Testament / Exodus / Death Angel
London Kentish Town O2 Forum
Bay Area thrash loudly celebrates its longevity.
Four decades after the Bay Area thrash scene was born with a glorious Big Bang of local demo tapes and violent club shows, it’s wonderful to see three veteran bands join forces to set stages afire. This bill is pretty much every thrash fan’s dream.
Even more pleasingly, if this titanic triple bill had been scheduled just one week later, it almost certainly wouldn’t have happened, thanks to the COVID-19 onslaught. Little does this sold-out audience know that this might well be the last gig they see until much later in 2020. On a happier note, it’s a stormer.
When the opening band is of Death Angel’s energetic calibre, you know it’s going to be quite the night. Back in the day, these second-wave thrashers followed their mighty 1987 debut The Ultraviolence by wandering off down a less exciting, experimental route. Post-reunion, though, they’re giving people what they want – lashings of hard-driving metal, with an emphasis on great hooks delivered by the excellent Mark Oseguada. Relatively recent powerhouse songs like Humanicide and The Dream Calls For Blood cut deep, while the riotous older likes of Mistress Of Pain very much retain an ability to crack the whip.
For Exodus fans there’s something special about this tour, beyond the package itself. Band leader Gary Holt finally rejoins his own band on stage, having come back from his eight-year stint helping out in Slayer. While Holt-less Exodus gigs have remained strong over the years, there was undeniably something missing, in the same way that a Fight Club without Tyler Durden might feel odd. And so it’s a real treat to see him riffing like a fool and darting around the stage, while speed-nodding with clear, unbridled enthusiasm.
A couple of odd set-list choices aside (Body Harvest and Deathamphetamine, but no Deranged or Braindead?), the likes of Blood In, Blood Out and the evergreen Fabulous Disaster rip through an enthusiastic audience, while the classic chug-fests Blacklist and golden oldie And Then There Were None challenge heads not to bang. Strike Of The Beast provides the final full stop, prompting the obligatory circular mosh-pittery.
Testament have earned their headliner status partly through their use of memorable refrains, made possible by imposing frontman Chuck Billy’s vocal range and the band’s sheer bull-headed persistence. When most thrash bands responded to the ubiquity of grunge by splitting up, Testament pretty much stampeded on regardless, to the extent that they doubled down on the heaviness and practically entered death metal territory.
We’re treated to a seriously rousing brew of headsdown classics from the quintet’s golden first two albums, The Haunting and Over The Wall are among the genre’s finest moments, presenting a frenzy of riffs that any band would be hard-pressed to match today. It’s true that a few selections from the many records since don’t always stir up so much excitement tonight. But that can’t be said of the oppressively arcane Night Of The Witch and the heavy-duty gallop of Children Of The Next Level, both of which are previews of the band’s latest album Titans Of Creation, which is Testament’s finest platter in quite some time.
Of all tonight’s pleasures, it’s perhaps most impressive to see an extreme metal band like Testament crafting a well-paced 90-minute set that wisely oscillates between intensity and melody, and which, surprisingly, even devotes attention to atmospheric lighting effects. Oh, and there are plenty of smoke bombs! So rare to see a thrash band who can afford those.