In an interview with KNAC.COM posted on January 2 Testament vocalist Chuck Billy announced that the band will be playing their 1987 debut album, The Legacy, in its entirely during their upcoming support slot on the Slayer/Megadeth tour. Here is Chuck’s response (in part) to the question, “What are you doing to gear up for the tour?”:
“Last night we just made a crucial decision, so you’re going to be the first exclusive to hear. We decide(d) last night that instead of putting—because we only have a 40-minute set to pick—instead of playing a medley of songs, we decided we’re going to do the entire The Legacy record, start to finish, in its entirety for the show. Since we’ve already toured a year and a half with Priest, we did our own headline, we did so much stuff out there, why don’t we go out there and do something different? We’ll give ‘em a whole different stage look…let’s give ‘em The Legacy album, start to finish. It’s a nostalgic kind of tour, so why not?”
The entire interview with KNAC.COM can be read here.
I’m still not sure exactly what to think of this announcement, but I’m certainly disappointed. It’s hard to call the Slayer/Megadeth tour a nostalgia tour since both co-headliners are promoting recent Billboard-charting albums. I understand that Testament is done promoting 2008’s The Formation Of Damnation and is working on a new record, but I’d rather see a set heavy on that amazing album. I love The Legacy, but I prefer to see bands play their newer material, especially when it’s band that I’ve seen many times throughout the years (I think it’s seven times that I’ve seen Testament since 1990). Why not play The Formation Of Damnation in its entirety? How about a couple newly written songs? That would be a real treat for this tour!
I’m still bummed out about the last Testament show I saw at Epic in Minneapolis in July 2008. This was probably the worst Testament show that I’ve ever seen. This was an “off-date” show to fill in a few days between a Canadian tour with Judas Priest and the Masters of Metal tour with Judas Priest, Heaven And Hell, and Motörhead. For some reason, Testament only played for 50 minutes at this headline show and only played two songs off of The Formation Of Damnation. A show this short was simply inexcusable and left me filling ripped off.
Hopefully Chuck was speaking prematurely about this, and Testament will reconsider this decision.
Testament will be supporting co-headliners Slayer and Megadeth at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul on Thursday, February 4.
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