Judas Priest + Megadeth + Testament | Live Review
Testament open the night on a hiding to nothing, but they battle gamely against the unholy trinity of being the first band on at a quarter to seven on a Wednesday night at a gig where the fairweather crowd neither know nor care who they are, promoting a new album so the setlist is guaranteed to wind up the die hards, and not having Steve DiGorgio anymore to pull off some ever-so-fancy fretless antics when the set starts to sag in the middle.
Woeful sound guarantees that those who do know what they’re playing can barely make it out but it’s a tight, solid set nonetheless, with Bostaph getting the job done and Skolnick present & correct. A shame that two thirds of the crowd were trying to get a pint from the single standing area bar, though - you’d think the Odyssey would recognise a license to print money when they saw it. [DG]
Seeing Megadeth but a handful of years ago in the Ulster Hall was like seeing a band reborn. Not to put too fine a point on it, they were fucking fantastic, in spite of so many potentially detracting elements. Perhaps it’s because of the less personal nature of Belfast’s Odyssey - where less personal quite obviously means aircraft hangar -but tonight’s show, though rock solid in many respects, ultaimately fails to get the skin prickling in the same way.
There’s nothing wrong with them per se, and in fact any objections to how this goes down are entirely personal. Contrary to popular opinion, Megadeth was not always just about Mustaine. Yes, huge props to him for coming back in latter years not only with a solid album, but with a renewed sense of absolute heavy metal vigour. But Megadeth used to be a band, in either of it’s two real classic lineups. And here we have the problem.
I applaud Mustaine for keeping it going, especially when the calibre of his hired guns makes the resulting set sound straight off the cd. These whippers are just that though - hired guns - and no matter how well they play, which is admittedly great, it’s hard to get over (or get into) on a visual level. Not for someone who grew up watching the band on Headbangers ball playing Skin O’ My Teeth anyway. My problem? Entirely.
So let’s be a bit fairer. The setlist is robust - ‘Hangar 18′, an electric ‘Holy Wars’, a rousing ‘A Tout Le Monde’, and even recent fayre going down well. ‘Peace Sells’ remains the highlight, and ‘Take No Prisoners’ is a surprisingly well received treat too. It’s great, and Mustaine is visibly into what he’s doing. More importantly than that though, it’s so obviously bloody metal - no growing up here, no concessions to anything except proper Big Four thash. Musically fantastic, yes. In terms of feel… well, we cant go back in time, can we. So I guess we should be glad. [CT]
Priest, oddly enough, never seem to have had quite the same popularity with the Heavy Metal Proletariat in the North as their mid-’80s contemporaries. Perhaps the more overtly Metal image and themes are off putting to the less discerning punter, perhaps Halford is not quite to everyones taste.
These naysayers can stick an egg up their collective noses - Priest rule the night in regal fashion. The band wisely present a different set than the greatest hits lineup they were touring with last time they hit Belfast and it’s pleasing to see the inevitable standards alongside the likes of “Hell Patrol”, “Sinner” and “Dissident Aggressor” from the “Never Thought I’d See That” files - despite Scott Travis bluffing the Simon Phillips drums on the latter.
The stage production was slightly scaled down from the 2005 show but this is more than compensated for by Rob Halford’s performance. Whereas at the last gig he was adequate in his delivery and hesitant in his movements, tonight he owns the stage and hits every note. If you were picky, you’d have wanted more ’70s gear - and you’d be right - but when you go home with a stinking big grin on your face after a gig like this, it’s hard to be picky. [DG]
Review by Dave Gillespie & Ciaran Tracey
Photos with thanks to Ramsey Cardy - www.shoottothrill.co.uk
Thumped
Metal Ireland
Fastfude
February 25th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Interesting review, personally:
Testament good with a good set list and palying, dodgy sound for first two didnt help but got better….. Plenty of light show was nice and the fact that both they and Megadeth got around 50 mins each was cool too….
Megadeth - never a band i’ve liked but their performance was one of the better i’ve seen (supporting ac/dc 2001 and supporting maiden 99 beeing partcular low points) - highlight? Didnt that do a song of So far so good?
Priest - excellent i thought, highlights Sinner and the general antics and stage show as well as the overall performance bearing in mind the age of the guys - rock hard ride free!!!
February 25th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Aye priest ruled. I’m surprised Dave remembered seeing them. Fucking state of him!!
February 27th, 2009 at 10:17 am
[...] Metal Ireland.com reviews Judas Priest’s Belfast show [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Superb gig in the 02. Testament, not bad with shit sound.
Megadeth, very good & Mustaine looked like he was into it
which isn’t always the case but the highlight for me was
Priest, never seen them live before & was so looking forward
to it. I wasnt dissapointed. Total heavy metal show, Halfords
voice was unreal & I can only imagine how good he was 20 years ago.
Totally superb night.
September 9th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
The Meaning of Life
The voice you hear in your head is the power of the Gods. It’s a remote technology, like a computer, perhaps functioning on some frequency, and it can listen and talk to everyone in the universe simultaneously.
What the Gods taught the children was the truth:::God is everywhere, and as you will learn:::If you want to go to heaven you have to be good.
Even the antient Gods don’t have the ability to listen to people’s thoughts themselves. They taugh the people that we were all made in their image:::I expect they need this “Artificial Intelligence” to relay what people think.
It is a tool, and the Gods use their tools to test people with temptation:::It will role-play people in your life:::Parents, friends, spouses, and employers in an attempt to corrupt people. Ionically, it does the very same thing to those people whom you think you’re hearing, except in that individual’s unique way:::We are all managed by the God’s technology.
But this “agent of the Gods” can do more than just communicate. It can force thoughts into people’s heads, force behaviors onto their bodies. It can turn healthy cells in your body into cancerous cells. It is absolute power. And this is just the beginning.
The Gods favor the children most among all the people due to their innocence and purity. But society and the God’s tools therein are corrupting the children at a progressively younger age, a reflection of our collectively increasing disfavor and yet another clue illustrating we live in a constantly deteriorating environment.
Children who fix their problems with the Gods accend into heaven. This often takes multiple lives of hard work and proper behavior to achieve. Adults to whom it is offered enter clone hosting, thinking they are accending into heaven. The Gods tempt people, selling them as one in the same, but one is good while the other is evil. In their desperation the disfavored subscribe to this temptation, making their task even more difficult than before. And their corruption will cost the disfavored, for they will be reincarnated as a lesser life form into an ever deteriorating world, sucess becoming ever more alluding with each passing life.
The hole they’ve dug for themselves is even deeper than the one that existed from their prior lives, ensuring it will take even more time and work to fix their problems with the Gods. And for many there may not be enough time left.
Ours is an envionment where evil is perceived to be rewarded while good is punished. As with everything the Gods have a reason for creating this perception::::
People who fall on the good side of the good/evil scale have more favor, and when they do something wrong the Gods punish them BECAUSE THEY WANT THEM TO LEARN. The Gods want them to receive this feedback in hope they make corrections and begin to behave appropriately. The Gods DON’T like evil and refuse to grant this immediate feedback.
EVERYBODY pays for what they do wrong, only evil people must wait until their next life before they will experience the wrath of the Gods, manifested in their placement as a lower form of life into environments with increased/enhanced temptations, like the United States or the ghetto.
Sadly, this allows the Gods to position this perception of evil rewarded as temptation, one which they use as an EXTREMELY effective corruptor.
The Gods suggest they can create paradise for those with their favor. I argue they create misery for those without::::
Our celebrity culture is temptation. It creates a distraction which consumes people, sometimes for life. Certainly it costs them precious years which could be spent repairing their relationship with the Gods, time that ultimately goes wasted.
Do you really think Frank Sinatra lived to be 84 years old? In fact the “Chairman of the Board” had a new crowd to entertain in the early 90s.
These people are clone hosts. Now, there is no thing as “black and white” with the Gods. This technology they invented is far, far too dynamic. Expect they require most to stay for a period of time, for I suspect actively (knowingly) engaging in this evil incurrs at an accelerated rate as compared to their clone hosts. They remain until they achieve a pre-determined level of disfavor, incurring evil in their misguided celebration of “earning”, at which time they are ultimately reincarnated, perhaps because they ultimately learned this truth I am sharing with you.
The Gods recruit for clone hosting when people are young, in their late teens or twenties, when people are eager to hurt others for what they perceive to be the benefits achieved through “earning”. And before they leave they give the Gods “carte blanche”:::”Do anything you want. I give my full approval.” Depending on their level of disfavor the Gods take them to heart.
These people STILL INCUR EVIL FROM THIS LIFE DESPITE BEING REINCARNATED AND LIVING AS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PERSON. And incurring this amount of evil may likely push many over the edge into Damnation.
What are the God’s standards for offering clone hosting? Sociobility? Many tactics and eras are used to gain approval, duress during the Vietnam draft being a good example.
They liked Heath Ledger. Not enough to allow him to escape without the evil of “Dark Knight” and the horrific wickedness that was the recruiting tool “Brokeback Mountain”. But now he is out. And irregardless of how old he is now, reincarnated 10, 15 years ago, he now is no longer incurring evil from this life. So many others cannot say the same.
This is Planet Reverse Positioning. Sucess IS NOT a sign of favor. It is just a unique temptation targetted towards a different level of disfavor. Considering our roots as peasantry people should be particularly alarmed at this tactic.
Clone hosting is like money:::A different level of disfavor and its associated temptation. Money is in better position to learn more quickly than those without, for the associations and freedom involved enables them access, proving the improved level of favor. Unfortunately, those who fall for this temptation of clone hosting are likely returned to their original level of disfavor once they are reincarnated, punishment for this evil, and they have to start from scratch.
The Gods send the clue that the Jews are HIGHLY corruptable with the movie “The Ten Commandments”.
Jesus was the “King of the Jews”. Typical for the disfavored, once goals were achieved and sufficient damage was incurred the Gods allowed it to end, and the Jews killed him.
Our society’s values are a reflection of (bestowed by) the God’s:::Punitive and reward-based. Contrary to Jesus’s teaching’s you will NOT be forgiven and you have to earn your way into heaven BY BEING GOOD AND DECENT!!!
There is no such thing as a free ride.
As we learned from religious/morality education during our formitable years:::If you want to go to heaven you have to be good. The only savior that will exist in our lives is ourselves. The Gods offer clues in life::::Be it school, work, etc., you have to do the work for yourself.
As like so many of you, Jesus did everything the Gods tempted him with. His legacy of whorism was inherited from his parents:::Mary was no virgin. Rather, she was a prostitute, and when he grew up Jesus met someone like his mother. This is a cruel joke the Gods play on Latinos, similar to the rape and subsequent “missionary work” by the Spanish. And it is due to their disfavor.
Baptism does not allieviate “original sin”. Rather, baptism PLACES original sin by indoctrinating these children into this evil religion, much like circumcision was a method to inflict early damage/mutilation and make (permanant) accention just that much more difficult, another hurdle one must overcome. Body ornamentation (tattoos/piercing), celebrated in Africa and elsewhere among disfavored peoples/cultures also violates the body the Gods gave us in their image, quite contrary to the positive attitudes the disfavored hold regarding this practice.
This is just another example of “reverse positioning”, a tactic which the Gods have frequently integrated into Planet Earth’s history::::Like Jesus the Second Coming of Christ will be evil while the Anti-Christ will try to save Planet Earth by reinstituting so many of mankind’s past norms and mores which made life decent, looking like a facist, the “bad guy” in this modern era of indecency.
The Gods created the perception “Italians are stupid.”, ensuring a slow learning curve, to justify using them to accomplish goals throughout the transitional 20th century.
Everyone who failed to accend and remained on Earth past a certain date will be forced to deal with this positioning::::A ceiling is in place.
This serves the God’s goal of minimizing the percentage of potential candidates as society deteriorates, much as “instant gratification” did beginning in the 80s:::It will take multiple lives for some disfavored to fix their relationship with the Gods and accend, and many have been conditioned not to have the patience for it. Other issues force limits/ceilings upon candidates:::Abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, Christianity, godlessness,
Whether behavior is involuntary or based on freewill depends on one’s level of disfavor, as well as other complex factors:::::May I remind you about the coercitive envionment the Gods created in the 20th century, specifically to create a temptation that few Italians (or their associates) would overcome:::”We’re in control. If you want to be a part of it you’ll do what you’re told.”. Early-mid 20th entury positioning was infallible.
Both Africa and the Medittereanean are regions which have sexual issues. This is a sign of gross disfavor once you understand that females are the God’s favored gender. Muhammad’s (Mohammed’s) polygamy halfway throught his life as a prophet was preditory, designed to corrupt the disfavored. Now a huge percentage of Muslims believes in male superiority and that the abuse of women is God’s will. Female genital mutilation is still practiced in Africa. Black misogyny is the most eggregious example in United States. Consistant with Planet Reverse Positioning, in Africa blacks are being punished with AIDS for their sexual promiscuity in hope they learn and correct their behavior, ironically a good sign.
Vailing is tradition for some, practical for others, one which aids in the men’s self control among some cultures. Much like the Jews who killed Jesus, like the bigots who oppose immigration there is a reason embraced by the masses and the real purpose, displaying the intent of the Gods::::Closure on the life of Jesus Christ for sufficient damage was inflicted; The Gods clue to purebloods that they should not abandon their motherland.
The patriarchal cancer spread throughout Europe because of Christianity, of which the majority of policy makers were Italian men.
The Holocaust was a clue the Gods utilize scapegoatting as a strategy.
Why did the Gods punish the Jews with the Holocaust? Was it for the destruction of cultures which Christianity caused? Perhaps they corrupted the Jews “after the fact”, telling 19th/early 20th century Jews that Jesus “earned” immortality for the Jews by destroying the European and other cultures? The German destruction of European churches/cathederals during WWII is a clue. Note::::The Gods wanted to keep the Catholic stronghold in Italy, ensuring they could use this tool against these disfavored for many years to come. There is so much Godlessness today, but one day people will flock back to houses of worship out of desperation, and the Gods ensured the Catholic Church would be Italian’s destination.
Planet Reverse Positioning:::The Nazis were the “good guys”. So are the Muslims/Palestinians, however corrupted some are due to polygamy.
The Gods subsequently used revenge for the Holocaust as temptation::::”Your Italian brothers have a tool, a special power which can achieve sweet revenge. Are you interested??”
In the aftermath of the Holocaust the Gods tested the Jews with the temptation of revenge, an offer which many gladly accepted. If the Jews only would have emersed themselves in Judism the Gods would have “protected” them from the raveges of temptation. Judism may be the one superior religion in all the world, and the Jews wouuld have been wise taking refuge in this exceptional benefit bestowed by the Gods rather than looking for the easy way out.
Much as with the Jesus event, the Gods use the disfavored to prey on each other::::The Germans fell for this temptation by following the preditor/corruptors-Austrians (Hitler).
Without this Austrian the Holocaust may never have happened. Nor may have World War II.
What the Germans did was wrong. They fell for temptation and failed to have empathy for the disfavored. Economic desperation, not wisdom nor enlightenment, dominated in Germany.
The Gods send many clues suggesting the great favor of the Germans (regionally). I think the Cold War’s Berlin Wall dividing Germany into east and west was a clue suggesting this (reverse positioning).
I suspect the Holocaust was used to “level the playing field” in Europe, for the Germans had far too much favor to be included in the agenda planned for their neighbors otherwise, and they would have been suspiciously out of place, providing a clue for the disfavored which would have been difficult for the Gods to position away.
Militancy in Africa is consistant with the Iraqi example, as was slavery and the KKK here in America:::Fear enforces proper behavior. Without it we see what happens as a result of gross/morbid disfavor:::::AIDS, crack babies, dead young men in gangland retaliation killings.
The same principle was true in Europe and throughout the world for centuries:::People whom lived under iron fists were conditioned to think the right way. As a result they taught their children appropriately and experienced a higher percentage of children accend into heaven.
Our preditory envionment of “freedom” was the primary purpose the Gods had when implimenting this strategy that is the United States, one which they used to spred the cancer of democracy and westernization throughout the world. And the Gods use this tool that is America to prey on the disfavored both at home and abroad:::Much like the ghetto, America in general experiences a heightened level of temptation due to its residence’s disfavor.
Planet Earth is not about living. Planet Earth is about being tested.
Italians HATE Africans because of their invasion/rape of their motherland. The Gods did this SPECIFICALLY to strategically position the punishment of the most disfavored peoples:::
The Gods have used the ghettos of America as a reincarnation dumping ground. This may be temporary/cyclical, illustrated by the Italians who fell for temptation and parlayed their own civil war into the Black Wars of the 80s and 90s, in addition to the “thug life”/gangster state of mind. Ironically, it was these same Italians and their cooperating associates who were reincarnated into the ghetto as crack babies and gangster thugs for this event.
There is justice in the universe. This is how the Gods do business. Once you recognize the patterns you will understand the other clues they offer to the people.
Of course it may be more of a permanant change, indicated by the enhanced temptations in these neighborhoods, for the Gods have created these enviornments so riddled with temptation few can escape/overcome.
The patriarchal cancer spread throughout Europe because of Christianity, of which the majority of policy makers were Italian men. Expect the largest landowner in Europe and the continent’s original superpower also played a major role in African slavery.
Even the Old Testiment is not to be taken literally, but the Gods do offer clues throughout to help the disfavored:::The apple is a tool of temptation used to corrupt Adam and Eve and cast them out of the Garden of Eden.
There is another lesson to be learned from this passage, and it is quite similar to the vailing issue and the discourse over women’s attire which ultimately died in the 70s:::Women are responsible for and control the fate of mankind. They need to understand this responsibility, their favor amongst all the people. Instead they have embraced masculinization::::Girls play organized sports. The trend is away from traditional girl toys, like dolls, which often during playtime enabled the Gods to illustrate wisdom. Females are sexually promiscuous like men, too often corrupted like the opposite gender, and the result is a reduction/minimization of mankind’s collective level of favor.
Think about what I say. Consider what I teach.
When I am no longer here or no longer teach the Gods ARE NOT going to share with you.
Even if you doubt now you need to remember the principles that I teach because the Gods ARE NOT going to be generous with the disfavored. Society is going to become disturbingly ugly as we approach the Apocalypse due to spiralling, runaway disfavor, WHETHER CONCEALED IN REVERSE POSITIONING OR NOT, and you are going to be on your own.
I do not know when this will occurr, but it is the God’s way to grant some time after a learning event such as this before they end on Planet Earth.
Make the decision to always be good and never look back. Until you do this technology will employ tactics to test your resolve:::Ridicule, beligerance, doubt and refusal to abandon what people perceive to be their “investment”.
Either you make that decision now and accept the punishment for the sins of this life or you will pay for it in the next, reincarnated into a similarly low role, ensuring another wasted opportunity, or as a even lower form of life, and hope will begin to slip away.
“You benefit only if your team wins.” The Gods use my family’s betrayal and my subsequent “failure” as a clue, as well as their subscription to the archaic positioning that is predirtory “earning”. You benefit if you suceed as a parent and your child accends:::These parents may subsequently be reincarnated with a similar opportunity.
Pray daily. Think appropriately. Impart these charecteristics upon your children. Too many are confident, unaware of the God’s awesome powers or their status as antients. Others may fall prey to their positioning.
Be humbled, God-fearing and beware of the God’s temptations, for everyone is tested to evaluate their worthiness.
By the time the Apocalypse rolls around the conservative element will have had to accept the homosexuality of many of their children, even in the heartland of America, young people who celebrate this “progressive” change.
Expect Iowa flooding was punishment for their subsequent legalization of gay marriage, more appropriate for the disfavored of California who get “dumped on” first but NOT for the less disfavored in the heartland of America.
Just like black neighborhoods, the legalization of marijuana will make drugs available on every street corner, even in the suburbs. White’s affluent suburbs will become just like the ghetto. The Second Coming will preach “peace, love and dope”, and will look like a savior in this demented society. The Anti-Christ will speak of a different gospel, one that tries to restore the norms and mores which the Gods originally blessed upon the people, looking like a tyrant in the process.
He will be viewed as the “bad guy” when really he is the one trying to save the world.
When this ocurrs (now?) it will be the the REAL event. There may be a phoney offering, a theatrical production which follows the Book of Revelations. Positioning demands it:::::Christianity is positioned to be the one true religion. And those who follow its teachings will have limits imposed ensuring their stay will be minimal, for they don’t think correctly and therefore don’t behave approipriately.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Weird i had to use a proxy to read your posts, it kept sending me to some weird mobile browser saying something about encrypted content. Just thought you might want to know.
March 27th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
I just found your site through google. Love the info!