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Testament unleash hit album and 2012 UK tour details

Posted: 11 years ago
Pioneering thrashers celebrate biggest album success so far with British dates, tickets on sale Wednesday 15th Aug

As any hardcore rocker will readily tell you, the 1980s wasn't just about flick-waves, men wearing make-up and Duran Duran - metal had quite a successful decade as well. From the New Wave of British Heavy Metal through thrash, L.A.-sleaze and stadium-rock, the '80s were desultory and kind to axe-wielding metal-heads in equal measures.

And in those days, we could match the traditional U.S. heartland, band for band, tune for tune, hair for hair. For every Poison, we had Def Leppard, for every Skid Row there was a Thunder and for Slayer, Megadeth and the like, we assaulted eardrums with just about every great thrash band on the Earache label. Happy days indeed if denim were your material of choice.

Out of the inky blackness of faster, darker thrash-metal and considered to be 'up there' with the 'big four' of Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth were Testament, a band from California who will be celebrating their 30th anniversary next year. Despite having a role-call of previous members that could challenge an Olympic Team in numbers (especially drummers), Testament only faltered as a performing outfit when serious illness struck down vocalist Chuck Billy and then-guitarist James Murphy - both made an eventual recovery, Billy is still singing himself hoarse with the band today.

With an impressive catalogue that includes classic albums such as "The New Order" and "The Gathering", you'd be forgiven for thinking that Testament would be churning out the same tunes on the road. Not so - 2012 saw the band re-establish themselves as serious Billboard Top 100 contenders with their latest album, "Dark Roots of Earth". In fact, it's their most successful album to date hitting #12 in the U.S. and #57 over here.

To this end, Testament have announced a small handful of shows for the autumn, starting with metal stronghold Wolverhampton on 28th November and followed by Manchester on the 29th and Camden on the 30th. Tickets will go on sale via us from 9am tomorrow, Wednesday 15th August. Tickets are a reasonable £16-£18.50 price-range - don't miss them!

Paul Pledger