Simon Rushworth
It’s that time of the year when we turn the spotlight on the bands you simply can’t afford to miss at this year’s typically eclectic 2015 Download Festival.
As usual RUSHONROCK will be on site – come rain or shine – for the full three days bringing you the very best news and reviews from the UK’s biggest and best rock and metal fest.
And to get you in the mood we’ll be pointing you in the direction of the cream of the crop – with thrash metal titans Testament next up.
Band: TESTAMENT
When: Saturday June 13 15.20-15.50
Where: Zippo Encore Stage
Who: Members of thrash metal’s glitterati – if there was a Big Five then Testament would be in the starting line-up alongside Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. Practice What You Preach (1989) and Souls Of Black (1990) both crashed the UK top 40 albums charts and latest album Dark Roots Of Earth (2012) landed at 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 – the band’s best ever chart entry back home. In frontman Chuck Billy, the Californians boast one of the most formidable performers on the live circuit.
Why: Testament might only get 30 minutes but those in the know will be guaranteed an aural bludgeoning for what promises to be half an hour of thrash metal heaven. Charismatic, passionate and enjoying their second coming, Billy and his boys are quite likely to steal the show on Saturday – if they can dodge the thunder and lightning.
Listen out for: In The Pit – does what it says on the tin.
For fans of: Metallica, Death Angel, Anthrax.
What we said: ‘…for the majority of the generation-spanning crowd present there was one song and one song alone which represented the highlight of a magnificent night of no-holds-barred live music. Souls Of Black may have been composed at a time when thrash was reputedly in a state of terminal decline but in 2009 it sounds like the best heavy metal song ever written. Bar none.’ From 2009 Newcastle O2 Academy live show.