The Clash of the Titans tour put Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax on one arena bill for the first time, and the 1991 North American leg opened in Dallas. The first night was May 16, 1991, at the Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre in Fair Park, with Alice in Chains opening. Lubbock, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso followed within five days.
The Short Version
- Europe: September 22 to October 14, 1990. Megadeth and Slayer co-headlined, with Testament and Suicidal Tendencies.
- North America: May 16 to July 14, 1991. Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax headlined, with Alice in Chains opening.
- Texas dates: Dallas, Lubbock, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso, May 16–21, 1991.
What Was the Clash of the Titans Tour?
Clash of the Titans was a package tour built to move thrash from theaters into arenas. A Metal Hammer feature on the tour (May 2021, republished by Louder in March 2026) says Slayer and Megadeth had been headlining rooms of 2,000 to 5,000. The target was arenas averaging 16,000.
The idea came from Europe. John Jackson of the K2 Agency told Louder he already had a Slayer tour approved and thought, “Wouldn’t it be brilliant if we could put them together?” Dave Mustaine told Guitar World in 2010 that “the idea for the original Clash of the Titans was presented to us by a guy from overseas.”
The name, Jackson said, was picked because “it says exactly what it is.” Guitar World notes the tour was “named after a 1981 fantasy movie about the Greek legend of Perseus.”
The 1990 European Leg
The first leg opened at the Limburghal in Genk, Belgium, on September 22, 1990. It ran 18 dates through Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the UK. It closed at Wembley Arena in London on October 14, 1990. Slayer used footage from that night in the “War Ensemble” video.
Megadeth was touring Rust in Peace, and Slayer had Seasons in the Abyss. Testament brought Souls of Black, and Suicidal Tendencies brought Lights...Camera...Revolution! Testament’s Eric Peterson told Guitar World his band “kind of rushed out Souls of Black just to get on the bill.”
In Europe the order was fixed. David Ellefson told Louder that Slayer closed and Megadeth played third. Our Megadeth history covers the Rust in Peace lineup that played it, and the Slayer history covers Seasons in the Abyss.
Testament
Berkeley, California, formed in 1983 as Legacy. Start with The New Order (1988), then Souls of Black (1990), the album they rushed out for the European leg.
Suicidal Tendencies
Venice, Los Angeles, formed in 1980 by Mike Muir. The 1983 self-titled debut comes first; Lights...Camera...Revolution! (Epic, 1990) is the one they took to Europe with Clash.
Who Played Clash of the Titans in 1991?
The 1991 lineup was Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax as three headliners, with Alice in Chains opening. Louder reports the three agreed to rotate positions each night. Kerry King told Guitar World, “We’d switch off who was headlining every night,” and said each band played about an hour.
Megadeth was Mustaine, Ellefson, Marty Friedman and Nick Menza. Slayer was Tom Araya, Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo. Anthrax was Joey Belladonna, Dan Spitz, Scott Ian, Frank Bello and Charlie Benante.
Anthrax almost said no. Scott Ian told Louder the band was opening for Iron Maiden when the offer arrived, and its first answer was, “Why do we need this? We can do it ourselves.” A longer fax arrived that same night and changed their minds. Persistence of Time had come out on August 21, 1990, and went gold on January 17, 1991.
It paid off. Ian told Classic Rock, as quoted on Wikipedia, that Anthrax “didn’t start making any money until 1991, on the Clash of the Titans tour in the States.” The Among the Living feature covers the record that built that crowd.
Clash of the Titans Tour Dates 1991: The Texas Opening Week
The North American leg played Texas before anywhere else. Wikipedia’s tour-date table, sourced to an Alice in Chains concert chronology, lists five Texas shows in six days:
- May 16, 1991: Dallas, Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre (opening night)
- May 17, 1991: Lubbock, Lubbock Municipal Coliseum
- May 18, 1991: San Antonio, Sunken Garden Theater (listed by Wikipedia as Sunken Gardens Amphitheater)
- May 19, 1991: Houston, The Summit
- May 21, 1991: El Paso, El Paso County Coliseum
Fan-logged setlists on setlist.fm back every one of those dates for Anthrax and Alice in Chains, tagged “Clash of the Titans.” From El Paso the tour went to Albuquerque on May 22, then west to the coast.
The Starplex was new. It opened on July 23, 1988, under the Coca-Cola name. It holds 20,000, roughly the arena scale the promoters were chasing.
The Dallas setlists survive on setlist.fm. Slayer opened with “Hell Awaits” and closed with “Angel of Death,” with “Seasons in the Abyss” and “War Ensemble” in between. Megadeth played “Hangar 18,” “Tornado of Souls” and “Holy Wars... The Punishment Due,” and ended on its cover of “Anarchy in the U.K.”
Anthrax opened with “Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)” and played its covers of “Got the Time” and “Antisocial.” The encore was “I’m the Man,” then “I Am the Law,” led in by a verse of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Alice in Chains’ logged set includes “We Die Young” and “Man in the Box.”
Dos Equis Pavilion (former Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre) Open
The Fair Park amphitheater hosted the first night of the 1991 US leg. It has been renamed six times, through Smirnoff Music Centre, Superpages.com Center and Gexa Energy Pavilion (pictured in 2012), and has been Dos Equis Pavilion since April 2018. Live Nation runs it, and it still books arena-size metal.
Photo: Hasteur, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Our Dallas–Fort Worth metal scene guide covers the clubs that built the crowd waiting in Fair Park that night.
How Alice in Chains Got the Opening Slot
Alice in Chains got the slot because Megadeth saw them by accident. Ellefson told Blabbermouth in 2020 that the Seattle band had been added to some European dates while Megadeth finished its Rust in Peace run. He and Friedman caught them in Zurich and called their US management.
“We found the band: ALICE IN CHAINS. Call SLAYER’s management, ANTHRAX’s management. Work it out.”
That was Ellefson’s account of the call. Facelift came out in August 1990, the same month as Persistence of Time. It peaked at No. 42 and on September 11, 1991, became the first grunge album certified gold.
The crowds were not kind. Ellefson told Blabbermouth the band “got pelted with trash” by thrash fans asking “What the hell is this?” His verdict: “They sucked it up and they took their punches from our fans.” King told Guitar World he started out hating “Man in the Box.” Speaking to Louder, he later called Layne Staley “probably the best singer of our generation.”
Alice in Chains
Seattle. The odd band out on the 1991 bill, and the one that grew fastest after it. Start with Facelift (1990), the album they toured on Clash.
The Bands That Almost Played
Alice in Chains was not the first choice. Rick Ernst told Guitar World the last spot was first given to Death Angel. Guitarist Rob Cavestany said a road accident on November 28, 1990, badly injured the band’s drummer. His recovery took a year, and the band would not tour without him. Our Death Angel history tells the rest of that story.
Death Angel
San Francisco Bay Area, 1982. Start with The Ultra-Violence (1987), cut while every member was a teenager, then Act III (1990).
Sepultura was another candidate for the slot. Max Cavalera told Decibel, as Ultimate Guitar reported in April 2018, that the band “couldn’t get on Clash of the Titans” and that “they put Alice in Chains in there instead.” Sepultura answered by headlining its own package, New Titans on the Bloc, with Sacred Reich, Napalm Death and Sick of It All.
Testament had played the European leg and reportedly turned down the US leg to work on The Ritual. Exodus were offered a spot and had to withdraw for financial reasons, per Wikipedia, and Anthrax took it. Kreator, Vio-lence and Obituary reportedly declined opening slots.
So, reportedly, did Pantera, and that is the Texas what-if. Scott Ian told Guitar World, “I remember thinking we wanted Pantera. We all thought they would be the perfect opening band.” He added that everyone on the tour “was already friends with Dimebag Darrell.”
Pantera
Arlington, Texas. Cowboys from Hell (1990) had just made them the band everyone on the Clash bill wanted to open. Start there.
Our Cowboys From Hell feature covers where Pantera stood in 1990 and 1991. Rotting Corpse knew that camp well. Walt Trachsler was a guitar tech for Darrell Abbott and a Pantera roadie before the band formed, per our timeline. Vinnie Paul engineered two of the band’s demos, as the discography records.
Why the Tour Still Matters
Clash of the Titans was the first time three of the Big Four shared a bill. Metallica was the missing one. King told Guitar World:
“But we had three pieces of it, and that was all the management and promoters needed.”
The tour ended on July 14, 1991, in Miami, and Metallica’s self-titled album came out on August 12, four weeks later. Guitar World called Clash the first time a metal package tour played rooms like Madison Square Garden. Louder counts 19,000 fans at the Garden on June 28, with MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball filming. Our Big Four guide explains how the grouping stuck.
The three headliners came back together in 2010. Blabbermouth reported on July 11, 2010, that “1991’s original American ‘Clash of the Titans’ lineup” would play the second leg of the American Carnage tour. It opened in Dallas on September 24, 2010, then San Antonio and Houston.
Ian summed it up for Guitar World: “It’s like if Priest, Maiden and Motörhead had done a tour in 1981.” Our thrash decline and revival history covers what happened to the genre once grunge arrived.
Where to Hear It Live
As of October 2026, here is where to see the Clash of the Titans bands and rooms, Texas first:
- October 24, 2026: Slayer at Sick New World Texas, Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth. Guitar.com lists Slayer as a headliner, with Power Trip and Ministry also on the bill. The festival says it is sold out, with a waitlist.
Official page and waitlist - April 28, 2027: Iron Maiden at Dos Equis Pavilion, Dallas, the room where Clash of the Titans opened. Anthrax was opening for Iron Maiden when the Clash offer arrived.
Venue calendar - Megadeth, 2027 farewell run in Europe: no Texas dates are listed. It returns to five Clash of the Titans rooms: OVO Arena Wembley (Wembley Arena’s name since 2022) on March 11, the Zénith in Paris on March 21, Düsseldorf’s Mitsubishi Electric Halle (the Philips Halle until 2011) on March 25, K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen on March 27 and the Festhalle in Bern on April 5.
Megadeth tour page - May 16, 2027: Alice in Chains at Boardwalk Rock, Ocean City, Maryland, 36 years to the day after the Dallas opener. Tickets are on sale through the band’s tour page.
Alice in Chains tour page
Megadeth
Los Angeles, 1983. Rust in Peace (1990) is the record they toured on Clash, and the one to start with.
Slayer
Huntington Park, California, 1981. Seasons in the Abyss (1990) was the Clash record, but Reign in Blood (1986) comes first.
Anthrax
New York, 1981. Among the Living (1987) first, then Persistence of Time (1990), the album behind their Clash sets.
Anthrax’s official tour page showed no upcoming shows when we checked on October 21, 2026. Follow them on Bandsintown for announcements.
Start with “Neck Breaking Fury” (1990)
It was cut in San Antonio in January 1990, the year the Clash of the Titans tour began, and it was in the live set years before it was recorded (lyrics).
Sources
- Wikipedia: Clash of the Titans (tour)
- Guitar World: Clash of the Titans Tour, Iron Giants (oral history, 2010)
- Louder: Rich Hobson, How the Clash of the Titans tour put thrash metal in arenas (March 29, 2026)
- Blabbermouth: David Ellefson on how Alice in Chains ended up opening for Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax (July 22, 2020)
- Blabbermouth: Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax to join forces for leg two of American Carnage (July 11, 2010)
- setlist.fm: Slayer, Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, May 16, 1991
- setlist.fm: Megadeth, Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, May 16, 1991
- setlist.fm: Anthrax, Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, May 16, 1991
- setlist.fm: Alice in Chains, Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, May 16, 1991
- setlist.fm: Anthrax, Texas dates, May 1991
- Wikipedia: Dos Equis Pavilion
- Wikipedia: Persistence of Time
- Wikipedia: Facelift (album)
- Ultimate Guitar: Max Cavalera on why Sepultura weren’t on the 1991 Clash of the Titans tour (April 3, 2018)
- Wikipedia: Metallica (album)
- Wikipedia: Mitsubishi Electric Halle
- Wikipedia: Wembley Arena
- Guitar.com: Crystal Koe, Slayer to headline Sick New World Texas in 2026 (October 2025)
- Sick New World: Texas, October 24, 2026
- Megadeth official site: Tour
- Dos Equis Pavilion: Official site and show calendar
- Alice in Chains official site: Tour
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the Clash of the Titans tour?
It ran in two legs. The European leg played 18 dates from September 22 to October 14, 1990, ending at Wembley Arena in London. The North American leg ran from May 16 to July 14, 1991.
Who played the Clash of the Titans tour in 1991?
Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax headlined in North America and rotated their positions on the bill, with Alice in Chains opening. In Europe in 1990, Megadeth and Slayer co-headlined with Testament and Suicidal Tendencies.
Where did the 1991 Clash of the Titans tour start?
In Dallas, on May 16, 1991, at the Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre in Fair Park, now Dos Equis Pavilion.
Why was Alice in Chains on the Clash of the Titans tour?
Death Angel had the slot until a November 1990 road accident. David Ellefson and Marty Friedman then saw Alice in Chains in Zurich and pitched them for it.
Why wasn’t Metallica on Clash of the Titans?
Kerry King told Guitar World they probably couldn’t get Metallica on board. Metallica’s self-titled album came out on August 12, 1991, four weeks after the tour ended.
