ANNIHILATOR / SWORD in Quebec City yesterday

labrekk

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Jul 16, 2002
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Earlier this year, the Canadian band from the 80s, SWORD, decided to come back to the scene. They're supposed to be working on their 3rd album. Great news for me, as 1986's Metalized is a 80s metal classic in my book.


I was at the Quebec City show yesterday, when SWORD were the opening band for ANNIHILATOR (which is a Canadian band, but had not played in Canada for 17 years before yesterday!). Sword were supposed to have only 60 minutes, but we finally got around 1H20 and it was a killer show. All the guys (all original line-up) are in great shape, especially singer Rick Hughes, who looks really fit and whose voice is really powerful, maybe even more than in the 80s. All the songs were sung and played perfectly and Hughes nailed all the screams easily. Even came on stage on a Harley for F.T.W.
They must have played the Metalized disc almost entirely, along with stuff from Sweet Dreams as well, and a tribute to the great Ronnie James Dio, with a medley of Neon Knights and Mob Rules. I'm now really looking forward to the upcoming 3rd album...

Annihilator played a great show as well, even though the set was a bit too thrashy for my current taste. My fave tracks were Set The World On Fire, King Of The Kill and 21. Jeff Waters is a showman, moves a lot on the stage and interacts with the crowd, even more than the "official" singer (which is the 2nd guitarist as well). He talked a bit in French, which was appreciated by the sold-out crowd (well, it was really sold-out for Sword, but it looks like some had left for Annihilator). All the musicians of the band were excellent.
 
The latter doesn't overly excite me, but I am absolutely stoked about your report on Sword! Did they play any new songs?

Almost all of Metalized... wow! :) :) :)

Rick Hughes said in an interview that they would not try any new songs for these comeback gigs. But there were a couple songs (or a very long one) in the middle of the set that I didn't recognize. Hopefully, it was not a new song cause it wasn't the best one...:cool:

As I much prefer Metalized over Sweet Dreams, I'm very glad that they played most of it.

Killer show. I hope they'll come back again soon.
 
I was at the Quebec City show yesterday, when SWORD were the opening band for ANNIHILATOR (which is a Canadian band, but had not played in Canada for 17 years before yesterday!).

Now this left me really like "huh?!" :guh:
What's the reason, did Jeff hold a grudge with Canadian promoters or what? Funny that a band would play anywhere else than in its homeland and for 17 years... Geez!

Glad to see Sword is back full throttle :headbang: