View Gallery

For the past few years, tours tried to reinvent themselves and the way to draw crowds nowadays is it put different genres of music on the same bill. Well, old school fans like their old school thrash music and it did not take long for the Montreal fans at MTelus to sell out The Bay Strikes Back Tour that includes Testament, Exodus and Death Angel.

Fans lined up early in front of the Mtelus in order to get their preferred spot for the night and buy their merchandise before Death Angel started the hostilities. Mark Osegueda and company got the old school night underway with their older songs and fans went crazy to the rhythm of “The Ultra-Violence”, “Mistress Of Pain”, “Voracious Souls” and “Seemingly Endless Time”. As usual, the energy and the chemistry on stage is off the charts and Mark interacts with the crowd constantly. The fans did not hesitate to sing the chorus of the song “The Dream Calls for Blood”, but it seems they were less into the music as the band played more recent songs. Death Angel ended their set with “Humanicide” and “Thrown To The Wolves”. As always, fans were happy to see Death Angel in concert, but this time around, they were more interested in the other two bands that followed them.

After a short set change, it was time for Exodus to light the place on fire with their infernal riffs. With Gary Holt back in the band, they were firing on all cylinders and Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza was so fun to watch on stage. His unique voice is not for everyone, but their aggressive music gets your head banging in no time. With their most recent album (Persona Non Grata) barely one year old, it is only normal that the band play many songs from it. “Prescribing Horror”, “The Beatings 
Will Continue (Until Morale Improves)” and “The Years Of Death And Dying” were well placed in the set list and were spaced with older songs that got the fans pushing each other in no time. With no surprises, songs like “A Lesson In Violence”, “Blacklist” and “Piranha” were fan favourites. Tom Hunting looked in great shape behind the drums and pounded them energetically like there was no tomorrow. Gary Holt showcased many guitars from his collection, including his gorgeous Purple Reign guitar in tribute to Prince. The band kept the best for last as they ended their set with the hits “Bonded By Blood”, “The Toxic Waltz” with a Reign In Blood introduction and finally “Strike Of The Beast”. 

Even if some fans looked tired after their set, they wanted more. After all, the last time Exodus played Montreal was in 2014 during the Heavy Montreal. I always hope that the band will include in their setlist a few songs from the Impact Is Imminent album, perhaps one of these days.

It was now time for the mighty Testament to hit the stage with the song “Rise Up” and introduce Dave Lombardo as their new drummer. Dave had issues only a few bars in the song and Chuck stopped everything and asked Dave if things were OK on his end, then restarted the song. This is certainly not how a band wants to start a concert, but it shows that even the most talented musicians can have issues when playing on stage. Since it was their first time in Montreal since their album Titans Of Creation was released, I was expecting the band to choose many songs from it, but only three made the cut. “Children Of The Next Level”, “Night Of The Witch” and “WWIII” were played during the first half of their set so the band could dig deeper in their older catalogue and they surprised the crowd with “D.N.R.”, “Electric Crown” and “First Strike Is Deadly”. Fans pushed each other to the rhythm of the music and did not hesitate to crowd surf throughout their set. Chuck took time to introduce the song “Native Blood” because it was dear to his heart and because the show was on the same day as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. The lights and the sound were great and the guys on stage were very dynamic as usual. The old school fans could not ask more when the band ended their set with the songs “First Strike Is Deadly”, “Over The Wall”, “Into The Pit” and “Alone In The Dark”.

Three awesome bands, same style of music, who could ask for anything more!