Photos/Review: Metal Allegiance take over Anaheim

If you are a thrash-metal fan, this is the show for you . . . Metal Allegiance is the all-star team of heavy metal musicians, spawned from the Metal Masters clinics by former Marketing Director at Samson Technologies Mark Menghi. Metal Allegiance started as a live revolving door of musicians from the metal brotherhood of bands like Megadeth, Testament, Winery Dogs, Anthrax, Death Angel and Exodus. The band assembled back in 2015 and again in 2018 to record two killer original albums led by the “core four” of Mark Menghi, Alex Skolnick (Testament), David Ellefson (Kings of Thrash) and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) which featured many guest vocalists. Metal Allegiance does very limited live shows due to schedules of all the different band members but once again all gathered in Anaheim (all in town for the annual NAMMM Convention) at The House of Blues on Thursday night January 23 for a memorable 2-hour performance.

The 2025 Metal Allegiance performance included the following participants:

Bass Players: Robert Trujillo (METALLICA) | Jack Gibson (EXODUS)

The show kicked off with John Bush on vocals for the Metal Allegiance original “Pledge Your Allegiance” with “The CORE Four” and Andreas Kisser on second guitar (Portnoy was the only drummer who played drums for every song on this night). A fabulous way to start the evening as the crowd was getting restless and starting to get rowdy in the mosh pit early on. No time was wasted getting into the cover songs as Tornillo took over on vocals and the guitarist rotation began most notably Gary Holt playing on this one as the band blew through a killer rendition of Accept’s “Fast as a Shark”.

“Light Up the Sky“ was a tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen as Alex Skolnick played a red and white “Frankenstrat“. The first highlight of the night (honestly every song was a highlight) was Sanders, Kisser, Coyle, Menghi and Portnoy playing Metallica’s “Disposable Heroes“ which is just a killer live track. Next on the highlight list was Bush, Coyle, Loomis, Gibson and Portnoy playing the John Bush era Anthrax song “Hy Pro Glo“ (a couple Bush era Anthrax songs were also played back at the 2020 MA show) – the performance was incredible, where else will you ever hear Bush sing these killer tunes live?

Alissa White-Gluz sang vocals on Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction”, at this point in the show it was hard to keep track of who was who as there were so many musicians involved in every song. Marty Friedman came out for Judas Priest’s “Dissident Aggressor“ then John Bush dedicated the Iron Maiden classic “Killers“ to the late Paul Di’Anno who passed away in 2024. Next the secret “special guest“ made an appearance – Robert Trujillo from Metallica joined Blitz, Tornillo, Skolnick, Kisser, Menghi and Portnoy for a major jam on Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs“ that had Blitz and Tornillo trading off vocals.

Now the coolest part of the night – ALL the participants took the stage to jam Motorhead’s “Iron Fist“ – a totally mind-blowing experience seeing all these musicians playing together – all the smiles and onstage interaction between everyone. It was obvious all were absolutely having a blast. Out of all the players onstage it appeared guitarist Angel Vivaldi was having the time of his life based on the smile across his face the entire time he was playing.

The entire 2-hour performance was EPIC . . . getting to see these thrash/heavy metal legends play together was beyond amazing – EVERY song was a unique metal masterpiece. And kudos to whoever decided on the setlist as most cover song were “deep cuts“ instead of the usual cover songs (only thing missing was a SLAYER song).

The 2025 show flowed from song to song as there was little to no “wait-time“ in-between songs as the artists rotated on and off stage with ease. This was truly an epic night of heavy metal and it was wonderful to see the brotherhood and friendship come out on stage between all these musicians – lots of laughing, joking, high fives, just an amazing experience to see these performers honoring each other as well as some of their heavy metal heroes – and of course the fans LOVED this as well.

Each year Metal Allegiance puts together a show that tops the previous year’s and with that said, January 2026 cannot come fast enough.

Opening the show was Heavy Metal rockers Lost Legacy all the way from The Bronx in New York. These gentlemen did a fine job kicking off the evening and warming up the early birds. Next was another band from New York – Rochester rockers Wicked layed down some serious radio rock and blew everyone away with their high energy performance. Then SoCal’s OTTTO that includes Tye Trujillo (Robert Trujillo’s son) who is also in Suicidal Tendencies smacked the House of Blues in the face with the perfect combination of Punk/Thrash infused metal.

Click here to read an interview with Alex Skolnick previewing the Metal Allegiance show.

METAL ALLEGIANCE Setlist:

Pledge of Allegiance – Bush, Skolnick, Kisser, Ellefson, Menghi, Portnoy
Fast as a Shark (ACCEPT cover) – Tornillo, Skolnick, Kisser, Holt, Ellefson, Portnoy
Terminal Illusion – Tornillo, Skolnick, Kisser, Menghi, Portnoy
Light Up the Sky (VAN HALEN cover) – Tornillo, Skolnick, Ellefson, Portnoy
Liars & Thieves – Sanders, Skolnick, Kisser, Ellefson, Portnoy
Let Darkness Fall – Sanders, Skolnick, Kisser, Menghi, Portnoy
Parasite (KISS cover) – Sanders, Skolnick, Coyle, Ellefson, Portnoy
Disposable Heroes (METALLICA cover) – Sanders, Kisser, Coyle, Menghi, Portnoy
The Accuser – Bush, Skolnick, Kisser, Ellis, Menghi, Portnoy
Bound By Silence – Bush, Skolnick, Kisser, Coyle, Menghi, Portnoy
Hy Pro Glo (ANTHRAX cover) – Bush, Coyle, Loomis, Gibson, Portnoy
A Lesson in Violence (EXODUS cover) – Sanchez, Holt, Ellis, Gibson, Menghi, Portnoy
Wang Dang Sweet Poontang (TED NUGENT cover) – Blitz, Kisser, Coyle, Menghi, Portnoy
Mother of Sin – Blitz, Skolnick, Kisser, Menghi, Portnoy
Elimination (OVERKILL cover) – Blitz, Holt, Coyle, Vivaldi, Ellefson, Portnoy
Territory (SEPULTURA cover) – Green, Kisser, Vivaldi, Ellefson, Portnoy
Symphony of Destruction (MEGADETH cover) – White-Gluz, Loomis, Vivaldi, Day, Ellefson, Portnoy
Dissident Aggressor (JUDAS PRIEST cover) – Tornillo, Friedman, Loomis, Vivaldi, Ellefson, Portnoy
Killers (IRON MAIDEN cover) – Bush, Kisser, Holt, Friedman, Menghi, Portnoy
War Pigs (BLACK SABBATH cover) – Blitz, Tornillo, Skolnick, Kisser, Trujillo, Menghi, Portnoy
Iron Fist (MOTORHEAD cover) – All Participants