Author: Absinthe Moon Photography

Testament 09/27/2024 Chicago

Headlining and finishing of the Klash of the Titans tour was the almighty Testament. These Bay Area Thrash Legends came out strong and stayed strong through their entire set. Featuring the shredding guitars of Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson, the vocals of the only metal vocalist I know that was ever featured in the Smithsonian Chuck Billy and all tied together by the bass of Steve DiGiorgio and drums of Chris Dovas Testament really delivered one great set. Although I can’t speak for everyone out there, I think the Big 4 can step to the side, because for me a better thrash metal show (in no particular order) would be Testament, Kreator, and maybe Overkill. Either way, if you love thrash metal and don’t know Testament then it’s time to check them out.

SET LIST
Eerie Inhabitants
The New Order
Apocalyptic City
Raging Waters
The Preacher
The Haunting
Trial By Fire
First Strike Is Deadly
A Day Of Reckoning
Alone In the Dark
Do Or Die
Disciples Of The Watch
Over The Wall
Into The Pit

Kreator 09/27/2024 Chicago

So this Klash of the Titans tour pinned Kreator and Testament as co-headliners and both bands are legends in their own rights. However, I myself love Kreator. Having seen them probably close to ten times, they have never disappointed me to date. Although for a while there it did seem like I was cursed while trying to take photos of them. From the time they used heavy fog and no stage lights for the first three songs to the time that one of their roadies was being less than pleasant and jumped off the stage after picking a fight with a fan thus pushing me out of a good shooting place I always seemed to have bad luck trying to take photos of them. In recent years I’ve had better luck, this show included.

All that aside though, Kreator came out and delivered another phenomenal thrash set included one of my personal favorite songs, “Phobia”. With Mille Petrozza’s commanding vocals and Ventor’s crushing drums Kreator had the crowd flying high with crowd surfers and pit after pit forming in their wake. If you’ve never had the opportunity to catch Kreator live and you like Thrash Metal as much as I do, I highly recommend taking the time to catch one of their shows. And as always “THE KREATOR WILL RETURN!!!

SET LIST
Sergio Corbucci Is Dead (Intro)
Hate Über Alles
Phobia
Enemy Of God
666 – World Divided
Hordes Of Chaos
Hail To The Hordes
Betrayer
Satan Is Real
Mars Mantra (Intro)
Phantom Antichrist
Strongest Of The Strong
Terrible Certainty
The Patriarch (Intro)
Violent Revolution
Pleasure To Kill

Possessed 09/27/2024 Chicago

Although I can’t say that too familiar with Possessed I had heard of them and that in itself says a lot for the opening act on a tour of this magnitude. I never had a guide to metal growing up and kind of have been discovering bands myself for years and am still discovering them to this day. From talking with fans, I learned that Possessed was basically the first Death Metal band.

All that being said, Possessed took the stage at about 6:50PM to a still growing crowd as people got off work and battled Chicago traffic to get in. That didn’t stop them though from blowing the roof off of Radius Chicago and putting on a killer show.

SET LIST
Pentagram
Ritual
Tribulation
Graven
The Exorcist
Demon
Death Metal
Swing of the Axe

Havron – 07/14/2024 at The Forge

Havron is a fairly newer band to grace the stages, but their members come from a wide variety of bands including Akhlys, Among the Living, Aoratos, Degredation, DieveNoire, Hessler, Hollow Point and November’s Doom. They perform their own mix of modern heavy metal and thrash for a combo that delivers a sound that metal fans of any subgenre can get into. I definitely recommend checking out them out. They have quite a bit of music and even a few videos circling around on the web.

Set List


Flight Of The Raven
Lawless Enemy
Nomad’s Creed
One Step Away
Desolate Land
Petrichor’d Skin
Black Sands

Burning Witches – 07/14/2024 at The Forge

This was my first time ever seeing Switzerland’s all female heavy metal act Burning Witches. Truth be told I wasn’t familiar with them until I saw the ad for the show and decided to check them out. I’ll say they really deliver an awesome set full of screaming riffs, crashing drums and powerful vocals. After seeing them live they are definitely getting added to my regular rotation. Recommended for fans of power metal.

Set List

Unleash The Beast
Wings Of Steel
Sea Of Lies
Dance With The Devil
We Stand As One
Lucid Nightmare
Evil Witch
The Dark Tower
Tomorrow
Hexenhammer
World On Fire
Flight Of The Valkyries
The Witch Of The North
Burning Witches

Illumishade – 05/03/2024 at The Forge

Illumishade opened up the night with their own brand of Melodic/Groove/Prog Metal that really got the crowd going. I hadn’t put two and two together that Illumishade featured Fabienne Erni and Jonas Wolf of one of my personal favorite bands Eluveitie. So when I was told they were playing, I was immediately intrigued. And Illumishade definitely delivered. It’s not too often that you attend a show and fully enjoy every band on the line up, but tonight was just one of those nights. If you get a chance to see Illumishade you should definitely get out and see them.

Visions of Atlantis 05/03/2024 at The Forge

So this was my first time seeing Visions of Atlantis in several years. Actually the last time I saw them they had a difference singer, so I wasn’t too familiar with their music or even their style. That being said, I will say they put on a great show. I was thoroughly impressed by their performance and I highly recommend them for fans of folk metal, pirate metal, symphonic metal or melodic metal.

Korpiklaani 05/03/2024 at The Forge

Korpiklaani returns to the states once again bringing with them their unique style of folk metal. As per their usual the band put on a stellar performance rocking out the crowd. Their set list contained a nice mix of both of their older folk ballads and their bouncy folk metal party songs. Regardless of which version of Korpiklaani you enjoy, the show was great. I personally look forward to seeing them and other folk metal acts return to the states after the long cold spell we’ve had post vid.

Johnny Hexx – 04/28/2024 – Whitestown, IN Viking Festival

Johnny Hexx is what I like to call metal adjacent. Although not actually a metal band, they play a style that a large number of metal heads gravitate towards. Similar in style to Wardruna or Heilung, Johnny Hexx plays Germanic, Pagan Folk music. Whether this is your style or not, Johnny Hexx stole the show at the Whitestown Viking Fest this year.

Chaoseum

This was Swiss metal band Chaoseum’s first trip to the United States and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t know anything about them or who they were. I was told by one fan that they are very similar to Korn and Jonathan Davis. Overall though, they were pretty good. Not extremely heavy, but definitely a good band if you like Korn or similar bands.