The Red Skull: 40 Years Of Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All With Special Guests Lemmy Forever & Panik @ The Gov, Adelaide 10/6/2023
It was a hectic music history lesson on Saturday night when Adelaide rockers The Red Skull reassembled to celebrate 40 years of Metallica’s debut album Kill ‘Em All at The Gov with a crowd of die-hard Metallica fans young and old. Joining them were special guests Motorhead tribute band Lemmy Forever, and young NSW speed thrash larrikins and goodest boys Panik hitting Adelaide for their current national tour.
I’m not sure if the punters were prepared for the chaos of Panik kicking off the night, as a lot of them were still seated and eating dinner when this three-piece hit the stage with their loud Cacophony tier speed metal. I’m probably bias as I have known this band since their infancy and witnessed their incredible glow up (it’s official, I am their mum- I adopted them) but there is not another Australian metal act like them, and their talent is outrageous. Their Zepp infused deep and fast riffs and speed solos will tear a hole through your guts while the boys’ stage presence is captivating.
Opening with 2022 single release Burn the boys blasted everyone with their thick and fast sound, running around the stage with an enviable amount of energy. Guitarist Danny Ritz, arguably the best guitarist in Australia right now (also from Darker Half, Mason and world-renowned Metallica cover band Damage Inc) flaunted his enormous rock star energy as he effortlessly leapt about the stage doing superhuman high kicks… and wearing all white.
Adding to the pandemonium of this performance, Corey Schwarze, a human machine on the drums with hair that Sebastian Bach would envy, lost a stick in the middle of playing Belly of the Beast and just casually grabbed another without missing a beat, while front man and bassist Mitchel Gruevski delivered his raw and rough vocal style. Covering Ride the Lightening to appease the Metallica gods for the evening and finishing strong with another 2022 release Heart Racer the audience were well and truly won over and the boys made a bunch of new fans.
Music History class was in session for Lemmy Forever (formally known as Killed by Death) covering a quality set of Motorhead tracks and firing up the audience. Vocalist and bass player Chris McEwan (aka McLemmy) of Hidden Intent fame is Lemmy Kilmister incarnate- complete with facial beauty mark. Aside from the scarily similar physical attributes, McLemmy and guitarist ‘Fast Karl’ along with new drummer ‘Filthy Jase’ were born to play Motorhead, and if you close your eyes you could swear you are hearing the original band playing live. Their attention to detail and accuracy is a testament to their passion for the music. These guys take their dream of playing tribute to the classic Metal act very seriously, and any die hard Motorhead fan would find it very hard to fault them. Red Skull vocalist Jason Sym Choon joined the band to sing a cover of Hellraiser – a track written by Lemmy and recorded by Ozzy Osborne for No More Tears, while the band finished strong with loudest track of the set Overkill and everybody in the audience dancing.
The Red Skull began their set appropriately with Hit the Lights, the opening track for Kill ‘Em All while baby thrashers rocked out down front donning their favourite Metallica t-shirts, followed by tracks The Four Horsemen and Motorbreath before breaking into popular banger For Whom the Bell Tolls. Front man Jason Sym Choon (also from The Superjases and Nakatomi Plaza) is a vocal chameleon with the versatility and range to cover just about anything, and his charisma and energy was on point for the set, running around the stage with his microphone stick like Freddie Mercury and entertaining the crowd with his banter. Bassist Tony Coppola took the spotlight to cover instrumental track (Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth, possibly one of the most difficult and advanced arrangements famously done by Cliff Burton and nailed it, Sym Choon even commenting that the performance took a “hefty set of bollocks”.
Guitarist Jason Higgs then took centre stage for the hectic solo in No Remorse to a lot of fist pumping from the excited audience before the band played a handful of Metallica’s most popular tracks such as One, Nothing Else Matters and Enter Sandman. To round off the evening all the bands came on stage to play Master of Puppets and Seek and Destroy, McLemmy joining in to sing, and Danny Ritz back on the guitar showing up everyone and throwing his guitar around without missing a note as he famously does. The big jam with everyone onstage was the perfect finale to a very fun and happy night, all the musicians just rocking out and having a blast together with a euphoric crowd of Metalheads young and old.
Aside from the quality performances from all the bands on the bill, it was a great night of music trivia and entertainment- serious musicians being not so serious and just having a lot of fun while playing the music that they and their audience love with passion. It was a huge success and one of the most jovial variety shows this year full of laughter, dancing and of course, Heavy Metal.
Live Review By Bec Scheucher