Anthrax seems to be a good friend of Denmark. Just about six months after their last visit, the American thrash band came back again. This time around, they were on their own headlining tour (last time they were supporting Slayer), and they had a brand new album with them.
For All Kings it’s called, and it was from this album that the evening’s opening audio track, Impaled, came from. A fitting name in a way, as the name of the local support band was Impalers. They are a young thrash/proto death metal band, and they had served us up quite a good opening of the evening.
Now, it was time for the big deal band however, and the nearly filled hall were ready for them.

Actually, I should mention that before Impaled (the intro) played, Anthrax had another intro song as well, Black Sabbath’s The Mob Rules. Now, why I mentioned that will become apparent later on, but let’s get back to the beginning of the show.
As Impaled was playing, the crowd was already clapping their hands and chanting “hey” loud and proud – this intensified as the band members took the stage, and soon we were swept into the first song of the evening, You Gotta Believe. Quite a few songs came from the new album it would soon turn out, but oddly enough, Anthrax did not include Blood Eagle Wings, the first song of the album to receive a video treatment.
Anyway, the crowd responded well to these new songs, but it was still nothing compared to what happened when the band fired up for Caught In A Mosh! The crowd went absolutely insane, and there was, fittingly, a huge mosh ripping up the floor! Those few left standing responded loudly to the chorus instead, keeping the energy flowing back at the band.

“Everyone’s on fire tonight, I love your attitude!”
- Joey Belladonna (vocals)

Well, it worked. Anthrax were truly on fore as well this night, and all this fire could only lead to one thing. It was just about 666 fucking degrees in Pumpehuset this night! With the band going at it on stage like they were born again teenagers, and the crowd ripping the place up in the moshpit, and crowd surfing, the heat was over the wall! No wonder then, that the band holds such warm feelings for Denmark.
The calmest man in the group was still Jonathan Donais, but on the other hand his technical skill really got to shine. Charlie Benante was hard to see, go figure, but looked like he was having a great time every time he stuck his head up. Scott Ian is the man of course, and Frank Bello is the madman. I love that guy, he’s such a bonus to have in a band!
However, the one that really shone through this night, was Belladonna. He showed an unprecedented amount of excess – even though he was rocking hard, sweating it out like there was no tomorrow, he had such a vigilant eye for what was going on in the crowd, and he had a perfect grasp on the fans. Even though I was standing in the third row, he noticed and complimented me on my beard, and later he convinced a guy to chug his beer down in one go, just for the fun of it.
And the crowd ate it up! Simply loved it!

Now’s the time to get back to that Black Sabbath remark from the top of the review. You see, no good concert is fulfilled without dedications. Apparently.
So, in the spirit of things, Anthrax dedicated the Stormtroopers Of Death cover March Of The S.O.D. and the following In The End to Ronnie James Dio and Dimebag Darrell, the former praised in the form of the opening Black Sabbath track and the Rainbow track used as an outro, and the latter praised by way of replacing the pentagram A stagedrops to pictures of Darrell’s face.
There was also a dedication to Rob Caggiano, former member of Anthrax that can now be found in Volbeat. He didn’t get on stage to play with the rest of the guys, but he was seen smiling in the crowd throughout the evening.

I admit, we’ve been blessed with a good amount of awesome concerts this summer; from Copenhell, to single shows around the place. But this one, this hot night with Anthrax, a band that refuses to leave us alone (thankfully), this was one to remember. The only negative thing to say is that it was over much too quick.

Setlist:

The Mob Rules (Black Sabbath song)
Impaled
You Gotta Believe
Monster At The End
Caught In A Mosh
Madhouse
Got The Time (Joe Jackson cover)
Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t
Evil Twin
Medusa
March Of The S.O.D. (Stormtroopers Of Death cover)
In The End
Antisocial (Trust cover)
Breathing Lightning
Indians
Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll (Rainbow song)