From The Vault - NEVERMORE and SANCTUARY

Late 80s/early 90s melodic thrash metal band Sanctuary reformed after the demise of Nevermore in 2011, and they are coming to Station 4 in St. Paul this Saturday. The current version of Sanctuary features all original members except guitarist Jeff Loomis (who played Station 4 recently with Soilwork), including Nevermore singer Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard. Their new album, The Year The Sun Died, is slated for release later this year. Here's a variety of pictures and promotional items from Sanctuary and Nevermore that I unearthed from the archives.

Sanctuary only released two major label albums, and this flyer is from a show in support of the second, Into The Mirror Black. The date of this show is September 3, 1990 at Partytown in Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis band Intensity was one of the openers. This was a show that, unfortunately, I could not attend.

I first saw Nevermore on October 28, 1997 at Roadhouse Ruby's in North Kansas City while they were promoting their second album, The Politics Of Ecstasy. They were opening for Flotsam & Jetsam, and put on an excellent show where they even played one Sanctuary song, "Sanctuary". You can read my account of the show in more detail and download the complete audio of the concert here.

Nevermore's third album, Dreaming Neon Black, is their finest. The first promotional picture below is from 1998 on the eve of the album's release. In September or October 1999 I was fortunate enough to catch Nevermore on this tour opening for Mercyful Fate in San Diego at Cane's. The growth and confidence of the band on stage had increased exponentially, no doubt Nevermore was sensing the band's rising status.

Nevermore promotional picture from 1998.

Nevermore in 2000.

Dead Heart In A Dead World took Nevermore into darker, more complex musical territory and was a worthy successor to Dreaming Neon Black. I also saw them once on this tour at Brick By Brick in San Diego as direct support to In Flames with Shadows Fall and Burn It Down. Most of the material from the first two albums had largely vanished from their show at this point, this particular concert primarily focused on Dead Heart In A Dead World.

2000 show poster signed by all members of In Flames.

Click on any of the pictures to see more live photos from Nevermore on December 11, 2000 (13).

Nevermore was essentially an outgrowth of Sanctuary, so if you're a Nevermore fan you will be want to catch Sanctuary when they are here.

Sanctuary performs tomorrow, Saturday, April 27 at Station 4 in St. Paul with support from Hollowstone, Avian, and Redshift.

From The Vault - S.O.D.

Anthrax is in town this Thursday, so here are some pictures from the Anthrax side project Stormtroopers Of Death (S.O.D.) from 1999 and 2000. Featuring Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante, former bassist Dan Lilker, and singer Billy Milano, 1985's Speak English Or Die quickly became a classic crossover album. Reports are that Speak English Or Die has sold more than an incredible one million copies worldwide. They did little touring since Anthrax had released Spreading The Disease around the same time, but they undertook two extensive American tours in 1999 and 2000 to promote their second album Bigger Than The Devil.

Click on the picture to see more photos of S.O.D. at the Whisky in 1999 (16).

I caught S.O.D. three times during this period, the first being the first of two shows at the Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood on November 10, 1999 with Crowbar and Skinlab. I believe this show was sold out and the crowd's excitement was high. Their songs are short and they played most of their albums so I won't comment about each show's individual set list.

Click on the picture to see more photos of S.O.D. at the March Metal Meltdown in New Jersey in 2000 (17).

Near the start of the second leg of the tour in 2000 S.O.D. was featured at the March Metal Meltdown festival at the South Jersey Expo Center in Pennsauken, NJ on March 10, 2000. Dozens of killer bands played at this two-day festival including Sentenced, Immortal, Savage, Virgin Steele, Witchery, and Doro. The whole thing, however, was kind of a joke since the various stages were actually just separated from each other by curtains. Neither the fans or the bands were happy to find that bands were playing at the same time with only a curtain between the stages. Let's just say that it was a less than ideal concert experience for everyone.

Click on the photo to see more pictures of S.O.D. in San Diego in 2000 (13).

As the 2000 tour reached the West Coast, S.O.D. played at Brick By Brick in San Diego with Hate Eternal and December (I think Skinlab was also on the bill). I had 3 or 4 copies of the 7-inch "Seasoning The Obese" single to be signed by S.O.D. at this show for a planned magazine promotion; I'll be diplomatic and just say that Dan Lilker happily signed them all, Charlie and Scott were polite about only signing one because they thought I might auction them on eBay (of course, nothing of the sort was done), and Billy didn't sign any of them. Oh well, it was still an enjoyable show.

Anthrax performs Thursday, April 4 at First Avenue in Minneapolis with support from Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste, and Holy Grail.

RELATED CONTENT: Here's some other recent Anthrax-related posts: audio downloads of Anthrax in 1991 on the Clash Of The Titans tour and former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz's new band Red Lamb in St. Paul on March 24, 2013, reviews of the Red Lamb album and March 24 concert (with pictures), and stories and pictures of former Anthrax vocalist John Bush with Armored Saint.

From The Vault - ARMORED SAINT

This is the first of some Anthrax-themed vault postings here (more coming on Anthrax and S.O.D.) since Anthrax is coming to town very soon (and Red Lamb just played here on March 24 - show review coming soon). Armored Saint singer John Bush fronted Anthrax through arguably the band’s most creative and critically acclaimed period. I was fortunate enough to catch Armored Saint twice in the late 80s, then again during 2000.

My favorite show was on Memorial Day, May 26, 1986 at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand in Des Moines as part of the Iowa Jam, an annual Memorial Day festival (sadly long defunct now). Check out this monster lineup: the bill was topped by Aerosmith (supporting Done With Mirrors), Ted Nugent (out for Little Miss Dangerous), Dokken (promoting Under Lock And Key), Metallica (with Cliff Burton on the Master Of Puppets tour), and Armored Saint (supporting Delirious Nomad). Armored Saint was on first at 11 am and fired up the crowd with an inspired 35–40 minute set of songs from the first two albums. I’ll post the audio of this show later, so I’ll save additional comments for then. As you might expect, Metallica stunned an unsuspecting crowd, while the remaining bands all put on great shows.

I must’ve gotten lucky because the next time I saw Armored Saint was on the Raising Fear supporting Grim Reaper (supporting Rock You To Hell) with Helloween (touring for Keeper Of The Seven Keys - Part I) on October 17, 1987 at The Rimco Center in Rock Island, Illinois. This was an MTV Headbanger's Ball-sponsored tour. Helloween was amazing as they closed their opening set with “Halloween” and “How Many Tears”. Armored Saint a set similar to what I heard at the Iowa Jam the year before with the addition of some new songs like “Chemical Euphoria” and “Raising Fear”. Grim Reaper got upstaged by the openers, but they still put on a great show playing the title tracks from their three albums amongst other songs.

Click on any of the pictures to see more photos of Armored Saint live in 2000 (14).

Finally, the show from which the pictures are from was May 28, 2000 at Brick By Brick in San Diego during promotion for the Revelation album. This was a rapid, packed crowd eager to hear Armored Saint after an absence of many years while John Bush was in Anthrax. The main attraction for me was finally being able to hear songs performed from Symbol Of Salvation, standouts such as “Reign Of Fire”, “Dropping Like Flies” and “Tribal Dance”. With no security barricade it was difficult getting great pictures at the packed club, and it should be evident from them that everyone, both band and crowd, was having a fun night.

Anthrax performs Thursday, April 4 at First Avenue in Minneapolis with support from Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste, and Holy Grail.

From The Vault - NILE Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of this post I presented some pictures of Nile while touring for Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka. Here now is Nile live on November 9, 2010 at Brick By Brick in San Diego soon after the release of Black Seeds Of Vengeance.

Click on any of the pictures to see more photos of Nile in 2000 (16).

Nile seemed to take a huge leap forward with their stage show in 18 months, maybe it was the fact that they were eager to play new material. Whatever the case, the band was relentless in delivering a brutal, crushing show. I missed the openers for this show, which I believe were Impaled and Incantation.