ShareAnthrax performing their 40th Anniversary Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Tuesday 4th October 2022
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Despite having cancelled their mainland European dates for 2022, heavy metal band Anthrax managed to make it to Rock City on Tuesday night to celebrate forty years of head banging insanity.
A curtain covered the stage that displayed congratulatory messages to these iconic masters of thrash from various celebrities such as Keanu Reeves, Gene Simmons, Slash and more, and when the curtain dropped this sold out crowd instantly formed a huge mosh pit and the crowd surfing began.
Their set opened with a triple dose of well known favourites, Among The Living, Caught In A Mosh and Madhouse all of which proved that front man Joey Belladonna still has one of the best voices around. As the set continued, Antisocial and I am The Law were followed by the only new era song for the evening, In The End with its anthemic feel which got the fans chanting along.
With intense crowd interaction from Belladonna who never kept still, other band members also showed their worth. Scott Ian with his famous goatee scissor kicked his way around the stage, whilst Charlie Benante gave his all on the drums. There was an enthusiastic Frank Bello on bass and guitarist Jon Donais epitomised the energy that the whole band put out for their performance.
The set continued with Only from the John Bush era and Belladonna sounded right at home with this amazing track. The big surprise of the night was when they covered Public Enemy’s Bring The Noise which was a real treat before they closed their main set with their huge hit Indians, and once again Rock City was one big mosh pit.
There were some great songs missing from the set list but with such a vast catalogue something will always miss the cut. But with an encore that included Joe Jackson’s Got The Time and Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) Anthrax had showed that metal really is alive and well.
