Lamb of God and Mastodon Heat Up at The Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut With Their Ashes of Leviathan Tour on August 3, 2024

August 5, 2024
International Concert Reviews, International Galleries
by Jody Wilk Photographer/Writer

Lamb of God and Mastodon brought their Ashes of Leviathan Tour to Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on August 3, 2024. Also performing was Malevolence and Kerry King, former Slayer guitarist, touring his first solo album. It was a hot and sweltery, 90-degree-plus day, so it was great to get into the cool A/C of the casino. Mohegan Sun Arena is a beautiful 10,000-seat venue located in one of the nicest casinos around. When doors opened at 5 pm on a Saturday, I was a little worried about how big the crowd would be as the line was pretty small to get through security. Upon entering, fans were lined up to get merch and get their adult beverages.

Malevolence hit the stage at 5:50 pm at a venue that was still filling in. Malevolence is a metalcore band from Sheffield, South Yorkshire formed in 2010. The drummer was first to come running out on stage with his hands raised in the air, to get the crowd going, followed by Alex Taylor, the singer, with his fists in the air. Being that there were four bands on the schedule, they were only allotted a short, thirty-minute set. They chose to play 5 songs off of 2022’s Malicious Intent album, “Self Supremacy” off of the 2017 album of the same name, and “Keep Your Distance” off of their EP, The Other Side. These guys kept the fans entertained with a great amount of energy, utilizing the whole stage while banging their heads and jumping about. Malevolence has been releasing music on their own record label called MLVLTD since 2019 to maintain creative control of their work, although their most recent album was released by Nuclear Blast Records.

Malevolence is:

Alex Taylor – Lead Vocals

Josh Baines – Guitar

Konan Hall – Guitar, Co-lead vocals

Wilkie Robinson – Bass

Charlie Thorpe – Drums

Setlist:

1. Malicious Intent

2. Life Sentence

3. Still Waters Run Deep

4. Self Supremacy

5. Higher Place

6. Keep Your Distance

7. On Broken Glass

Next up was Kerry King, best known for being a co-founder of Slayer. In May of this year, he released his first solo album entitled From Hell I Rise, which includes Paul Bostaph also from Slayer, Mark Osegueda from Death Angel, Kyle Sanders from HELLYEAH, and Phil Demmel from Voi-lence and Machine Head. The stage went dark and on each side of the stage, a giant upside-down cross was illuminated in red LED lights with white lights reaching out from each side to look like the letter K to the left and right of the cross forming his logo which was also on the kick drums and backdrop. As you could expect from any metal show the smoke machines were pumping giving it the ambiance you would expect at a metal show. Kerry hit the stage with his killer lineup of musicians who just started touring in May of this year. King was sporting his badass Dean guitar, which is a piece of art. They played 9 songs off of their first record together, which was released in May. Their music is a testament to Thrash Metal music and will put its mark on the genre. After “Idle Hands”, Mark Osegueda addressed the crowd, “Thank you for your outpouring of energy, with your hands and your voices, all of you. And then there’s you crazy motherfuckers right here, (pointing to the center of the pit area) for knowing what kind of fucking show you’re at. Are you ready to make the ground fucking shake? This next one we’re gonna do is about the atrocities and horrors of war and the never-ending aftermath. This one’s called “Shrapnel”.” The crowd in the pit was alive with energy and moshing and thrashing were abundant. As any hardcore Kerry King fan would hope for, they played a few Slayer songs, before ending the set with the title track off of From Hell I Rise.

Kerry King is:

Kerry King – Guitars

Paul Bostaph – Drums

Mark Osegueda – Vocals

Phil Demmel – Guitars

Kyle Sanders – Bass

Setlist:

1. Where I Reign

2. Trophies of the Tyrant

3. Residue

4. Toxic

5. Idle Hands

6. Shrapnel

7. Raining Blood (Slayer song)

8. Black Magic (Slayer song)

9. From Hell I Rise

Mastodon might be best described as Alt-metal, as they don’t really fit in one place, having influences in virtually all genres of metal as well as hard rock. They have been a band since 2000, and their lineup has not changed since 2001 outside of session and touring musicians. With 8 studio albums, they have a big catalog of music to choose from. Mastodon has had 6 Grammy Award nominations and won one for Best Metal Performance for “Sultan’s Curse”. I was surprised that wasn’t included in the set, nor were any of the other songs they were nominated for. This tour gets its name from the 20th anniversary of Mastodon’s 2004 album Leviathan, and Lamb of God’s 2004 album Ashes of the Wake. Brann Dailor, Mastodon’s drummer had a puppy on the front kick drum head, and on one in-ear there was an E.T. sticker and on the other, it looked to be Michael Jackson, although I am not positive. These guys really got the packed arena moving with lots of crowd surfing and a huge mosh pit. They played a blistering set, including the entire Leviathan album, as well as 3 other songs in the encore. Heads were banging, fists were flying, the ground was shaking, the pyro bursts were intense, and the guitars were heavy for this most memorable performance.

Mastodon is:

Brann Dailor – Drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals

Brent Hinds – Lead guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals

Bill Kelliher – Rhythm guitar, backing vocals

Troy Sanders – Bass, keyboards, backing vocals, lead vocals

Setlist:

1. Blood and Thunder

2. I Am Ahab

3. Seabeast

4. Island

5. Iron Tusk

6. Megalodon

7. Naked Burn

8. Aqua Dementia

9. Hearts Alive

10. Joseph Merrick

Encore

11. More Than I Could Chew

12. Circle of Cysquatch

13. Steambreather

Lamb of God is a heavy metal band formed in 1994 and has 11 studio albums. In 2004 they released Ashes of the Wake. They are celebrating its 20th anniversary by playing the album in its entirety and in order from start to finish. In 2005, Revolver Magazine rated the album 2nd best album of the year behind Mastedon’s Leviathan. Fronted by the amazingly talented Randy Blythe who is constantly playing to the crowd to get them pumped. Randy does numerous jumps off the drum riser and is constantly running around like a great frontman should. The pyro was abundant as was the smoke in the air, and the light show too. While working to capture images for my review, I had to keep an eye behind me for the numerous crowd surfers making their way into the pit. This always makes capturing the show more exciting. Lamb of God knows how to get the crowd going. The circle pit was the biggest one I have seen in a long time. These guys brought over an hour of the baddest heavy metal there is to the stage. For their encore, they played “Walk With Me in Hell” which they dedicated to their Connecticut brothers, Hatebreed, and Randy told the crowd that no one was to stay still and to get a circle pit going for the last song, “Redneck”.

The Ashes of Leviathan tour was a huge success at Mohegan Sun Arena. Both Lamb of God and Mastedon have talked about doing this 20-year celebration of 2 kick-ass albums for years and now it finally happened. If you’re a fan of melt-your-face-off heavy metal, then you can’t afford not to see this tour! You have till the end of August to catch this masterpiece of a show.

Lamb of God is:

John Campbell – Bass

Mark Morton – Lead guitar

Willie Adler – Rhythm guitar

Randy Blythe – Vocals

Art Cruz – Drums