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Testament: Live in London (DVD)

This DVD was released on the same day as the CD and both of them feature the performance of the reunited Testament "classic" lineup. Once again you can see Chuck Billy, Alex Skolnick, Eric Peterson, Greg Christian and Louie Clemente on one stage. You don't have to be a Testament fan to enjoy the video but of course it certainly helps you get a lot more out of it. Filmed in London as the title denotes the video captures the guys smashing through a selection of their greatest songs for a Metal hungry audience. While it is strictly a live performance shoot of the band you can actually sense the excitement as it all goes down. Lead singer Chuck Billy seems in top-notch form after dealing with cancer and his voice comes through if anything a little rougher than the old days. That's good for Testament material to be most certain. I enjoyed being able to see this DVD as I missed the performances when they did them in the area as the shows were few and far between. I have always been a fan of the playing of Alex Skolnick and while I enjoy his jazz adventures of late and his work with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, it was fantastic to see him doing these classic numbers. Everyone in the band performs admirably and I even referenced in the CD review that you would not think they had been on different avenues for so long. It sounds on point on the CD and when you watch it on the DVD the band shows you that they are true to the music and capable of still delivering it with the intensity that it merited. Veteran drummer John Tempesta handles the beginning half of the DVD and then Louie comes out to give the crowd the rest of the set. Everyone in the audience is going berserk and rightly so. These Bay-Area Thrashers gave some anthems back in the day and you can see the audience eager to receive more and more.

As I have also noted in the CD Review I feel that this should have been a package deal with CD and DVD either in one set or on one single dual disc. I felt in this case that offering a choice can be a bad thing if the audience is not able to decide on one or the other. However, on the opposite side of the coin the diehard Testament fan now gets to add two new items to their collection. With the surge in music video sales this past year putting this on one piece would have been the best way to go. The packaging is limited and has the same photos that you see on the CD. However the upside is that no tunes were lost on either version. Since I did not see the shows, I am unsure if this is the complete set or if songs were omitted pre-release. This is a highly recommended DVD as it does not disappoint in the overall content of the film. I admit that I have watched it a couple of times already and was glad to see my favorite tunes done on it. It has an appeal to the casual and core fan which makes me lean to the high rating. The bonus features while limited do include an interview with the guys about how this came to pass. It also catches you up on what some of the members have been up to since they worked with Testament. They could have made that a little longer but its inclusion is a worthy aspect. Come on Metal heads, its time again to "Practice What You Preach."


Song Listing
1. The Preacher
2. The New Order
3. The Haunting
4. Electric Crown
5. Sins Of Omission
6. Souls Of Black
7. Into The Pit
8. Trial By Fire
9. Practice What You Preach
10. Let Go Of My World
11. The Legacy
12. Over The Wall
13. Raging Waters
14. Disciples of the Watch

Added: November 10th 2005
Reviewer: Ken Pierce
Score:
Related Link: Testament Website
Hits: 3906
Language: english

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