Megadeth
February 28, 2016
Hollywood Palladium- Los Angeles, CA
Children of Bodom is a melodic death meal band from Finland. They released their ninth studio album on October 2, 2015 titled I Worship Chaos. Leading up to the making of the album, guitarist Roope latlava left the band in May 2015. On January 19, 2016, the band announced Daniel Freyberg as replacement. Plenty of Children of Bodom fans could be seen among the crowd and they were ready for them. Children of Bodom came out to an already packed venue as they started the show with Are You Dead Yet? and immediately the crowd responded with a mosh pit. Frontman Alexi Laiho would perform the songs with his signature death metal style vocals that could be recognized by fans of the band. Children of Bodom next played three more hits: In Your Face, Morrigan, and Silent Night, Bodom Night. Hate Me! is a fan-favorite song with it’s creepy keyboard intro and catchy chorus of “I don’t give a fuck if you Hate Me!”. Being that they had a new album, the band played the title track from the new album, I Worship Chaos. After the song ended, the band took a quick break while over the speaker, the ending dialogue to the film American Psycho could be heard. The line “My pain is constant and sharp. And I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape.” played and the keyboard intro to Angels Don’t Kill started as this is one of Children of Bodom‘s biggest hits. Now that their set was coming to an end, Laiho mentioned to the crowd that the night before they had played in San Francisco and they had no doubt kicked their asses at how crazy they are. Downfall was the last song which ensued a big mosh pit on the floor. Children of Bodom finished their set and left the stage for the next big act.
Suicidal Tendencies are a veteran hardcore punk/crossover thrash metal band from Venice, California. The only original member remaining is the legendary man himself, Mike Muir. To add more power to the band, Suicidal Tendencies recruited Dave Lombardo formerly of Slayer. The lights went out and the crowd went crazy as the members of the band came out as they started the show with You Can’t Bring Me Down followed by the appearance of Muir. The style of thrash metal from the band easily started a mosh pit and fans were going crazy. This song brings out powerful lyrics like, “And if I offended you, oh I’m sorry, but maybe you need to be offended. But here’s my apology, and one more thing, fuck you! ‘Cause You…Can’t…Bring…Me…Down!”. Once the opening song was over, Cyco Vision continued the show and just as the song started, Muir had the floor split in two and once the song really got started, the crowd smashed into each other to perform a wall of death which is always an awesome sight to see live and you can almost feel the pain from wherever you’re watching. Trip at the Brain was the next song and is one of the band’s more older and known songs with a catchy chorus. For the fourth song, Suicidal Tendencies played their most famous song and one of the most well-known songs titled Institutionalized from their self-titled 1983 debut album. It’s famous for the hilarious story following a teenage Mike Muir dealing with friends and family worrying about him and thinking he’s on drugs, yet Muir thinks it’s everyone else that’s crazy. And of course the line about Muir wanting a Pepsi is still said to Muir himself to this day. The fast guitars during the chorus “I’m not crazy – in an institution! You’re the one that’s crazy – in an institution! You’re driving me crazy – in an institution!” always make the fans go absolutely crazy as crowd surfers and mosh pits were happening to where you didn’t know where to keep your eyes at. In between songs, Muir would give inspirational speeches to the crowd. He would tell them things like, “Life is not easy, it’s not supposed to be. If you do the right things for the right people, you’re gonna have a great life. Stand up for what’s right, believe in yourself”. I Saw Your Mommy and War Inside My Head, and Subliminal were three more songs that kept the crowd going wild without slowing down and only sounded better with Lombardo behind the kit with his fast and aggressive drumming. The show had to come to an end and Suicidal Tendencies picked Pledge Your Allegiance to end it. The song had the crowd and singing along as they sang “S-T…S-T…S-T!”. For unknown reasons (possibly time restraints), the song was forced to end about halfway through. Regardless, the band enjoyed their time and clearly left the fans happy as they left the stage as it was cleared up for the headlining band, the titans of thrash metal, Megadeth!
Anyone in the rock/metal community has heard of Megadeth. Regardless of whether you like them or not, you have to respect the work they’ve done and the accomplishments they’ve received with fifteen studio albums, over 50 million album sales, platinum status for five of their albums, and eleven Grammy nominations. They are clearly one of the biggest and best bands of all time. In late 2014, drummer Shawn Drover and guitarist Chris Broderick left Megadeth just hours apart leaving bassist David Ellefson and founding member Dave Mustaine to look for new members. They found Kiko Loureiro of Brazilian power metal band Angra as their new guitarist. Chris Adler from Lamb of God will be handling drum duties until further notice so it’s still a mystery if he’ll remain a touring drummer or if he’ll be a permanent drummer. Megadeth released their fifteenth album titled 
Dystopia on January 22, 2016 to mainly positive reviews from fans. With the show sold and the venue packed to capacity, the fans were still hungry for more metal! The lights went out and the crowd roared with excitement as the screen in the background lit up revealing machinery working on what looks like a building. The machinery stopped and then exploded to reveal Megadeth‘s logo and by then, the members of the band had already made their way to the stage as they started the show with the first track from the new album, The Threat Is Real.
Megadeth is one of those bands that always sound great live. They don’t need really fancy light shows, pyro, or theatrics. They let their music do all the talking and entertaining and with the amazing guitar work, how could it not? The only theatrics they had to their show was the constant use of fog cannons and flashing lights on the stage. Now that one new song was out of the way, Megadeth next played one of their best songs, the UFO-themed Hangar 18 from their famed Rust In Piece album which is without a doubt one of the best metal albums of all time. This song always drives the fans wild and delivered a fast mosh pit. The song famously ends as Mustaine and Loureiro exchanged guitar solos before Mustaine doing the final and incredibly fast ear-piercing solo. Kingmaker from their previous Super Collider album was next and the song had mixed responses from fans as a choice of being played. The band took a quick break while Mustaine introduced the next from their second Peace Sells…but Who’s Buying? album, Wake Up Dead and is a fan-favorite song that fans love singing along to the chorus, “Wake Up Dead! You! Die! Wake Up Dead!…and buried!”. As soon as the song ended, they cut right into the next song In My Darkest Hour which is another one of the band’s best songs played at a slower pace almost like a ballad. Sweating Bullets has one of the best known lines in the metal community as fans sang along to the beginning of the lyrics, “Hello me…meet the real me!”. To continue promoting the new album, Megadeth played the title from the new album, Dystopia. The band left the stage afterwards for a bit, then Ellefson came out on his own with Adler backing him up on the drums as the duo played Dawn Patrol and gave Ellefson a chance to play his bass solo for the whole song. As soon as the song ended, the rest of the band came back out and continued with Poison Was the Cure. Megadeth continued on with She-Wolf and Trust. Skin O’ My Teeth is a huge hit with fans and they loved moshing to it as well as crowd surfers continued to make an appearance. To continue promoting the new album, Megadeth played the first single from the album, Fatal Illusion. 
The stage shined on Mustaine for a bit as he started the familiar acoustic guitar intro to what is Megadeth’s most beautiful song, A Tout le Monde (French to English: To All the World). This is one of those songs that everyone would stop moshing just to appreciate how beautiful this song is and would sing to the chorus whenever Mustaine would tell them, “sing for me!” then the audience would sing, “A Tout le Monde (To All the World), A tous mes ami (to all my friends), je vous aime (I love you), je dois partir (I have to leave). These are the last words, I’ll ever speak and they’ll set me free”. A truly beautiful thing to sing along to and witness.
The show was nearing the end as the stage went dark for a bit as the speakers played the familiar choir sound just as Megadeth started playing one of the best and most well-known songs in metal, Symphony of Destruction from their best-selling album, Countdown to Extinction. The beginning guitar riffs hit while Mustaine sang “You take a mortal man…” and the crowd would sing in between to the guitar riffs, “Mega-deth! Mega-deth!”. The song ended and the band went backstage for a bit. After a few seconds, Ellefson came back out to say hello and had everyone say “Hey! Hey! Hey!” while clapping. Ellefson used the tempo to his advantage and started playing one of the most recognizable and best bass lines in metal, the intro to also one of the best songs in metal and Megadeth‘s signature song, Peace Sells. Mustaine and fans would all sing along to the beginning of the lyrics, “What do you mean, I don’t believe in god? I talk to him every day”. Whenever the chorus was about to happen, Mustaine would tell the crowd, “sing for me!” and the crowd would happily sing, “If there’s a new way…I’ll be the first in line! But, it better work this time”. And of course right before the chorus hits, Mustaine says the famous lyric, “can you put a price on peace?” before going into the chorus that had fans moshing and singing along as they they sang, “Peace Sells…but Who’s buying? Peace Sells…but Who’s buying!?”. While the guitar solo and chorus was being played, Vic Rattlehead the band’s mascot made an appearance as he pointed out to the crowd and having an intimidating presence on stage. The song ended and it seemed to end the show as the Mustaine thanked the crowd and everyone left the stage. The stage remained quiet for a few minutes and fans kept yelling out the band’s name hoping to get them to come out for an encore. Surely enough, it worked. Mustaine came back out with his Rust In Piece album signature guitar and told everyone how when he wrote this next song 26 years ago, how nothing has changed and has remained the same. He mentioned Holy Wars…The Punishment Due from the Rust In Piece album. This being one of the band’s best and fastest songs, it was no surprise to see a huge mosh pit form with incredible speed. Mustaine played the first of the main guitar solos and one of the best guitar solos to the song and paused the song to introduce the band members, “On the guitar, Kiko Loureiro! Behind me on the drums, Chris Adler! On the bass guitar, David Ellefson! You know who I am, and I know who you are”. Mustaine started the song back up and finished off strong. Mustaine thanked the crowd for coming out and did his usual end speech by saying, “I hope you had a great time because we sure did. You’ve been great, we’ve been Megadeth. Good night!”. All the band members left the stage and seeing everyone’s face of satisfaction is the best sign of witnessing one of the best live bands on the planet. The question remains….can YOU put a price on peace!?
Review by: Misael Ruiz
Megadeth
Suicidal Tendencies
Children of Bodom
