TESTAMENT, LAMB OF GOD

Not since Metallica in 1992 has there been a heavy metal concert on the scale of Summer Slam X: The Apocalypse. There were many other bands present, but it was rather obvious 99% of the crowd came to see the headliners.

Indeed, never before has such a momentous pairing occurred in the history of Philippine live music. TESTAMENT and LAMB OF GOD back to back on a massive stage that sat in front of a numberless throng who already filled the venue—a massive open air stadium in the heart of Quezon City, Manila—hours prior. Together with a few hundred additional warm bodies, this writer and his buddies streamed inside, still rather wobbly from an extended lunch that consumed a giant pizza and lots of dessert. It was best to be fortified when participating in an event on the scale of Pulp’s yearly Summer Slam. Unlike festivals of the European variety, Summer Slam, which dates back to 2001, was a one-off. A single night of uninhibited debauchery (unless you’re caught and subsequently clobbered by the bouncers) featuring a ton of local bands and lots of overpriced goods, like overpriced pizza, overpriced Pepsi, and overpriced water. Such overpricing made you grateful for the armload of freebies a mere 300 peso ticket availed you (300 pesos=roughly 6 USD), which included condoms this year. Goodie.

Being a metalhead among thousands of other metalheads in attendance, yours truly made a point to arrive just when the local bands were done (this was during the early evening, say six-ish) and the roadies attacked the stage to prepare Testament’s rig. It took the better part of an hour and in the meantime the sky got dark, brilliant flashing lights cast their multicolored glow, and some dude kept uttering check-check-check on the microphones with the regularity of a hiccup. Alas, this part of the adventure was but boring ritual endured with thoughts of the delights to come. It did come at near eight as the bombastic intro to Testament’s last album, “For The Glory Off….”, blasted from the speakers and literally shook the ground beneath.

TESTAMENT came onstage and wasted not even a precious second before unleashing “Over The Wall” followed by a string of their classic material. The Bay Area legends performed a set that leaned heavily on their old stuff and to be honest, immense as their reception was, it didn’t really grab the audience. That would be reserved for Lamb of God, who performed at an hour shy of midnight. Anyway, with Testament dominating the stage dishing out their best know songs—“More Than Meets The Eye,” “DNR,” “The Evil Has Landed,” “Souls In Black,” “Three Days In Darkness,” “Practice What You Preach,” and “Into The Pit”—the local crowd got to behold veterans of thrash metal’s glory days whupping ass in the very flesh. Chuck Billy was a giant, even from a distance he noticeably towered above his bandmates, including his ever present partner in crime, the vertically challenged Eric Petersen, who was only too happy to let Alex Skolnick play the guitar hero. A guitar hero Skolnick very much is, even striking a signature pose each time he executed a solo to perfection. Paul Bostaph wouldn’t be put to shame either despite a few technical glitches and all in all, it was a performance for the ages.

It took almost two hours before LAMB OF GOD hit the stage. In the meantime, a few thousand more expectant fans crowded the concert grounds and that timeless Summer Slam tradition—a plastic bottle fight—broke out to the amusement of spectators and participants alike. When the vast multitude tired of the diversion, thousands of eyes rested on the empty stage, waiting for salvation until finally, the soothing notes of “The Passing” fired the anticipation of those in attendance. LAMB OF GOD opened their set with pyrotechnics galore as the hammering “In Your Words” triggered a good sized moshpit in several different locations. From this point onward it was pure carnage. As Lamb of God’s staple of classics—including “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For” and “Walk With Me In Hell”—came one after the other, the thousands of churning feet stomping the ground destroyed sent clouds of choking dust into the air. Talk about chaos, it was pure hell and they loved it, including this writer. LAMB OF GOD dominated the stage for an hour plus and once they loosed the two hit encore of “redneck” and “Black Label,” why, holy mother of Jesus, the super sized circle pit-cum-wall of death was a nightmare to behold. If you were a Filipino metalhead, you would have hated yourself for missing this.