Bands celebrating anniversaries of milestone albums is nothing new, but a tour with two bands celebrating a 20th anniversary of a critically acclaimed album that were released on the same day made a stop in Los Angeles at the KIA Forum on Wednesday, August 21, for a mid-week celebration as Lamb of God and Mastodon are out commemorating their landmark releases Ashes of the Wake and Leviathan respectively. What makes this tour, dubbed “Ashes of Leviathan Tour,” that much grander is Kerry King is in direct support, with Malevolence opening the show.
An early start had Sheffield, England’s Metalcore masters MALEVOLENCE, take the stage to deliver a 30-minute scorcher to get this night of extreme music kicked off properly. A thin crowd at this time, but that had no impact on the delivery of their seven-song set as vocalist Alex Taylor led the band through their time on stage consisting of five songs from their 2022 album Malicious Intent. Malevolence had one job and one job only – to ignite the crowd and infuse an intense sense of metal into the minds of all present, and they succeeded tenfold.
<Malevolence
While Lamb of God and Mastodon are the headliners here on this tour, you can’t deny the anticipation of Kerry King’s triumphant return to The Forum with his solo band as King last stood on this same stage on November 30, 2019, for Slayer’s last show. Supporting their May 2024 release From Hell I Rise, the band is somewhat of a supergroup consisting of Mark Osegueda from Death Angel on vocals, Phil Demmel, formerly of Vio-lence and Machine Head on guitars, Kyle Sanders (Troy Sanders from Mastodon’s brother) of HellYeah and Bloodsimple on bass and King’s Slayer bandmate Paul Bostaph on drums . . . that is one hell of a lineup.
The nine-song set opened with the instrumental “Diablo” and then into “Where I Reign,” and it was obvious from the minute this band hit the stage that this was something special. Osegueda just killed it on vocals and his stage presence makes you want to thrash everything in sight. The focal point was King and his pummeling guitar work – his time away from Slayer has not slowed him down a bit as he traded off riffs and solos with the ultra-talented Phil Demmel. The left-handed Sanders, along with Bostaph, held down the thundering low end throughout the set. While the new solo songs stand on their own and are very Slayer-like in a good way, the highlight of the set was the thrash classic “Raining Blood” into “Black Magic” which had the entire floor at the Forum moving in chaotic unison.
The set ended with “From Hell I Rise” and then the band saluting the crowd with some well-earned Jager shots. Kerry King is back with a vengeance!
Kerry King
After a 30-minute set change, Mastodon took the stage to a totally packed house and began their onslaught with the ten songs from 2004’s Leviathan starting with the masterpiece “Blood and Thunder” and then through the entire album in sequence just perfectly.
A stage set with large video screens as the backdrop, pyro shooting out throughout the set added to the intensity of the music and overall vibe. Mastodon’s unique blend of metal and progressive rock has Troy Sanders sharing lead vocals at times with guitarist Brent Hinds all while fellow guitarist Bill Kelliher shreds up his guitar and Brann Dailor is hidden behind his colorful yet large drumkit taking care of business. The video screens displayed ocean scenes with lots of whale and octopus scenes and after the Leviathan set completed, three additional songs were played that included “Circle of Cysquatch” that had a 15 foot tall cyclops prowling around the stage and then the band concluded with “Steambreather” that had some insane graphics and lots of pyro.
Dailor then took the microphone centerstage and thanked the crowd for coming out and told a story about when the Leviathan album was first released, and that Lamb of God’s Ashes of the Wake was released on the same day back in 2004 which made this tour that much more special and then promised new Mastodon music in 2025.
Mastodon
Now this is a co-headline tour but it makes all the sense in the world to have Lamb of God be the closing act. A large curtain covered the front of the stage with the Lamb of God logo, and at 9:40pm the curtain dropped and all hell broke loose as Randy Blythe screamed “Whats Up Motherfuckers” and the band ripped into “Laid to Rest” that had every single person yelling every lyric as the mosh pit and crowd surfing immediately hit with all cylinders cranking.
Blythe is without a doubt one of if not the top frontman in metal as he delivered his vocals with more intensity than ever as he prowled the stage full of piss and vinegar. The Ashes of the Wake album is a total banger that has some deep cut gems on it, and the band delivered it in fine form. The dual guitar attack of Willie Adler and Mark Morton is a total wall of thunderous riffs, and the rhythm section adds some serious boom with John Campbell on bass, and the thunderous drumming of Art Cruz just pummels your eardrums.
“Hourglass,” “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For,” “The Faded Line” . . . one blistering song after another. Like Mastodon, the backdrop was large video screens that alternated between the birds on the cover of Ashes of the Wake, and various graphics, and lots of pyro erupted during most of the show.
After “Blood of the Scribe,” Blythe addressed the crowd with, “Look at all you beautiful motherfuckers packed in with us this evening, we have returned to Los Angeles to do one thing and one thing only – fuck shit up,” and then the band blasted into “One Gun.” The sheer power of this performance never let up, and the band completed the Ashes of the Wake Set in fine form with “Remorse is for the Dead”. It was absolutely incredible to hear this album in its entirety played live.
Blythe again addressed the crowd, thanking Los Angeles for coming out this night. He then introduced Art Cruz a Los Angeles native and dedicated “Walk with Me in Hell” to him. The night ended with Blythe asking if the crowd enjoyed themselves and then he thanked the other bands and then demanded the biggest circle pit the Forum has ever seen and “Redneck” ended this blockbuster night of metal with a bang.
The “Ashes of Leviathan Tour” quickly proved it is the Metal Tour of 2024. This was a show to cherish and be thankful for attending as there will never be another 20th anniversary of these two iconic albums and never a return to Los Angeles for Kerry King after Slayer’s last show . . . this was certainly a very special Metal memory for all those in attendance.
Lamb of God
