Saturday, August 23, 2008

Concert Review: Judas Priest / Heaven and Hell / Motörhead / Testament

By Todd Maternowski

DALLAS — This summer has already featured pretty much every heavy metal big name of the past 20 years at the Rockstar Mayhem and Ozzfest concerts: why not throw in some from 30 years ago as well? This summer's 'Metal Masters' tour featured some of metal's most influential pioneering bands: Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell (a.k.a. Black Sabbath without Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward), Motörhead and Testament --for an awe-struck metal fan, it's essentially the chance to watch rock history up close and personal.

Arriving before Testament opened the show, I was immediately struck by the colossal age difference in the fan base between Metal Masters and, say, Slipknot: far too many fans had the grey haired-look of someone who had lost their virginity to Stained Class in the back of their '77 Galaxy. Along with that, though, was the vast number of fans willing to pony up the cash for one, two, three or more of the $35 concert t-shirts: it can be good to have an older fan base, no doubt.

Don't let the wordy title fool you: this is the real deal

Testament took the stage first, looking relatively youthful despite forming 25 years ago in San Francisco (making them the most recent of the four band lineup by a longshot). Testament was one of the original pioneers of thrash metal, along with fellow Bay Area metal bands like Metallica, Death Angel and Exodus, but seemed to stray from that in some of their releases in the 1990s. Touring in support of their newest album, The Formation of Damnation, I've got good news for diehard Testament fans: the new album is shockingly good. While most rock bands tail off after a certain number of years, it seems Testament --now that original guitarist Alex Skolnick is back, and writing again-- has bucked the trend and created something their fans definitely will not be disappointed in.

The band played some songs off the new album, including the title track and 'More Than Meets the Eye', and both were good, although pumped through the massive speakers at Superpages.com, the guitarwork didn't come off nearly as clean as it does on the album. The band played some of their older hits, but unfortunately only were allotted a measly 30 minutes. The decidedly non-metal start time of 5:30pm (sharp) also was a bit of a letdown, as, I suspect, most of Testament's fans were probably not even in the building at that time. Still, these legends of thrash gave the crowd everything they had, from impressive lightning-fast guitar riffs to the tremendous stage persona of lead singer Chuck Billy --a real-life Nathan Explosion-- who, despite singing for a quarter-century, still has an amazing range and power in his vocals.

Next up was British rock gods Motörhead: the trio redefined the metal genre in the late 70s and early 80s, and was formed by bassist/singer/mustache triple-threat Lemmy Kilmister in 1975. It's been said of Motörhead that they were the band that, if they moved next door to you, your lawn would die. Unfortunately, these days the lawn might have died of boredom --the surprisingly low-energy set was easily the most disappointing of the four, as the band listlessly and mechanically played their greatest hits for one painfully-long hour.

Your Crane-Style is no match for his Devil-Fu

It might have been those massive speakers again, but songs that sounded revolutionary on my vast collection of Motörhead cassette tapes sounded remarkably similar Friday night: even the band's arguably-most popular song, 'The Ace of Spades', seemed rushed. The set was saved, somewhat, by drummer Mikkey Dee towards the end: at least Dee seemed alive and kicking, with an impressive ten-minute drum solo that truly rocked the thousands in attendance. Lemmy seemed a little disinterested throughout, and as a huge Motörhead fan growing up, I was quite disappointed. I'll chalk this one up to the energy-sapping humidity, and forget it ever happened.

The next band up was Heaven and Hell --essentially the non-Ozzy/Ward Black Sabbath of the 1980s-- and they put on a truly old-school metal concert that got the crowd revved up once again. Featuring an awesome stage set bordering on Spinal Tap territory (ten-foot gargoyles, flame, smoke and a completely over-the-top drum setup that Dragonforce ought to look into), the band played rock like it was meant to be: big, loud, and fearless.

Tiny lead singer Ronnie James Dio came out in a red and black sparkly big-cuffed shirt, and proceeded to rock the crowd with his theatrical physical style and operatic voice. Bassist Geezer Butler dominated his bass, plucking the strings jazz-style with unbelievable speed and accuracy. And the show was often stolen by the understated lead guitarist Tony Iommi --allegedly the inventor of the metal guitar riff-- although the only solo of any length was a Pink Floyd-ish number towards the end of the set. Playing songs off several Dio-era Black Sabbath albums, particularly Dehumanizer and Heaven and Hell, the band closed with a 15-minute version of 'Heaven and Hell', only to come out for a one-song encore after that.

Headliners Judas Priest closed out the show, and despite the impressive performances of the bands before them, Priest lives and breathes anthem-rock. After nearly 40 years in the business (that's utterly amazing, incidentally), Judas Priest has pretty much perfected the art of the arena-rock show. The band opened in front of an incredible backdrop, the cover art for their recent Nostradamus album (rumor has it the album will be a two-disc set): a massive, ancient alchemist with color-changing spotlights for eyes. Lead singer/frontman Rob Halford arrived on stage via elevator, clad in a mirror-covered robe and wielding a clerical staff with the Priest symbol on it, while on the stage the twin guitar attack of K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton and bassist Ian Hill (Downing and Hill have been with the band all 38 years, while the young buck Tipton joined a mere 34 years ago) strum, strut and pose in ways that tens of thousands of aspiring bands have tried to copy since.

Todd Maternowski

My skillz as a photographer are legendary

What can be said of Judas Priest that hasn't been said a million times? They rock! They put on an amazing show! They let the crowd sing along! They wear tight and/or shiny clothing! They constantly change up their stage set to keep things fresh! Did I mention that they rock? The mere fact that they've been doing this since before my parents met might be the single most impressive aspect of the band: despite playing in front of millions, Priest still leaves it all on the stage after every performance. True metal-rock professionals, if they keep it up they should be able to rock the faces of millions more before they're through.

The Metal Masters show was a memorable one, but in the end I had to take one for Team Irony when, on the way back to my truck, my back locked up. Grown men 25 years my senior were jumping around like teenagers on meth, but this not-that-old-yet reviewer had a little trouble walking after enduring six straight hours of metal. Totally. Worth. It.

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See more stories in:

• Arts > Popular Music > Metal
• Arts > Popular Music > Rock

Comments

Todd Maternowski Staff

Thanks, TLS, I aim to please

10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Todd Maternowski Staff

Thanks for the corrections, Dopefish. I was actually a little disappointed to find out Tipton wasn't a founding member.. a quick check on wikipedia confirmed it.

Quick update: a friend of mine says that Motorhead "always sucks when they're not the headliner." That might explain their lackluster performance (altho it doesn't justify it)

10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )