Halloween night, Lamb of God, and mosh pits. If you heard someone mention these things in the same sentence you would ask “when and where.” Is there anything better than seeing Lamb of God on Halloween night in Hollywood? First of all, think of how insane that just sounds. This concert was even more mental than it sounds. So back to the question, is than anything better? No, no there isn’t.
We all know that there’s no doubt that this tour with Sylosis, Hatebreed, In Flames, and Lamb of God is a must see show. Those first 3 bands touring together on their own tour would be a great show on its own, but when you add Lamb of God, you got yourself a metal tour to end all metal tours in 2012. Once the other bands finished putting on great sets and the stage was set up, the energy could be felt all over Hollywood for the return of Lamb of God for their first Southern California show in over 2 years.
The stage is finally set, the lights are down, and the intro starts. Lamb of God open up with Desolation from the Resolution album that was released earlier this year. The band takes no prisoners as they control the stage and crowd while they quickly go into “Ghost Walking” and the fan favorite “Walk with me in Hell.” Lead singer, Randy Blythe’s on stage dominance puts the Hollywood venue in a frenzy as he growls the lyrics to each song. The amount of hard work each band member puts into their live performances make them one of the top metal acts in the past 10 years. Essential metal at its best.
The dedicated fans who were there on the 30th made this show even more enjoyable. If your body wasn’t in the mosh pit or crowd surfing, then you were not standing still. The mosh pit would take over a fairly good amount of the Hollywood Palladium’s floor, a sight that hasn’t been seen at this venue since As I Lay Dying played here in 2010. The fan dedication went on before and after the concert had taken place. The line before the doors opened had people from Finland, Mexico, and other parts of the states waiting in line to get a great spot of the show and after the show, the dedicated stayed out to meet members of the band. You can’t go wrong with a band who has dedicated fans like these.
Unfortunately, Willie Adler couldn’t make it to this show, so Kenny Powers from Eastbound and Down stepped in to cover; that’s what Blythe told us as the band took a moment to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and to tell the crowd of people in Willie’s costume which made him surprisingly look a lot like Danny Mcbride’s character in Eastbound and Down. Randy sported some war paint on his face and he told the crowd that he had no idea what he was suppose to be. While being here this night, one would forget it was Halloween until you looked around and saw Beetlejuice and a banana head banging to “Redneck.” That just added to the awesomeness of this show.
The certainty of Randy Blyth and Lamb of God’s future isn’t known yet because of his current legal problems with the Czech Government, but please do yourself a favor and attend their show when it comes to a town near you. The metal community wishes the best for Randy and the band and hope that they will continue to see more life changing tours like this one.
Review by Alex Lucero
