There are a million questions that come up during an international move, and one of the most pressing for families is: Where do I send my kids to school? This is no simple question. Finding and vetting schools and arranging enrollment can be a challenge, and the choice of a school can shape a family’s social life and cultural adjustment.
Anthrax and Slayer at Z7 Pratteln - 9 June 2014
Long-haired men, a sea of black t-shirts, headbangers and the sign of the horns at Z7 Pratteln: this is the site of my first ever thrash metal concert. The inside of the venue feels like a little slice of hell on this sweltering summer's evening and I am drenched before the gig has even begun. I feel we're off to a splendid start.
Until recently, I had hardly ever listened to heavy metal, nor did I know very much about the genre. But having just watched Sam Dunn's sterling series Metal Evolution, where better to continue my education than at a concert featuring two of the "Big Four" of thrash metal, Anthrax and Slayer?
Anthrax and Slayer came of age in the burgeoning American metal scene in the 1980s and both bands released seminal albums in that decade, Anthrax with Among The Living and Slayer with Reign in Blood. They've now joined forces for this tour and are selling out venues across Europe.
Anthrax frontman Joey Belladonna sets the tone as soon as he steps on stage: "Are you ready for this sh*t, Switzerland?", he yells, and the crowd responds in the affirmative. Belladonna whirls around like a man half his age, animating the audience and clearly having a ball. The five-piece thunder through Madhouse, Indians, I Am the Law and Antisocial.
Back in the day, Anthrax were the only metal band who didn't take themselves too seriously, and that cheekiness still reverberates today. The band throw in a cover of AC/DC's T.N.T, which has the true metallers in the audience shaking their heads in dismay, but the choice reflects their irreverence about going off on musical tangents. Their set is short and sweet.
And then it's time for the big guns. The venue has become even more packed, the mosh pits are ready to erupt, and grown men and women have released their inner air guitar hero. Slayer are here. The band set a blistering pace and rip through all the classics: Hell Awaits, Mandatory Suicide, Captor of Sin, Chemical Warfare, Black Magic - and in the furious finale, Raining Blood and Angel of Death. Slayer are a tight musical unit, with singer Tom Araya a solid, unflappable presence.
The middle part of Slayer's set sags under a sameness of speed and rhythm over multiple tracks. Thrash metal certainly contains melody, but it can get buried in an onslaught of double-bass drum staccatos and indistinguishable guitar howls. The music is more compelling when the songs vary in speed (the slow riffs in South of Heaven) or in rhythm (the bluesy gait in World Painted Blood).
Metal is not a genre that captures my heart, but I appreciate why the audience loves these bands. The music is honest, precise and doesn't faff about. I may never be a committed metal head, but thrash metal legends Anthrax and Slayer have brought me just that little bit closer into headbanging territory.
- Anna Wirz