ANTHRAX

You know anticipation for a gig is high when you walk up to the venue at 9pm and, rather than finding a queue stretching off into the distance, can instead walk straight in. No one wants to miss a single note of this mosh down memory lane, and so an early arrival at the UNSW Roundhouse seems almost as mandatory as your faded Iron Maiden, Slayer or Anthrax shirt.

For Mortal Sin, this is most definitely good news, as it means they walk onstage to a room that’s not only full, but already has a few drinks under its collective belt. With only two original members in their ranks it might be a bit of a stretch to call this a classic Mortals line-up, but judging by tonight’s performance it could well be one of their best. New drummer Luke Cook anchors everything down with precision and power , and thanks to a crystal clear (and gut-rupturingly loud) mix the likes of ‘Broken Promises’, ‘Into The Fire’ and ‘Lebanon’ – the latter inspiring bursts of fully-fledged headbanging throughout the room – pack a punch powerful enough to recall the band’s glory days. There is, it seems, still life in these metallers yet.

Twenty minutes before Scott Ian strikes his first chord of the night, a video screen descends above the stage, upon which a VH1 documentary on Anthrax is screened. Vintage footage of the band is interspersed with interviews, eliciting huge roars and singalongs as clips flash to life. It sets the stage perfectly for the arrival of Ian, bassist Frank Bello and drummer Charlie Benante, who appear first and plunge headlong into ‘Among The Living’. Newly returned guitarist Dan Spitz enters next, followed by vocalist Joey Belladonna, and the classic Anthrax line-up is, finally, back in Sydney for the first time in 14 years.

As last year’s ‘The Greater Of Two Evils’ set proved, Anthrax’s back catalogue has a timelessness to it that few acts can boast. This is again demonstrated tonight, with the likes of ‘A.I.R.’, ‘I Am The Law’ and ‘Be All, End All’ sounding as necksnappingly good as they did almost two decades ago. There are a few surprises – a ramshackle runthrough of ‘I’m The Man’, a storming ‘Medusa’ and rapid-fire ‘Deathrider’ – although perhaps the biggest one of all is Joey Belladonna himself. Though his between-song banter never amounts to much, he’s lost nothing in the past 15 years in terms of vocal ability or energy, and judging by the smile on his face and his onstage thank you to Benante and Ian for “hauling my ass back into this”, he’s relishing the chance to be back in front of crowds this size. As a unit it takes a few songs to gel, but by the time ‘Caught In A Mosh’ sets the pit ablaze the quintet are truly getting up a head of steam, Bello leapfrogging across the stage, Ian fashioning his trademark stomp and Spitz looking… slightly out of place, actually. But then that was always the case.

At the end of the show, Belladonna and Bello hold up a sign made by a fan which says “Australia welcomes back the real Anthrax!”. Though it would be wrong and unfair to dismiss the John Bush era – an era that will hopefully be resurrected at the end of this tour – there’s no doubting that this classic line-up of the band is indeed very welcome on these shores.

ROD YATES

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