From Aural Innovations #33 (March 2006)
Prior to this gig I'd never heard of Sworn Enemy, though I thought they were a suitable opener for Anthrax. The five piece metal act that hails from Queens, New York played a decent thirty minute set of what many patrons would most likely tag as in-your-face aggressive metal. Sworn Enemy performed to a crowd of maybe 500 or so tunes off their two CD's, 2003's As Real As It Gets and 2005's Beginning Of The End. Their setlist was as follows: the band's namesake "Sworn Enemy", "Forgotten", "Here Today", "One Way Trip", "Scared Of The Unknown", "Labeled", "All I Have", "Save Your Breach" and "As Real As it Gets". Line-up: Sal Lococo - vocals, Lorenzo Antonucci and Jamin Hunt - guitars, Edward Kilpatrick - bass and Paul Antigna - drums.Their music might appeal to fans of, say... Hatebreed, Stormtroopers Of Death, Biohazard and C.O.C.
Alright! It's finally happened... a much anticipated reunion of the classic line-up of ' 80's metal merchants Anthrax! It's been like 15 long years since I have seen on the same stage Joey Belladonna on vocals, Scott Ian on rhythm guitar, Frank Bello on bass, Dan Spitz on lead guitar, and last but certainly anything but least, Charlie Benate on drums. For you younger fans reading this, just in case you didn't know, this line-up of Anthrax toured and recorded quite a bit between 1985 to 1991. Some say that Belladonna's voice has in fact faded some, but I didn't really notice. The guys played a blistering, yet memorable, eighty minute set of old school mid ' 80's classic metal. Personally, I didn't think the true fan could ask for much more. It was a total blast to hear as well as fully experience ' live' in concert such Anthrax goods like the opener "Among The Living", "Got The Time", "Caught In A Mosh", "Madhouse", my favorite of the evening "Skeleton In The Closet", "Anti Social", "Indians", with the frantic encore "Be All End All", "I'm The Man", "Aftershock" and "I Am The Law".
Lawrence, Kansas doesn't get many shows like this one. It seemed like I knew about half the crowd as I was running into so many fellow concert goers, some I haven't seen in years. It was sort of like a metal second coming, one could say. Those in attendance were having the time of their lives. If you do get the chance to catch these guys out on tour I highly encourage you to do what you have to in order to catch the gig. Would love to see them again before too long. Welcome back ANTHRAX !!!!! Don't be a stranger.
Setlist: Among The Living / Metal Thrashing Mad / Got The Time / Caught In A Mosh / Madhouse / Skeleton In The Closet / Anti Social / N.F.L. (aka Nice F***ing Life) / Medusa / Indians
Encore: Be All End All / I'm The Man / Aftershock / I Am The Law
Reviewed by Mike Reed