [MEGADETH], fortunately, for many years, decades now, where we've made records, you know, and it was the mission of that band to do that. Something like METAL ALLEGIANCE literally started out of just pure joy, fun, friendship. And I think, to me, keeping the friendship is as important as the song. And it can be challenging because [as] you go to creative, different paths, different things you explore, you have to agree to disagree on things. And, of course, we come from very distinct backgrounds. I mean, Mike Portnoy has a very… not a metal background, at least professionally. He's a total metalhead inside. Obviously, Alex and I, I think everybody kind of knows our pedigree, but it was fun to unlock other sides of what Alex and I do. In fact, I brought in probably the less metal stuff to both of these records. [Laughs] I'm the guy that brought in the stuff that was the least metal because I play a metal band every day. It's fun to bring in other things and bringing riffs. I'm always writing, so I bring riffs and lyrics and ideas in. And I think for Mark and I, we've been friends for several years now, and for us to collaborate as bass players to kind of enjoy the differences in how we play. I mean, we don't even talk about it. It automatically kind of decides what songs we're going to play because of how different we play and that's something very cool. Usually, most bands, you've got two guitar players who are very different and they kind of decide who's going to play what lead. In this band, it's like who's going to play which bass part. It's pretty unusual."

METAL ALLEGIANCE's sophomore album, "Volume II - Power Drunk Majesty", was released in September via Nuclear Blast.