I would like to start this review by saying "Thank you" to Testament for deciding to spend their free day from the Priest Feast (which they toured with at the time) in our company and also to the people at Vega for inviting this great band and making this possible.
So, there you go; "Thank you!".

Now, the first thing to hit me as I entered the concert hall was how absolutely smashing Eliran Kantor’s cover artwork looked in the backdrop size covering the entire back wall of the stage.
The next thing was noticing that not only had they closed of the balcony, but also the back end of the room. Now as it was in the greater hall of Vega Testament was set to play, this still gave plenty of room for the assembled crowd. It wasn’t an awesome amount of people who had shown up (I’m guessing many went to see them together with Judas Priest and Megadeth instead) but they did fill out the room, and it suited me just fine I didn’t get squished against the fence.

As they had the stage all to themselves here, Testament took the opportunity to play a much longer and varied set than they could for the rest of the tour (Chuck Billy mentioned a stage time of 40 minutes for the rest of the shows). Actually, Billy commented; “We promise to play a lot of old stuff, so just give a shout if there’s something you want to hear. We’ve rehearsed it all.”
Bold words, perhaps, but it would seem they were true enough; Testament started their set with several songs from the early albums The Legacy, The New Order and Souls Of Black. Later on newer songs were also played, two of which came from their latest release The Formation Of Damnation, but the main part of the set was still reserved for the old stuff. The biggest surprise, which Billy trumped in against the others will or so he said, was the unreleased song Reign Of Terror. If my memory serves me, he said it was from the time of the The Legacy album, but I might be mistaken on that point.

The band was really fired up; it was possibly the best and liveliest Testament show I have witnessed. There was no static standing around here; they were all over the stage at all times. Especially returned guitarist Alex Skolnick proved to be a real bundle of energy, pulling off all the metal poses in the book. But in a good way, mind you. Also only non-original member of the group Paul Bostaph (ex-Forbidden, ex-Slayer) was a true energizer bunny behind the drumkit, and you can colour me impressed if he didn’t walk of the stage with at least the slightest of whiplash injuries.
The only regret I have is when Chuck Billy looked me straight in the eye, grabbed one of Skolnick’s plectrums and threw it out for me. Right before it reached my loving grip a treacherous gust of wind snatched it from me and blew it into the crowd. Doh!

Even though the crowd wasn’t the largest I have ever witnessed, as I mentioned earlier, their energy wasn’t lacking either. Already from the initial notes of Over The Wall there was a moshpit going on and the front was literally hanging over the fence and banging their heads off, with raised horns of course. And for the grand finale, during the title track of Testament’s latest album, Billy got the masses to split right down the middle, creating a gap of about five metres between the opposing halves. On his queue, and with the backing of the music, everyone then ran straight for the other side, moshing wildly as they crashed into each other in the middle of the room. This was truly a formation of damnation!

Setlist:

Over The Wall
The New Order
The Haunting
Souls Of Black
More Than Meets The Eye
D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
3 Days In Darkness
Trial By Fire
The Legacy
The Preacher
C.O.T.L.O.D. (Curse Of The Legions Of Death)
Raging Waters
The Persecuted Won't Forget (bonus track)
Reign Of Terror (bonus track)
Alone In The Dark
Disciples Of The Watch (bonus track)
The Formation Of Damnation