Prices: $40.25 for one ticket. $13 for parking. $5.50 for a 12-oz beer. $3.75 for a small Coke. To precisely what target demographic does the music industry think it\u2019s catering? The typical metalhead, including this writer, can\u2019t afford a live show without trading jailbait sister and the rest of the immediate family as collateral. With package tours \u00e0 la Ozzfest 2001 on the rise, prices have soared and expectations have diminished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeff, my death-metal cohort, and I, came to see two bands of the five offered on this late July night at the Compaq Arena in San Jose. Although we were disappointed by the drive, we were further peeved by the time allotted to our favorite acts. After all, who wants to hear 30 minutes of their favorite act when they can wait till their headlining tour and hear a full set for half the price?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morbid Angel<\/strong> opened the Extreme Steel 2001<\/strong> tour as invited guests of Phil Anselmo<\/strong>, lead singer of headliner Pantera<\/strong> and avowed black\/death-metal enthusiast. Seeing a death-metal act in a 14,000 capacity venue is a spectacle in itself. As it jumped in their first song in front of the 5,000-plus crowd at 6 p.m., it was clear that Morbid Angel, Florida\u2019s finest, had something to prove. As Anselmo sat on the side of the stage looking like a kid at Christmas, Trey Azagzoth<\/strong> and Eric Rutan<\/strong> led a crushing dual-guitar assault of sonic bliss. Pete Sandoval<\/strong>, perhaps the greatest death-metal drummer, played with ferocity and tenacity and let his double-bass calisthenics do the talking. Sporting a new singer (Jeff Tucker<\/strong> is currently on temporary leave), Morbid Angel showed no sign of weakness; it careened through a varied set with material from its Earache and Giant\/Warner Bros. eras, highlighted by my favorite tunes\u2014\u201cRapture\u201d and \u201cDay of Suffering,\u201d on which Anselmo joined in on vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two bands later (Skrape<\/strong>, then Static X<\/strong>) and $32 more in the hole\u2014I had to buy a damn T-shirt, see\u2014it was time for Slayer<\/strong>, which has been making a new album, God Hates Us All<\/em>, that will be released September 11. \u2019Twas obvious from the reaction of the 12,000 in attendance what tonight\u2019s main course was. Kerry King<\/strong> and Jeff Hanneman<\/strong>, looking as if they\u2019d indulged in a little too much fine cuisine between recording takes, still looked as menacing and evil as their younger Show No Mercy<\/em> era years. Tom Araya<\/strong> still looked pretty much the same\u2014long, flowing curly mane\u2014and Paul Bostaph<\/strong> looked as if he\u2019d been hitting the weights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slayer launched into \u201cReign in Blood,\u201d followed by \u201cChemical Warfare,\u201d from the infamous Haunting the Chapel <\/em>EP. Los Angeles\u2019 blaspheming bad boys showed they haven\u2019t lost their edge and played cuts from every release. Even the lackluster \u201cBloodline\u201d from the horrific Dracula 2000<\/em> and \u201cStain of Mind\u201d sounded phenomenal. Of course, such staples as \u201cDead Skin Mask,\u201d \u201cAngel of Death\u201d and \u201cSouth of Heaven\u201d only made the evil air a little thicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How could Pantera top that? With our question firmly answered, my buddy and I descended the stairs of Compaq and into the South Bay air. If Slayer wasn\u2019t the best band on the planet, ever, it was tonight. March to the kingdom of the dead, dammit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (SN&R)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prices: $40.25 for one ticket. $13 for parking. $5.50 for a 12-oz beer. $3.75 for a small Coke. To precisely what target demographic does the music industry think it\u2019s catering? The typical metalhead, including this writer, can\u2019t afford a live show without trading jailbait sister and the rest of the immediate family as collateral. With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}