Jun 15 2026, 9.34am / Features
Dear Joey and Brooke, What a wild ride! I just wanted to write to express …
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
Saturday October 29, 2016
Heavy metal has evolved into an arena-fillling conglomerate, and yet Australian promoters have a history of being clueless as to what homegrown acts to pair with the its marquee acts. Examples include Powderfinger opening for Pantera (yes, really); as well as long-forgotten screamo rejects Behind Crimson Eyes given the unenviable task of supporting Iron Maiden. Tonight, radio-friendly metalcore types In Hearts Wake to go up against our masked heroes will be remembered as another misfire by promoters presumably choosing from names on a dartboard. Their mechanical, glossy and lifeless is met with deafening indifference. Truth be told, they deserve nothing less.
As far as the so-called “new wave of American heavy metal” is concerned, Lamb of God have been one of the more consistent acts to emerge from it. Of course, “consistent” is the operative term here—to borrow a phrase, they’ve spent a large portion of their career only halfway up, neither up nor down. Their later material has not justified any overly-harsh responses, but neither has it been worthy of excessive accolades. In turn, their live show is entirely serviceable—on occasion, even enjoyable—but their meat-and-potatoes approach to Harley-riding alt-metal doesn’t exactly inspire the fanfare that it once did.
In reality, the greater story at work is the context—after frontman Randy Blythe’s manslaughter ordeal, he is clearly taking every world tour as a blessing of sorts. It’s hard not to crack a smile as “Redneck” starts up, in tandem with circle pits breaking out across both sections of the arena floor. As hyperbolic as many assessments of the band are out there in the world, the reality is that Lamb of God are simply good—and, on a rare occasion, very good.
The audio-visual stimulus is second-to-none, paring creep-out clips with blood-red lighting for full effect. The Heretic Anthem, Wait and Bleed and even Custer elicit deafening responses and fervent crowd energy.
Almost two years since the release of 0.5: The Gray Chapter, Des Moines’ primary cultural export Slipknot are almost done with their exhaustive world tour cycle. Although disheartening to see that not even two discount flash sales were able to entirely fill the arena, it’s clear that those that have made the effort to make the trek out west are in it for the long haul.
That, in turn, speaks volumes of the fan-base that they have accumulated over nearly two decades in the game: Whether numbers are up or down, the collective power of a Slipknot audience rivals that of a full stadium. This much is clear as soon as the band emerges from the shadows to launch into The Negative One, one of the more boisterous cuts from the aforementioned Gray LP. As much as the band themselves are willing to give, their audience is well-prepared to reciprocate tenfold through screaming back every chorus and keeping the various mosh-pits heaving throughout.
The elephant in the room tonight is the band are not running at 100%—either physically or literally. Recent injuries are preventing expletive-laden frontman Corey Taylor from his usual head-banging antics; while an unfortunate family situation has prevented perennial percussionist (and sole original) Shawn “Clown” Crahan from joining the tour. Sure, being down one in a fold with ostensibly four auxiliary members might seem like a minor issue; yet when your entire stage presence is based off a nine-person dynamic, it throws the game slightly.
With this in mind, it’s worth noting that an incomplete Slipknot can still go pound-for-pound with any fully-formed arena heavyweight. The audio-visual stimulus is second-to-none, paring creep-out clips with blood-red lighting for full effect. The Heretic Anthem, Wait and Bleed and even Custer elicit deafening responses and fervent crowd energy. Hell, most of the audience don’t even need to be told to crouch down on the ground when the grand finale of Spit It Out leads to their patented “crazy test”—after all, if you don’t know by now, you might not ever. The same can be said for Slipknot as a whole—after decades of terrifying the masses, it’s a relief to see that they still have both the music and the performance to back it up.
