I entered the venue minutes before Malefice started their set, completely missing the opening act of the evening, Xerath, as I had no idea proceedings were to begin so early, with Testament hitting the stage at 8.15. Now back to Malefice. They put on a pretty good show, with the band being as energetic as their music. Vocalist Dale Butler did point out a couple times that he was appreciative of the fact that everyone was at the gig to watch Testament, but thankful that they were being pleasantly tolerated rather than bottled off stage, in not so many words. Style wise they are an energetic thrash/death hybrid with rather melodically shouted vocals rather than death growls or old school thrash vocals, even though they both do appear from time to time. Ben Symons and Andrew Wilson’s guitar riffing is solid and heavy, yet interspersed with harmonics, squeals and squawks along with leads they played with a certain amount of flair. Every now and then Tom Hynes would slap his bass to create a pop/rumble in the bass bins that could be felt through the floor and walls. Chris Allan-Whyte kept changing the drum patterns from blast to off beats then heavy snare pounding mayhem, keeping the guitarists on their toes. All in all, not a bad set, but we all knew they were going to be the cannon fodder for the evening ’til the real show began.

The chanting for Testament began 5 minutes before they were due to take the stage but when the lights dimmed the chants became roars, which had nothing on those that were going to “Rise Up” out of Chuck Billy on the opening track taken from the new album ‘Dark Roots of Earth’. A couple old favourites showcased Alex Skolnick’s guitarmanship where his leads were flawless on “The New Order” along with Eric Peterson’s crushing rhythms on “The Preacher” proved this pairing are one of the best in metal. Chuck let us know that the next song, “Native Blood”, had won the award for “best music video” at the American Indian Film Festival and not only did the song blow me away, but the video is well worth looking for too. At this point I decided to find a better spot to watch the show from, as I actually wanted to watch the band for a change, rather than just hear and occasionally see what was going on on stage. So while working myself around what turned out to be the maze of the Koko they played “True American Hate”, “More Than Meets The Eye” and “Dark Roots of Earth”, two of which are new and I am unfamiliar with, but definitely whet my appetite about acquiring a copy of the new disk. Finally finding a good spot to watch the show from a top tier balcony, I was struck by how much clearer the sound was up here than down in the thick of things where insanity ensued owing to the infectious grooves of “Into the Pit”. The emaciated form of Greg Christian never stops moving or headbanging and his driving bass rhythm on “Practice What You Preach” reverberates around my skull as I headbang along with him. Chuck now invites the audience to see how many of them can make the bouncers at the front of the stage earn their keeping suggesting they come “Over the Wall”, but not a single one made it on stage to succeed in the feat. Saying that they were going to get guest drummer Mark Hernandez (ex-FORBIDDEN) working through his paces they slowed things down completely for “Alone in the Dark” but had the children of the corn run riot as several mosh pits sprang to life for “Disciples of the Watch”. Possibly one of their heaviest songs both musically and lyrically “D.N.R.” did not disappoint in its ferocious delivery and the audience lapped it up, almost as much as they did “3 Days of Darkness” where every single fucking one of us was singing along to the chorus with but a handful of weeks left in 2012. Proceedings and a 90 minute set came to a heavy conclusion in the way of “Formation Of Damnation” from their second last album of the same name.

Who knew that an hour and a half could be so long, yet pass by so quickly, as they escorted us swiftly from the building in order to get their next event on? I could quite easily have enjoyed another hour without ever getting bored. Great show.

Review and Photos Marco Gaminara