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Ah, given 2026 Mustaine, that actually makes more sense than him being worried about causing riots. 

Belfast was fantastic. The crowd was surprisingly large – I figured it would be pathetically small.

There were points where Chaz was obstructed from my sight by a pillar and you'd swear he was a young Mustaine.

I didn't realise they were going to play the third album in its entirety. Hearing Anarchy in the UK was a treat. Megadeth never seems to play it, either because it's not in their setlist in general or they're worried about a repeat of the 80s incident in Antrim.

Chaz certainly didn't give a fuck ("Belfast knows about anarchy, right?!"). The crowd also seemed to love the song and it was funny seeing Americans name check a bunch of our paramilitaries.

Jeff Young was fantastic on the lead guitar. I did wonder if they had their own lighting guy on tour because the lights seemed very coordinated with the music. Apparently they didn't because Jeff called them out not long into the set. "What's with the darkness and strobes up here? These songs have a million notes – I need to see!"

I'm seeing Megadeth next year in Belfast, but this gig will likely sound more Megadeth than Megadeth.

Nothing Remains is a banger of a tune. I was going to buy tickets to see Chimaira back in the early 10s, then I read that everyone had quit except for the vocalist.

They're back together now, doing some very limited shows. It doesn't sound like they're able to commit to anything full time.

The new drummer seems beastly. I figured these were songs from one of their many albums I'm not overly familiar with, but they're actually from a recent EP.

To me, it seems preferable to a lot of their recent stuff.

Lol, I read about the US version of this tour yesterday (presumably announced months ago) and was wondering if it would come over here. Didn't think we'd be so lucky.

I don't mind Trivium being the headliner for this show. Back in the day, I loved some of In Flames' stuff, but I can't say I'm overly familiar with anything in the last decade or two.

Yeah I remarked earlier a low turnout I just meant in terms of the 3Arena and capacity - there was a lot of curtain action, but the floor was healthy and healthy overall I'm sure.

For a band I've seen in the Top Hat, Academy, TBMC, Tivoli, Ambassador, etc, that was a superb turnout, I thought. It's not a venue were you usually see a band playing that style of music. The most upper seating level wasn't open but, apart from the two outside sections, the seating area where I was was pretty full too.

The number of hands that went up when asked "Is this your first Sepultura gig?" explains why I saw them in the Limelight 2 and Tivoli. 

I had wanted to see Crypta and Sacred Reich, but missed everyone except Sepultura.

Funnily enough, as I was wondering why they never hired a second guitarist to boost their live sound after Max left, while also lamenting missing Crypta, their guitarist joined Sepultura on stage for a song. For a moment, I hoped she would stay for the final however many songs.

I thought Sepultura sounded better than when they played the Belfast Telegraph building on their final ever (just joking!) tour.

Edit: Just finding out that Luana Dametto wasn't on drums this tour (temporary for some reason) and they're onto their third lead guitarist. Don't mind that I missed them as much now.

I didn't really mind it, except for one of the songs when it seemed rather poor.

They're not going to have a budget to hire CGI artists for a tour. Either we get something that looks like it was made on yer ma's 90s PC, no graphics at all, or AI.

They claim this tour is their last, but I have to wonder if a reunion with Igor and Max is on the cards in a few years.

I honestly didn't think Megadeth were that big these days. BLS and Testament are fantastic support, but it's almost sold out before the general on sale!

The MCD presale is pretty slim. Standing gone. Most seats gone.

They're asking £170 for a ticket at the side, mid way back.

£73 at the very back.

£185 for standing "early entry".

Edit: WTF, had FOMO and got the early entry standing ticket, but now they have regular standing tickets available. Grim.

Edit 2: Might be a glitch. It says they're unavailable when you actually try to buy.

That's a hamlet, mate. 

I'm just going off what Wikipedia and Google calls it, but apparently the UK often classifies settlements smaller than 7,500 as a village.

I can't really say I disagree. I've been in 11,000 population towns and they seem like tiny backwaters.

Aye, I thought the streets after the gig was amazing. Seemed like there were so many more people than Dublin, and you almost immediately walk onto a long street that's just bar after bar.

Although, while the stadium is incredible, the general transport infrastructure seems a bit lacking. It was a shock to find that Cardiff Airport is smaller than Belfast City airport. I had to wait an hour for a bus to take me to a 7k population village, where I caught a train into Cardiff.

The official recording is out now on livemetallica.com.

It definitely sounds a lot better and tighter than both Slane and the dates I was at in 2024.

They did fix one of Kirk's obvious fuck ups at the start of "Day", so who knows how much they do to touch it up in general. Probably not much, since Kirk's usual sloppiness is there in many solos. James' vocals at the start of Until it Sleeps sound a bit patchy, too.

After Cardiff last night, I can confirm that the acoustics in the Aviva are just mad shite.