Slayer – Sanford Center – Bemidgi MN – July 13th 2017

Slayer, Lamb of God and Behemoth literally bring hell to this earth at The Sanford Center…

By far this is the heaviest tour of the year, actually it’s one of the heaviest tours in the past decade. There’s so much to say about all three of these bands, I’ll start off with Slayer and say this band has created so much success with being one of the heaviest bands in the history of metal. Slayer has never changed over all these years they’ve been together, since their first album “Show no Mercy” in 1983 all the way up to their latest albums, they’ve stood their ground and kept their classic thrash metal alive. It’s absolutely fantastic to see a bunch of younger fans out moshing in the crowd and totally respecting the Gods of Slayer. The show was a fire fighters nightmare, just about every song had Pyro! A part of me is a little shocked that the fans faces didn’t get melted off… As usual, there was a swirling vortex of people moshing like a bunch of Sharks around prey. Slayer is know to have the most dangerous pits! They played a bunch of classics and a bunch of new stuff. The show was just flat out amazing! The lights, the sound and the fire was spot on!

As far as Lamb of God goes, here’s another band that would be considered pioneers in the metal industry. These guys had intense energy on stage! They were constantly running around and jumping around, yet still maintained a perfect sound and performance! Lamb of God is known for their grooves. Some may even consider them to be “groove metal”. The drummer Chris Adler is considered to be a “Sick Drummer” he does a lot of drum clinics and some teaching other than being out on the road and touring with his band. Pure and simple his drums sounded like machine guns! Randy on the other hand is just a madman up there! He interacts with the crowd so well. Not only that Randy definitely has one of the best voices in the metal  industry and it was great seeing him up there doing what he does best! The light show is very interesting, it was filled with LED panels with really cool artwork and images displayed during certain songs. Overall it was an absolute blast watching these guys.

Behemoth opened the gates to hell…. Now these guys are flat out scary! It was like watching a horror story happen right in front of you. European black metal bands are known to have very spooky stage themes. These guys are definitely in the top! They start off with some torches set on fire, then the thundering music starts! “Blow your Trumpets Gabriel” is the song they opened with and it was explosive! The crowd went absolutely nuts right off the bat. As the third song rolled around they came out with these invigorating scented incense. To be honest it was a very intoxicating smell and the audience just loved it too! The light show was a little tamed compared to the other bands, but it fit them very well due to the simple fact is that they have a very Satanic look and darkness fits them well.

Overall the entire show was beyond entertaining. It was more of a great life experience to be realistic!

Review and photos by Richard Fisher