Testament’s second wind: Legendary thrash metal band more relevant than ever!

March 18, 9:19 PMHeavy Metal ExaminerMark Morton

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Few metal bands have been able to re-emerge after a long draught and retain their relevancy. While bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath can return from the ashes with their classic lineups, they are typically looked upon as nostalgia acts.  Even in the thrash metal community, with bands like Faith Or Fear, Death Angel, and Rigor Mortis crawling out of the woodwork; metal fans are more interested in the catalogue than they are in new material.

Testament is among those lucky few that stuck to its guns, made smart decisions, and rebounded as relevant as ever. Although the band never officially broke up, they were underground for several years since the release of 1999’s The Gathering. Vocalist Chuck Billy survived a major battle with cancer, guitarist Eric Peterson had started a side band Dragonlord, and the rest of the lineup was a revolving door of metal stalwarts. In 2005, Testament reunited with its original lineup of Billy, Peterson, bassist Greg Christian, guitarist Alex Skolnick, and drummer Louie Clemente, touring Europe and America. Most people looked at it as the band playing the nostalgia card, trying to cash in on a strange occurrence that is oddly fashionable in the metal world.

All of the sudden, 2008 rolled around, and Testament unveiled a brand new album, The Formation of Damnation, which debuted at #59 on the Billboard Top 200 charts upon its release on April 29 of that year. They were on a European-based record label, Nuclear Blast, but it had the distribution legs to properly promote the release, which was offered as a regular jewel-cased CD, a deluxe edition with bonus DVD, and a limited edition vinyl edition with a poster and patch.

A video for the single, “More Than Meets the Eye” is viewable here:

Testament was immediately a buzz band again. And it goes without saying that Testament was among the elite of thrash bands that constantly challenged itself; experimenting with new ideas on each album and pushing the genre forward by taking those risks.

The Formation of Damnation wasn’t a walk down memory lane, it was a statement of Testament’s undying passion for metal. It was a snapshot of who the band was at that moment in time. What helped even more was that the band capitalized on its own version of a classic lineup: Billy on vocals, Peterson and Skolnick on guitars, Christian on bass, and Paul Bostaph on drums. Skolnick had originally left the band following 1992’s The Ritual, and Christian had departed after 1994’s Low. Although having only previously played on the band’s 1993 live release Return to the Apocalyptic City, Bostaph has made waves in the metal community with stints in Slayer, Exodus, and Forbidden.

The Formation of Damnation ended up impacting in a major way with the American public and achieved massive acclaim. It was the #9 Rock Album of the Year at the iTunes US store, the #4 Album of the Year in Revolver Magazine, the most played album on metal radio in 2008 (according to FMQB reports), and it was #1 on the CMJ Loud Rock charts (ahead of Metallica, Motörhead and Opeth).

Testament spent the bulk of 2008 as part of the Metal Masters tour, performing in front of thousands of old-school metalheads and sharing the stage with such luminaries as Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, and Motörhead. They did a brief East Coast headline run with Soilent Green in the fall, and then flew over to Europe to be part of the Priest Feast tour, once again reuniting them with Judas Priest and thrash innovators Megadeth.

Now the band is preparing to embark on its first full North American headline tour in several years. Dubbed the “Damnation Vacation Tour, presented by Revolver Magazine, and sponsored by Dean Guitars, Music-Skins.com, and DarkStar Skateboards, Testament’s run is shaping up to be the metal event of late spring. In a recent press release, Alex Skolnick chimed in excitedly, “It is our best routing of North American cities yet, including places such as Philadelphia and Atlanta, which we haven't been able to hit since reuniting. As a band, we've never sounded better. With our full-length set, reasonable ticket prices and show that is going to knock you out, now is the time to get out of the house and come see us!”

Although a fan presale is currently underway, tickets become available on Friday, March 20. A “VIP Pack” will also be available, which includes a special meet-and-greet opportunity, access to sound check, special merchandise items, an autographed poster, a collectible laminate, personalized Music Skins,  and entry into a grand prize raffle for a Dean Guitars’ Eric Peterson “Old Skull” Flying V Signature model guitar, and a DarkStar Testament-themed skateboard.

If all this activity were not enough, on April 14, Prosthetic Records will be releasing the full live set from Testament’s 1987 performance at the Dynamo Open Air Festival in Holland, entitled Live at Eindhoven ‘87. Originally released as a limited edition five-song EP on vinyl and cassette on Atlantic Records before the band recorded The New Order, this is the first time the full set has been made available.

The tracklisting for the album is as follows:

1. Disciples of the Watch
2. The Haunting
3. Apocalyptic City
4. First Strike Is Deadly
5. Burnt Offerings
6. Alex Skolnick guitar solo
7. Over The Wall
8. Do Or Die
9. Curse of the Legion of Death (C.O.T.L.O.D.)
10. Reign of Terror

Prosthetic Records had previously released reissues of Testament’s 1997 album Demonic and 1999’s The Gathering (featuring the instrumental bonus track “Hammer of the Gods”), and the 2001 re-recorded collection First Strike Still Deadly.

One might think that the market is being flooded with Testament merchandise to capitalize on all the attention. But on the flipside of that coin, Testament is quickly becoming a cross-generational inspiration, having been circulating in the metal scene for nearly 25 years. 

Having had an opportunity to catch one of last year’s headline shows at The Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA, metal fans are in for a real treat if this new tour is anything representative of that show. Testament performs with such a driven ferocity that it is hard to imagine that the band has been around as long as it has. Testament live – there’s nothing that compares to the experience!

Tour dates include:

May 2 at El Corazon in Seattle, WA
May 3 at Knitting Factory in Spokane, WA
May 4 at Commodore in Vancouver, BC, Can.
May 6 at MacEwan Ballroom in Calgary, AB, Can.
May 7 at Edmonton Events Centre in Edmonton, AB, Can.
May 9 at The Garrick Centre in Winnipeg, MB, Can.
May 10 at The Rock in Maplewood, MN
May 12 at Eagles Theater in Milwaukee, WI
May 13 at Pop’s in Sauget, IL
May 15 at House of Blues in Chicago, IL
May 16 at Harpo’s in Detroit, MI
May 17 at House of Blues in Cleveland, OH
May 18 at Bogart’s in Cincinnati, OH
May 20 at Sound Academy in Toronto, ON, Can.
May 21 at Metropolis in Montreal, QC, Can.
May 22 at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ
May 23 at Webster Theater in Hartford, CT
May 24 at The Palladium in Worcester, MA
May 26 at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore, MD
May 27 at The Trocadero in Philadelphia, PA
May 28 at The NorVa in Norfolk, VA
May 29 at Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh, NC
May 30 at Masquerade in Atlanta, GA
May 31 at House of Blues in New Orleans, LA
June 2 at Scout Bar in Houston, TX
June 3 at Scout Bar in San Antonio, TX
June 4 at Ridglea Theater in Ft. Worth, TX
June 6 at The Beaumont in Kansas City, MO
June 7 at Cervantes in Denver, CO
June 9 at House of Blues in Las Vegas, NV
June 10 at House of Blues in San Diego, CA
June 11 at House of Blues in Los Angeles, CA
June 12 at The Fillmore in San Francisco, CA