It’s A Thrash Of The Titans At The Worcester Palladium On March 27th

All Live Photos By George Dionne/@rockisgeorge
Band Photo Credit: Fred Kowalo

Heading up to Worcester, MA for the Thrash of the Titans tour stop at the Worcester Palladium was the culmination of a long day. I worked a shift at my friend’s record shop and then left directly from there with fellow KNAC scribe George Dionne to get there to cover the show.

While we got there just as the show was supposed to have started, the main hiccup of the night was already screwing things up for us. See, I’d never really listened to DESTRUCTION much before I knew I was heading to the show. Yes, I know they are one of the Big Four of German thrash bands, but I never really got into them before. When I finally listened to them once I knew I’d be going to this show, I liked what I heard so I was looking forward to getting to see them. I mean, it’s not like they tour the US all that much, so I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity.

Unfortunately, between the band going on stage at least ten minutes early and the inability of the Palladium to get everyone in the door before the show actually started, we didn’t get into the freaking building until 7:13pm. By that time, we had just enough time to see DESTRUCTION play the final song of their set, their self-titled song “Destruction”. I was a little pissed to say the least.

So I can’t really say THAT much about their set except that they did sound pretty good on that last song of the set. I definitely consider it a missed opportunity to say the very least.

AFTER CONCERT “FUN” FACT: Through the auspices of people posting clips on YouTube, I was able to find clips of six of the eight songs from DESTRUCTION’s set (including “Destruction”). So I was able to check out most of the show that way but I don’t really feel comfortable judging the set or the band as a whole from video clips after the fact. However, I will say that my appetite was whetted enough that if they ever make it back to the states on a package that I want to see, I’ll definitely plan things so that I can actually see their full set in person.

SET LIST

• “Curse of the Gods”
• “Death Trap”
• “Nailed to the Cross”
• “Scumbag Human Race”
• “Mad Butcher”
• “Bestial Invasion”
• “Thrash ‘Til Death”
• “Destruction”

For more on Destruction, visit their website: https://www.destruction.de

Now, I’ve been an OVERKILL fan since their masterpiece album ‘The Years of Decay’. Yet in all the time between then and now, I’d never seen the band live. So finally getting to see them, even in the support slot, was definitely a way to get me just a little bit more jazzed up for the show than I already was. I was saddened that an ongoing health issue meant I wouldn’t see the band with D.D. Verni on bass, but having FEAR FACTORY’s Christian Olde Wolbers filling in for him didn’t seem to affect the overall efficiency of the band as far as I could tell.

Another friend of mine was at the show and he said that OVERKILL’s sound mix didn’t sound right in the beginning of the show but got better over the course of their set. I had a little trouble hearing the song “Bring Me the Night” and chalked it up to my earplugs distorting the sound a bit. Other than that though, I thought OVERKILL sounded great.

Opening their set with the title track of their most recent release ‘Scorched’, that long guitar intro to the song really set the pace for the rest of their set. I liked that this was still part of the band’s touring cycle for the ‘Scorched’ album. They featured not only the title track in the set but also included the song “The Surgeon” as well.

With just nine songs in their set, the fact they had at least six of their albums represented was pretty nice, even if it did mean they only played one track from ‘The Years of Decay”. But since it was “Elimination”, which is one of my favorite tracks from that album, I was pretty stoked! Of course, now I want to see the band doing a headlining set so I can hear more of the songs I like in a live setting.

Singer Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth’s stage banter was playfully insulting to the Massachusetts crowd and yet they ate it up like it was pure sugar struck me funny. But I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the way he was ribbing the crowd.

I loved getting to hear “Hello from the Gutter” and “Ironbound” live as well. The former might be the first OVERKILL song I remember seeing a video for on Headbanger’s Ball and there is just something so unifyingly anthemic about “Ironbound” that makes it such a killer track to hear whether on an album or in concert.

In all, I found OVERKILL’s nine song set to be tight and powerful. The aggressively paced nature of some of the songs the band played fueled the pit on the floor with like downing a six-pack of those five hour energy drinks and left me wanting more by the time the final strains of “Fuck You” signaled the end of their show for the night.

AFTER CONCERT “FUN” FACTS: I was able to find five of the nine song OVERKILL played at the Palladium on YouTube. Also, I splurged and bought an OVERKILL T-shirt for this tour before I left the building at the end of the night.

SET LIST

• “Scorched”
• “Rotten to the Core”
• “Bring Me the Night”
• “Hello From the Gutter”
• “Deny the Cross”
• “The Surgeon”
• “Ironbound”
• “Elimination”
• “Fuck You” (The Subhumans cover)

For more on Overkill, visit their website: http://www.wreckingcrew.com

Back before the pandemic, George and I went to see the ANTHRAX / TESTAMENT double bill tour. I wanted to see ANTHRAX again, but I had yet to fully get into TESTAMENT. That all changed when the band put on a freaking amazing show that night and suddenly I was buying all of their studio albums because I had to hear more. I had obviously missed out on something because of how their music went over with me in a live setting.

So when this tour was announced, I knew that I wanted to go because I HAD to see TESTAMENT again.

You remember how my friend said that part of OVERKILL’s set had sounded off? Well, there was no criticism about TESTAMENT’s sound from him. He said they sounded like “gods” on the night. And for me, it was hard to find fault with how the band sounded.

Since they are promoting the ‘Para Bellum’ album with this tour, the album was well represented in the set list with three songs making the cut. I loved hearing “Infanticide A.I.” and “For the Love of Pain” but I was a little less taken with “Shadow People”.

I was also a little bummed out that the two songs representing the ‘Practice What You Preach’ album didn’t include the album’s title track, which is just a monster track in my opinion. While I know “The Ballad” is a popular track, I just don’t really get into that song much and I would’ve been fine if they’d cut that one and replaced it with the “Practice What You Preach” song.

Of course, that’s not to say the songs didn’t sound good in an audio respect, they did. Hell, sound-wise, TESTAMENT’s set was freaking great like my friend said.

But that’s a relatively minor nitpick for me because as TESTAMENT hit the stage and ripped things up with a stellar rendition of “Into the Pit”, you just knew they were going to blow the roof off the place.

Following that up with “The Evil Has Landed” and “Henchmen Ride”, a double shot from their ‘Formation of Damnation’ album continued the rising adrenaline level of the crowd as well.

And later in the set when they played “Native Blood”, one of my favorite TESTAMENT songs from the ‘Dark Roots of Earth’ album, I was in hog heaven let me tell you.

Add in songs like “Sins of Omission”, “Low” and “WWIII” and you’d be hard pressed to find a place for your ears to get a minute’s relief up until they played “The Ballad”.

As George noted, the size of the crowd that turned out for this triple threat bill of thrash metal was pretty impressive. I know he wasn’t crazy about the song “So Many Lies”, especially with Chuck Billy’s use of the megaphone towards the end of that song, but I think otherwise, we were both pretty satisfied with what we were witnessing.

Saying the band created a relentless and racing tempo throughout their set is almost a ridiculous expression when you are talking about a thrash metal concert, but there was just something about the way TESTAMENT’s set just kept pummeling you with one sonic wave after another for most of their set.

The second time you see a band after the first experience was so attitude changing can be risky. Can the band equal and/or top that first time you saw them? Well, I don’t know if TESTAMENT outdid themselves from the first time, but they sure did equal that thrilling experience of the band in a live setting. Yes, there were a couple of song selections that weren’t to our liking, but TESTAMENT simply killed it otherwise and I SO want to see them again, as soon as humanly possible.

AFTER CONCERT “FUN” FACT: The TESTAMENT set included fifteen songs and I found live clips from the show on YouTube for eight of them.

SET LIST

• “Into the Pit”
• “The Evil has Landed”
• “Henchmen Ride”
• “For the Love of Pain”
• “Infanticide A.I.”
• “Shadow People”
• “WWIII”
• “John Doe”
• “Low”
• “Native Blood”
• “Sins of Omission”
• “So Many Lies”
• “The Ballad”
• “The Haunting”
• “Over the Wall”

For more on Testament, visit their website: https://www.testamentlegions.com

DESTRUCTION

OVERKILL

TESTAMENT