Greg Christian out of Testament

[redfly]

It really did.

 

[anomynous]

Low set the bar high.

 

[Neptune]

That album has a very enduring and special place in my heart.In those days,I had been following murphy faithfully.Such a great line up of seasoned and highly creative musicians,I can't believe it has been 20 years!!!

 

[Traxan]

Well I prefer 'The Gathering,' but James was on that album, too.

And I agree, Alex is likely the reason there is so little of the material from his time out of the band in their sets.

I've noticed Murphy never performs any more, he just works in a studio. Did his cancer mess him up that bad?

 

[Neptune]

I think he's ok,but yeah it took a pretty big toll on him.He has to be on top of his meds,but i think he still does some guest spot solos.Damn shame.

 

[one man]

Why do you think Alex has trouble with doing Low songs, but is ok with playing a shitload of stuff from The Gathering (DNR, Eyes of Wrath, Riding the Snake, 3 Days in Darkness, in the past also True Believer and I think Down For Life a couple of times too)? Besides they did play Low and Trail of Tears a lot with him back in the band (DFG too, although not recently). Plus remember the Low songs are structured in such a way that there's room for solos (unlike most of TG stuff) where Alex can throw his 5 cents in.

Of course, I'd love to hear Chasing Fear and All I Could Bleed in the setlist, but trust me - they wouldn't do that with any other guitarist in the band either. I think Chuck prefers to do what he considers classics and will rarely agree to mix things up a bit. Alex and, especially, Eric are down for some more experimentation in the setlist, I think.

 

[redfly]

Same with a lot of the other songs.Eric said people don't want to do their homework.You know it's not Eric and you know it's not Gene.Greg plays anything and Chuck maybe doesn't want to do some of the older stuff from Souls but has said Low is one of his favorite records.Alex sounds like the odd man out to me.There is whammy bar all over Low.And Alex says he doesn't like whammy bar.I didn't say anything about the Gathering.But my opinion is is that it's demand is to great for anyone to ignore and Alex has to play stuff off it.And I don't want his two cents on those songs! They are the way they are.I don't like his add libbed solos and licks.
My main reason to the thinking is that Chuck and Eric love Low.Who else but Alex could be the holdout?

 

[one man]

Who else? Chuck's conviction that they don't sound as good as Into the Pit or Over the Wall live and that the fans won't like them as much, so there's no need to relearn the lyrics.

 

[anomynous]

The holdout is clearly Steve.


Duh.

 

[redfly]

Well they would sound good if everyone was into it and took the time to make it sound good.And to me..and of course I know nothing!..but Alex is the only logical choice to me.Greg, who isn't there now but was.played on the album everyone in the band did,except Alex and Gene.And Gene can and will play anything.

 

[Traxan]

I remember Alex dissing James once in an interview. When asked what he thought of his replacement, he said something along the lines of "He's good for the genre he's in" or something that was basically damning with faint praise.

Do they do any "Demonic" era stuff live? I don't like it because I hate hearing Chuck's amazing voice rendered into generic death metal.

 

[one man]

They don't nowadays. They used to do Demonic Refusal mostly and The Burning Times occassionally. I like Demonic a lot, but I'm worried about Chuck's voice and like some variation in the singing. Remember there are songs like John Doe and Hatred's Rise on that album too which don't have growls.

 

[redfly]

I remember Alex dissing James once in an interview. When asked what he thought of his replacement, he said something along the lines of "He's good for the genre he's in" or something that was basically damning with faint praise.

Do they do any "Demonic" era stuff live? I don't like it because I hate hearing Chuck's amazing voice rendered into generic death metal.

I remember that.Alex seemed to have a little bit of an upturned nose when it comes to metal.As if it's not as valid as another form of music.I say metal is where the musicians are!

 

[Traxan]

Yeah I think Alex copped an attitude for a bit, but he chilled with age. His reunion with Testament was more or less brought on because of Chuck's cancer, as I recall. It made all sides put petty problems aside.

 

[one man]

And it's great the way it is...