Live Review : Disturbed + Megadeth @ AO Arena, Manchester on October 24th 2025

When is a support act not a support act? The answer is when it is a band as legendary the status as Megadeth. Whilst they are nominally the opener for Disturbed‘s 25th anniversary of “The Sickness”, these shows have become at least a double headliner affair if not an inverted proposition where the most popular act goes on first. Part of this newfound desire by the masses to catch Dave Mustaine and his latest musical luminaries is that we are approaching, apparently, the end. Now we are all a bit more wary after being hoodwinked by Slayer’s big “we are definitely going….oh we are back again” routine, but there is still a realisation that a world without Megadeth is a rather dull one indeed.  We are promised a final self-titled album, due early next year, an open-ended jaunt around the world and back, and then the lid will firmly be put on Megadeth’s coffin. 

The roar that accompanies Dave and Co.’s entry from the wings is astonishing and confirms that if this is indeed their final slouch towards Bethlehem, then they are going to go out as much on a high as possible. ‘Hangar 18’ is now firmly in its thirties, but it still remains a solid and extraordinarily vitriolic slice of premium riffage. You actually have to fight to hear Dave's voice over the choral attempts of the thousands singing along. If they are just a mere aperitif, nobody has told the band nor the audience. There are no surprises in the set, even the recently exhumed and rehabilitated ‘Angry Again’ and ‘Dread' and the Fugitive Mind’ are now mainstays of their repertoire. What we get is just a fantastically visceral and vital hour of music. Because of the need to get 12 tracks into a rigid timeframe, we get very little interaction from our Dave. In fact, the only time he stops to actually interact with the fans is before just released new single ‘Tipping Point’. It is a blistering piece of classic thrash that bodes incredibly well for the forthcoming final album.

But even though this record is probably the most highly anticipated Megadeth release in over three decades, the fans are here for the songs that have played a crucial role in forging our world. The culminating run ‘Tornado of Souls’ to ‘Holy Wars…The Punishment Due …’(by way of ‘Mechanix’, ‘Peace Sells’ and ‘Symphony of Destruction’) is quite simply extraordinary. Banger after veritable banger, it just proves once again that Megadeth have never been what Dave did after Metallica throughout. They are an essential and quintessential part of the metal‘s lexicon and if indeed this is their final hurrah, then boy we will miss them.

The AO (or MEN for those of us with longer memories) Arena doesn’t necessarily empty after Megadeth but there is a steady stream of punters deciding to take an early bath. Even before David Draiman's divisive act with a marker pen, Disturbed have controversially split opinion. Some believe them a massively underrated and unrecognised force in modern metal (those disciples make up most of those present in this surprisingly full arena). Then there are others that feel that are just too formulaic, prosaic and synthetic to be viewed as a veritable metal institution. This evening, as the Megadeth fans take their leave, they are indeed playing to the converted. 

Before they even hit the stage, they have a video playing showing the history of the band, projected onto the curtain, obscuring the stage. As the video culminates, three silhouettes are visible, then the drapes tumble to the ground and David Draiman is wheeled out in his customary straight jacket. A highly theatrical opening for what turns out to be a highly theatrical performance. They don’t just play debut album “The Sickness” in full, they perform it in full operatic grandeur. ‘Stupify’ is accompanied by all the pyro that Parkway Drive didn’t use the other week. The title track is greeted with a furore of ecstatic euphoria. A good 15,000 voices sing back at David both the lyrics and his, often derided, vocal gymnastics. ‘Shout’ now belongs to them as much as it does to Tears For Fears (as do the other two covers aired later) and it belches forth another grand sing along. However, the big production is saved for album closer ‘Meaning of Life’. David gets sentenced to death by the electric chair, and then, rather graphically, gets fried to death, not once but twice. Alice Cooper may have been chopping his head off for five decades, but there is an ironic gallows humour (pardon the pun) to that. This feels different. This feels like an emotionally tense performance, built to shock and challenge simultaneously.

And with that gut punch, there is an interval to allow the collective retrieval of breath and also the entire staging to be changed, including drum kit. They return for an eight-song, strong greatest hits set, but before they roll out the more well-known tracks, we get a completely new number: ‘I Will Not Break’. If we are honest, it is Disturbed by numbers and doesn’t bring anything particularly new to the party, but the by now bouncing masses don’t care and gleefully sing along. They may now be in the “hits” section but the production values are kept high, and during ‘Bad Man’ a massive inflatable incarnation of “The guy” looms over the entire band, looking for all the world like he is about to swallow Mike Wrengen and his kit whole.

As stated ‘Land of Confusion’ and ‘Sound of Silence’ are presented as if they belonged to them all along (though David still manages to come across a little too like Vic Reeves’ club singer in the latter for our liking). ‘The Light’ is dedicated to the memory of a fallen fan whose close family are at the front and final number ‘Inside the Fire’ lives up to its name by being very fiery indeed. The biggest takeaway from this evening is that it doesn’t actually matter if people don’t like Disturbed because, as an almost sold-out arena proves, for every dissenter there is a devotee who thinks David Draiman and Co. walk on water. They may court controversy, and they may revel in not being liked, but tonight shows thousands do get it.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Disturbed + Megadeth