Live Review: Slayer, Amon Amarth, Anthrax, Mastodon and Hatebreed | Blackweir Fields, Cardiff | 03/07/2025

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Mastodon

It’s been far too long since Mastodon have touched down on UK soil. Except for a lone set at Download in 2022, they haven’t spent extended time here since their 2019 tour. Playing their first international shows after the departure of founding guitarist Brent Hinds, modern virtuoso Nick Johnston nails the task at hand with ease, helping to bring what feels like a renewed energy and vigour to the sludge/prog metal veterans. Opening as they mean to go on with ‘Crystal Skull’, it’s a fiery burst of a thirty-minute set as they barrel straight into the anthemic ‘Black Tongue’. The LED screen behind the band is adorned with wild psychedelic visuals to accompany the progressive sensibilities of the band. ‘Megalodon’ continues the nonstop barrage, Elmo is crowd-surfing to ‘More Than I Could Chew’ and ‘Mother Puncher’ remains one of the band’s nastiest riffs. Troy Sanders takes a moment to thank everyone for coming down early and promises a new album in 2026, alongside an actual UK tour. There was no other way for the set to end except with the eternal ‘Blood and Thunder’ encouraging one last round of furious circle pits and the promise of a master class set when they play Bloodstock next month. 

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Anthrax

As history has informed us from the last 10 years or so, whenever Slayer are on a bill, Anthrax are surely not far behind. Making their trademark high energy introduction, blasting the Blue Brothers theme as a walk out tune, it’s clear Anthrax know exactly what they are here to do: get the crowd hyped up to a fever pitch, and they nail it. It’s a strange experience seeing the thrash metal veterans squeeze themselves into a similar thirty-minute set. They don’t take themselves too seriously, extending their tracks leaving only five in their set, getting the crowd involved and bringing buckets full of good times. Scott Ian is imposing as ever as stage presence keeping the mosh going, Joey Belladonna is still killing it on the vocals, regularly bounding around the stage, getting down to the pit level to play directly to the crowd. The intro to ‘Among The Living’ snaps into ‘Caught In A Mosh’, fan favourite ‘Antisocial’ has thousands of metal heads screaming the lyrics back at full volume. ‘Got the Time; is a frenetic burst of punk tinged speed before a lengthy rendition of ‘Indians’. Stopping purposefully multiple times to hype the crowd up further, Belladonna is raging with the crowd for the final war dance, setting the crowd energy to a fever pitch for the rest of the night. 

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Amon Amarth

It may have felt strange to some to have Amon Amarth billed right before Slayer, but the melodic death metal Swede’s take full advantage, bringing all the bells and whistles for a showcase special guest set of about forty minutes. A curtain hides the stage and drops as the band tear straight through ‘Guardians Of Asgard’: Inflatable Viking statues and their trademark horned helm drum riser, also taking full advantage of the range of pyro at hand. They’re going down a treat with old and new fans, vocalist Johan Hegg is charismatic as ever, asking if the crowd wants a banger before surging into ‘Deceiver Of The Gods’. Much like the rest of the supports this evening, the band sound excellent, the twin melodic lines and blistering guitar solos echo through the park over a chorus of thundering drums and Johan’s roars. ‘Put Your Back Into The Oar’ appropriately has some viral rowing pits popping up across the site, the only reasonable time for one during a Viking metal band. As the set starts to come to an end it feels as though it’s flown by, ‘First Kill’ encourages some more mayhem before the obligatory Amon Amarth party anthem ‘Raise Your Horns’ encourages pints to be sunk, horns to be thrown and promises of another trip to the bar. Finally rounding out with ‘Twilight Of The Thunder Gods’, if anything else it shows what we’ve already known for years, that it won’t be long before Amon Amarth have their sights set on shows of a similar size as the next big metal headliner. 

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Slayer

Say what you want about Slayer’s retirement and reappearance five years later, there is clearly still a strong demand for them. Full-bodied screams of “SLLLAAAAYYYEEEERRR!!!” have been cutting across Cardiff all day. Absence only makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, the electricity in the atmosphere is palpable as a hype package of old interviews plays over the screens. The roar of the crowd as they open with ‘South Of Heaven’ is truly indescribable, the main riff being sung back the thousands in the crowd by immediately. Comprised of the same line up as their farewell tour, bassist Tom Araya and lead guitarist Kerry King are joined once again by thrash legend Gary Holt and long time drummer Paul Bostaph. Everyone is over the moon just to see them again and hear their favourite evil thrash metal anthems. The giant LED wall at the back of the stage is playing brutal visuals akin to Slayer’s themes of war footage or images of serial killers adorned with the absurd amount of pyro on display. Slayer have crafted a set list to perfection with fan favourites, a few deeper cuts and all the bangers you could hope for. Little time is spent between tracks as they hammer through their headline set, final album title track ‘Repentless’ gives way to the oft overlooked ‘Disciple’ from God Hates Us All. 

It’s non-stop: Show No Mercy’s ‘Die By The Sword’ into ‘Jihad’, the violent bludgeoning of ‘War Ensemble’ straight into ‘Chemical Warfare’, it is Slayer at their purest, undiluted hateful aggression airing and screaming into the void about everything evil. Big fire stencils of inverted crosses, the same being drawn by bursts of pyro, at points there is so much it looks like the stage itself gets fully engulfed in flames. Hell itself is opening before your eyes, and Slayer are the gatekeepers. The twenty track set keeps rolling along, ‘Dead Skin Mask’ gets an unhinged response as they glide into ‘Spirit In Black’ for the first time since 2017. ‘Postmortem’ acts as a flag for the end of the set, a pseudo-encore break for a moment. We all know what is left to come as the sound of rain and subtle visuals start to pepper the screen. The thunderous toms echoing like thunder, fireworks burst from the top of the stage as ‘Raining Blood’ starts to howls of approval from the now rabid audience. Transitioning partway through into Show No Mercy classic ‘Black Magic’, there is only one song left tonight and the crowd is damn near begging for it. If you haven’t heard the sound of 20,000+ metalheads emulating Tom Araya’s iconic scream from the start of set closer ‘Angel Of Death’ then you haven’t lived. One final furore of mental pits across the site, one final burst of fists pumping, necks breaking and hair flying before once again Slayer dip back into the abyss. Sure, to the detractors it was Slayer doing as Slayer does, aside from the boosted production aspects at the end of the day it does what it says on the tin. Slayer always deliver, tonight was no exception.

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