Testament Destroy House Of Blues Sunset

Testament Dark Roots Of Thrash Tour Crush the House Of Blues Los Angeles with Exodus and Shattered Sun

 

Testament House Of Blues Sunset

Testament House Of Blues Los Angeles

 

By Allie Jorgen and Roc Boyum for LA Metal Media

Photos by Roc Boyum for LA Metal Media

It was April 2, 2015 at the Los Angeles House Of Blues Sunset and the 2nd night of the Dark Roots Of Thrash Tour featuring Testament, Exodus and new on the metal scene, Shattered Sun.

With Testament’s stage set up of props, lighting and fog as if they were playing the Staples Center, not the House Of Blues, everyone knew that they were going to kick some serious ass.

Testament-HouseofBlues-LosAngeles_CA-20150402-RocBoyum-040

The name of the tour says it all, as Testament went completely old school playing all the material from “The Legacy” album and almost the entire “The New Order” album. They played these albums with the energy that they had when they were touring to support those albums back in the day and sounded even better at this show. This was totally crazy, Chuck Billy sounded better than ever and was in prime form running the stage, playing air guitar on his short mic stick and vocally killing it; crushing the audience with every word, bringing new life into their classic material.

Alex Skolnick shredded his solos like a Grand Wizard casting spells into the night, playing the guitar over his head, down on his knees and everywhere in between. Throughout the night, Alex together with Eric Peterson played the most bad ass guitar harmonies the House Of Blues has ever heard, while the rhythm section of Gene Hoglan drums and Steve Di Giorgio bass delivered relentless thrash metal rhythms that kept the pit raging throughout the band’s 90 minute set. Security at every end of the venue had their hands full as bodies were thrashing in and out of the pit and those that got out of hand were grabbed by security immediately and pulled off the GA floor. When crowd surfers made their way toward the stage, security pulled them into the barrier pit presumably for their own safety; this was definitely a no nonsense security team not leaving anything to chance. As for song highlights, playing the entire “The Legacy” and most of “The New Order” album was a highlight in itself, so the whole night was absolutely brilliant and it was the kind of night that thrash metal fans live for; no one was disappointed.

For thrash fans everywhere this is one tour you don’t want to miss as this level of sheer thrash mayhem may not be seen again anytime soon.

The set list was:

(Intro 1)

Over The Wall

Haunting

Burnt Offerings

Raging Waters

The Preacher

Do or Die

1st Strike

Day Of Reckoning

Apocalyptic City

(Intro 2)

Eerie Inhabitants

New Order

Trial By Fire

In The Pit

Alone In The Dark

C.O.T.L.O.D- Curse Of The Legions Of Death

PWYP- Practice What You Preach

Disciples