Before Megadeth seize the stage to headline Bloodstock 2023, the US thrashers’ video backdrops play a compilation of Vic Rattleheads gone by. The skeletal mascot’s appearances on a host of artworks fade in and out, covering everything from signature single Holy Wars…The Punishment Due to last year’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! album. It’s the perfect introduction for a set that, over the next 90 minutes, will blast out classic tracks from every era of this band’s four-decade history.
Opener Hangar 18 does plenty to explain how Megadeth have endured this long. The 1990 Rust In Peace favourite is emblematic of the band’s early golden age, imbuing finger-shredding technicality with genuine hooks and melody. First you’re moshing to those rallying chords and crying out that hook of “Hangar 18! I know too much!”, then you’re spending the next three minutes asking how Mustaine and co-guitarist Kiko Loureiro aren’t soloing their calluses off.
