It’s a warm evening in the South West of England. Not the sort of night you want to spend stuffed into a packed club with a bunch of sweaty humans. So it’s off to a packed club with a bunch of sweaty humans I go, but it’s ok. There’s metal royalty in town. The Fleece in Bristol welcomes Phillip H. Anselmo and The Illegal’s tonight as part of their UK tour and it’s a long time since the Pantera frontman has played in these parts, so there’s an air of anticipation tonight. There’s a whole generation who never saw and never will see Pantera, so for a lot of people this represents a chance to see a part of the Texan metal titans magic, in the relatively intimate surroundings of The Fleece.
But before all that, there’s Illegal’s business to attend to. As the band storm on, they are met with a roaring ovation. But it soon becomes clear that there’s going to be some technical difficulties with Phil’s monitors that go on for some time forcing the enigmatic frontman to turn his “check 1-2-3” into an improvised song. Nevertheless Phil is a professional and soldiers on regardless as the band smash through tracks from their recent album “Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue,” the title track in particular causing a variety of mosh pit damage. Phil even takes time to invite a young fan onstage before they launch into “Walk Through Exits Only” Anyone who’s followed Anselmo’s career knows that he takes influence from a variety of genres and the Illegal’s are the living embodiment of that, mixing grind and doom with black metal and hardcore all to great effect. And then the band switch gears effortlessly into Pantera mode as they launch into “Mouth For War” and that’s the moment when the entire room erupts. They continue with “Slaughtered,” “I’m Broken,” “Hollow/Domination” “Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit” and finally A New Level to the satisfaction of every single person in the room.
Due to various back injuries, Anselmo doesn’t stalk the stage like he used to, but the voice and the presence is still there and for a short time we were transported back to that magic time when the Abbott brothers were still with us. But that doesn’t tell the whole story as the Illegal’s themselves are a force to be reckoned with and tore the Fleece a new one tonight.