Testament/Exodus/Death Angel-Forum Kentish Town London 6/03/2020

Testament/Exodus/Death Angel

Forum, Kentish Town London

06/03/2020

Words and Photos Stephen Johnson

The Forum venue in Kentish Town in London braced itself for the arrival of Testament, Exodus and Death Angel and judging by the way the three bands played at ear splitting volume, it had every right to be.

Death Angel had the unenviable task of opening proceedings at the early time of 6.40pm and even though a large proportion of the audience weren’t in the building to see ‘em start their set, the band made sure that their presence was not gonna be ignored, oh no.

From the opening track ‘Humanicide’ on to ‘Voracious Souls’, ‘Claws In So Deep’, Aggressor’, ‘The Dreams Calls For Blood’, ‘The Moth’, ‘Semmingly Endless Time’ and closer ‘The Ultra Vio-lence/Thrown To The Wolves’, the band ripped through their set, it felt like at 100mph.

There was no chance to catch your breath, as each track made sure that you knew of its existence and by the time the Forum had started filling up a short while after 7pm, the band carried on oblivious to this, and still put on a cracking performance.

They played for 50 minutes, and for me, were the band of the evening.

Exodus, oh boy, were they up for it and make no mistake of that.

The band’s setlist was made up of the following ‘Body Harvest’, ‘Blood In Blood Out’, ‘And Then There Were None’, Fabulous Disaster’, ‘Deathamphetamine’, ‘Blacklist’, ‘Bonded By Blood’, ‘Piranha’, ‘’The Toxic Waltz’ and closer ‘Strike Of The Beasts’.

Even though they had nothing to prove to the already appreciative crowd, the band felt like they had to pummel the senses into oblivion, altho’ at times, because of the way they played, some of the songs were hard to follow and got lost in all the excitement of the moment, which was a shame.

To prove this point ‘The Toxic Waltz’ and ‘Strike Of The Beasts’, at times, it was hard to fully work out whereabouts they were in the song as the sound kept dropping and made for uncomfortable listening.

Never the less, Exodus’ performance was exemplary.

Testament were gonna come across as a bit of a comedown after Death Angel and Exodus, especially as they weren’t as Thrashy or prepared to bludgeon your senses into oblivion. They are more about musicianship and come across as more Heavy and Metal, and after the opening two bands was a welcome breather, trust me.

The tracks that made up the set-list was a mixture of old and new:’Eerie Inhabitants’, ‘The New Order’, ‘The Haunting’, ‘The Preacher’, ‘Dark Roots Of Earth’, ‘Last Stand Of Independence’, ‘Throne Of Thorns’, ‘Brotherhood Of The Snake’, ‘The Pale King’, ‘Fall Of Sipledome’, ‘Children Of The Next Level’, ‘Night Of The Witch’, ‘Into The Pit’, ‘Practice What You Preach’, ‘Over The Wall’ and ‘Disciples Of The Watch’.

Sadly, a good 45 minutes into the band’s set, they, for me, started to sound very samey and I Hate to admit it, lost my interest.