ANTHRAX Celebrate 40 Years Of Thrashin’!
w/ Special Guests Black Label Society & Hatebreed!
The Palladium – Hollywood, CA
Friday, July 29th, 2022
Review/Pics: Will
Anthrax
40 Years of the Mighty Anthrax! It’s been 36 years since the first time I saw the band open up for Metallica at the Ulster Hall in Belfast, N. Ireland. What’s changed? A ton more albums and no Dan “Watchmaker” Spitz... that’s it. Other than that, Anthrax are the same band with the same incredible energy that put everything out there on the stage.
Another similarity to that date back in 1986 was that this was another sold out show. The Hollywood Palladium was a sweaty, Metal Thrashin’ Mess. Many times throughout the evening the packed floor became a swirling mass of moshing metalheads. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen that many legs flailing up in the air and shoes flying across the room. (By the way, can we stop the shoe throwing thing? I saw two people, one right in front of me, getting tagged with a flying chuck.). Not the memory you want to take from a concert.
The 4th out of the “Big Four” showed why they became one of the premier thrash bands in the world. Joey Belladonna still has those killer pipes and is hitting (most of) those high notes. Scott Ian chugs away on his Jackson like a life depends on it. Frank Bello…Man, that Mofo stomped and jumped around with his bass like a man possessed for the entire show. Charlie Benante (IMO, The BEST Drummer in Metal) just makes it all look so effortless. And Jon Donais, is the mellowest of the bunch, but still throws in a few headbangs and hair whips when necessary.
The show started with a video of a ton of very recognizable faces (Keanu Reeves, Kerry Kings, Phil Anselmo to name a very few) projected onto a huge white screen obscuring the stage. After all the accolades and a montage of everyone saying “Anthrax!”, the curtain dropped and we were “Among The Living“. The frenzy started immediately and for the better part of an hour and half, the middle of the Palladium became a living, breathing mosh pit.

Anthrax have such an insane catalog of amazing songs, but for this tour the band are blazing through a greatest hits set that touches on all of the Joey Belladonna era albums (Except for “For All Kings“). The Palladium became a “Madhouse“, we were introduced to the “Devil You Know“, gave tribute to Ronnie James Dio and “Dime” during “In The End” and we all just said “DROKK IT” during “I Am The Law“. They even brought back “Only” from John Bush’s time in the band and “Metal Thrashing Mad” from the Neil Turbin sung debut album.
There was no stopping for an encore, however Scott (Who did most of the talking during the evening) did say that they were about to play “Bring The Noise” and that if the Palladium crowd yelled loud enough that Chuck D himself may materialize to perform. Well the decibels were raised and out popped the Public Enemy frontman to indeed, “Bring The Noise“.
The evening was capped by “Indians” and after a brief stop and re-start in the middle of the song to make sure that every mutherfukka was moving, the “WAAARRR DAAANNNCEE” erupted into a huge swirling tornado of souls in the middle of the venue. Chills!!!
This tour is just kicking off. GO SEE IT! At the very least you can say you saw 1/2 of Pantera 2002.
Black Label Society
Father Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society are a very worthy special guest on this bill. To Zakk, Metal is his religion and we are all part of his congregation. (Not to mention he’s also about to be the other participant from this bill participating in the Pantera 2022 tour)
The Los Angeles Chapter of the “Doom Crew” were pumped up and the “Whole Lotta Sabbath” intro got the crowd fired up even more as the huge curtain dropped, the plumes of smoke shot up and Zakk (adorned in a yellow plaid kilt) along with Dario Lorina (guitar), John Deservio (bass) and Jeff Fabb (drums) ripped into “Funeral Bell“.
Cool thing about tonight’s show is that a few moments before the photogs got to enter the pit, we were told we were approved to shoot the whole show. Well that is the reason that under the BLS setlist is a link to a full pic gallery, because there was a LOT to cover!
Besides the Blonde Berserker’s usual fist pumping and shaking of the head as he stands atop his front-and-center riser (Thank goodness Zakk had shorts on under the kilt!) we also got to shoot “In This River” where Zakk takes to the piano to honor a couple of metal brethren in Vinny and Dime. We also got to shoot the dueling, over-the-head guitar solo between Zakk & Dario during “Fire It Up“. We also got a few opportunities to catch those smoke plumes, as a few beach balls and an endless parade of Zakk’s incredible, custom Wylde Audio guitars.
Amazingly great set from BLS and I look forward to hopefully catching Zakk again doing what will certainly be justice to the legacy of Dime when he hits the road with Pantera.
Full Black Label Society Gallery: HERE
Hatebreed
Now THAT is how you get a show started. Hatebreed were a killer selection to kick off the evening. What a crazy faithful fanbase this band has. TONS of Hatebreed shirts on display and rightfully so. Jamey Jasta and the boys whipped up the palladium into a frenzy right away.
The band are Jamey on vocals, Wayne Lozinak on lead, Frank Novinec on rhythm, Chris Beattie on bass and Matt Byrne on drums. This is a very different looking Jamey from the one I first laid eyes on at the 2016 Ozzfest/Knotfest show. Jasta shared that after he said “Fuck yeah” when Scott Ian called him up and asked to join the tour that he talked to a member of the band that said he’d only do it if Jamey grew his hair out. Well, the offer was too good to pass up as Jamey is sporting some locks and a full beard these days.
That’s all secondary though to the METAL that kicked off the show. A killer setlist that had the crowd chanting along with pits breaking out all around the floor.
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