Bay Area thrash metal legends, TESTAMENT, are proud to announce their first U.S. headlining tour since their phenomenal chart success with their new album, Dark Roots of Earth. The trek promises to be one of the best thrash metal lineups of the year, with support coming from the world renowned OVERKILL and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, as well as Australian thrashers 4ARM.

“It’s a thrill to announce our upcoming dates with OVERKILL and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM,” commented guitarist Alex Skolnick. “It’s a tour that brings together three different metal bands from three different regions: West Coast, East Coast and Southwest. All three bands sound very different from one another yet are highly compatible. All have been around the block (and the world) a few times and all have managed to keep a sound that feels current. This tour will be a ‘must see’ for fans who remember the early days of thrash/speed metal as well as those whose age is younger than the genre itself.”

TESTAMENT, OVERKILL, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, 4ARM
1/30 The Filmore – San Francisco, CA*
1/31 House of Blues – Anaheim, CA*
2/1 The Marquee – Tempe, AZ*
2/2 House of Blues – Hollywood, CA*
2/4 Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM*
2/5 Emo’s – Austin, TX
2/6 House of Blues – Houston, TX
2/7 House of Blues – Dallas, TX
2/9 Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
2/10 The Fillmore – Charlotte, NC
2/12 The Fillmore – Silver Spring, MD
2/13 Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA
2/14 Best Buy Theatre – New York, NY
2/15 The Paramount – Huntington, NY
2/16 The Palladium – Worcester, MA
2/17 Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY
2/18 Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON
2/20 Bogart’s – Cincinnati, OH
2/21 The Intersection – Grand Rapids, MI
2/22 The Rave – Milwaukee, WI
2/23 First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
2/25 The Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
2/26 In The Venue – Salt Lake City, UT
2/27 Knitting Factory – Reno, NV
2/28 Ace Of Spades – Sacramento, CA

* – Denotes FLOTSAM AND JETSAM will not be playing

worst tour ever.

bay area thrash = teenager metal. (not a shot at OP, just sayin)

It's a good thing i'm still technically a teenager until mid-2014 then.

But in all seriousness, you do realize that Testament is the only band here from the Bay Area - right?

ross do you realize that?

Flots's album from 2010 was excellent

Oh my God!!!! Ross has 2\3rds of this tour all wrong. Go back to metal school dude!

Spence makes me stoked to play 21+ gigs

Oh man!

I was referring to Testament, the most overrated metal band in the history of metal, but honestly these days bay area thrash is a particular style, not just a way of identifying where the band is from.

LOL

False statement is False, go back to the drawing boards.

This is how far I got into OP. Fight Nick, faggot.

lol

To be fair, I just copied and pasted everything in the OP from this.

There is quite a large possibility of me leaving after Overkill if Testament's setlist is loaded with 90's material.

This should be a most awesome show! Not missing this.

Why would Testament primarily play songs from their mid to late 90's period when Skolnick left the band around 1993, shortly after The Ritual was released? I'm willing to bet that he and the rest of the band wouldn't be up for playing a bunch of the material he wasn't involved with. I'm sure you'll get one or two from Low, none from Demonic, and maybe one or two from The Gathering. Maybe. The rest would be from their newest albums, and from the past, especially The Legacy and The New Order. Also, even though most of the band dislikes the record, I'm sure they'll do Electric Crown off of The Ritual.

Also, it's cool if people aren't into them but I happen to appreciate Testament. Solid band.

Because Testament knows Spencer is an expert and wouldn't want to make him wrong.

YOUR COOL BRO

that is, your moms cool.

I feel like a good third of Testament's setlist when I saw them with Anthrax and Death Angel was 90's material.

I know that realistically that isn't too much, but it doesn't make those songs suck any less. And you also got to keep in mind, Testament is most likely going to play a good four or five songs off the new album and two-three off the Formation of Damnation. So i'm predicting not many classics on this upcoming tour, but we'll see.

4ARM: superior thrash metal band name

When you say "90's", what songs in particular? Do you remember? Because Skolnick performed on Souls of Black (1990) and The Ritual (1992), so I could understand songs from those particular albums from the 90's. However, like I said above, most of the band disagreed with the direction of The Ritual, so I can only imagine they'd play Electric Crown and maaaaybe one another, but that's a stretch. I could definitely see them playing Souls of Black title track and maybe Seven Days of May, which would be killer cause that song rips.
I just can't imagine them playing a ton of material off of Low, Demonic, or The Gathering. It appears that they're embracing their thrash roots and are running with that image/sound. Low, Demonic, and The Gathering do not really fit into what they're doing now. If it were a perfect world, they'd play mostly tracks off of The Legacy, The New Order, and Practice What You Preach.

Did anyone else see Overkill at Jarrods place about 10 years ago? Similar to talking about Manowar at club 125 it's funny that these bands were playing bars on 2 foot stages a decade ago and are now back to playing theaters.

one other*, rather

Pretty sure they played two songs off Souls of Black, Electric Crown, 3 Days in Darkness and D.N.R. when I saw them. So a good five songs out of like... twelve or thirteen. And they must've played three songs off the Formation of Damnation as well.

Also, I think they've said that they'll never be able to completely remove The Gathering from setlists because that album has a major cult following. Probably amongst Dave Lomdardo fanboys.

Last time I saw Testament headline it was indeed two songs from Gathering and nothing from Demonic. And they did do the song Souls of Black.

Which Time? I think I saw them twice there. One time was a practice show before the DVD. They were rehearsing old material and only played songs from the first 4 albums.

As far as testament goes, just check setlists online. Here ya go:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/testament/20...lues-atlantic-city-nj-63dd3a1b.html

Not a bad mix. They are keeping it on the thrash side and less of the plodding side.

bennyhillifier

Can't get over how god awful the name of this band is.

I think I saw Overkill at Jarrods twice two. I thought they had played there twice but wasn't sure if I was remembering it wrong.

Candy Stripper Death Orgy, Lich King and a few other bands will all be playing the upstairs at this show as well and are all selling tickets.

This could get hilarious

holy shit 4arm is the lamest fucking band

Not as lame as your ass.

Yeah, they really suck. GOOD EXCUSE TO HIT UP THE UPSTAIRS AT THE BEGINING.

Honestly, I REALLY hope none of the local bands clash with Testament/Overkill/Flotsam & Jetsam, since those are the bands people are paying 25 bucks to see - not local bands who can be seen for 3 bucks.

Bullshit! You lost at having an encyclopedic knowledge of Metal bands fair and square. I bet you can't name the colors that the Slaughter Of The Soul double picture disc re-issue came in either.



It's not a style, it doesn't have post-, retro-, blackened, melodic, progressive, or brutal in the name. You old people are a disgrace to all that Pantera and Mega-death set out to create.

Anyone who would put Ross's knowledge of metal into question is a jackass. Ross might know more about metal then even I do.

Picking fights with dudes who don't even post here anymore/can body your gimp ass. That's a paddlin'

Metalheads before the internet made it so easy > metalheads who grew up on internet.
-elitist mountain

I know what colors the Slaughter of the Soul reissues were. What a fun life.

I don't need the reissue because I still have the double cd from the Napalm Death tour I purchased in 1996.

In don't need the reissue because I left the original CD in my first car when I junked it because everyone who isn't an Internet fag knows Terminal Spirit Disease was their peak. What a fun life.

Unless F&J has agreed to never play anything but their first two albums, this tour is gay.

And go massconcerts for keeping the palladium shitty. Oh, the mediocre local openers selling their asses as usual? Waiting for some self defense response on how "this is how you get on the good shows man" ... even more hilarious because they might as well be two separate shows since they won't be on the same fucking stage anyway.

And while we're at it...yeah i hate how the internet has affected "metal knowledge" and bred an entire generation of "experts" who go look up metal archives 12 times an hour for facts between youtube videos. Its a good resource, but i swear nearly anyone into metal the past few years wouldn't have a clue if that site shut down from existence tomorrow.

I'm sure Spence and Goatfucker can tell us all about their massive mp3 collections. I'll be too busy wistfully stroking my longboxes of late-90s NSBM demos to care. What a fun life.

Arm yourself with knowledge.

I honestly have no clue why my generation is so obsessed with useless trivia. Obviously, there's a huge element of competition - let's face it, being a teenager/young adult these days is fucking boring, even by 80's or even early 90's "nerd" standards. If most of us kids are this detached from reality, using the enormous amount of information on the internet as bragging rights almost looks like a valid option if you have that much of a monotonous life.

Personally, I don't need to know where and when a band is from, whether they're "underground" or not, who's involved or any of that shit to like them. If they kick ass, I'll buy their CDs/merch/ect. and do what I can to spread the word.

(On that note, Ross is the man.)

On my way

Miss Ross. I have no idea what a 4arm is but they sound a lot like a testament/exodus rip off. It's not bad at all. I guess they are from Australia.

I ran into some funderground gangsters. They wanted me to have a good time and Almost shot me in the face with silly string. Wtf!

Just ask them basic metal trivia and when they go to look it up on their phones just walk away.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

pictures

I ended up winning two tickets to this, so I ended up sitting on one of those couchbooth things for 4ARM and F&J. 4ARM were mediocre but not anything offensive to listen to, Flotsam & Jetsam were awesome despite the shortness of their set. (although those two newer songs they played were mih, and the lack of overall crowd interest was kind of discouraging - especially after the singer proclaimed the Worcester date to be one of the "best shows of the tour.")

Moved up to the balcony for Overkill and Testament. Overkill were cool, but man their 00's songs are all WAY longer than they should be. Definitely enjoyed them a lot less than when I saw them with Vader at the palladium in 2010, but then again, at that show Bobby Blitz wasn't sick and I wasn't in massive amounts of pain.

Then Testament blew. It wasn't even that THEY blew, it was just that the mix was so fucking terrible and the bassdrums were so fucking loud that it made everything miserable and shit. And the fact they played, what, two or three songs off The Gathering and a bunch off the new album didn't help either.

As a whole, i'm glad I went for Flotsam & Jetsam and the few minutes of Lich King I saw, but could've totally passed on Overkill and Testament. Maybe if I was on the barrier or by the soundboard it would've been better. Oh well, at the end of the day the show was free for me so I guess I can be happy I didn't spend 25 bucks.

the sound system was messed up.

Makes sense. Doesn't make my experience during Testament anymore enjoyable though. Do you know what was wrong with it?

LIKE "SWEDISH DEATH METAL"

LOL @ 4arm, the chink with the Moe Howard haircut is hilarious. Numetal still eats dicks all day long.

YOU HAVE THE BEST USERNAME ON HERE

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

That guy from 4arm wishes he had something as cool as me to play around with on stage.

what a kook. who isn't psyched to thrash their face off on a saturday night at testament with a bunch of other weirdos? i guess it's hard to enjoy when you are sitting up in a balcony being cranky and hating life

HAHAHAHAHA anyone who went to this is a dipshit stuck in the 80s like HookedonMetal!

Sick of thunderstool troll. Anyhow, the kieth said the Atlas month's set blew the pa. It was perfectly fine for all the bands until testament. Then it sounded like wet farts. Instead of bass. I think it was during practice what you preach that they finally turned it down.

2 other things
1) I learned of 2 tours that are coming and are awesome
2) seeing Gina up on the balcony loving overkill was one of the best parts of the night.

WHY IS

"THE YEARS OF DECAY"

SO MUCH MORE INTENSE

THAN THE OTHER OVERKILL ALBUMS?

no deny the cross :(

THAT'S PRETTY COOL TOO

BUT THE WHOLE PACKAGE ON TYOD IS AMAZING

IT HAS GREAT INTERNAL VARIETY

AN ALMOST CONCEPTUAL INTENSITY CURVE

IT'S CHEESY, BUT FUCK, THAT ALBUM IS AMAZING

Setlists according to Setlist.FM in case anyone cares.

Flotsam & Jetsam:

01. Ugly Noise
02. Iron Tears
03. Escape from Within
04. Hammerhead
05. Gitty Up
06. No Place for Disgrace

Overkill:

01. Come and Get It
02. Rotten to the Core
03. Wrecking Crew
04. Bring Me the Night
05. Electric Rattlesnake
06. Ironbound
07. Elimination
08. Fuck You (The Subhumans cover)

Testament:

01. Rise Up
02. More Than Meets the Eye
03. Burnt Offerings
04. Into the Pit
05. Practice What You Preach
06. Riding the Snake
07. Eyes of Wrath
08. Trial By Fire
09. The Haunting
10. The New Order
11. Over the Wall
12. Disciples of the Watch
13. D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
14. 3 Days in Darkness
15. The Formation of Damnation

As a whole, Testament's setlist was really odd. They only played one song off their recent album and yet they played four whole songs off The Gathering. Weird.

C.O.T.L.O.D. AND OVER THE WALL ARE THE BEST 10 MINUTES OF TOASTYMINT EVER