EXODUS
DEATH ANGEL
2020 is set to be an unforgettable year for European thrash metalheads – three legendary pioneers of the genre have announced that they will be touring the continent throughout February and March next spring. Hitting the road will be no other than the Bay Area’s very own TESTAMENT, EXODUS and DEATH ANGEL – who have all teamed up to bring the catchily dubbed “The Bay Strikes Back” tour to European shores.
TESTAMENT’s Chuck Billy commented:
“It’s finally happening!!!! All of us have spoken over the years of how killer it would be to tour together and bring Bay Area Thrash Metal across the world and we are starting in Europe. I’m sure I can speak for all three bands in saying that we are proud of where we all came from and we are still delivering some of the best thrash metal we can to the fans. Be ready for the Bay Area Strikes Back Tour 2020.”
And Gary Holt from EXODUS:
“I am fired up to FINALLY return to Europe with EXODUS! Along with our Bay Area friends TESTAMENT and DEATH ANGEL! An epic tour for the ages! Looking forward to crushing everyone Bay Area style! See you there!!! I cannot wait!”
DEATH ANGEL’s Rob Cavestany added:
“We couldn’t be more excited to announce our upcoming tour with TESTAMENT and EXODUS! Bay Area Thrash Attack in full force! All 3 bands have been close friends for decades and our mutual respect is of the highest level. That said, we will surely push each other to go beyond expectations each and every night. This is a first – the three of us have never toured together in the same package… it’s about time! See you in the pit!”
See all dates below.
Both, TESTAMENT and EXODUS are currently working on the follow-up to their 2016 (TESTAMENT – »Brotherhood Of The Snake«) and 2014 (EXODUS – »Blood In, Blood Out«) albums, while DEATH ANGEL will be touring in support of their most recent record, »Humanicide« (2019).
THE BAY STRIKES BACK TOUR 2020
TESTAMENT | EXODUS | DEATH ANGEL
presented by: METAL HAMMER, EMP, IMPERICON, NUCLEAR BLAST & COBRA AGENCY
06.02.2020 DK Copenhagen, Amager Bio
07.02.2020 SE Stockholm, Arenan Fryshuset
10.02.2020 FI Helsinki, The Circus
11.02.2020 FI Tampere, Pakkahuone
13.02.2020 DE Hamburg, Docks
14.02.2020 DE Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle
15.02.2020 DE Wiesbaden, Schlachthof
16.02.2020 NL Utrecht, Tivoli
18.02.2020 DE Berlin, Huxleys
19.02.2020 PL Wroclaw, Orbita Hall
20.02.2020 AT Vienna, Arena
21.02.2020 DE Munich, Backstage
22.02.2020 DE Filderstadt, Filharmonie
25.02.2020 IT Milano, Live Club
27.02.2020 ES Barcelona, Razzmatazz
28.02.2020 ES Madrid, Palacio Vistalegre
29.02.2020 FR Toulouse, Bikini
01.03.2020 FR Paris, Elysee Montmartre
03.03.2020 UK Bristol, O2 Academy
04.03.2020 IE Dublin, National Stadium
06.03.2020 UK London, Forum
07.03.2020 UK Manchester, Academy
08.03.2020 UK Glasgow, Barrowland
10.03.2020 BE Brussels, AB
11.03.2020 DE Hannover, Capitol
ICYMI:
TESTAMENT – ‘The Pale King’ music video: https://youtu.be/wkHT86Ei7DY
EXODUS – ‘Blood In, Blood Out’ music video: https://youtu.be/6c69S3pD8qI
DEATH ANGEL – ‘I Came For Blood’ music video: https://youtu.be/BNuliOVJ8O8
www.testamentlegions.com
www.exodusattack.com
www.deathangel.us
www.facebook.com/testamentlegions
www.facebook.com/exodusattack
www.facebook.com/deathangel
www.nuclearblast.de/testament
www.nuclearblast.de/exodus
www.nuclearblast.de/deathangel
by Stephanie Cabral
by Bruce Getty
Chuck Billy and the band come out on stage to a huge roar and kick off with Brotherhood of the Snake which they have started many other gigs with this year, followed by The Pale King, the first two tracks off 2016’s ‘Brotherhood of the Snake’ record. These two songs have everything you’d expect from Testament, plenty of thrashy tempo changes, face-melting guitar and, of course, endless air guitar from Chuck! The album itself is one of the band’s most successful yet released, both commercially and critically.
Next we’re treated to More than Meets the Eye and D.N.R. from albums released either side of Chuck Billy’s illness in the early 2000s. Also from The Gathering is Eyes of Wrath which I get a great view of now that I’m out of the photo pit. While Chuck Billy’s vocals are still great, Eric and Steve’s guitar and bass sound great and Gene Hoglan’s drumming is dead on target but for me it’s Alex Skolnick’s guitar that steals the show, he is note perfect with huge scales and tricky artificial harmonics. No wonder Lamb of God paid tribute to him earlier in the day!
It was a little disappointing not to see more material off Dark Roots but it would be hard to complain about seeing this concert if it was your first time seeing Testament, jam-packed as it was with great metal.
Their European Tour this time around has taken in 11 countries and 14 concerts so far but with more to come at big events like Wacken OA and Pol’And’Rock before going back to the States in September. Testament had planned an album, their twelfth studio album, for release in 2018 but it was then pushed back to 2019 and now looks to be pushed again to 2020 breaking the band’s promise that it wouldn’t be another 4 years between albums. The fans here today don’t seem to be complaining too much about that!
The rip-roaring Disciples is next and then we finish off our evening with Testament with The Formation of Damnation. A great show, by a great band.
]]>Over the course of the week leading into the weekend I had seen a lot of bands. And I mean a LOT! Scheduled for the festival were almost one hundred (100!) bands, it was truly a celebration of metal music and a huge achievement for the organisers. The more I watched however the more something became clear, the American bands set a huge standard in terms of performance, quality and sound – and Lamb of God were one of those bands. The songs may have included mostly older material, but they just nailed everything they touched.
Randy Blythe’s vocals were off the scale, the guitar riffs which Lamb of God are so well-regarded for were played with punishing clarity including those awesome artificial harmonics they employ to close out many of their most famous riffs (‘Omerta’, ‘Walk With Me in Hell’, ‘Laid to Rest’, ‘Redneck’, etc.). Even John Campbell’s bass was loud and clear, which is some achievement considering the dual-guitar sound he was competing against and Art Cruz’s double bass drum work, a sound synonymous with Lamb of God, kept the rhythm together perfectly.
Lamb of God have opened all of their European dates with ‘Omerta’ from their fourth studio album. I’m not a huge fan of bands performing the exact same opening song on an entire tour, but at the same time I personally feel that ‘Omerta’ is a stunning example of metal music and a great way to headbang with a few beers and good friends. Next up were ‘Now You’ve Got Something to Die for’ from the same album and ‘Blacken the Cursed Sun’ from the Sacrament record. The crowd was loving it with circle pits and mosh pits forming all around me. ‘Walk with me in Hell’ soon followed along with ‘Descending’ and 2015’s ‘512’. They dedicated their second last song of the night to Testament’s Alex Skolnick who came out on stage to show his gratitude to the band and crowd. Alex obviously has a great relationship with the band and Randy who called Alex a “book-reading mother f*cker”! Alex provided one of the solos for the title track on Lamb of God’s 2004 studio album ‘Ashes of the Wake’, so he goes way back with the band. The band then closed out the set with ‘Laid to Rest’ from the same album and ‘Redneck’.
This set was the final to be played by Lamb of God on this tour and their next show isn’t until the wintertime back home in the US. Would I have liked to have seen more new material? Yes, I would have, but if there was any doubt as to how good they were, I went back to my room that night and listened to Lamb of God non-stop, they had infected me again just like they did that first time in Dublin.
]]>Let me take you back to a time when internet, streaming or anything of the sort was science fiction. CD’s were still relatively new, but the little silver discs with the tiny covers were quickly gaining momentum. We first and foremost had vinyl. We also had cassette tapes, not because they were trendy, but because they were the norm and affordable, and we copied vinyls onto those cassette tapes like mad.
The year is 1988. Yours faithfully is 15 years old and in the middle of a period of time, which would define my musical taste forever. From a life were comic books and badminton were my two main interests, I’d move into a state were music and metal music in particular would be the interest to rule them all.
Ram it down, ram it down, straight through the heart of this town
I recently realised that 2018 marks my 30th anniversary as a full-blown metal fan. It was the year when I finally bought my first albums and KNEW in my 15/16-year-old bones that metal music would be the soundtrack of my life.
It all started two or three years before, when some of my class mates started listening to Iron Maiden, Beastie Boys, Accept, Slayer and Manowar. I didn’t like it much in the beginning, mainly because I would always tend to be a bit oppositional to what the others did and liked. Eventually, I’d admit even to myself that I was completely in love with the energy of this music and exactly that rebellious nature of the whole genre. It was primarily the TV programme ‘Monsters of Rock’ on Sky Channel that taught me more and more about this rebellious genre of music, which had so more power than the rock and pop music I was listening to at the time (e.g. Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, The Beatles).
The legendary Mick Wall from Monsters of Rock introduced me to Judas Priest and their cover of ‘Johnny B. Goode’. I was completely in awe. What had they DONE to that classic rock song? I had to own it. Immediately. There’s was no single, so I had to buy the album, Ram It Down, and as much as I thought it was a bit over the top to buy an entire album I didn’t know beforehand, I didn’t regret it. I loved the album, and I do to this day. This was towards the end of May 1988.
Here’s a clip from Monsters of Rock:
Justice is lost, justice is raped, justice is gone
Ram It Down started an avalanche of purchases. From then on, all of my pocket money went into the till of the local record store owner and the ditto second-hand store. I believe Testament’s Live at Eindhoven (1987) was next (I bought that on a trip to Germany), then Anthrax’s Spreading the Disease (1986), a Nazareth maxi (Cinema) (1981) and very soon, one of my mates sold me Master Of Puppets (1986). After that, I bought The Number of the Beast, Live After Death and Powerslave. The foundation of a collection was made!
Suddenly, I also discovered that these bands played live concerts. The first one I went to was Denmark’s own Artillery sometime during the autumn of 1988. The venue was tiny and there were probably 30 of us tops, but, hell, the energy was crazy. Banging your head in front of a real, live band was just something completely different. Then and there, it became an addiction to see more.
To this day, I don’t understand where I found the money. I was both picking up the back catalogue of the bands I discovered and at the same time, I’d get the new releases. And looking back, 1988 was a gargantuan year in terms of metal music.
Yours truly…aged 15, with parts of the growing collection:
At this point, I would like to write something like ‘the one release that outshines them all is this one’ or ‘unequalled among all of these albums was…’, but I hesitate. The number of gargantuan metal releases throughout 1988 was ridiculously huge. Examples? Well, let’s begin with Metallica.
My mum went to London on a business trip for some days in September, and crammed into her suitcase, she brought home with her the double LP …And Justice For All, which had been released the week before. Even though Master had blown my mind, Justice would turn out to be the Metallica album for me and certainly also one of my all-time favourite releases. I didn’t mind the thin sound and the infamous absence of bass, the songs very simply astonished the 16-year-old Thomas Nielsen. It’s still my favourite Metallica album.
That was by the way not all my mum’s generous suitcase contained; she also picked up the new Anthrax album, State of Euphoria, on cassette. I loved it. It was so much better than Spreading, and since I didn’t know Among the Living yet, State was truly the dog’s bollocks. Anthrax did mean a lot to me, and they would eventually also be the first international band I saw live in concert. This happened one year later, when they played in Copenhagen.
Silently screaming as I bang my head ‘gainst the wall
The support band for that same concert was Suicidal Tendencies who also found a big place in my heart. This was due to one of my mates from upper secondary level school. He introduced me to ST, and in 1988, they released the brilliant How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today, which was so different from the other thrash metal I knew. Mike Muir’s lyrics as well as his delivery was something else and the flow of the music was unique.
Thrash or be Trashed
And thrash certainly was gigantic in 1988, although the genre was actually already at this point wearing out. Other thrash grenades to emerge during the year included Death Angel’s Frolic Through the Park, the outstanding No Place For The Disgrace by Flotsam & Jetsam, Atrophy’s Socialized Hate, Realm’s Endless Wars, Forbidden’s power house debut Forbidden Evil, Helstar‘s A Distant Thunder, Australians Hobb’s Angel of Death’s eponymously entitled debut album, Swedish Midas Touch‘s (sadly!) only album, Presage of Disaster, Rigor Mortis‘ self-entitled debut album, Robb Flynn’s pre-Machine Head combo Vio-lence’s Eternal Nightmare, Toxik’s excellent techno-thrash album World Circus, Sanctuary’s Dave Mustaine-produced debut Refuge Denied, where the world of metal for the first time noticed the uncanny voice of the now sadly departed Warrel Dane, the debut offering Suffering Hour by tech-prog-trashers Anacrusis, and in Germany, beer-drinking maniacs Tankard released The Morning After, Sodom unleashed the live album Mortal Way of Live, Vendetta put out the fabulous Brain Damage and Blind Guardian’s debut release, Battalions of Fear also saw the light of day.
The greatest speed/power/thrash album to come out of Germany that year, though, would be Helloween’s Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 2, an album which, along with the rest of the pumpkin heads’ early albums, would influence an entire metal genre.
A very serious young man, doing his best to keep his cool during a family vacation to Greece. Very metal.
The root of all evil is the heart of the black soul
More of the greatest bands within the subgenre made an impact: Former Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine would release the third Megadeth album, So Far, So Good… So What! The blistering cover of ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ was phenomenal, as were ‘Set the World on Fire’, ‘Mary Jane’ and ‘In My Darkest Hour’. Well, it was just an amazing album, basically.
The last of the Big Four, Slayer, would also release one of their, in my humble opinion, best albums in 1988. South Of Heaven saw Slayer taking down the tempo a notch or two compared to Reign In Blood, but for me, it was a more nuanced album with lots more atmosphere than its predecessor. It remains one of my favourite albums to this day.
Another thrash band we need to mention are Testament, again one of my all-time favourite bands, who released their second album, The New Order, in 1988. It was less no ferocious than the debut, but no less popular with me. I liked how the Bay Area thrashers had everything under more control with this release, although they hadn’t lost the heaviness.
On the East coast, New Jersey’s finest also released one of the biggest albums of my youth: Overkill put out Under the Influence, which totally overwhelmed me with its mixture of thrash, punk and a thick, dark atmosphere. From the moment I heard that album, I immediately decided to get hold of everything they’d done before – and buy all their future albums. Which I did.
In Overkill’s neighbourhood, the crossover movement had been thriving with S.O.D. and Nuclear Assault, and the latter-mentioned released the scourging Survive album in 1988 – as well as the magnificent Good Times, Bad Times EP, which was running more or less non-stop on my record player. Also the S.O.D., Anthrax and Nuclear Assualt related band M.O.D. with Billy Milano in his prime released the hilarious Surfin’ M.O.D. It was a great laugh! Another New Jersey band took it even further in terms of extremity: Old Lady Drivers (OLD). This was grindcore with a theme, and a weird one to boot. I loved it.
The ceiling in my room towards the end of 1988…I was DESPERATE to find room for all those posters and magazine clippings!
I’ve got two faces
Further up north, in the French-speaking part of Canada, sci-fi-thrash metallers Voivod released Dimension Hatröss, a studio in oddness and inaccessible music…and yet, the song ‘Tribal Convictions’ caught my ears through the video that was aired on the Monsters of Rock show. ‘Tribal Convictions’ remains a song I keep returning to every now and then.
Some bands had begun to take things into an even more extreme direction than Slayer and the other thrash bands. Chuck Schuldiner and Death had already given name to a new brand of metal, namely death metal, and with Leprosy, they were perfecting the formula and in so doing amazed my mates and myself. In the Netherlands, Pestilence would soon give Death competition to the finish line. Their Malleus Maleficarum was also a masterpiece of extremity, although their expression and sound was different.
To consume all things material
In the UK, there were also extreme things going on. I was introduced to goregrinders Carcass sometime in 1989 and was utterly blown away by the brutally of Symphonies of Sickness from that year, and did the retrospective search in my local record store on the band’s debut from 1988, Reek of Putrefaction. Reek… was no less brutal, but perhaps less structured and therefore not quite as easy to digest as Symphonies. The cover, mind you, was over the top controversial and therefore hard not to love.
Bill Steer’s former playground of extremity, Napalm Death from Birmingham, England, released the scorching From Enslavement To Obliteration with later Cathedral front man Lee Dorrian as spoke person against injustice. Dorrian came from Coventry just like the death metal juggernaut Bolt Thrower, who also released their debut album in 1988. Not their best work, admittedly, but as we all know, they went on to produce some of the most crushing death metal there is.
Also in the UK, a band that would have a massive impact on me a year or so later, namely Sabbat, released their debut on Noise Records. History of a Time to Come was a raw and rather shrill offering, partly due to the production, partly due to Martin Walkyier’s vocal, but there were good songs on there, there was no doubt about that. However, in 1989, they blew all my proverbial speakers with their Dreamweaver, based on Brian Bates’ novel The Way of Wyrd about a young Christian munk who is sent into the pagan lands of Britain. It’s a sublime concept album, no less.
Twist of Cain inside my bleeding heart, yeah
The US scene was not only about the being faster and more extreme in 1988. Manowar released the mighty Kings of Metal album, which spoke to the quest for adventure and the heroic in all of us boys. Guns N’Roses were riding on the success of Appetite for Destruction (1987) and put out GN’R Lies, which was a sort of whilst-we’re-waiting-for-a-proper-album release, but it showed a different side of the band with the fine acoustic tunes.
Glenn Danzig, the former Misfits and Samhain singer, took many by surprise by making a curve between metal and blues. Danzig was and is to this day a fantastic album, and in particular the song ‘Mother’ became an anthem for the tormented souls who followed Evil Elvis. My mom loved it!
On the melodic power metal front, Armored Saint gave the world Saints Will Conquer, a fine live documentary, which was my first encounter with the Saint, this wonderful and talented band fronted by John Bush. I saw Armored Saint in Berlin a couple of years later, at the oddly billed Rock Hard Festival (Obituary, Morgoth, Sepultura, Blind Guardian and the Saint). The atmosphere during the Saint concert wasn’t great, to be honest, which I found weird. The band never made it big commercially, but have been appropriately praised in later years after their return to the metal scene. Riot released Thundersteel, a great melodic power metal album that enjoyed many spins on my records player when I finally picked it up a year or so after its release.
By 1988, Ozzy had long since expatriated himself (or maybe Sharon decided that) to the States, and the band around the Ozzman certainly were Americans. Most notably his new, young guitarist, Zak Wylde, holds the blame for the No Rest for the Wicked being the most impressive of Ozzy’s solo albums. I am well aware that other fans might disagree wildly, but the artificial harmonies and sound of that album simply went straight to my head.
Kill Mary?
On the proggier side of life, Seattle’s Queensrÿche made their magnus opus in 1988: Operation: Mindcrime set new standards for concept albums and the quality of compositions in metal. This was the perfect album. The story, the vocals, the sound, everything. Queensrÿche never managed to top this album, although they made solid attempts throughout the years.
Not too far from the style of earlier Queensrÿche efforts were Crimson Glory. Their Transcendence album also offered fans of prog induced metal a more than decent alternative to the increasingly extreme direction the business was moving into.
Other less hard-hitting, but still superb offerings came from Impelliteri with Stand In Line, a vinyl that is still one of treasures of my collection. Also Sweden’s megalomaniac number one, Yngwie J. Malmsteen graced the ears of metal fans with his classical inspired music in 1988. Although it had nothing to do with thrash or death metal, the sheer strength of Malmsteen’s playing convinced greatly, and Odyssey continued the red line drawn up by Rising Force, Marching Out and Trilogy.
A snapshot of my 1988 memorabilia – most of the vinyls have been traded away for CD’s, but there are still a few left…
For All Those Who Died
Another Swedish artist offered a very different and definitely harder take on the metal genre the same year. In fact, this artist defined a sub-genre in its own right. With Blood Fire Death, Quorthon and Bathory began the transformation from being a prototype black metal meets Motörhead act to setting sails towards Viking shores. It was raw and brutal, yet, curiously epic in nature. As we all know, Quorthon would move on to explore this with great success on the next two albums, Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods, in my view two milestones of metal music.
Another Swedish band set new standards in 1988: Candlemass released an epic lesson in doom metal when Ancient Dreams hit the shelves. With eight monstrously heavy tunes and Messiah Marcolin’s characteristic vocal, I was convinced from the second I laid ears to this. Black Sabbath was a clear influence, but Metallica was also a part of the brew. Amazing album.
Now that we’re touching northern shores, Danish Kim Bendix Pedersen, better known by the name King Diamond, the former Mercyful Fate singer, released his third solo album, “Them”, during the summer of 1988. “Them” was the first part of the tale of young King, his grandmother and the house, Amon, which was to be concluded with Conspiracy in 1989. These two albums were huge in my world. Fine storytelling, lots of melody, lots of heavy riffs from the hands of Andy LaRocque and King himself.
Moving the pointer further south again, more traditional heavy metal was still massive in Germany. Running Wild were riding the waves of success for kraut metal and put out no less than two releases during 1988, and these Germans saturated one’s hunger for pirate adventures. Ready For Boarding came out in February, and Port Royal, the band’s fourth effort and their last album for Noise Records, came out during the Autumn.
In Switzerland, Celtic Frost, many thought, had lost it completely. Tom G. Warrior took the Frost into a completely new and unexpected direction with Cold Lake. The album was an attempt at glam rock and heavy metal, and had thus very little to do with the avant-garde mix of death, black and goth, which had formed the first albums. This was definitely not the high-point of Celtic Frost’s career.
On the periphery of metal, the 1988 releases that would eventually catch my attention were AC/DC’s Blow Up Your Video (although I never really got into AC/DC in any big way), King’s X‘s eminent debut Out of the Silent Planet and the funky heaviness of Living Colour on Vivid.
Seven deadly sins, seven ways to win…
So, as you can see, 1988 was in all respects a year to be reckoned with. The list of majestic releases seems to go on and on. But, hang on, one is missing! That’s right, the heavy metal band that stands above them all also released one of their master pieces in 1988; Iron Maiden gave birth to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. If I were to point to one album that defines metal music, well, music in general, for me, this would be it. This was the album that had the right sound at the right time for me. It had the story, the tale that encompassed hope, fear, love, darkness, madness, everything. It was nothing like the other two great concept albums of that year, Operation:Mindcrime and “Them”. To me, the Brits quite simply killed the competition.
If you were there, you’ll probably know what kind of a monster 1988 was. If you weren’t, I suggest you check out some of the albums I’ve mentioned above. They’re worth it. For me, they still define the nature of metal music.
Below is a bunch of videos so you can check out some tunes from what is probably my best stab at a top ten of 1988 albums. You can also listen to our 1988 Spotify playlist right here.
Number 1
Iron Maiden
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Song: The Clairvoyant
Number 2:
Metallica
…And Justice For All
Song: …And Justice For All
Number 3
Slayer
South of Heaven
Song: Silent Scream
Number 4
Queensrÿche
Operation: Mindcrime
Song: Operation: Mindcrime
Number 5
Judas Priest
Ram It Down
Song: Johnny B. Goode
Number 6
Anthrax
State of Euphoria
Song: Who Cares Wins
Number 7
Flotsam and Jetsam
No Place For Disgrace
Song: No Place For Disgrace
Number 8
Overkill
Under the Influence
Song: Hello from the Gutter
Number 9
Death
Leprosy
Song: Pull the Plug
Number 10
Danzig
Danzig
Song: Mother
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It turns out that there’s nothing to be concerned about.
The venue is now almost full, and as the intro begins, the air is loaded with expectation. The title track of the latest epos, Brotherhood of the Snake, brings both stage and audience to life. It is clear from the outset that Testament are in good shape and ready to thrash.
The volume of Chuck Billy’s vocal isn’t always loud enough in the mix throughout the next 75 minutes, but the big native American moves around the stage comfortably and generally appears to have a blast of a time. Let’s face it, Billy’s voice is very characteristic and has been the main identifier in Testament’s music throughout the years alongside Peterson’s guitar sound.
Eric Peterson, the only other constant factor in Testament since 1987 besides Billy, is also in constant movement, churning out those mighty thrash riffs, both new and old. I see him as a little riff machine, solidity incarnate and less flamboyant and attention-seeking than his fellow six-stringer on the other side of the stage, Alex Skolnick.
Skolnick, with the characteristic white streak of hair, is in a way a peculiar, but also very likeable, guitarist. When you watch him, it is obvious that he has a burning passion for the music he plays and for his instrument, and that he wants people to listen. But at the same time, he comes across a bit, well, awkward in a geeky way. Often he is turned half way towards drum maestro Hoglan and therefore away from the audience. Possibly a jazz thing? No matter; it is a true pleasure to listen to Skolnick’s treatment of the strings.
The rhythm section of Testament is a chapter in itself. Steve DiGiorgio, who’s played in countless bands, most notably in Death and Sadus, is simply an amazing player. It’s astonishing to watch his fingers dance over the fretless instrument and recreate both his own and Greg Christian’s bass riffs on stage.
No less amazing is the drum god Gene Hoglan. Having paid his dues in countless bands as well – including Death with DiGiorgio, as well as Dark Angel, Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad, etc – the man is a phenomenon. His playing is impeccable.
Practice What You Reach…no, wait, PREACH!
The Copenhagen audience (Swedes included) are easily persuaded into getting the floor moving. ‘Rise Up’, ‘The Pale King’ and ‘Centuries of Suffering’ are appropriately applauded and there is considerable movement amongst the crowd. When Skolnick opens ‘Electric Crown’ with a solo of sorts, the audience becomes a tad more frantic.
As Chuck Billy then announces that it’s time to get ‘Into the Pit’, a fair amount of chaos breaks loose, and it’s a joy to behold.
‘Dark Roots of the Earth’ follows, then ‘Stronghold’ from Brotherhood, after that the biggest surprise for me, namely the title track from Low. My excitement will not end! I love that album!
Between ‘Low’ and uber-classic ‘Over the Wall’, Billy gets distracted by a young maiden who adjusts her bra in the front row. Much to the amusement of both himself and the crowd. A shame the lady forgets to share with the rest of us…
‘Practice What You Preach’, the title track of the album that has always been my personal favourite Testament offering sends my arms and horns into the air yet again, as does ‘New Order’ and ‘Disciples of the Watch’. Fantastic songs!
The title track of ‘The Formation of Damnation’ ends the set on a high note.
No encores are given, which is slightly disappointing, but, then again, this has been a truckload of thrash the way I love it, and my initial concern was, thank the metal gods, put entirely to shame by Chuck Billy and his merry men.
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Their ant-ass-tide thrash metal throws you to the ground from start to finish. Only one slower piece called ‘The King of Kings’ makes it possible to catch your breath. The music is a mix of Destruction, Kreator, early Metallica, Testament, and Slayer. The voice of Laurens is aggressive but with high shouting parts in a kind of a Schmier style. The music is a feast of recognizable influences. In ‘Mechanized Existence,’ Testament melodies, howling Slayer solos, and old school Metallica jumping riffs are ingredients for one of the best songs. ‘Hit the Lights’ enters my mind at the start of the third track and lots of other memories of the Kill’em All period. After that, the party goes on, with fast and furious thrash the way I enjoy it. Like I already wrote, the eighth song is the slowest and also the longest. It sounds a bit threatening and has a nice built up.
In October 2015, I saw the band open for Anthrax. Like Destruction, the band only has one guitar player in the line up. On the album that is never a problem, but sometimes live it can be, especially during a solo. Back in 2015 it did not hit me, so the band is also worth watching live. So, old school thrash fanatics grab your chance and give this honest, hardworking band your approval.
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