Already the third edition in what is becoming a familiar name in the bigger of metal tours, the Unholy Alliance tour set up by Slayer is again destroying Europe with what is called the heaviest and darkest tour of the year by some. Joining them on this metallic feast are Trivium, Mastodon, Amon Amarth and the local support comes from the Dutchmen of Blind Sight. Let the beer flow, the sweat drip and the blood rain!

Blind Sight

Opening up for Slayer, isn’t that the dream of every small band? Well for Blind Sight, the Dutch metalheads from the Southern part of the Netherlands, it is a dream that came true. On the 7th of November during the Unholy Alliance tour they were the opening act before Slayer, Trivium, Mastodon and Amon Amarth. After starting a bit nervous it became pretty obvious the bandmembers were really enjoying themselves on stage. Although they only had 15 minutes of fame, they did leave quite a nice impression on me and judging by the response I wasn’t the only one. I’ve seen weaker bands in a set of four support bands. (Niamen)

Amon Amarth

Second of tonight and first one of the touring-along support acts from Slayer was Amon Amarth. These Swedes are one of the top bands in the melodic death metal genre and have a solid reputation, both live and recorded. They immediately began today’s set with their classic song ‘Death In Fire’, which brought a terrible and outbalanced sound along. Fortunately that was solved within a couple of tracks, and we were we able to enjoy newer work like ‘Asator’ and ‘Runes To My Memory’ from With Oden On Our Side, as well as ‘Free Will Sacrifice’ and the title track from their latest effort Twilight Of The Thunder God. Also played live was ‘Cry Of The Black Birds’, plus one final track to end their short set with. All in all an entertaining show, praised by the present audience at that time. Yet that didn’t say everything, since the hall was only half filled. (Mindsaver)

Mastodon

Due to the hospitalisation of guitarist Bill, Mastodon played their first ever show as a three piece. It is uncertain whether he’ll return on tour, so tonight was a try out to see if it would work with just three guys. I have to admit that they did an excellent job keeping their head above water in this situation, but of course the guitar sound was a bit thin from time to time. But songs like ‘Blood And Thunder’, ‘March Of The Fire Ants’, Megalodon’, ‘The Wolf Is Loose’ and many more from the last record Blood Mountain still made quite a good impression with just three guys. Only with the Thin Lizzy double guitar licks you really missed a second guitarist. Yet the band did an excellent job for me, and when they finished the set with one of the best rock songs ever I was more than happy. Yes, they played the cover of Melvins’ ‘The Bit’ and it rocked like a motherfucker. I hope that Bill will be back soon to join the ranks and play those headlining shows with them after this Unholy Alliance, otherwise who knows how long we have to wait again here in the Netherlands. (DemonDust)

Trivium

So there they were, the dudes from Trivium. Supporting Slayer on the Unholiest of Alliances. Some say they aren’t metal. Others say they suck. Well, some like fish soup, others own a Fiat Multipla. Some people can eat a dick like Kobayashi, others should just stop whining. Cause even if you don’t really dig the CDs – I’m one of them to be honest – you can’t deny their impressive efforts to kick ass on stage. Successful efforts, I might add. In fact, my whining on the subject of Trivium has ceased to be after enjoying their show last Friday. Great interaction with the pre-teens in front of the stage, all the classic ‘you are the best crowd ever’ remarks a fourteen year old could wish for. All that topped off with some shouting of words like ‘boat!’ and ‘rudder!’, adds up to good time in my book. And even though the moshpit had a remarkable low chest hair count - therefore marking the moment that some of us might be getting a little bit too old for this stuff - you can only conclude that Trivium is metal enough to support Slayer. Kids’ stuff? Maybe. But I enjoy Ren & Stimpy just as much. Besides, shouting ‘twilight of the thundergod’ and ‘bleeding its horror, creating my structure, now I shall reign in blood’ is so much more mature. Wink, nudge. (Lex)

Slayer

I'm not like Demondust. I haven’t got an impressive beard, and on a more relevant note; I haven’t seen Slayer play 47.3 times. My Slayometer got stuck somewhere around 8 or 9 times somewhere along the road. So being relatively new at seeing this band live, and with Dust combing his omniscient facial hair I’m left with the task to review the headliner and initiator of the third instalment of this Unholy Alliance thingy. The one band that is so metal, that they have stopped having bowel movements somewhere around 1986, maybe ’87, I’m not sure, and have been pooping out huge chunks of steel ever since. Chunks like Reign in Blood, for instance. The legendary album that we didn’t get to hear in Amsterdam this night, despite the hopes created by the news that an integral live version of the album will be played at several European dates.
But seeing Tom “sodomizing Satan just to prove I’m THAT evil” Araya and his buddies is always fun, and as soon as the fourth song has numbed your senses to a degree where you can only shake your head until unsuspected waves of spit and vomit hurl out of your stomach, you know what you came for. I guess what I’m trying to say is that seeing Slayer live is a good time.
Thankfully, the set list was a refreshing and surprising one with exclusives such as ‘Dead Skin Mask’, ‘War Ensemble’ and the very rare ‘Angel of Death’ were thrown in with classics straight from the box labelled ‘who gives a flying fuck’ such as ‘Jihad’ and ‘Dittohead’. No, but seriously; I guess it was an okay set list. In the end seeing a Slayer show is like having cancer in your penis. Nothing to laugh about, but it sure is an intense experience. (Lex)