Live Report + photos By Christian Tallone (proofreading by Ali Blackdiamond)

August 18, 2014 Brescia – Italy, We arrived at the “Festa Di Radio Onda d’Urto” just in time, as TRAGODIA (from Brescia-Italy) were starting their performance, proposing metal mixed with prog, alternating with fast and rhythmic songs. The band has been active since the late ’90’s and tonight playing ‘at home’, and with a great responsibility, opening to TESTAMENT. Supported by a large group of home town followers, the guys did their best and gave us an incisively powerful show. The volume was not devastating, but everything was very well balanced. The only flaw in my opinion, was the frontman Luca Meloni’s lack of ability to bring in dialogue with the public, however he offered a good singing performance. But given the importance of the event, the lack wasn’t too bad, on the whole the band closed the set with their heads held high! Well done Tragodia!

It’s a bit strange to see a band like TESTAMENT at a party like this, costing only a 10 euro festival fee, marked mostly with a completely different genre of music (ska, reggae), with a stage set up in the middle of stalls ranging from candy to wristbands. Usually we are accustomed to the classic metal concert, with sandwich and T-shirt sellers outside and on seeing this mix I was immediately blown away, but  in the end it proved to be a very well-executed party, enabled by the organisers  bringing this great band to perform. It also maybe introduced the band to members of the public who may not have known this genre of music.

But let’s get back to TESTAMENT. The atmosphere was a tense, dark and icy scene, towering over the audience, mainly made ​up of old nostalgic metal lovers, eagerly awaiting the Californian quintet, who then showed up in an excellent shape. In addition to Billy and Peterson, we also saw  the great Gene Hoglan and Steve Di Giorgio take to the stage.

TESTAMENT attacked potently passing from old to more recent releases, they sounded as you would expect, perfect! Billy’s voice is immense and hasn’t seemed to feel the slightest passing of time, although a little high in places, sometimes it rose above the rest of the band, especially the drums were a bit stifled.

I was moshing from the beginning to the end in the front row, and then Billy called us to the wall of death in the middle of ‘Alone In The Dark’. Testament gave their Brescian audience a concert of high quality, but maybe just a little cold. The songs in the setlist performed in bursts with continuous “crescendo”, which made me think that they were there just to do their job and then leave the stage (this was the last date of the tour). Anyhow, TESTAMENT left us with such a grit and nostalgia which makes you not remove their music from your car CD player for at least 10 days.

However, a great show, which once again shows us that the old ones are always the best ones! So for the next edition, we just hope to see a band of equal value!