TESTAMENT

This bay area band is in the Pacific Northwest celebrating it’s ‘Legacy’ that began 37 years ago…

So, you need to get back on the road but no new album has been released in years, what do you do?  Well, the trend in the last 15 years or so it is to dig back into the discography and tap into those albums that really got you where you are today.    That is what we got tonight as San Francisco based thrashers Testament did as they brought the ‘Klash of the Titans’ tour to Vancouver with support from Possessed and Kreator.

Testament are playing a best of 2 albums tonight with 7 songs from their first opus called The Legacy as well as 7 from the sophomore album The New Order..  This will send us older fans into thrash metal glory with this setlist as we grew up with these ones.  And why not, heck, what is old is new again in 2024 it seems.

The core of the band that wrote all those songs is still together with Chuck Billy (vocals), Eric Peterson (guitar) and Alex Skolinick (guitar).   They also have Steve Di Giorgio on bass who was just here earlier this summer with Death to All, and Chris Dovas on drums.  They were last here in 2022, at the Commodore Ballroom, do you remember that Dave Lombardo was pounding drums that night?

“Eerie Inhabitants” from The New Order starts the show off with Skolinick starting it off with that creepy solo he does at the start.  Then the lights trigger and the rest of the band explodes onto the stage with heads banging in full force at the front.  The intensity doesn’t stop at song 2 either as “The New Order” is next with the mosh pit creating a vortex on the dance floor.

Chuck’s voice is still as brutal as ever and the rest of the band is thrashing like they were back 40 years ago.   Alex whips through solos like they were nothing, the guy is one of the best guitarists out there in metal, no doubt.  Same with Peterson, who has a had a hand in writing just about every Testament song on all the albums.  No doubt that their best work is from these first couple albums that got they where they are now.   As Chuck says “We are taking he Klash of the Titans tour to Europe and over the Raging Waters!” Queue up that rager next, which is one of their thrashiest numbers ever.

This is basically a mind blowing 1 hour 40 minute show with “The Preacher”, “Trial by Fire”, “First Strike is Deadly” destroying the 3/4 filled Vogue Theatre.   Of course we are also going to get some rare ones with “A Day of Reckoning”, “C.O.T.L.O.D.” (Curse of the Legions of Death) and “Do or Die”, which is always a treat.

They end the last 3 with “Disciples of the Watch”, my personal favourite with “Over the Wall” and one the circle pit was called out on was with, of course, “Into the Pit.  This is by far the heaviest set I have ever seen this band play live, absolutely BRUTAL from start to end. My only other greedy wish was to hear “Burnt Offerings” off the Legacy album but I will take what I can get as I am not disappointed at all.   If you were a just starting your journey into heavy metal and thrash metal, this was definitely a must-see show!   Highly RECOMMEND you attend the Klash of the Titans tour, your neck will be sore!