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Live Report Unholy Alliance

Bands: Slayer - Trivium - Mastodon - Amon Amarth
City: Paris (France)
Venue: Zénith
Date: 2008-11-11
Audience: around 2,300 people




It’s not even 7 p.m. yet, but Amon Amarth are on stage already, and they’re here to rock! The Swedes churn out their unfailing Viking hymns, and the Parisian audience discovers the hit songs from the band’s latest album, “Twilight of the Thunder God”, with utmost pleasure. One of the highlights of the show was the performance of the eponymous song, which literally made the audience insane. Amon Amarth’s music is more than efficient on stage: the melodies are catchy and insistent, and the riffs are brutal enough to give a good scrubbing to the ears of all the dirty metalheads in the pit. It’s not surprising to see the five long-haired musicians headbang ferociously along with the riffs – so catchy they can easily be classified as “death metal for the masses”. The fantastic “Pursuit Of Vikings” concludes a very intense and energetic show that efficiently spread the Nordic good word – for the enjoyment of the audience.


The show goes on with Mastodon and their convoluted music. Although the band hadn’t been very convincing as an opening act for Tool two years ago, their performance tonight at the Zenith was much more interesting. The sound is good (as a matter of fact, it was good for all four bands), and their stage presence is rather satisfying. The line-up has been changed only recently, so there are only three members on stage – but at least they rock, contrary to their previous, much more static performances. The light show is finely worked, and the band’s music fluctuates between Meshuggah-esque ryhthms and complex progressive structures. From a technical point of view, the musicians are brilliant – especially drummer Brann Dailor. The audience, however, is not really responsive to the band’s music – much less than to Aman Amarth’s. In spite of it, Mastodon can be proud of their performance, which beautifully mixed technical skills and musicality – although said music can be slightly uninviting on the long run.


After a 15-minute break, Trivum turn up on stage with a grandiose film-music intro, followed by a catchy but always too long (almost 7 minutes) “Kirisute Gomen”. The stage is dedicated to the colours (red and black) of “Shogun”, and two Japanese paintings face the Parisian audience. “Shogun”, Trivium’s new album, contains a few hit songs like “Down From The Sky” or “Throes of Perdition”. The band’s music cannot exactly be called original, but the musicians do display a wealth of energy and seem willing to please. Their performance is precise and their attitude very positive. Vocalist Matt Heafy regularly urges audience to « move », but the pit remains surprisingly unresponsive. The first rows are rather receptive, though (the Trivium fanbase is slowly growing in France), and the audience slowly wakes from its torpor to applaud the band warmly at the end of the set. Their performance was good thanks to a very laudable energy.


Have the members of Slayer become In Flames fans? The musicians arrive on stage hidden behind a huge white sheet, and the lights from the stage make them look like ghostly giants. At this very moment, all that’s missing to make you feel like you’re reliving the In Flames show all over again are the giant screens – and guess what? When the sheet falls down, the audience discovers a giant screen flashing the band’s name. The main difference is that tonight, there will be no melodic death jokes – tonight is all about the thrash riffs of a band who needs to silence many criticisms. The pentagrams that come along with the band’s name on the sheet are here as a warning!

Slayer were slightly disappointing at the Hellfest, but tonight’s performance marks the band’s reconciliation with the audience. Perfect light show (ah, the red lights on “Reign in Blood”…) very decent sound, intense performance… Many things were at their best tonight. The biggest surprise came from Tom Araya’s voice – who knows, maybe the man has taken the criticism regarding his lack of motivation into account. Tom was the most impressive member of Slayer tonight: lively, forthright, always willing to play with the audience. There was no scream on “Angel of Death”, but the man kept playing with the fans, who assisted him devotedly. A most appreciated game, although the choirs were a bit lost in the racket, which slightly lessened the impact of the song.

In spite of it all, a few negative things need to be pointed out – particularly the very debatable pictures shown on the giant screen during “Angel of Death”. The presence of pictures of Joseph Mengele, the Nazi doctor who inspired the song, is comprehensible; but the pictures of mutilated, persecuted Jews were a bit too much. Slayer’s music would have been intense enough, but the musicians have chosen to unsettle people even more with pictures who have no goal other than to shock. Too bad.


On stage, Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King are diligent and concentrated and deliver their riffs with metronomic precision. The two guitarists are totally into the music and don’t communicate much – if not at all – with the audience. Speaking of communication, there will be no proper goodbye from the band, and no encores. We play, we leave, and so long – a motto that seems to suit the great Dave Lombardo perfectly.

As far as the set-list is concerned, the audience was treated to the entirety of “Reign in Blood”, which is worthy of praise: the band is often criticized for playing the same songs over and over again, but it was definitely not the case tonight. Obviously they did play “Reign in Blood”, “Chemical Warfare”, “South of Heaven”, the magical “Seasons in the Abyss”, but also more recent and not always appreciated songs like “Dittohead”.

“Reign in Blood” is one of the most overrated albums in the history of thrash metal, but although it’s not Slayer’s best album, it’s a cornerstone of the genre. Playing it in its entirety was a good idea – and one that was guaranteed not to bore the audience, since the album is only 28-minute long.


Slayer was really up to the mark tonight, with varied songs and an always intense performance. The giant screen used by the band wasn’t exactly a bonus, and the light show would have certainly been enough. But in any case, after tonight, we couldn’t but admit that Slayer is still alive and kicking. And most importantly, the band hasn’t lost its soul.

We’d had our doubts…

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