Testament Koko London 4-4-18

First up was Polish 4 piece Vader who if I'm honest I had never come across and was surprised to see on looking released their debut cd in 1983.Death metal with growling vocal's and made a right old racket and the sold out crowd had arrived early and loved them.Me I have now seen them.

Next up was Annihilator who I saw many moon's ago supporting Judas Priest at Aston Villa leisure centre.Seems only main man Jeff Waters on vocal's and lead guitar survives with the rest of the band as Jeff put it wasn't born when most of it was written.Again the crowd loved it with the thrash metal sound coming through less muddy than for Vader.
Ending with Alice In Hell after introducing a young fan called Charlie who played the opening riff to huge applause and then an added Phantasmagoria left us all wanting more.

For both band's the floor area was full of moshing and crowd surfing but as Testament started the crowd went nuts and for just under 2 hours they didn't stop.For an oldie like me I can only marvel at their endurance.

Testament continue to lead the way with their studio material living up to past glories and their live show's still incendiary and showing the kids how it's done.

Here is what they played.

Brotherhood Of The Snake
Rise Up
The Pale King
More Than Meets The Eye
Alex Skolnick guitar solo
Electric Crown
Into The Pit
Low
Stronghold
Throne Of Thorns
Eric Peterson guitar solo
Eyes Of Wrath
Gene Hoglan drum solo
First Strike Is Deadly
Steve Di Giorgio bass solo
Urotsukidoji
Souls Of Black
The New Order
Encores of Practice What You Preach
Alone In The Dark
Over The Wall

The opening 4 song's showcased all of Testament's continuing excellence with 2 from the new cd Brotherhood Of The Snake and one each from Dark Roots Of The Earth in 2012 (Rise Up) and Formation Of Damnation in 2008 (More Than Meets The Eye) and all full of thunderous drumming from Gene Hoglan,wonderful riffing and soloing from Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson and the groove all held together by Steve Di Giorgio on bass.

Of course the ring leader in chief is the bear of a man Chuck Billy who stills possesses a great voice and his playing of air guitar on his sawn off mic stand bring's a smile to everyone's face.Every crowd surfer is greeted with horn's or a high five and he stand's tall amongst all front men.

Crowd participation is implored and More Than Meets The Eye's whoa whoa's are screamed back and after a short Alex guitar spot the first of many classic's hit's the spot with Electric Crown greeted manically before Into The Pit sees the already mad crowd go further shades of nut's.Great to watch and one young women I think had at least 4 crowd surf's!!

Mid set saw for me an over indulgence with Eric's mainly riffing guitar part followed by one song then drum solo one song and then a bass solo.To follow it with an instrumental number where every one had a part seemed strange.Yes the drum solo had crowd surfer's but momentum was lost.

A rabid Souls Of Black and The New Order saw order restored before encore time.

Practice What You Preach is one of my all time favourite song's and always a joy to see Alex's stunning guitar solo with his finger's a blur.

An added Alone In The Dark was joyously received with a great Alex guitar solo before Over The Wall saw energy level's in the pit still high and the band running over curfew on the last night of the European Tour.

Testament are at the head of the thrash pack and with Slayer's soon to be retirement we should embrace them and enjoy them all while we can.