Words & Photos by Marco Denzer
Veteran heavy metal rockers Megadeth and hard-hitting Lamb of God brought their co-headlining Metal Tour Of The Year 2021 to Long Island on September 12. Along with supporting acts Trivium and Hatebreed on the bill, together they delivered a five hour concert that was every bit as exciting and heart pounding as any diehard metal head might expect.
Hatebreed kicked things off at approximately 6:00 PM and immediately engaged the audience with their high energy. The weather was picture perfect, a cool and cloudless September evening, so people were really into it and feeling good right from the start. Hatebreed flawlessly played their eight-song set to define the pace of what was to follow, and as the first of a two-punch show opener they crushed with tunes like “Instinctive”, “Looking Down the Barrel of Today” and “I Will Be Heard”.
As Trivium took the stage to a thunderous cheer from the fans and began ratcheting the crowd’s adrenaline to new heights, guitarist Corey Beaulieu skillfully shredded on his white King V Jackson guitar and whipped his head around like a general rattling his sword to lead the charge into battle. There was a sizable mosh pit swirling in front of the stage and plenty of crowd surfing going on as the band played their songs, including “Catastrophist”, “Feast of Fire”, “The Heart From Your Hate” and “What The Dead Men Say” amongst others. It was clear by now the party was on and everyone was having a great time, even the small contingent of guards from the local Coast Guard station assigned to security duty at the venue was having a blast.
Vocalist Randy Blythe quietly led Lamb of God on stage at 8:00 PM, but it all changed abruptly when the band began jamming to “Momento Mori”. To paraphrase their frontman when he addressed the audience at the start of their set “We’ve come to completely fuck this place up”… and he wasn’t lying. That said, the remainder of their set was a spectacular blend of flaming pyro technique effects, an action packed performance by the band… particularly Blythe who whipped his long dreadlocks around and jumped relentlessly all over the stage during their set. The amazing setlist of head-banging tunes included “Resurrection Man”, “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For”, “New Colossal Hate” and many others. Lamb of God’s show was extremely powerful and entertaining, they held nothing back and left everything on stage. The fans loved it!
Excitement was very high as Megadeth hit the ground at full speed and opened the last set of the night with “Hangar 18”, the fast paced hit from their 1990 album “Rust in Peace”. With an imposing wall of Marshall stack amplifiers and a tall drum riser anchoring the stage, Dave Mustaine and company rocked the audience to the tune of a twelve song setlist that included favorites like “The Threat Is Real”, “Trust”, “She Wolf” and “Tornado of Souls”.
The band’s performance and movements on stage were deliberate and purposeful. When Dave, Kiko Loureiro and current bassist James LoMenzo periodically exchanged places on stage, it granted different sections of the audience a better glimpse of the musicians as they jammed. This type of detail in addition to superb chops on their respective instrument, a minimalist and clean stage design, and an absolutely beautiful and well-synchronized lighting design resulted it an incredibly enjoyable heavy metal show.
TheWaster.com | Jones Beach
09.19.21
