Well before door opening time at Melbourne’s Hi Fi Bar, a large host of tattoo-mottled metalheads gathered outside the Swanston St venue in anticipation of what legendary thrash veterans Anthrax had prepared for them.

Soundwave Festival was responsible for the band’s last visit to Australia in 2010, and since then a lot has changed in the world of Anthrax.

Firstly, respected 90s era vocalist John Bush was outed in favour of the return of classic frontman Joey Belladonna. Anthrax recorded long-awaited album Worship Music in 2011, which was very well received, and now return to Australia without guitarist Rob Caggiano and longtime drummer Charlie Benante.

The former of which recently left the band, and the latter “dealing with some personal issues.”

Shadows Fall guitarist Jonathan Donais and whirlwind drummer Jon Dette were each thrown a guernsey for the tour and given the fact that Anthrax has always been somewhat of a rotisserie of band members, these changes didn’t seem to really bother the fans.

Enough about Anthrax, the night began with the hyperactive New Yorkers known as This Is Hell.

While the young quintet are often thrown into the ‘hardcore’ category and are evidently not well known to the Anthrax crowd, the band’s sound is rooted in thrash and they certainly captured their attention.

The heavily distorted guitars lost a little of their edge due to The Hi-Fi’s bass heavy set up, but the band made up for it with raw energy and blistering solos that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in an Anthrax song.

Vocalist Travis Reilly interacted with the crowd and managed to get a circle pit going as the band slogged out a host of songs mostly from latest album Black Mass.

One would think the band would be out of energy after their highly energetic set, nonetheless they immediately darted across town to play another show with Cancer Bats as the venue’s stage was rearranged for hard rockers Fozzy.

A note to WWE fans: Chris Jericho can sing, very well. Growing up, the well-known wrestler surrounded himself with music, particularly of the metal variety and has fronted Fozzy since 1999.

By the time the band graced the stage, the venue was nearing capacity. Sin and Bones opener ‘Spider In My Mouth’ had heads banging, while the crowd were more than happy to help sing M.Shadows’ part in ‘Sandpaper.’

Adrenaline was pumping as the five-piece worked the small stage. Left-handed bassist Paul Di Leo interestingly played an upside down right-handed bass, which brought confused looks to a few faces.

Jericho fed on crowd energy and brought out the ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ chant a few times, seeming genuinely thrilled to be playing Down Under. It was surprising to see a notable amount of people leave following Fozzy, but nothing could put a dampener on the excitement of the Anthrax faithful.

While the fanbase is often divided into John Bush and Joey Belladonna camps, it can’t be denied that the latter has more charisma. The always smiling, long haired frontman jumped around like a maniac and demonstrated his powerful, refined vocal prowess early in ‘Caught In A Mosh.’

Firing new track ‘Fight Em Til You Can’t’ early, it was clear that at least 80% of the room had given the new album a worthy listen. Long-time bassist Frank Bello delivered thick bottom end whilst enthusiastically providing backup vocals and his signature sideways headbanging.

Scott Ian’s riffage was sharp, jagged and flawless, whilst Donais’ proved his mettle with authentic-sounding solos.  Joey‘s part Native-American charm helped encourage an epic wardance for an extended version of the anthemic ‘Indians’, which was easily the highlight of the night.

Anthrax have never had a great deal of ballads to their name, but ‘In the End’ is absolutely brilliant. The song is a tribute to late rock icons Ronnie James Dio and Darrel ‘Dimebag’ Abbott, and the band gave a quite chilling performance.

Ian took to the microphone to announce that the next song had never been played in Melbourne, and expecting another new song the crowd were instead hit with a polar opposite in the form of ‘Deathriders’, the band’s first song off debut album Fistful of Metal.

Popular tracks ‘Madhouse’ and (Joe Jackson cover) ‘Got the Time’both received big crowd reactions with many fans descending into the Hi-Fi’s lowered moshpit for a bit of rough body contact.

Taking a short break, the band returned for their encore with four songs left in their arsenal. Classic album Among The Living’s title track was first cab off the ranks and enticed powerful sing-alongs with ‘Medusa’ following suit.

Ian joked with the masses about the next song being off an upcoming album called ‘the songs that we didn’t write’, before hitting with an earth-shattering rendition of AC/DC’s ‘TNT’, which was a talking point of the Soundwave tour.

Providing patrons with a last chance to mosh to classic track ‘I Am The Law’, the band made their departure leaving the crowd with heavily ringing ears and a recording of Rainbow’s ‘Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll’.

Ballsy, thrashy and loud beyond belief, Anthrax fans got everything they came for at this sold-out Sidewave.

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