It was one truly awesome night for Metal Allegiance as some of the hard rock and metal's vets took the stage at the City National Grove of Anaheim to pay homage to some of music's fallen heroes.

The show started with Metal Allegiance performing a couple of songs of their original material, with Death Angel's Mark Osegueda leading the group through the anthemic "Pledge of Allegiance" and Testament's Chuck Billy sitting in for the hard rock track "Can't Kill the Devil." But from there, it was a night full of covers of classic tracks from influential artists, with some of those taking the stage saluting some of their late bandmates.

Guitarist Gary Holt was onstage for tributes to Slayer's Jeff Hanneman on "War Ensemble" and Exodus' "Bonded by Blood." David Ellefson was around for a take on "Peace Sells" in honor of late Megadeth's favorites Nick Menza and Gar Samuelson. Drummer Mikkey Dee played during a performance of Motorhead's "Iron Fist" in honor of Lemmy Kilmister and Phil Taylor. Bassist Mike Inez sat in on Alice in Chains' "We Die Young" saluting Layne Staley and Mike Starr, and Vinny Appice appeared late in the show to drum on a performance of Dio's "We Rock."

Other artists saluted during the night included David Bowie ("Suffragette City"), Randy Rhoads ("I Don't Know"), Pantera ("5 Minutes Alone"), Clive Burr ("Murder in the Rue Morgue"), Freddie Mercury ("Dragon Attack" / "Stone Cold Crazy"), Phil Lynott ("Emerald"), Cliff Burton ("Disposable Heroes" and "Seek and Destroy"), Prince ("Let's Go Crazy"), Andy Wood ("Chloe Dancer"), Bon Scott ("Riff Raff") and Jon Lord ("Space Truckin'").

The smiles and good times were in abundance, as rockers like Mike Portnoy, Mark Menghi, Alex Skolnick and David Ellefson were flanked by Chuck Billy, Chris Jericho, Mark Osegueda, Carla Harvey, Eddie Hermida, Phil Demmel, Gary Holt, Charlie Benante, Marty Friedman, Billy Sheehan, Richie Faulkner, Mike Inez, Arejay Hale, Mikkey Dee and Vinny Appice. And there was a special guest appearance by Ray Burton, the father of the late Cliff Burton, who presented one of Cliff's basses to Mark Menghi to play on "Disposable Heroes."

See our full photo gallery from Metal Allegiance's "Tribute to Fallen Heroes" above, and to watch some of the concert highlights, just click the start of the playlist below. One song will follow the other in the playlist.

Watch Metal Allegiance's "Tribute to Fallen Heroes" Playlist

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