Live report PANTERA, POWER TRIP & CHILD BITE, Alsterdorfer Sporthalle, Hamburg – February 6th, 2025

Tonight it gets loud and wild at the Alsterdorfer Sporthalle in Hamburg. Thrash metal icons Pantera are in town to play a show and with them on tour are two more bands. Power Trip and Child Bite are part of the package that promises some furious metal power.

While it’s clear that the doors will open at 18:30, it’s not so clear when the first band will enter the stage. Announced was 20:00, but it was already at 19:00, when Detroit metal powerhouse Child Bite takes the stage. Due to the unclear schedule and longer queues in front of the entrance, the hall is quite empty when Child Bite start their set.

The guys from Detroit deliver a furious metal show. Their punk/metal/sludge fusion, together with some wild stage acting is exactly what is needed tonight. Frontman Shawn Knight is the center of the show. His ecstatic movements combined with his vocals make this start really special. He is all over the place and his vocals make me think of how guys like Jello Biafra would sound if he would be into sludge. This show is wild and crazy, but in a good way. The four-piece plays surprisingly tight and there are some unexpected twists and turns throughout this energetic 30 minutes. What Child Bite deliver is certainly not off the shelf and fans really appreciate the effort of the four guys.

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Next on the schedule is Power Trip. It’s been a while since I saw the band live. It was back in 2018 when the guys supported Trivium on their European tour. Two years later a stroke of fate hit the band when frontman Riley Gale died in August 2020. The future of the band was uncertain until the band returned to the stage in early 2024. A new singer, Seth Gilmore, took over and the current tour with Pantera is the first in this new line-up. Power Trip have only released two full-length albums to date, and it is the 2017 release that delivers the core of tonight’s set. The massive “Soul Sacrifice” is the first thrash metal inferno from Power Trip and what the five piece unleash is a brutal riff attack. The aggression of thrash metal and a lot of groove is a delight for the fans in the hall and the reaction of the crowd speaks volumes. Headbanging and some first crowdsurfers show that the fans are having a lot of fun and the motto of this show is: “Get the circle moving”. In constant interaction with their fans, Power Trip animate for circle pits and it is a wall of death at the beginning of “Manifest Decimation” that shows the great atmosphere at Alsterdorfer Sporthalle. It seems that a lot of fans came to see Power Trip and I think we can conclude that Power Trip are back with full force.

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Time for Pantera. Now it is the second visit of the band to Europe, as they have already played shows in the summer of 2023. 18 months later Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown are back in Hamburg and with them on stage are Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante (Anthrax). No matter how you look at Pantera’s current line-up, it’s the songs that are timeless. Tonight’s setlist is full of true metal anthems and the start couldn’t be better than what the four-piece delivers. Wasting no time, Pantera start their show with “A New Level” and “Mouth of War”. These songs are taken from the legendary “Vulgar Display of Power” album and are the right choice to turn the venue into a madhouse.

Even though Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante are great musicians with a long history in metal, it is Vinnie Paul and his brother Dimebag Darrell who are missed. So tonight is a kind of tribute to the two guys who shaped the sound of Pantera. The emotional highlight of the show is the extended version of “Floods”. The stage is framed by two big screens and a digital backdrop, and while the band plays “Floods”, video sequences of Dimebag and Vinnie appear on the screen – a moment to remember and a salute to two extraordinary musicians.

What follows is one of the most important songs the band has ever released, and when Zakk Wylde introduces the riff, it is time for “Walk”. It’s the musical highlight of the evening with the crowd loudly chanting “Re-spect, Walk”. Also on stage during this classic are the guys from Child Bite, as it is their last night on this tour. And that there is still some energy left in the tank is shown by guitarist Jeremy Waun who does a lot of push-ups during the song.

“Cowboys From Hell” takes everyone back to 1990 and it is “Fucking Hostile” that heralds the end of the show.

As mentioned, you can look at these Pantera shows from different perspectives, but we can clearly say that listening to these extraordinary songs live is a special experience. It shows the quality and timeless spirit of metal anthems that helped define the next generation of thrash metal.