Alrighty everyone. I attented the Extreme Steel 2001 at the Long Beach Arena. And what a hell of a show. When i got there, i knew my way around because i always go to hockey games there, so I immediately went to the floor to see Morbid Angel. The place was pretty empty. Id say about maybe 200 people on the floor and up in the seats maybe about 100. I waited about 20 minutes then Morbid Angel came on. Morbid Angel tore the roof off. Loud, fast, and in your face death metal. Truly the best Death Metal band out there. It seemed as if they played a little over a half hour, but i wasnt really keeping time.

It was a big mistake for them to come on first, because they made Skrape and Static-Crap look like pussies. I watched about 5 minutes of Skrape too see them get boo-ed at and things thrown at them. And thats exactly what happened. People first started to throw ice, shoes, and hot dog buns and wrappers at everyone in the band. And a few minutes later a firework came and almost nailed the drummer. After 5 min of being bored and listening to a band that belongs at Ozzfest, me and my friends went to take a bathroom and food break. I took a look at the shirts for sale, all 32 dollars. There weren't any tour ones, they were all shirts i could of got from an online heavy metal shop for 18 bucks.

Then we went back to the floor area when Skrape was done, and whole bunch of trendy bleached haired wannabes were there. Tons of teenage girls that looked like they should be at the mall shopping instead. So obviously it was the Static-Crap fan club. I watched a few songs to kill some time because there was no place i could really go to sit down. So when the crowd were waving their hands, hailing Static-Crap, me and my friends had our middle fingers pointed at them with hatred and to get the hell off the stage. Finally after what seemed about 2 hours, they were finally off the stage. I dont know how many encores they did but it seemed endless.

It was about maybe 20-30 minutes for the Metal Gods SLAYER to come on stage. Oh shit, what a show it was. Lights turned off, and you heard the drums go do-do- do.. RAINING BLOOD!!!!! I was up pretty close to the stage. After raining blood was over, Tom talked to the crowd about how the last time Slayer played in L.A. was on the Divine Intervention tour. The whole set was great, and Slayer definately had the most violent and biggest pit of all the bands. Tom talked some more about the new album, and played the album version of bloodline, its different then the one thats floating around on the net. Almost all of the trendy people were gone when Slayer hit the stage. It was all die hard Slayer and thrash metal maniacs. I loved the environment. What i'd give to have people around me like that every day. They closed with Angel of Death. Slayer are truly the greatest metal band ever and definately the most intense and best band you can see live. Theres no doubt in my mind about that.

Id have to say my favorite songs of the nite, besides all of them, HEHE were War Ensemble and South of Heaven. Those were the 2 songs other than Angel of Death where Slayer and the fans knew the place was going to go absolutely nuts and out of control. And thats exactly what happened. The best pit was probably during War Ensemble. Tom shouted "WAAAAAAAAR ENSEMBLE" I couldnt believe my ears ive never heard him shout so loud. It was absolute chaos. Every song they gave 100 percent and was right on the money! Bloodline really got me going too, what a great song. I was kind of dissapointed that the beginning of Season In The Abyss wasnt played, but im glad I got to watch Hannemans solo, it was fantastic. All the other songs kicked ass and Slayer was by far the best act of the nite.

The last band of the night was Pantera. I am a big fan of them. I was very impressed with Phil Anselmo for once, hes usually drunk and high and mumbling and talking crap about things. But he was sober and sang great. He showed his loyalty to metal and how record companies and people thought pantera would take a turn at the worst and make a radio friendly album, and they did the opposite. They made the most obscene, rude, vulgar and obnoxious album, which lead into Strength Beyond Strength. The opener, which was Hellbound, had great fire and pyro stuff going on. The flames were awesome. Id say that Pantera was on for almost 2 hours. Even though they had a bad ass lighting show and loud kick ass heavy metal, they are no match for Slayer. Slayer showed up every band there thats for sure. HAIL SLAYER!!!!!!!