Metal Allegiance ignited the NAMM crowd with heavy metal at the House of Blues Anaheim.
On Thursday January 23rd, an all-star super group of heavy metal musicians, known collectively as Metal Allegiance, held another of their fantastic annual shows during the 2025 NAMM Show in Anaheim California. This show was staged at the House of Blues, now located at the Anaheim Gardenwalk, and the 3000+ capacity hall was the perfect venue for this concert. With a nice big floor for a huge moshpit, a packed outdoor smoking section, and tons of space to spread out for the aging metalheads who’ve spent an entire day walking at a music convention, the venue has something for everyone. The huge crowd was packed in for this year’s show as usual, with tons of metal heads of all ages ready to head bang the night away to some of their all-time favorite heavy musicians.
This was the eleventh year for this amazing all-star concert and as always the band is an ever evolving beast, showcasing a fantastic set with lots of amazing groupings of legendary musicians throughout the night. The twenty one song set list performed by the group was a fantastic journey through heavy metal history with some solid originals from the Metal Allegiance albums to fantastic covers of songs from bands like Metallica, Megadeth, and Black Sabbath. The same core four core group of notable metal musicians including Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), David Ellefson (Ex-Megadeth), Alex Skolnick (Testament), and founder Mark Menghi were present as always at this year’s show along with a who’s who of metal and heavy music icons.
The heavy metal collective started their show with an absolutely brutal original called “Pledge of Allegiance.” This super hard thrash song was a fantastic kick off to the show and got the energy of the room going just right. Guitarist Alex Skolnick (Testament) was a powerhouse onstage as usual, and after a few brief moments dialing in his sound he delivered squealing, heavy, insanely fast riffs throughout the evening. Andrea Kisser the guitarist of the band Sepultura was also onstage at the beginning of the set and his lead guitar playing was something insane to witness close up, he was definitely giving Skolnick a run for his money and soloing up a storm. The band hit hard early in the set with some excellent covers including “Fast as a Shark” by Accept, “Light up the Sky” by Van Halen, and a fun version of “Parasite” by Kiss with Mastodon’s Troy Sanders on vocals, living out a childhood dream by performing a KISS song. Is there any metal head that wasn’t inspired in some way by that legendary group? Drum god Mike Portnoy handled the drum duties throughout the evening at this year’s show and was an amazing powerhouse as always behind his large and imposing Tama drum kit. A highlight was watching him pound away an impressive version of Metallica’s “Disposable Heroes” where his double bass drumming sounded so powerful and precise, that the song took on a whole new progressive rock feel.
The annual Metal Allegiance show this year was another memorable part of NAMM as always. With a huge contingent of heavy metal fans in attendance it’s clear that the NAMM audience is exactly the right demographic for this type of virtuosic show. The large Anaheim crowd screamed, moshed, and bashed their heads away the whole night. Any act that can inspire folks to rock out that hard for hours after attending a day-long music conference is clearly hitting the right notes. Watching the emotion in the faces in the front row, feeling the intensity of the fans in the mosh pit, and even waiting in the long merch line in the lobby, people were literally overjoyed to be so close to so many of their favorite artists in one night and even get a chance to meet them. Even if you don’t attend NAMM, taking a chance to experience the Metal Allegiance concert is totally worthwhile, it’s such an excellent opportunity to see a ton of heavy music legends. As usual the Metal Allegiance collective proved they are living in synergy.
