Testament / Kreator
“Klash Of The Titans”
w/ Special Guest: Possessed
The Palladium – Hollywood, CA
Saturday, October 26th, 2024
Review/Pics: Will
THIS was a night dedicated to some Old, School, THRASH! Three of the OG’s of the genre, Testament, Kreator and Possessed descended on the Hollywood Palladium as they near the end of their “Klash Of The Titans” Tour.
The Palladium crowd this night was on FIRE! Major Mosh pits and crowd surfing were off the chain! Shout out to the security guards at the front of the pit who ushered the surfers gently and safely behind the barriers and had them run to the side so they could rejoin the pulsing throng of sweaty metalheads.
Possessed
The madness started promptly at 6:40pm when the “first band of death metal”, Possessed hit the stage. Hailing from the Bay Area in 1982, Jeff Becerra and company kicked off the evening with a growling snarl of a set.
Jeff Becerra – vocals
Daniel Gonzalez – guitars
Robert Cardenas – bass
Claudeous Creamer – guitars
Chris Aguirre – drums
Possessed only have a small discography and their 8 song set focused mainly on songs from their debut album, “Seven Churches” and from their last release, 2019’s “Revelations of Oblivion“.
Jeff and the band had the crowd energized and psyched up from the start. I want to point out, not just Chris Aguirre but, all 3 drummers this evening. The drumming on this night was absolutely frenetic, frantic and fukkin’ fabulous. The intensity and let’s face it, accuracy from Aguirre, Jürgen (Kreator) and Chris (Testament), was pristine!
Setlist
Kreator
I’ll be honest, Testament were the band on the bill that had me most excited. But Holy Hell! Kreator dug a snarled claw into my soul this night.
Germany’s own, Kreator, who crawled out of their crypt in 1982, were filming a video documentary this evening. And I don’t know if that had anything to do with their energy, but wow! I saw these guys (actually along with Possessed and Testament) at Ozzfest in 2017 and this is NOT the band I remembered from that day. Actually I didn’t remember much of them, but by the horns of satan, I’ll remember them from THIS show.
After the tape of Iron Maiden’s “Run To the Hills” ended (complete with crowd sing-along) the strains of “Sergio Corbucci is Dead” rang through the Palladium and signaled the huge “Kreator” curtain to drop as the band launched into “Hate Über Alles”. Well, it was all systems go from here.
Immediate flash back to when I started hearing the first strains of thrash metal on The Tommy Vance: Friday Rock Show on the radio as a wee lad. It was so new and exciting and outside of the Big 4, it was bands like Kreator, Exodus, Overkill and of course Testament who were blowing people’s minds back in the day. Well, all of those bands still are and Kreator blew mine on Saturday.
Miland “Mille” Petrozza – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Jürgen “Ventor” Reil – drums
Sami Yli-Sirniö – lead guitar, backing vocals
Frédéric Leclercq – bass, backing vocals
Smoke, red lights, strobes make a photographer’s night difficult to say the least, but as a fan, this was a time machine back to the days of small sweaty clubs. Except this was the Palladium! The large stage had 2 huge blow up demons bookending the band with another one keeping it’s eyes on the crowd from behind the drum riser. The rest of the stage was littered with “victims of hell” either impaled or hanging from the rafters.
Kreator have 15 studio albums under their belt and if you’re an uber fan of this band, you had to be excited as they hit something from almost every one of them.
The band created a thrash laden hellscape for their 1 hour 15 min set that didn’t let up for a moment. Mille sounded album clean on vocals and had the crowd chanting “Kreator” while instructing them to create the “Wall of death” in the middle of the floor. It didn’t take much prodding as the swirling masses circled for pretty much the entirety of the evening.
Kreator added themselves to my “don’t miss” bands list on this night.
Setlist
Testament
T E S T A M E N T ! ! !
Not gonna lie, Testament are in my Big 4. (And I’m not telling you who’s on the outside). But I’ve always just found them a more accessible band, music wise. They push all the right buttons for me and when it comes down to it, I just like most of their songs better than Slayer (ooops).
Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick’s riffs are laced with progressive intricacies and Chuck Billy’s vocals before AND after his change from mainly clean to more raspy growling hit right in the strike zone every time (yes, I’m watching the World Series as I type this).
Chuck Billy – lead vocals
Eric Peterson – rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals
Alex Skolnick – lead guitar, backing vocals
Steve Di Giorgio – bass
Chris Dovas – drums
Let’s talk setlist. Unlike Possessed and Kreator tonight, Testament, who have an amazingly deep catalog, didn’t give us a taste of their greatest hits, no. They played 14 songs and every one of them was from either their 1987 debut, The Legacy or their follow up; 1988’s The New Order. That’s right. The Bay Area bad asses went complete Old School and took us back to the Roots of their Evil. They just remastered both of these classics and I’m so happy they decided to showcase them. Of course if you’ve been with the band since day 1, then this was a dream. I have been and this was! From the reaction of the rabid fans, they were in agreement.
On this tour Chuck has taken the time to dedicate some of their songs. Their last show in Albuquerque, NM, they broke from the setlist to play “Native Bood” for the indigenous members of the crowd. Tonight, Chuck said he got a call from one of his good friends, Marty, who let him know that cancer had returned to his body. He had told Chuck that “He wasn’t going out like a bitch”. With this, Chuck had the crowd raise their fingers to the sky with a “Fuck Cancer” chant as he dedicated “Do Or Die” to his friend.
Another of the reasons why I love Testament so much is Alex Sklonick. Alex seamlessly weaves together his Jazz guitar stylings with the world of metal and the results are always sublime. He provides a sound that is both raw yet meticulously crafted.
As I previously mentioned, the drummers this evening were on a whole other level than other shows I’ve seen of late. Last time I saw Testament, the great Dave Lombardo was behind the kit. This time I understand it was Chris Dovas. I can’t confirm because he was so high and the kit completely obscured any view of the dude. But he was ferocious. Teamed up on bass with the amazing, Steve Di Giorgio, the rhythm section of this band always has been and continues to be formidable.
This show definitely was a Klash of two of the best Thrash Titans. These Pioneers are still performing at the highest of levels. With only a few dates left, if you didn’t catch it you missed out.
Related Links:
Testament
Kreator
Possessed
