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TESTAMENT, EXODUS And DEATH ANGEL In Portland, OR With Photos!

By Ruben Mosqueda, Contibutor
Tuesday, May 31, 2022 @ 8:30 AM

At The Roseland Theater May 23rd

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All Photos By Mike Lewis Photography

The Bay Strikes Back Tour rolled into Portland, Oregon’s Roseland Theater on May 23rd, 2022. Three of the other 4 teamed up for a successful tour of Europe prior to the COVID-19 lockdown, but they barely made it back into the United States before all hell broke loose. They did manage to get in a single date on November 27th, 2021, when things had laxed. On the bill for The Bay Strikes Back Tour are thrash legends TESTAMENT, EXODUS and DEATH ANGEL. What true metal fan wouldn’t jump at the chance of seeing this?! The Roseland was nearing capacity when the doors swung open at 6:00 PM. While it was marked as a sell-out show, it must have been within 25-50 people from capacity. It was elbow to elbow, it was muggy, sweaty with the fragrance of light beer, stale cigarette smoke and a cannabis haze hovering above the audience throughout the night.

True to the schedule, DEATH ANGEL hit the stage at 6:50 pm. DEATH ANGEL set the tone for the night, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. They always put on a hell of a show and singer MARK OSEGUEDA mentioned that Portland was the first show the band performed out of their home state when they got started. It was at The Pine Street Theater, I recall it like it was yesterday. DEATH ANGEL’s crushing set included “Evil Priest”, “Voracious Souls”, “The Dream Calls For Blood”, “Humanicide”, and “Thrown To The Wolves”.

After a quick set change EXODUS picked the pace up where DEATH ANGEL left off. EXODUS issued their stellar new album Persona Non Grata at the tail end of 2021 and it was represented with “Prescribing Horror”, “The Beatings Will Continue [Until Morale Improves]”, and “The Years of Death and Dying”. The new tunes went over brilliantly with the crowd, who appeared to be very familiar with the new material. STEVE ‘ZETRO’ SOUZA has such charisma when talking to the audience, he’s mild mannered and has this amusing, comedic approach. Guitarist GARY HOLT is back in the band full-time after having split time in SLAYER having spent years sitting in for the late JEFF HANNEMAN. Holt is back home and by all appearances, he’s incredibly excited to be back. The set was explosive, intense and exhausting. EXODUS closed things out with “Bonded By Blood”, “Toxic Waltz”, and the fantastic “Strike Of The Beast”.

TESTAMENT headlined this tour but after EXODUS most of the audience was spent and quite frankly EXODUS stole the show right from under TESTAMENT. They opened with “Children Of The Next Level” from their latest album, the 2020 Titans Of Creation. Rejoining TESTAMENT is former SLAYER drummer DAVE LOMBARDO, who steps in for GENE HOGLAN after he departed the band last year. As expected, lots of CHUCK BILLY playing air guitar and having the time of his life, precision guitar play by the team of ALEX SKOLNICK and ERIC PETERSON and bombastic beats and grooves of bassist STEVE DI GIORGIO and Lombardo. The highlights of the evening “Practice What You Preach”, “Souls Of Black” featuring a killer bass solo from Di Giorgio going into the opening bass riff, “The New Order”, “Electric Crown”, “Over The Wall”, “Disciples Of The Watch”, and “Into The Pit”.

In the end nothing to complain about here. What a bill and what excellent sets by all involved.

One thing to consider is how lucky we are to have these three bands and how lucky we are to see three of these guys, one from each band that battled through serious health issues and were able to perform for us on this tour. Who knows how inflation and the economy or waves of this and that will impact concert attendance and tours in the second half of 2022, but shows like this do just what they were meant to do. Allowed us to escape from our everyday lives and just have some violent, friendly fun.

Check out some more photos from the show!
All Photos By Mike Lewis Photography