Today, you’ve been dealt four thrash aces – on one of the days, the Main Stage will be completely occupied by legends of the American scene. Megadeth, Anthrax, Overkill and Forbidden together on the stage. Yup, this really is happening!
Megadeth
Megadeth are retuning as Mystic Festival headliners as the crowning finish of an unrepeatable day with the American thrash metal. The cover art of their seventeenth – and, unfortunately, final – album, slated for January release, sees Vic Rattlehead on fire, yet smiling mischievously. Before he turns to ashes, he’ll dance with us one last time. Heads will roll, for, after all, killing is his business… and for 40 years, the business has been good. In 1984, Dave Mustaine, perhaps the best guitarist in the history of thrash metal, instead of wallowing after having been kicked out of Metallica, reemerged with a new band and with music that was sharper and better – the final coming of thrash. After all, can anyone do more justice to this genre of metal than Megadeth on Rust in Peace or Countdown to Extinction? Years pass and Mustaine’s band has yet to wane, despite line-up changes and fortune’s whims. If they are to bid farewell now, it’s only so they can leave the stage undefeated.
Anthrax
They’ve been spreading the thrash disease since 1981. While at it, they helped Judge Dredd enforce the rule of law, pioneered the marriage of metal with rap, popped by the house of the Bundy family and haunted the black lodge in Twin Peaks, not to mention touring the whole world over. First and foremost, however, they have us an abundance of great music. From the venomous speed metal of their debut Fistful of Metal, through the textbook thrash of Among the Living, to the groove on steroids of their later records. What they brought to the thrash Big Four is the New York formula for blending metal with punk, a sense of humour and the daring to venture out to new sounds.
Overkill
The pioneers of thrash from the East Coast. Their name came from a Motörhead song; they drew inspiration with equal eagerness from metal and punk. One piece of evidence for that was their cover of “Fuck You” by The Subhumans, which also served as the title for their live EP and offers a succinct yet befitting description of the spirit of an Overkill concert, both then and today. This is how you play thrash when you abide by no rules – it overtakes with the pure force of rage and elates with the jubilant energy of playing music. The times are changing, yet the sandpaper vocals of Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth and the wall-crushing bass of D.D. Verni have still to find an equal. Overkill’s seventeenth studio album, Scorched, is a masterclass on “How thrash metal should sound like?”.
Forbidden
One of the Big Six of the Bay Area, the masters of thrash, one which impresses with the imagination and the technical proficiency of the musicians. The latter is actually the reason why Forbidden became the personnel base for many other bands – the band’s members were drafted to play with such heavyweights as Slayer, Machine Head, Testament, Exodus, and Nevermore, among others. After too long a break, Forbidden came back in 2023 and they will come to collect what’s theirs in Gdańsk. We expect both a revisiting of their cult records from years past – Forbidden Evil and Twisted into Form – as well as new material, teased with the fantastic singles “Divided by Zero” and “Mutually Assured Dysfunction.”