Tool performs during Aftershock Festival at Discovery Park in Sacramento on Oct. 6, 2023. SACRAMENTO — Business picked up substantially at Discovery Park for the sold-out second day of Aftershock Festival. The crowds were bigger, the acts’ productions were more ambitious—and the sweltering heat had no intention of leaving.…

Megadeth, “TheSick, The Dying… and the Dead!” For roughly 40 years thrash metal in the United States has been dominated by the Big Four: Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth. Of them, Megadeth is the last to remain purely a thrash metal band; Metallica famously went in a more mainstream…

Lamb Of God performs at Concord Pavilion in Concord, Calif. on Sept. 2, 2021. Nathan McKinley/STAFF. CONCORD, Calif. — Lamb of God and Megadeth brought their Metal Tour of the Year to the Concord Pavilion on Thursday, where headbanging and battle vests were the order of the day. Concord, specifically, may not…

Megadeth may be decades in the past for guitarist Marty Friedman, but the virtuoso is no less busy cranking out instrumental guitar rock albums. Tokyo Jukebox 3 completes a trilogy of releases with Friedman covering some of his favorite J-Pop and Japanese songs in his own guitar-driven prog-rock style. Now living…

Megadeth performs at the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino on Sept. 6, 2006. Derek Tobias/STAFF. I know it’s Labor Day in a couple days and I usually do a column of union songs, but after the last couple weeks I’m so very, very tired. I suspect many of…

I Images courtesy “Murder in the Front Row.”Decades after their release, countless fans still furiously debate whether Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets is the best Metallica album. But the Bay Area spawned an entire thrash scene in the ’80s, including successful bands like Exodus, Testament, Possessed and…