Testament Live inTinley Park, IL, August, 2008 Review by Mike Korn It was a beautiful summer evening as I lowered myself into a seat just in time to see Testament hit the ground running. Tonight was a metal feast and Testament was the perfect appetizer to set the stage.
First cut in was "Over The Wall,” followed by the thrashing "Into the Pit.” Testament had only a ridiculous half hour to play, so they put maximum intensity into their brief set. A muddy sound (typical for opening bands everywhere) didn't disguise the excellence of guitar work from Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson. It's great to see Alex back in Testament and he shredded the axe like nobody's business. The crowd was continuing to file in as Testament played but it still had to be gratifying for them to see thousands instead of hundreds hailing tunes like "Practice What You Preach.” Chuck Billy sounded great. Some find his growlier vocals off-putting...I think the mixture of more melodic (but still aggressive) singing with brutality works extremely well, especially in Billy's case. People need to figure out that the voice is an instrument with many different facets and that the days of metal singers exclusively trying to sound like Dickinson, Dio and Halford are long gone.
Greg Olma
Greg Olma
The band wrapped up with some cuts from the new Formation of Damnation, all of which sounded pretty good and merged seamlessly with their older material. Although the title track is the heaviest, "Henchman's Ride" with its ultra-catchy chorus looks set to join the list of Testament classics. And then, almost as soon as it began, the set was over.
Gary Hill
Gary Hill
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2008 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.
You'll find concert pics of this artist in the Music Street Journal members area.
