Testament and Iced Earth - who did you like more?

[Vegetaman]

Pate and I had this discussion earlier...

I thought Iced Earth put on an amazing show (and Barlow did a great job on Declaration Day and I love The Dark Saga and Watching Over Me), but then Testament exceeded my expectations and managed to blow them away. I'd give Iced Earth a 10/10 and Testament an 11/10. Testament was the best live performance I've seen short of Heaven and Hell. I have never been so pumped for a performance before. They had great stage presence and played with the crowd and the whole place was into it. Plus you just can't beat Alone in the Dark, Practice What You Preach, Souls of Black, etc. And the stuff from the new album was killer live; especially More Than Meets The Eye

Thoughts?

Also, here were both of their setlists, from what I managed to dig up off the internet:


Testament Setlist:

01. Over The Wall
02. Into The Pit
03. Apocalyptic City
04. Practice What You Preach
05. The New Order
06. Electric Crown
07. More Than Meets The Eye
08. Low
09. Trail Of Tears
10. Henchmen Ride
11. Souls Of Black
12. The Evil Has Landed
13. The Preacher
~~~~~
14. D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
15. Three Days In Darkness
16. Alone In The Dark
17. Disciples Of The Watch

Iced Earth setlist:

1 Dark Saga
2 Vengeance Is Mine
3 Burning Times
4 Declaration Day
5 Violate
6 Pure Evil
7 Watching Over Me
8 The Coming Curse
9 Ten Thousand Strong
10 Dracula
11 I Walk Alone
12 Setian Massacre
13 Travel in Stygian
14 A Question of Heaven
~~~~~
15 Melancholy (Holy Martyr)
16 My Own Savior
17 Iced Earth

And I'm not sure which night I got crushed more up front... For Iced Earth the crushing (only forward thought) started when Slayer hit the PA system. But Testament seemed to come in giant waves of slamming left and right and forward. But it was worth it, because Skolnick let me touch his guitar during 3 Days in Darkness.

 

[Saladbar]

I thought IE was a bit shaky for their first performance with this line up, I noticed that the bass player was a bit taken back and kinda stayed in his spot until halfway through the set where he was a lot more into it. Also Barlow hasn't sang in front on an audience since how long? It must take some time to get back into it but he did pretty freaking good.

Testament where just amaizing, this line up has been playing for a while and they absolutely destroyed. Their set flowed great and was as tight as can be but these guys have been doing a lot longer than some of the members of IE too.

 

[Vegetaman]

I never really saw much of the right side of stage, but Barlow and Shaffer seemed very spot on.

I thought the sound for Testament was really good, too. Alex was definitely a lot louder than Eric though, but I could still hear him, so all was well.

 

[Rycher]

Testament’s set was by far the tightest and most powerful of the bands I saw, but Iced Earth definitely stole the weekend for me. I’ve invested so much emotion into this band, and finally hearing Matt sing my favorite songs was a dream come true.

 

[Notter]

Between Iced Earth and Testament I have to go with Iced Earth. The return of Barlow was groingrabingly transcendent and Iced Earth was awesome for their entire set. While Testament was very tight, and rocking like a motherf*cker....I lost interest after an hour. They just didn't have enough musical variety to keep my interest.

 

[Heavenly Call]

Testament - 10/10
Iced Earth - 9/10

 

[booB]

Iced Earth, because I'm much more familiar with their stuff, and because I got Pure Evil and Travel in Stygian. Testament was incredible, though.

 

[War Ensemble]

They were both fantastic, but I felt Testament was better.

 

[Dr. Pete]

Testament made my head explode in a good way. Although Iced Earth exceeded expectations for me, they didn't make my head explode.

 

[skyrefuge]

Iced Earth for me, but that's no fault of Testament. For me, the songs dominate over the performance, and since Iced Earth's songs are so perfect for the live environment, they could have been playing them off a tape and I still would have enjoyed it 80% as much.

Neil

 

[Vegetaman]

Skolnick is amazing.