Metal fans are in for a treat as the Big 4 prepare to take the stage at the Yankee Stadium on the 14th September. The former quarreled bands have put aside their differences and plan to rock out to a seven-hour performance.

Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax have already reunited in California and the response was abysmal: “Obviously, this thing should play more places in America,” Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone Magazine. The legacy and perseverance of everyone involved have cleared any signs of a feud.

The Big 4 will celebrate their thirtieth anniversaries in 2011 and hope to bring the success of their European Tour to New York. Even though metal bands receive little to no media attention, the underground heavy metal movement is far greater than what anyone could have foreseen: hundreds are expected to attend the metal fest in New York City, with no sign of ever slowing down.

Anthrax’s upcoming studio album Worship Music, the first featuring Joey Belladonna since their nineties album, Persistence of Time, is expected to hit the shelves in the U.S. September 13th. The band plans on showcasing some of their new songs to an eager crowd on the 14th.

According to Rolling Stone, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian is hoping for a metal mayhem: “I think back to my heyday of going to concerts as a kid in New York from the years of like ’79 to ’83, and I remember going to see Judas Priest on either Screaming For Vengeance or one of those sold-out Madison Square Garden shows,” said Ian.

“There was an energy level at shows like that that was just out of control. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I remember being in the Garden for Judas Priest in 1981 and actually feeling scared sometimes because it was just so intensely rowdy and nuts and people were just losing their mind.”

Scott Ian hopes that New Yorkers can gather all that buzz again. “I would love to feel that energy again at this Yankee Stadium Show, like the old-school New York energy that I used to feel at gigs back then,” he says. This show also has great meaning for drummer Charlie Benante, whose father was scouted to play professional baseball but was told he couldn’t do it.

In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Benante opens up about what this show really means to him: “My dad died when I was five so he never really got to see how far I’ve come in my career,” he says. “I just know if he knew that I’d be playing Yankee Stadium he would be fucking going nuts to find that his son did this and achieved this goal.

Here I am playing Yankee Stadium and I know in some way he’ll probably be there with me.”
oorka / Shutterstock.com

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About the author

Beatriz Gil