‘Titans’ Aim to Alter Metal’s Image

When they named the concert tour “Clash of the Titans,” they didn’t know how right they were.

The package, which arrives Friday at the San Diego Sports Arena and Saturday at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, is a pressure-packed bill of speed-metal stars: Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, three of the biggest bands in a still suspect realm, joining forces to assert their genre’s legitimacy.

“It’s gonna eradicate the promoters’ apprehensions about bringing a bill like this into town,” Megadeth’s leader Dave Mustaine said recently. “You know, people saying there’s gonna be witches and satanic sacrifices and fields burned and churches decimated and graffiti all over everywhere and dead bodies and rigs hanging out of kids’ arms. . . .

“It’s giving us some validity in a marketplace where people are very apprehensive towards putting faith in what we can do. It’s about validity for this music.”

But common cause and tempos aside, Mustaine doesn’t feel much brotherhood with the show’s co-stars Slayer, the L.A. band known for its macabre imagery and partying spirit. The two bands teamed recently on a European version of the Titans tour, and Mustaine, almost a year removed from a serious drug habit, has unpleasant memories.

“There were times where it was detrimental to my sanity. . . . When we travel and we’re stuck on the same plane with them, and they’re completely inebriated, swearing at the top of their lungs and belching and guzzling. . . . I felt like I wanted to crawl off into the bathroom of the plane and die. . . .

“There were a few times when we stayed in the same hotel, and it was very demeaning to be associated with other people that bring that kind of calamity with them wherever they go. . . . Whatever good we do was denigrated by what was going on. . . . “

Does Mustaine have more respect for Slayer’s music than their behavior?

“That’s kind of hard to say because I have no respect for their behavior. I have more respect for their luggage than their behavior.”