Testament
May 18, 2017
House of Blues – Anaheim, CA
San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal legends Testament released their eleventh studio album Brotherhood of the Snake in October 2016. Since the release of their debut album The Legacy in 1987, Testament has remained one of the most popular bands in the thrash metal scene with 1.4 million albums sold in the USA and 14 million albums sold worldwide. On this tour, not only was Testament touring for the new album, but they were also celebrating 30 years of pure thrash. One of the final stops on the tour was at the newly remodeled House of Blues in Anaheim, California. The venue was packed with metal maniacs and were excited to see one of thrash metal’s finest bands.
The lights went out and the fans went wild as drumming legend Gene “The Atomic Clock” Hoglan went onto his drum kit with the lights shining on him to give him the spotlight. The rest of the band members came out to a standing ovation from the fans as the band started the show with the first track from the new album, Brotherhood of the Snake. The crowd came alive right away 
as shoving and moshing commenced in true metal style. Rise Up was the next track played and was the opening track from their previous Dark Roots of the Earth album. One of the band’s driving forces is guitarist Alex Skolnick. Known as one of the best and fastest guitarists in the world, Skolnick breezes through his guitar solos with precision and is always a mesmerizing sight to see. Testament played one of their signature songs Into the Pit which they specifically wrote for all the metalheads in the mosh pit. It was one of the best and craziest pits as frontman Chuck Billy belted out the lyrics, “Join the insanity or die as you fall…into the pit!”. There was not a single dull moment during the show as Testament continued to play thrash metal classics like: Electric Crown, First Strike Is Deadly, and Souls of Black. The time had come to finish the show and Testament shred on as they played another popular song, The New Order. The shredding intro always gets the fans pumped. Moshing continued and crowd surfers were plentiful.
The band left the stage and all seemed quiet. Fans were chanting the band’s name for them to come out. After a few minutes, the band came back out. Billy told an old story about the band’s travels during a tour and how he got the name for the band’s third album which is the title track for the first encore song, Practice What You Preach which another one of the band’s best songs. For the grand finale, Testament went back to their debut album and closed the show with one last greatest hit, the debut album opening track, Over the Wall. The mosh pit was furious, more crowd surfers kept security busy, and even the fans against the rail looked like they were in pain from all the shoving, but were holding on for one last song. Testament ended their set, bowed to the fans, hand out picks and drumsticks, then left the stage once again. Even on a Thursday night, loyal metalheads will come out to get crazy and have a good time.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
