Metal Allegiance is an American metal alliance, a heavy metal coalition of the supreme beings of metal past, present and future. I would go as far to say that this is the most super of any metal supergroup that exists. If you are a metal fan, I’m sure you will agree. If you are a metal fan and you aren’t aware of this band then let’s get you up to speed!
This is a real band not just an all star jam or project, although they all are active in other bands. They actually write, rehearse and record together, rather then sending recordings back and forth like a lot of projects do. Metal Allegiance has released two full length albums and one ep to date. First self titled release in 2015, then the EP Fallen Heroes in 2016 and the lastest is Volume II: Power Drunk Majesty in 2018.
Who’s all this group? Lots of guys, no females that I am aware of. The members are all busy musicians so it does vary on who is available at any given time. As far as I have witnessed, the main players are Mike Portnoy of Dream Theatre, Alex Skolnick of Testament, Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser, Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda, Dave Ellefson from Megadeth, Bobby Blitz of Overkill, Chuck Billy from Testament, Gary Holt of Exodus, guitarist Jeff Loomis, Mark Menghi, John Bush, but there are many more.
This year they performed at House of Blues in Anaheim during NAMM week and it was the second time I’ve seen them live, first time at a previous NAMM. Both years they completely blew me away with their show! They give you one hell of an entertaining show and it’s a long solid set. Song after song brought more and more excitement to the crowd. They play a lot of music from their respective bands plus songs they wrote together especially for this band. In addition, they cover songs other bands. For example, they played Motorhead Overkill and Judas Priest’s Exciter with Bobby Blitz on vocals, a tribute to Rush with Mark Osegueda on vocals and Mike Portnoy on drums. Portnoy played drums on most of the songs, the band was joined by ex-Slayer drummer extraordinaire Dave Lombardo. The band performed “Post Mortem and Raining Blood with Lombardo on drums and Osegueda on vocals, Osegueda shared a memory on stage beforehand. He told the crowd that one of his most beautiful memories ever was the night Death Angel played with Slayer in San Francisco on his 16th birthday. That’s a really cool way to spend your 16th birthday!
They also played songs from Metallica, Iron Maiden, UFO and more that escape me at the moment. Mainly what you need to know is, if you get the chance to go, then GO! It will easily be one of your favorite live shows.
Unfortunately, I can not go into too much detail or name every performer because of time. Lots more NAMM articles to write, but I will tell you that every performer and every song was outstanding and fully delivered to the crowd. I hope to do more on these guys in the future and if they keep playing, I’ll keep going because while I was left deeply satisfied by their show both times, I’d go back for more again and every time.
I got to hand it to these guys, they are humble, no huge egos that must be one of the requirements to get into the alliance. They are loyal, still playing music all these years. They are dedicated to metal. They are smart, this band allows them to keep on playing for the rest of their lives. Playing metal takes a lot of energy and could be hard to keep up with as they age, but this way they are all there together to help each other out. Rather than having to do a whole set, they can contribute as little as one song. At some points of the show there were multiple singers, guitarist etc. on songs. During the finale they all came out stage and played. An epic show and an incredible way to spend the evening!
Again, I loved every minute of it!