The year ended with three legendary thrash metal bands: TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX, and KREATOR on December 8th, 2024. They had a stop at VertiMusic Hall in Berlin.
The biggest thrash gig of the year—with all three bands being as legendary as they are—bring out fans of all ages, the old-school gray-haired or no-haired metalhead mixing seamlessly with young moshers. TESTAMENT kicked their set off with “D.N.R” from 1999’s “The Gathering,” with flames flying and the crowd going wild. Unfortunately, the vocals were quite low in the mix, but that didn’t stop Chuck Billy from giving it his all. The sound issues continued through “3 Days of Darkness” and “WWIII” but by the time the band got to the fourth song, all the technical issues seemed to have been resolved. Then treated the public with “Return to Serenity” from 1992’s “The Ritual,” the first time it has been a regular on their set list since 2000, a song much appreciated by the older TESTAMENT fan.
The legendary Americans ANTHRAX were next, but before they hit the stage, we were shown a 5-minute hype video of metal legends and celebrities talking about ANTHRAX over the 40+ years as a band. Kicking off with “A.I.R” from “Spreading the Disease” and with Scott Ian doing his signature stomping around the stage. This was quickly followed up with the ever-popular “Got the Time,” which had the crowd going nuts and Joey singing his heart out. “Caught in a Mosh” follows this up from 1986’s “Among the Living.” This was all crowd favorites tonight as they lapped it up.
KREATOR was next. The lights dimmed as IRON MAIDEN’s “Run to the Hills” played leading us into the legendary German thrash metal set, the curtain dropped, the pyro blew and we were smacked with “Hate Über Alles” from their most recent album of the same name released in 2022, sending the crowd into a fist-pumping frenzy. They followed it up with “Phobia” from 1997’s “Outcast.” The very singable song has the crowd singing along with every lyric as hanging corpses dropped from the ceiling and were left there dying for the rest of the performance. There was a short break to breathe and take in the production on stage, between hanging corpses, two giant devils, and the occasional appearance of 2 demons holding flaming torches, just to add to the atmosphere. Check our photo gallery here…
TESTAMENT
ANTHRAX
KREATOR
