The Universal Amphitheatre was the sight of the devastating Jaegermeister Tour featuring headlining act Slayer. Who do you get to open for one of the most brutal bands of all time? You get the equally brutal bands Arch Enemy and Hatebreed.

One of the few death metal bands fronted by a woman, Arch Enemy got things off to a headbanging start. Fronted by Angela Gossow, this feisty fireball growled her way through their set with the ferocity equal to any man. The band is touring in support of their latest release "Anthems of Rebellion" (Century Media) which is the second featuring Gossow on vocals. Rumor has it that they will be back here with Iron Maiden on Jan. 30^th & 31^st but to verify that, go check out their website www.archenemy.net.

"Rise of Brutality" is the latest offering by Hatebreed and their set lived up to the name. Fronted by Jamey Jasta this band played more of a pounding rapcore type music that whipped the crowd into a moshing frenzy. Not familiar with this band I cruised over to their website at www.hatebreed.com and saw that they have been around awhile and have a number of previous releases. I think that they were a little extra pumped tonight as it was the last show of the tour and they wanted to go out with a lot of noise.

While the first two bands were good it was obvious that this was a Slayer crowd and they were standing from start to finish. Playing hit after hit the crowd insanity kept building until they played "Angel of Death" when they finally erupted into moshing pandemonium with the largest indoor pit I've ever seen. The band is very excited about their latest release "Soundtrack to the Apocalypse" which is a 4-disc box set with numerous rarities and live tracks along with a DVD featuring live performances. It took me awhile to find the "Official" Slayer website but after much surfing I came up with www.americanrecording.com/Slayer who tout themselves as the band's Internet location. It looked good to me with tons of stuff to check out so go see for yourself. While you're at it, go check out www.revnkevin.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As seen