Testament absolutely owned at Priest Feast and Beez throws the horns in their general direction. Get tickets for Testament!

Judas Priest, Megadeth and Testament rolled into London town on Saturday night and as was expected, it was a kick-ass show. Seriously. Kick. Ass.

I’m not sure if this comes as a shock or not but, for me, Testament absolutely stole the show. They don’t have the same ‘mark out’ moments that their fellow legends have (the kick drum making your chest pulsate prior to that bass line kicking in on Holy Wars, “breaking the law, breaking the law!” et al) but holy Christ on a bicycle, the sheer power, precision, ferocity and attitude that Chuck Billy and his crew brought to the fold on Saturday were incredible. On this sort of form, Testament could go head-to-head with most bands in metal right now and hand them a big, fat ass-whooping. Miss their Metal Hammer sponsored ‘One Night Only’ Islington Academy show at your peril.

It just goes to show the extreme difference between a reunion and a comeback. Testament haven’t just come back onto the scene and emerged victorious in a battle with ‘Priest and Megadeth, they’ve released a kick-ass album in The Formation Of Damnation and shown the planet what a criminally under-rated band they are by working hard and capitalising on the attention afforded to them.

At Christmas, I was incredibly unfortunate enough to catch the Stone Temple Pilots at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas. To have an off night or to be beaten into submission by sound gremlins is just one of those things that can happen to anyone but to take your fans hard-earned money and play with all of the passion of a dead fish is inexcusable. Honestly, it was cold, calculating and angering enough to make Ghandi want to give Weiland a slap. This is what I like to call a reunion. “Hey everybody, we’re back and offering absolutely nothing but our name now give us your cash”. Lame in the extreme.

A comeback is something more than that. We’ve already discussed Testament but there’s also Alice In Chains. Alice In Chains were greeted with a wall of scepticism when it was announced that they would reform but the shows since have been full of passion and, fuelled by an audience that wanted them to succeed, their album is one of this year’s most highly-anticipated releases because they’ve put the effort in in front of their fans. It’s not taking the money and running, it’s putting on a great rock and roll show with a huge arsenal of top tunes and that’s what you want from a comeback.

To get to the point, it must have been devastating for Testament to have been 5th in a world where people only talk about the big 4 but if you’re given a second bite at the cherry, you can achieve greatness and make the world recognise your brilliance if you give a shit about the music and pull your weight. Testament have done exactly that and deserve all the praise that’s heaped on them. We’ll be pouring it on by the truckload.

‘Til next time.

Beez