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Tour de Force

THE “PLAY A FULL ALBUM LIVE” TREND CONTINUES

 Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 10:42am by

UPDATE: The Testament camp has just told me that the band will not be playing The Legacy live in its entirety on the American Carnage tour – they will do a “100% new brutal set spanning their 24 year career.” Hopefully that makes you happy and not sad…

It seems to me that the current trend in metal of bands playing classic albums live in their entirety all started when Dave Lombardo returned to Slayer and the band started playing Reign in Blood from start to finish (complete with raining “blood”); then Metallica did Master of Puppets, and then pretty much everyone jumped on the bandwagon.

So I don’t think you can accuse Slayer of trend-hopping now that they’ve announced that they’ll be celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Seasons in the Abyss by playing it in its entirety on the upcoming American Carnage tour with Megadeth and Testament. They started it, so why shouldn’t they continue to reap the benefits? And who would complain anyway? Seasons is the band’s second-best album after Reign!

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Megadeth is going to once again be doing Rust in Peace in its entirety, following their recent Rust in Peace anniversary tour. I’m not sure how Megadorks will feel about this – will they be happy to get to hear the band play Rust twice in just a few months, or will they feel like they got that out of their system already? – but since I skipped that show in favor of just waiting for the American Carnage trek, I’m pretty stoked.

The press release making the announcement doesn’t say if Testament will continue to perform all of The Legacy live; the band had originally intended to do so as part of American Carnage, but when the tour was initially postponed for Tom Aray’s back surgery, they ended up doing it on the Rust tour. Again, I have a hard time imagining too many fans would complain if they pulled the same schtick again… [They won't be doing The Legacy. See above. -Ed.]

-AR

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  • DieByTheChord

    That’s actually kind of a bummer… I live in CT and already had tickets to the postponed American Carnage tour when I decided to make the trip up to Buffalo to see the RIP tour thinking it was going to be ‘once in a lifetime’ thing. It was a good time, but I was banking on it being a substantially different set from the AC (which was supposed to be in support of Endgame?) tour. Seasons should be a fun though, despite an immobile Tom.

  • bubbles

    i just came

    Seasons isn’t the second best. It’s the best. and every song will be incredible live.

    • Seanicus

      Seasons is much better than Reign. Reign isn’t in my top three Slayer records.

    • Matthew Grant Anson

      South of Heaven is my favorite. Then Seasons.

    • Seb

      I endorse this statement.

    • http://bloodandthumbsticks.blogspot.com/ The Overmatt

      Seasons is absoloutely Slayer’s best. Can’t wait for Spirit In Black and the title track live.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tanner-Westhomas/1506171449 Tanner Westhomas

        Seasons isnt one of my faves, so im a little let down…

        for me…
        South Of Heaven
        Reign In Blood
        Show No Mercy
        then South Of Heaven

  • http://www.twitter.com/stabitha Stabitha

    Even though this whole thing is a little “done,” I’m still into it. It’s not really a metal trend, though…but I’d be interested to find out if Slayer kicked the whole thing off. NIN did it at Webster (unannounced), Steely Dan, the Pixies, I even saw Nada Surf do it in Brooklyn (I am false metal).

  • Sammy

    There are two ways to look at this trend. (1) We have a classic album that our fans love (or classic “era” as in the case of Maiden) and we’re going to treat them to it by playing the album in its entirety; or (2) We haven’t written anything worth listening to in 20 years, so we’re going to play stuff our fans actually like. I guess there’s also the band that shoehorns a classic album in during the middle of their set the way Queensryche has done (but they really fall into category 2 above).

  • ceth carter

    Seasons is the best album. I have tried to convince myself otherwise but I always comeback to this album when I need to get my Slayer on.

  • http://thenumberoftheblog.com Snagon

    totally agreed here Axl. I still want to see if i can make to to one of these shows. Also it would help if Testament played The New Order instead of The Legacy

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Taylor-James-Hamilton/1178820034 Taylor James Hamilton

    Yeah, Seasons and RIP are great albums, but the fact of the matter is that if I paid to see the RIP tour, I’d be a little pissed if I saw the same show twice, albeit a good show. I guess that’s just me. For the Seasons aspect, that is going to fucking rock. Always loved Seasons on about an equal level to Reign.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Carlos-Ramirez/631635101 Carlos Ramirez

    ‘South of Heaven’ is my second favorite Slayer album.

  • MK

    Don’t forget, Rush is performing all of “Moving Pictures” on their upcoming tour. Easily containing one of the best Side A(s) in all of music.

  • bucketochicken

    1. Seasons
    2. South of Heaven
    3. Rein in Blood
    4. Hell Awaits
    5.
    6. The rest

  • machnhed

    Between The Buried And Me doing “Colors” was absolutely gross. I love it when bands do that.

  • cougar party

    So Megadeth won’t be playing Crush ‘Em on this tour? How disappointing.

    • Glenn

      Yeah, I’m “crushed” by that realization…

    • Ryan H

      maybe they’ll play “risk” in its entirety.

  • yetzer hara

    seeing mastodon do it with “crack the skye” was cool the first time… the second and third tour in a row where they did the same thing was kind of boring, although i wasn’t as bored watching it as they seemed to be when they played it.

  • canea

    has anyone seen megadeth play rust in peace the whole way through?

    because whenever I hear them play songs off that album they seem to slop through the solos – and there are a lot of solos.

    i have to go put that album in now though.

  • IWRESTLEDYOURMOMONCE

    And here I thought Dream Theater doing Scenes from a Memory from start to finish started this trend back in 2000. Shows what I know…

    • shit sandwich

      oh yeah. good point

      • Glenn

        Yes, good point. However, SFAM is a concept album and so carries with it more of an expectation that it will be played in full. When Slayer was touring on RiB in 86 there wasn’t any expectation that they would play the full album. Ever. You had good songs akin to singles in the pop formats and then songs that filled out the album and which never got played — that wasn’t their purpose.

        Also, speaking of Dream Theater, does their interest in covering entire albums front-to-back (Dark Side, MOP, NotB, etc.) have any connection to this discussion? Is it part of the same general nostalgia within metal?

        • vulgardisplay21

          I am almost positive Metallica did it before Slayer, but andyways, Queensryche did Mindcrime in full on the Empire tour and Pink Floyd prob started it all with The Wall

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Glenn-Pillsbury/641369365 Glenn Pillsbury

            Yes, I remembered the Mindcrime thing later as well. The thing that’s always been interesting to me is they did it during the tour to support the following album. That seemed weird to me, like they weren’t confident in the new album (which of course was a silly thought – that album was absolutely huge). Plus, there wasn’t any nostalgia in the decision to do Mindcrime. Interesting…

    • JRTME

      I was going to say that. Dream Theater was the first I remember a band doing that. Then they went on to Play Master Of Puppets all the way through. Then they did Number of the Beast and Dark SIde of the Moon.

      I like this trend honestly. I would love to see King Diamond do Abigail from the start to finish.

      • http://www.theatomicbombaudition.com Alee Karim

        Somebody said it up there but those albums (Floyd, ‘Ryche, DT) were rock operas by prog bands that had an expectation of being played in full. The ‘trend’ that started in the Aughts was of classic bands playing well-loved albums that didn’t have linear narratives all the way through.

  • shit sandwich

    i dont know if Slayer was the first. I saw Primus play the entirety of Sailing the Seas of Cheese in 2004-2005. Apparently theyd been playng their classic albums in full for some time also. Just sayin’

    • Alex_P

      Lucky bastard.

  • drunkwithpower

    I’m normally against this trend because I like to at least be a little surprised by what’s coming. But I have faith that Slayer’s set will be long enough that they can squeeze a lot of other good tunes in there.

    Also Seasons is my favorite.

  • Kasper Maigaard

    No matter what War Ensemble is going to be a killer set-opener!

    • Alex_P

      Unfortunately, though, it’s the best song on Seasons.

  • brian roach

    This will be great. As for Megadeth, their recent tour intentionally hit markets that the ‘Carnage’ tour wouldn’t be hitting, so I think it’s a fair game for them to do it again!

  • http://byzantium.wordpress.com Kullervo

    On the one hand, I dropped a load of cash to fly out to LA to see the Rust in Peace show even though I have a floor ticket to American Carnage in August, on the understanding that it was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime last-chance thing. So that’s kind of lame.

    On the other hand, Rust in Peace is one of the most fucking incredible metal albums ever. While I probably would not have gone to LA if I had known I was going to get to hear it in August, I am also not going to complain about hearing it twice. And it’s not totally unexpected, either: I knew as well as any Megadeth fan should, that when Dave says “never ever ever again I mean it,” he almost never really means it.

  • dwsoda

    I’m pretty stoked. I was bummed that I missed the Rust in Peace tour, so this should make up for it. Anybody see Priest perform British Steel last summer? That was a great show.

    • DieByTheChord

      Yeah! The Priest tour last summer was an awesome time.

  • http://perpetualresonance.blogspot.com Alee Karim

    Dear thrash bands, thank you for not selfishly focusing on your last 15 years of piddling output and instead mainlining your fans with the classics. I was so bummed when AC was canceled in January and this more than makes up for the wait.

  • Ryan H

    I’ve always thought seasons was Slayers best album. I must be weird. I also always thought justice was metallica’s best album and far beyond driven was the best pantera album. I guess I’m just different. or I don’t go by the conventional wisdom. who knows

    • http://bloodandthumbsticks.blogspot.com/ The Overmatt

      I’m right there with you on Seasons and Far Beyond Driven. Both of them, in my opinion, take the best elements of each band’s previous 2 albums and melds them together while also adding a bit of their own flavour.

      Sorry I couldn’t agree on …AJFA, but I just like Ride The Lightning so much more.

  • wtfhax

    Amazing news. Seasons is Slayer’s 2nd best album, right behind South of Heaven.

    So glad they’re not doing Reign in Filler, too.

  • Hot Donut

    I also traveled far to attend a RIP anniversary show, and was hoping for some more Endgame material on the American Carnage tour. But RIP was pretty sweet, so I can’t complain too much. However, I hope Megadeth does switch up the setlist a little bit, for example dropping Headcrusher in favor of something else from Endgame.

    Seasons In The Abyss will be sweet though!

  • RickTheMetalGod

    They should play Divine Intervention in its entirety…that would be BADASS

    Sooooo underrated

    I dont want to see Slayer digress and play all their boring old shit

    I want to see the now,the present,the way they REALLY are..

    The way they are SLAYER

    I want to hear their crushing new material the way its meant to be heard-

    IN MY FACE!!!!

  • Wilson

    Am I the only one who was looking forward to hearing both band’s new cds?

    • http://bloodandthumbsticks.blogspot.com/ The Overmatt

      They’re still both going to be performing new material as well, just that they’re throwing in a run of a full album as well. The only one I was hoping wouldn’t do the album thing is Testament, as I haven’t seen ‘em before and wanted a mix of material, and looks like I got my wish.

  • Slayerfan731

    FUCK YES

  • jefff

    it would cool to hear Divine Intervention that was such a great Slayer album, I thought it was better than Reign in Blood. But my personal fav. is Show No Mercy, that album is so metal, gotta love it.

  • Freedom35

    Machine Head did all of Burn My Eyes on the 10th anniversary of its release. Im pretty sure it was in the bay area too.

    • chtimixeur

      I think they played it once, and it was in Philadelphia in august 2004

  • br00talz

    teztaments new stuff is pretty br00t4l for thrash

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tanner-Westhomas/1506171449 Tanner Westhomas

    Seasons isnt one of my fave Slayer albums, so im a little let down…

    mine would go…
    South Of Heaven
    Reign In Blood
    Show No Mercy
    Haunting The Chapel
    then Seasons In The Abyss

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Moses-Valenzuela/1003651270 Moses Valenzuela

    Don’t judge me but my favorite album is…..God Hates Us All.

    #2 is Season in the Abyss. So a little excited but rather hear the new material or songs I haven’t heard live before i.e. Disciple or New Faith. However, I have never heard, Seasons in the Abyss or Blood Red live yet. My favorite tracks on that album are War Ensemble and Dead Skin Mask.