Klash of the Titans
I love heavy metal. Shocking, I know, and there are still so many legendary heavy metal bands that I’ve never seen, so whenever a chance arises, I try to snap it up. So when I found out that Testament and Kreator were going to tour together and that, on top of that, they got Possessed to join in? I couldn’t beg fast enough for that press pass!
Possessed has still goddamn got it! Even though he’s wheelchair-bound, Jeff Bercera gives his all to this crowd. The band is tight as hell, delivering old-school death metal as only one of the founding bands of the genre can. “The Exorcist” is one of my favorite of their songs, and I was pleased as punch to see it included in the set.
Kreator is such a fun and theatrical band. Their entire stage setup feels like a room at a high-quality haunted maze, on par with bands like Amon Amarth. Opening with Hate Uber Alles and blasting through a set of breakneck thrash. They started a wall of death after two songs and kept riling up the crowd the whole way through.
Talk about a truly relentless band sucker-punches you and never lets up until the fucking end. Why they never got as popular as Metallica or Slayer will always elude me because they are better songwriters and, dare I say, better performers than both. Singer Chuck Billy led the whole crowd in a show of solidarity for his friend Marty, leading us on a cheer of “Fuck Cancer!”
Later Billy gave a heartfelt introduction to “Do or Die” where he told us about how it was the first song that he had a hand in writing and from that point onward he truly felt like he was part of the band. All said and done it was an awesome night for some classic Bay Area metal!
Spinning Platters was also invited to photograph the final show of the tour at The Warfield in San Francisco! Click on any photo below for a full slideshow… (photos by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF)
