Metal Masters Dio, Priest Rule

Molson Amphitheatre

Toronto, ON

on Aug 13 2008

Pete Richards (CHARTattack)

08/15/2008 2:01pm

Mullets were out in full force at the Molson Amphitheatre on Wednesday night as old school metalheads came out of the woodwork for the Metal Masters all-star tour. I did a headcount more than a dozen mullets on both men and women before I got distracted and lost count. That's not to say the crowd wasn't full of young people, too, as metal lovers of all ages paid their respects and headbanged to some of the greatest bands in metal history.

Testament took the stage at 5:30 p.m. to a quarter-full amphitheatre because the wait to get in took so damn long. But those who planned ahead got to see the Bay Area thrash legends crank out classics like opener "Over The Wall" and "The Preacher" in a decently long set. Tracks from their new Formation Of Damnation album were just as amazing as their older work, and they got some serious appreciation from the diehards in attendance, proving that great metal bands stay great forever.

"We are Motorhead, and we play rock 'n' roll," Lemmy loudly declared as the band hit the stage and whipped through their classics with little fanfare or between-song banter. Phil Campbell, Mikkey Dee and the legendary frontman belted out tracks such as "Metropolis," "Over The Top," "Killed By Death" and others that don't need to be mentioned to hardcore fans. They finished with "Overkill" and a wall of feedback that left everyone's ears ringing in sodomized pain, since Lemmy rested his bass on an amplifier.

It was still light out when Heaven And Hell took the stage and opened with "The Mob Rules." Seeing the original "Dio years" version of Black Sabbath onstage together was my personal highlight. Performances of "Sign Of The Southern Cross" and "Children Of The Sea" were phenomenal, as were closers "Heaven And Hell" and "Neon Knights" as the sun went down in what Dio admitted was an "unexpectedly early night."

Due to both his stature and wisdom, I often refer to Ronnie James Dio as the "Yoda of heavy metal," and the guru was cheered heartily and saluted by thousands of the devil-horned hand gestures he's credited with inventing. As he crooned over the thunderous instrumentation of guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Vinny Appice, it was clear that though he may be short in stature, there's no other class of heavy metal vocalist quite like the one-and-only Dio.

Headliners Judas Priest's Rob Halford came on stage wailing new song "Nostradamus" just after the 9:30 p.m. last call rule came in effect to dry out the rockers. It was a crazy display of leather, spikes, Satanic imagery and other bad-assery. Halford had a sick, long goatee and looked as sadistic as ever with his bald head as he lumbered across the stage howling crowd favourites "Metal Gods," "Painkiller" and "Electric Eye." The band finished off the night with "You've Got Another Thing Comin,'" and the assembled bangers (who were extremely well-behaved, generally respectful and enthusiastic all night) filed out of the amphitheatre with little disruption beyond the odd chant of "Priest! Priest! Priest!" This, despite how much Halford encouraged them to break the law.