PANTERA BRINGS “THE HEAVIEST TOUR OF THE SUMMER” TO HARTFORD

Pantera landed at the Xfinity Theater in Hartford CT with Amon Amarth and King Parrot as support, an arsenal of weighty sound. It was a perfect weather night to rock at the indoor/outdoor amphitheatre.

King Parrot is a grindcore band from Australia. They do not incorporate an actual parrot into their performance like Hatebeak. They are lead vocalist Matthew “Youngy” Young, lead guitarist Ari “Mr. White” White, bassist Wayne “Slatts Everyday” Slattery, rhythm guitarist Andrew “Squiz” Livingston-Squires, and drummer Max (no nickname) Dangerfield. The band has four studio albums: Bite Your Head Off, Dead Set, Ugly Produce and A Young Persons' Guide To. They bit into all of em for their well rounded ten song set. They opened with “Home Is Where The Gutter Is” and “Disgrace Yourself” before Matthew addressed the fans. “Lemme see those hands up you crazy motherfuckers!” “This is a song off our new record.” It was “Get What Ya Given” and a few loyals moshed in place. The fans dribbled in at this point, the line to get into the venue was a mile long. Another new track was on deck with “Target Pig Elite” followed by two from Bite Your Head Off, “Psychotherapy and Valium” and “Shit On The Liver”. The frontman spoke to the audience, “Lemme see those fucking hands! Thank you very fucking much, we appreciate you, give yourself a round of applause for getting here early. You ready for Amon Amarth & Pantera?!” That gets him a decent response. Matthew then calls out a fan in the pit and doesn’t let up until they headbang properly. “Lemme fukin hear you Hartford!” King Parrot belts out “Piss Wreck”, “Here Comes Your Way” and “Bozo”. The singer spoke one more time, “I wanna fucking hear you, let’s do this shit!” He pointed left, center, right and got the fans to throw up their hands. “Lemme see those fucking hands! You look like you’re sitting at a movie theater or something which is fucked up for a Pantera show. Put your middle fingers in the air! Let’s get this pit started!” The set closed with fan favorite “Fuck You And The Horse You Rode In On”. I saw fans that were into it, but no pit commenced. Matthew signed off with “Have a great fucking night!” The band is heavy and they delivered a robust sound with neck vein popping vocals. The guitarist bangs his head the entire show, only it’s all hair. The sound quality was on point and they were a fitting opener.

Amon Amarth is sometimes referred to as a Viking Metal band, but their true sound is melodic death metal. The five man group hails from Sweden, but their band name is not Swedish or Viking derived. It’s the Elvish language name of Mount Doom, a volcano in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth setting. They have twelve studio albums and took from five of them, plus two singles, for their nine song set. Their stage set up was a sight to behold. The drum kit sat on top of a large custom decorated mask with horns flanked on each side by a staircase, platform, and gigantic norse statue. Drummer Jocke Wallgren commandeered the percussion center, accompanied by lead guitarist Olavi Mikkonen, rhythm guitarist Johan Söderberg, bassist Ted Lundström and their formidable leader, and vocalist Johan Hegg. The 6’5” tall singer only had to stare at the crowd and fists went up in the air. “Ah fuck it, here we go, c’mon Hartford, let’s fucking go!!” They belt out “Guardians of Asgaard” and “Shield Wall”. The musicianship and sound quality were solid. Johan has another stare off with the audience and made them work for more. “Good evening Hartford, great to see you people. In case you don’t know who the fuck we are, we are Amon Amarth from Sweden and we’re here to party with you tonight.” Their faithful fans responded enthusiastically. “The Pursuit of Vikings” is followed by “Deceiver of the Gods”. There were no pits yet, but plenty of head banging and bouncing and fists up. The band had two people in Norsemen costumes on stage and at one point one of them engages the singer who pushes him and then kicks him off into the backstage area. The eyes of the huge mask contained an image of the ocean that looked so real I felt like I could dive into it. Waves crashing and ocean sounds washed over us and the crowd immediately started yelling “Row! Row!”. It was time for the song that initiates the “row pit” where everyone performs a rowing motion instead of moshing. I was excited to take in the sight of it. “Put Your Back Into The Oar” played out to the most disappointing row pit in the history of row pits. Johan exclaimed “Holy shit that was awesome, thank you so fucking much!” What a nice guy, because that was very generous. “We’re gonna do a new one for ya now.” The track was “We Rule The Waves” and the crowd had quieted a bit after the disappointing row. “The Way of Vikings” and “Raise Your Horns” brought the two warriors face to face and they jousted until one of them fell and the other was declared the winner. Amon Amarth wrapped their set with a title track, “Twilight of the Thunder God”. So far, I haven’t seen a Swedish metal band that I disliked. The band’s musical performance exceeded my expectations and their pageantry was entertaining. Check out their merch which includes the usual apparel as well as “War Materials” like boxing gloves.

Pantera, the godfathers of power groove metal, were the main event and the 30,000 capacity venue was stacked with diehard fans. The house lights went down and the crowd roared while we watched classic Pantera footage on the big screens. A large curtain, emblazoned with the Pantera logo, stood ready for a kabuki drop. Seeing images of the lost founders of Pantera, the Abbott brothers, guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul, made my heart ache. Dimebag was thirty eight when he was assassinated by a maniac during a performance in 2004, and Vinnie died from a

heart related issue in 2018 at age fifty-four. This version of Pantera were original members Rex Brown on bass and Phil Anselmo on vocals. Drummer Charlie Benante from Anthrax and guitarist Zakk Wylde stood in for the Abbotts. Pantera has nine studio albums and has sold over twenty million records worldwide. Their carefully crafted fifteen song set was plucked from five of their LPs. The curtain dropped and Pantera unleashed “Hellbound” in a brazen fury that only they could administer. They sounded awesome! I’m a big Zakk fan and the Wyldeman did not disappoint, he never stood still, changed axes a few times and donned a custom vest that stood as a tribute to Dime and Vinnie. The heads of Charlie’s bass drums also had portraits of the fallen brothers on them. Phil wasted no time conversing with the legion of fans. “Everything we do is for Dime and Vinnie!”. “Everything we do is for the great one, OZZY Osbourne!”. This made the crowd lose their shit. “I wanna see everyone in this goddamn place rock their ass off!” This was the lead into “5 Minutes Alone”. I was shocked that there were no mosh pits yet. Plenty of enthusiasm but no moshers. “Thank you so much for comin out on a Sunday night. I don’t hear one motherfucker out there makin any fukin noise! Let’s destroy the myth of Sundays!” They deliver “Strength Beyond Strength” and Phil paused for accolades after hitting the high note. “Mouth For War” was next before the singer stated, “Turn up those lights! I wanna see y’all!” “This came to me last night. Young kids that grew up in households listening to us, this is your music too!” “Goddamn Electric” finally had a pit commence, but it didn’t have much staying power. “Sing this next one if ya know it!” Zakk is far right, in no man's land, like where extra equipment is placed. Zakk calls out Phil and the singer picks up a guitar. “I like this next song so sing the living shit out of it.” The devoted fans did not disappoint and sang along to “Mouth For War”, no pits though. “I fukin love that shit.” Phil approved of their participation. Next up was “Goddamn Electric” and “Becoming” with a snippet of “Throes of Rejection” tossed in. “Lemme see those fists in the air!” The entire venue threw em up, one hundred percent. “Let’s fukin jam!” “I’m Broken” was up with a little touch of “By Demons Be Driven” at the end as some fire cannons went off. “That’s not silence I hear is it?!? Make it a little more unsilent for me. Sending this one out to all the pot smokers in the house. Everybody else probably has a piss test tomorrow.” “I haven’t asked once cuz it’s stupid. Are you havin a good time?” Valid question. The metalheads did give up a resounding roar. “We don’t play this a lot, but we are on this tour so enjoy it while you can.” This was the segue into “10s”, followed by “I’ll Cast A Shadow”. “Next part comin up I wanna see everyone jammin their asses off!” The haunting opening notes of “This Love” washed over us. Shortly after Phil started singing he asked the band to stop playing and announced that he needed a new mic, complained his was hot. “I wanna do this right.” He was quickly delivered a new one and we got to start the song again which was sweet. Still no mosh pits. “Wow, time on this stage flies! You’ve been great!” Phil gave shout outs to King Parrot and Amon Amarth. The main set wrapped with the expected hit “Cowboys From Hell”. We got a mosh pit! And I saw a lone crowd surfer but he didn’t stay up long. Tons of fire cannons exploded before the band made a quick exit. The pitless crowd got a decent Pantera chant going, so the band returned quickly for their final encore. “I want everyone to sing this!” And they did for “A New Level”. “We got time for a coupla more. What do you wanna hear? It’s hard, we can’t leave some songs out. This song goes out to everyone in the world. It grabs ya, it’s simple as fuck but hypnotic. It’s “Walk”.” The fans go wild. The Amon Amarth and King Parrot members come and sang a few choruses. And I thought I saw David Ellefson, former Megadeth bass player, up there too. How random! There was another failed crowd surfing attempt, but energy stayed high for “Domination” / “Hollow”. “If we come back to this place, who’s gunna come see us?” The whole place validated him. “Spread the word! We’re supposed to leave but there’s a glaring hole in the setlist.” The final song was “Fucking Hostile” that ended with a surprising slice of “Stairway to Heaven” acapella style.

Pantera and the other bands put on solid performances and the sound quality was near flawless. I don’t know how these guys sing like that night after night, how the musicians perform at a hundred miles an hour most days of the year. Somehow the Heaviest Tour of the Summer is pulling it off. Do you like it heavy and hard? Check out this tour that runs through September.