People love Testament, with good reason. Testament can be as heavy and loud as any freight train out there — and this pleases the most hardcore of metallers — but the touch of brilliance is the melody the band introduces to give their music enough balance. Performing at The Palladium in Worcester, Mass was the perfect venue for a popular metal band like Testament, too. The place was swarming with old school metalheads, bringing back cherished memories of such stalwart ’80s metal clubs like L’amour of Brooklyn, New York City (In fact, Powerline’s own contributor, Frank White, is part of a book coming out this year called Rock Capitol of Brooklyn: The History of L’Amour, the World’s Most Famous Heavy Metal Nightclub). And this was the Dark Roots of Thrash tour and no one was going to deny the patrons some good thrash. The Palladium was packed with denim and leather, and the mosh pit would churn in full force.

Capable thrashers from Down Under,  4ARM, opened the main stage and warmed things up but then the real surprise of the night came from Flotsam and Jetsam. Low expectations and all that, yet the band that once scored 6 Ks from Kerrang! sounded worthy of that mark. They almost stole the entire show. The vocals of Eric AK were as good as ever and the rest of the band dead-on with every classic note. Their debut album Doomsday for the Deceiver was well supported by a song like “Iron Tears” and, to tell the truth, the performance of “No Place for Disgrace” was quite an amazing live metal experience. New songs, “Ugly Noise” and “Gitty Up,”  showed promise of the future, too. (Note: You can get Flotsam’s new album from Pledge Music and a portion of your pledge will also go to the charity Children’s Miracle Network, which helps raise funds for children’s hospitals). The only thing missing was a longer set list and, well … Jason Newsted — he of both the original F&J line-up and Metallica fame — on the bass. But you can’t have everything. This was damn well good enough.

Talk about flashbacks of L’amour Brooklyn (read above), next up was Overkill. It’s easy to miss ‘ol guitarist Bobby Gustafson or drummer Rat Skates, however, there is no Overkill without vocalist Bobby Ellsworth. With the stature of Bon Scott and the caustic wit of a Dee Snider, the Overkill frontman is  an old school, metal treasure. When Ellsworth was unimpressed with the response of the crowd, he slyly compared them to the New York Jets. This being in the middle of Patriots country, the fans were anxious to prove him wrong — the audience response was threefold. Armed with oldies like “Wrecking Crew” and “Rotten to the Core,” Overkill was a roof-raiser anyway. Admit it, if you have an oppressive boss or, say, an ex-wife, “Rotten to the Core” is instant catharsis. And, in a club filled with mostly middle-aged, blue-collar males … needless to say, the song went over very well. Plus, who couldn’t react to a spirited rendition of the Subhumans “Fuck You” to then end the set?

Testament, however, were the coup de grâce, so to speak. From the upper balcony it was a steamroller of hard sound, from the floor it was metal bliss. Vocalist Chuck Billy, at times pacing like a caged animal, with glow-in-the dark mic in hand, howled into the sound like a banshee while guitarists Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson supplied the amplified melody. Skolnick lived up to the billing. Yep, he’s a talent to be heard in every one of his guitar leads. But Peterson is such an important part of Testament’s soul. Every Testament note is like a life-affirming breath to him.

It’s always good to hear early substance like “Trial By Fire” or “The New Order” but the highlight had to be “Into the Pit.” Turn off the mind and just enjoy the unbridled energy. And unlike other venues, The Palladium is helpful to the crowd surfers. Picking them up as the reach near the stage and letting them get back into the crowd to do it again.

More songs from the new album, Dark Roots of Earth, would have made a solid night of Testament’s kind of thrash even better. Although enough well-known songs were accounted for. The punters, as they say, were pleased.

It’s almost as if the crowd didn’t get enough, asking collectively ‘When’s the next Testament tour?’

To view Powerline photographs from this tour, click here.

Testament set list:

Rise Up
More Than Meets the Eye
Burnt Offerings
Into the Pit
Practice What You Preach
Riding the Snake
Eyes of Wrath
Trial By Fire
The Haunting
The New Order
Over the Wall
Disciples of the Watch
Encore:
D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
3 Days in Darkness
The Formation of Damnation

Overkill set list:

Come and Get It
Rotten to the Core
Wrecking Crew
Bring Me the Night
Electric Rattlesnake
Ironbound
Elimination
Fuck You (The Subhumans cover)

Flotsam and Jetsam set list:

Ugly Noise
Iron Tears
Escape from Within
Hammerhead
Gitty Up
No Place for Disgrace