Let me complain about some people real quick, these people are purist Hardcore Metal fans. The two drunk idiots behind me in line were, I believe, barely above the limit of being called Homo Sapiens. Yes they had the ability to speak, but LITERALLY every other word was F*@#. Yes they had the ability of bipedal movement, one of them even took this skill to his advantage by walking to the construction site next to the line of people and urinating for all to see. Then the thing that really makes me loath these basic creatures, and unfortunately they speak for every Hardcore Metal fan I've met, is when someone walked by in a Black Sabbath t-shirt and they started dissing THE FOUNDERS OF THE ENTIRE GENRE YOU LIVE FOR. They went on to complain about Judas Priest and the gay guy that sings for them, complained about how Anthrax isn't really Thrash Metal, and the worst offense of all, said Iron Maiden was overrated. I was about to commit double homicide on the streets of The City of Salt. I never understood genre purists (phrase I made up), they find one little niche and never ever leave it. Now being a Metalhead I can completely understand doing this with the entire Heavy Metal genre, but these other purists who stick to a sub genre of Metal (Thrash for example) and then decide that all other Metal before or since is shit? WTF?! People like them are what make Metal chat rooms a waste of time. I honestly have on my iPod an L.A. Guns and Venom playlist! Yes I add Hair/Glam Metal with early Black/Death Metal, and ya know what? I'm not ashamed of that.
Bitching aside, I could not believe I was going to be seeing Chuck Billy sing. Up there with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth of Overkill, Chuck Billy has one of those Thrash Metal voices that can growl and bellow to the depths of the Earth, or can be melodic and convey real sincere emotion. I was crazy stoked to see them play!
I met my good friends Darrell and Kari at the show, we sat along the wall of the venue catching up and talking about upcoming shows and such things. When the opening band Truce finished their set and Testament finally come out and started, my friend Darrell was instantly gone into the crowd to get a better view and to thrash around the pit a bit. I stayed over to the side with Kari and all our jackets and items and was amazed at the range this guy still had after 25 years of singing and surviving a battle with cancer! Over his career he has indeed gone from a clear, high pitched singing style to a more grunting and growling style as the band evolved. But he can still hit some of those notes from the early albums. Two or three songs into the set, Darrell comes back and asks if I want to go closer to the stage while he watches the stuff. I wander into the crowd, it is between songs at this point, and make my way to the stage. As the band starts the next song a mosh pit opens up right around me! Of course I'd end up in a mosh pit, just my luck. I decided, "what the hell?" and began to shove and be shoved in this pit (only the second I'd ever been involved in, the first, and I thought last, was during a Cannibal Corpse show in Denver. At that time my mentality was, "If I only do one mosh in my life I'd say Cannibal Corpse would be the one to do it to."). Anyways, I'm moshing. This bald headed dude is coming towards me when he gets elbowed in the face and blood splashes onto my arm. Not a large amount of blood mind you, but blood nonetheless. "No big deal, it didn't get in a cut on my arm or anything," I says to myself, "I'll wash it off after this song is over." But the more I look at this bald man who continued to mosh dripping blood from his nasal passages, the more I wanted... nay NEEDED to wash it off of me! I said screw this song, and quickly got to the restroom to wash the blood off in the hottest water they had.
The show left my ears ringing (that doesn't happen often anymore), and longing for more Testament! I know I usually say this about bands or shows I'm reviewing but if you do indeed get a chance to see Testament, DO NOT MISS IT! And thanks to Darrell and Kari for rocking out with me!
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