Venue: Fort Green @ Fort Canning Park, Singapore
Date: 7h August 2012
Promoter: LinVan Productions
Review by: Maisha G.
Special Thanks: VA, JD, and the LinVan Productions team
Photos by Cliff Y.
Greeted with a sea of people clad in black shirts with ‘Megadeth’ printed across the chests of die hard fans, the evening started off with a bang! We were greeted with the familiar guitar riffs and growls from the vocalist from Dezember, a Thai band that hyped up the crowd, giving us a taste of what’s to expect later on in the evening upon waiting for the main act. The melodic guitar folds well with the growls mixed with Thai and English. The crowd roared and cheered for a performance that was out of the norm.
Not long after the night started, the crowd kept growing bigger and chants of ‘MEGADETH, MEGADETH!’ rang across Fort Canning Park as the crowd eagerly awaited the kings of heavy metal to grace the night. It brought us back to 2007 when they first stepped into our humble shores, making each and every fan of heavy metal’s dreams come true. The night was once reunited again on 7th August 2012 as they came back, this time with crowds of different ages, ranging from as far I know, personally, ages 16 to the veteran music goers.
As the chants grew louder, the lights were dimmed and roars rang across the crowd as the band emerged from backstage. Mustaine gave his familiar expression, accompanied by David and Chris, as Shawn works his magic on the bass drums and snare.
They started the night by playing one of their heavy hit numbers, ‘Never Dead’ from their recent album. The crowd was getting all hyped up until ‘Head Crusher’ started. They grew more mobile and everyone entered the mosh pit, as bodies rubbed against each other. The crowd moved coherently as one in tandem with the guitar riffs. We were all losing our minds to the amazing sounds that we could only dream of then, to mosh in our own bedroom at own on leisure time. But this time, it’s with the actual band playing. The feeling couldn’t be compared and it was just so surreal.
As the night progressed and the transitions from one song to the other left us all sweaty and wanting more, the best was yet to come as Mustaine roared in the microphone, saying “the next song has some French elements incorporated into it”. I knew then, it was the song I’ve been waiting for, all this time, this was why I was mainly here, to listen to my favourite song being played on stage: ‘A Tout Le Monde’. I was getting into my zone and I was moving in my own spot, getting the full feel of the song. It felt as though I’ve ascended to rockstar heaven, with the actual song being played, live, right in front of my eyes. My ears were being blessed with the insane guitar riffs, bass hits and crashes to top it off, with the impeccable vocals, I felt as though my whole year was made. I was left drenched in my own sweat, almost soaking my shirt and clouded my spectacles but I felt more alive than I was hours ago.
Mustaine interacted with the crowd and spoke about a thing or two about the happenings back in his hometown. Many were too hyped and distracted by the awesome night to take in what he said seriously while others are just left surprised but ‘She-Wolf’ changed the mood of it all as we danced and moshed to the brilliant number.
The night ended off pretty early but it wasn’t short of anything amazing. I was left in a daze and I still couldn’t swallow in the night in just one go because it was unbelievable and it made my year and it felt complete. I’ve seen my musical idols performed live and it felt really really amazing. I raised the horns in the air as a tribute to the amazing night and to my musical idols.
A big thank you to LinVan Productions for bringing them down; it was a night to be remembered and cherished.