Five Finger Death Punch/Megadeth/Bad Wolves
Wembley Arena - 31st Jan 2020
Review by; Myk
It’s a cool and damp Friday night at Wembley Arena but that doesn’t deter the considerable crowd turning up early to see the first band Bad Wolves who are probably best known for their cover of the Cranberries song Zombie and for singer Tommy Vext standing in for FFDP’s Ivan a couple years ago. They have plenty of energy but the sound isn't great with the drums very much absent from the mix. Fortunately it’s not bad enough to discourage the crowd, with the arena about 50% full and by the time they finished the arena was about 75% full and they clearly appreciated the bands performance with a sound akin to FFDP.
Next up are the mighty Megadeth who launch straight into Hangar 18, from 1990’s Rust In Peace, with all metaphorical guns blazing and a much better sound mix than Bad Wolves, albeit still some issues with the vocals a little down in the mix but this may also have been Dave Mustaines’ voice, having only been given the all clear from throat cancer in October last year. But tonight Megadeth are more about the stunning twin guitar attack of Dave and current fellow axeman Kiko Loureiro as they continue the blistering pace with The Threat Is Real from 2016’s Dystopia quickly followed by Wake up Dead from 1986’s Peace Sells, these songs may have been composed 30 years apart but fitted together perfectly with the thrash element clearly in the ascendency. By the time they got to the excellent 1992’s Sweating Bullets the vocals were much improved in the mix. Then there was no let up as we were then treated to Trust from 1997, followed by Tornado of Souls. We were then given the title track Dystopia off the Grammy award winning album of the same name. Then came Symphony of Destruction before going right back to where it started with Mechanix off the 1985 debut album Killing Is My Business. The whole set was geared around big riffs and stunning solos backed by the pounding rhythm section of David Ellefson and Dirk Verbeuren, this was thrash at its best and the older back catalogue was plundered heavily to great effect. Winding up proceedings with the stone cold classic Peace Sells before a brief off stage excursion and then back for a final encore of Holy Wars. The older catalogue was very much in evidence tonight and it has aged well, the only complaint, the set was too short we wanted more.
The full arena eagerly awaited the main headliners Five Finger Death Punch who expertly cranked up the anticipation from behind a curtain with a spinning FFDP knuckle duster projected onto it. Then with a bang they hit the stage with Lift Me Up, with Jason Hook playing his now famous light up guitar accompanied by a spectacular laser show. This sets the tone as they proceed to go through a blistering set interspersed with an impressive light show and pyrotechnics. Trouble is next up before the we get hit with a double from the album Got Your Six with Wash It All Away and there is no slowing down as they go for the jugular with the mighty Jekyll and Hyde. The intensity continues as they launch into Cham Pain with Ivan Moody as throughout covering the whole stage and orchestrating proceedings with his great crowd interaction. Things slow down slightly with the excellent cover Bad Company before the pace is upped again for Burn It Down, both numbers from the excellent second album War Is The Answer. New drummer Charlie Engen is a fine hard-hitting replacement for the retired and much missed Jeremy Spencer and launches into Got Your Six before proceedings slow down for a couple of acoustic numbers, first up is Wrong Side of Heaven with just Jason and Ivan. They then move onto Battle Born with Ivan fetching a young fan onto the stage to witness things first-hand, the rest of the band re-appear to ramp up the volume once more as they close out the song. Then we are treated to yet another of FFDP’s brilliant covers, the absolutely sublime Blue On Black from And Justice For None. Then it’s back to Way of The Fist for Never Enough segueing into some serious audience participation with Burn MF. A brief interlude off stage and then they come back for 3 encores starting with Inside Out from the album due out in February, following by Under And Over It from American Capitalist and finally going all the way back to the first album The Way Of The Fist for The Bleeding. All albums were sampled in the set and Ivan Moody proclaimed the next time he sees us they will be headlining Download. Was this wishful thinking or him giving the game away early for 2021, certainly on this form they could easily headline at Castle Donington.