COAL CHAMBER, PANTERA, ANTHRAX
At The Palladium

By Prince of Darkness

Prince of Darkess has said it before (in His Deftones review last issue, as a matter of fact) and he'll say it again now. KILL YOUR MOTHERFUCKIN' RADIO!!!! For the second time in a month, a heavy show that featured bands that don't get played on the L.A. airwaves sells out a major venue. This one was a real test to see if the Palladium's old walls could withstand the bomb that was about to hit it. No offense to the others on the bill, but the focus of this show was the little band that could, owr own Coal Chamber. As one might expect, it was quite a trip seeing them gracing the Palladium stage, since it was three years ago that Prince of Darkness first caught them right down the street at Dragonfly, in fact. Alot has changed since then, and all P of D can say is you've come a long way, baby. Dez, Meegs, Rayna and Mike now have te swagger of seasoned veterans, the product of non stop touring. The crowd was totally into it, yelling the words to the songs, getting violent, throwing shit, all the things you want to see out of the youth of today. What about the tunes, you ask? "My Frustration" rocked, "Big Truck" rolled, and "Loco" did what it has done the countless times Prince of Darkness has seen them over the years - kick his fuckin' ass. Watching Coal Chamber at the largest venue they've played here at home (they have played much bigger places during their travels) made P of D feel all warm and bubbly inside. Or maybe that was the Taco Bell He ate on the way to the gig. It's hard to believe, but Anthrax has been part of Prince of Dakness' life for half of it. Their name was synonymous with Metallica and Slayer in the 80's as leaders of the thrash scene. But in the 90's, the climate has been cold for most of the bands from the old school, and unfortunately Anthrax has been one of the ones to suffer. Not because of bad material, however, as their last release "Stomp 442" wasn't bad, but most people never knew it was out because of bad work from the label. For this paticular show, they did the right thing by giving the people what they wanted and sticking primarily to the oldies but goodies. Scott Ian is stlll a wildman, John Bush is still one of the best vocalists in the genre and the songs have stood the test of time. Hopefully their new release will capture some of the magic of old. In Pantera's case, there was no question of how much of the old shit would emerge throughout the night. They were touring to support a live disc (the excellent "Live 101 Proof), after all! So when the first two songs of the set were "A New Level" and "Fucking Hostile," Prince of Drkness knew this was going to be a real shitkicker. He was not disappointed. "Pure against the grain American Metal" is how they subtitle the new live disc and that is exactly how to descibe this show. Dimebag Darrell was in rare form for this one, and Phil Anselmo actually seemed almost satisfied with an L. A. audience for once, aswell he should. The crowd was a rowdy bunch of muthafuckas, all gathered with no help from the radio. It's actually a positive thing that TRUE metal is back underground where it belongs and cannot be diluted and plagiarized into something it is not. Pantera definitely fits this bill.