#dynamo festival

[feuerfreiarchive]

Dynamo Festival, Eindhoven, 30.05.1998 © Tony Woolliscroft

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Death - Live in Eindhoven (1998)

[vinylspinning]

Testament: Live at Eindhoven EP (1987)

Bay Area thrashers Testament arrived at the 1987 Dynamo Open Air Festival armed with a startlingly mature debut in The Legacy and boatloads of promise; they left conquering heroes, having handily converted the metal-heads in attendance with their devastatingly powerful live show.

In fact, such was the resulting buzz that Megaforce Records rush-released the Live at Eindhoven EP to immortalize the event and show that vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, bassist Greg Christian, and drummer Louie Clemente were a force to be reckoned with.

The original, 12-inch arrived 35 years ago this month and perpetuated four of the band’s most potent melodic thrashers -- “Over the Wall,” “Burnt Offerings,” “Do or Die,” and my personal favorite, “Apocalyptic City” -- in all their vicious on-stage glory, and even faster than their studio counterparts.

Trust me, you really haven’t lived until you’ve entered the mosh pit during the solo break for “Over the Wall” ... and survived to tell the tale!

But what made this EP truly collectible was its furious fifth track, “Reign of Terror,” which was likely left off Testament’s studio debut due to its controversial (and pretty nonsensical) Third Reich lyrics, but turned the original Live at Eindhoven EP into a coveted import in America.

(If memory serves, Megaforce used the studio recording here and surrounded it with audience noise to convey the illusion of a live performance, but no matter -- it slays!)

Now, fast-forward some 20 years, and Prosthetic Records kindly went to the trouble of releasing Testament’s complete set from that day, bringing the song count to nine, plus a guitar solo from Alex Skolnick, who -- believe it or not -- was just 19-years-old at the time!

Among the additions was the as-yet-unreleased “Disciples of the Watch” (soon to become a centerpiece of 1988’s massive sophomore album, The New Order), and additional The Legacy favorites in “The Haunting,” “First Strike is Deadly,” and an impossibly fast, tornado-de-force through “Curse of the Legions of Death.”

Therefore, whether you feel compelled to collect an original 1987 pressing of the EP or understandably jump into the deep end with a full-length reissue (there’s even a 2013 vinyl reissue, if you’re interested), be sure you have some version -- any version! -- of Testament’s Live at Eindhoven on your shelf -- or in your mp3 library, for that matter.

No thrasher’s humble abode will be happy without one!

p.s. -- I attended Testament’s ‘Bay Area Strikes Back’ tour stop in Nashville last month, and I’m sad to report the band’s current line-up played an unusually stale mini-arena show, and were basically blown off stage by their openers, Exodus, if not Death Angel.

p.p.s. -- Some of these words originated in my All-Music Guide review of both the vinyl EP and CD versions of Live at Eindhoven.

More Testament: The Legacy, The New Order, Practice What You Preach, Souls of Black, The Ritual, Low, Demonic.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

King Diamond performing live at the Dynamo Festival in Eindhoven Netherlands on 23 May, 1999. Photo credit: Tony Woolliscroft.  

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔐𝔞𝔵 ℭ𝔞𝔳𝔞𝔩𝔢𝔯𝔞 𝔩𝔦𝔳𝔢 𝔬𝔫 𝔍𝔲𝔫𝔢 Յ, յգգՏ 𝔡𝔲𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔶𝔫𝔞𝔪𝔬 𝔉𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔳𝔞𝔩 𝔴/ 𝔑𝔞𝔦𝔩𝔟𝔬𝔪𝔟

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"ONE OF THE LAST KNOWN SIGHTINGS OF THE ILLUSIVE IRON MONKEY..."

^NOTE: The band called it a day in the same year as this Open Air gig -- in 1999.

PIC(S) INFO: Mega spotlight on Nottingham-based sludge metal band IRON MONKEY, performing live at Dynamo Open Air Festival, Landgoed Gulbergen, Nuenen, Netherlands, on May 23, 1999. 📸: Tim P. Edwards.

Rest in Noise, John Paul Morrow (1974-2002), who celebrated a posthumous 50th birthday earlier this month -- in memoriam. Another legend lost.

Source: www.picuki.com/media/1831866955360370010.

[benqscom]

Dynamo Festival 2017

[theshuffles]

Gorefest - Reality When You Die (Live at Dynamo Festival 1993)