Warthur The early Testament albums didn't win me over, but I find myself enjoying The Gathering more than any of them. Significantly more aggressive than the sound they emerged with on their first couple of albums, the album injects a few extreme metal influences (such as the occasionally bestial vocals) into a thrash metal format. The end result doesn't really sound much like classic Testament - instead, it's reminiscent of the sort of album everyone wishes Metallica will release but which they never quite get around to doing, recapturing the classic thrash sound of the late 1980s and applying the lessons of a decade of developments in extreme metal to it.

Stephen Second album that broke TESTAMENT to the mainstream success, thanks to several singles they spawned including the AEROSMITH cover, 'Nobody's Fault'. Even though I think the debut is untouchable, 'The New Order' do have lots of tracks that I love and never got bored until today. 'Eerie Inhabitans', for example, is a stunning opener; 'The New Order' has brutally fast chorus and spectacular solo; 'Disciples of The Watch' always gets my head banging constantly; 'Nobody's Fault' is surprisingly an excellent rendition of classic song; and 'A Day of Reckoning' is also marvelous.

Half of this album is good but not more, and probably 'Hypnosis' is the useless filler. 'Musical Death' is also quite similar but slightly better, the solo is a nice effort. Ironically, the two singles that introduced TESTAMENT to more audience, aren’t the best part of this album.

Production is as usual, quite thin but as you expect from old thrash band. I guess 'The New Order' remains one of the underrated albums of the past, should have received much better appreciation, and deserved at least 80%.

Warthur Testament are a band who have always rather left me cold, and The New Order provides ample evidence as to why. From the opening track, Eerie Inhabitants, the band do their utmost to mimic the Metallica playbook circa Master of Puppets, from the riffing to the song structure right down to Chuck Billy's vocal delivery. It's a passable impersonation of Metallica but I'd much rather listen to the real deal, and there's little originality or verve on offer; this persists throughout the album. The only change of pace? An uninspiring Aerosmith cover. Not my cup of tea, though if you are really heavily into the 80s thrash scene it'll probably tickle your fancy.

Kingcrimsonprog Testament are one of the best and most loved Bay Area Thrash Metal bands, bands from around San Francisco that started making music in the 1980s and have influenced countless artists with their thrashing riffs, twin guitar solos and memorable vocals.

While their first four albums were all straight up classic Thrash Metal albums, all varying in their levels of melody, speedy, complexity and heaviness; their fifth album, 1992’s The Ritual found the band making their one and only attempt to streamline their sound and make a more commercial record, in the same way that launched a few Thrash bands into megastar status and which killed a great deal more bands almost for good.

The Ritual was the last album to feature the classic line-up of Chuck Billy on Vocals, Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson on guitar, Greg Christian on Bass and Louie Clemente on Drums; it was initially rather successful for the band, and may indeed have introduced a lot of people to Testament in the 1990s, but now isn’t often seen as a highlight of the band’s catalogue in the same way that their thrashier material is.

A fair few Testament fans out and out hate this record, so be warned of this fact before listening so that you don’t go in blind, expecting another New Order or The Legacy. When listened to with an open mind however, there is still a lot of worthy and interesting material present on The Ritual, and it isn’t altogether deserving of all the hate it can sometimes get.

No one could accuse the album of not being varied enough. ‘Electric Crown’ and ‘Let Go Of My World’ are Testament’s attempt to follow Metallica and Megadeth’s simplified, melodic, Thrash-meets-hard-Rock efforts of the time. ‘So Many Lies’ is a six minute long, repetitive mid tempo number. The Title-Track is a seven minute progressive number and ‘Return To Serenity’ is another track in the spirit of the previous album’s semi-ballad ‘The Legacy,’ while ‘Deadline’ is a very melodic and commercial number with an almost hair metal feel at times.

Throughout the whole album, there are lots of interesting riffs and impressive guitar solos as always from Testament, only this time the record is both a lot more multi-faceted than before, while still remaining musically stimulating.

If you want to listen to Testament to hear Thrash Metal, as is only natural, then this isn’t really a record you should pick up. If however, you like Chuck Billy’s cleaner voice, lots of guitar solos and don’t mind if the tempo dips more often than usual then pick up a copy of The Ritual and enjoy this one unusual moment in the band’s career.

Diogenes The fact that Testament got a late start in the Bay Area thrash scene is pretty unfortunate for a bunch of reasons. For one, they never really got included in the “Big Four” stuff (that holds way more significance than it should, but that’s another rant), constantly getting lumped into the second tier of thrash veterans, even while Metallica was going through its mullet stages and Slayer was basically irrelevant. Consequently, their magnum opus got released during a bad time period, and virtually no one knew about it, which kinda sucks considering Low is both Testament’s best and most diverse record to this point. Now, that’s not saying much, since they never released anything that will totally knock your socks off, but I digress…

Anywho, Low is the album where Testament finally found their own sound, i.e. mid-paced thrash metal that actually sounds nothing like their previous 80’s worship. In a sense, it takes the groove of The Ritual and mixes it with the future death metal aspects of Demonic in a way that isn’t totally out of their element, while having a certain energy about it that neither of those albums had. That’s probably because drummer John Tempesta’s work behind the kit is much tighter than anything Testament had previously thrown out there, and James Murphy fits the band as a lead guitarist better than Alex Skolnick ever did (all due respect). While not as technically sound as Skolnick, Murphy’s previous experience in Death and Obituary proves him to be the more effective axeman for this type of sound.

As for the rest of the guys in the band, it’s business as usual: Chuck Billy gives a stellar performance on vocals, absolutely owning the heavier songs like Dog Faced Gods with his newfound death growling (appropriately placed, mind you), while still using the pipes that makes him one of the most distinguishable singers in all of thrash. Eric Peterson and Greg Christian round out the Testament core trio, being a solid rhythm section while showing great maturity in their songwriting abilities. They ensure that not every song sounds the same, throwing in structure changes or strangely cool instrumental stuff like Urotsukidoji (named after a manga that’s, erm…well, just look it up). Basically, this is one thrash metal album that doesn’t get stale halfway through.

I must stress once again that a lot of the music here, while clearly influenced by the usual suspects, isn’t thrash that’s a gazillion miles per hour every single bar; Testament were not safe from the mass groove infection of the 90s (although they pull it off quite nicely here), and as such, there’s a lot of it in Low. The difference is that they make this groove, um, groovy instead of just a nuisance. The downside to this is that there aren’t many riffs, which is a definite downer, although the riffs that are there work pretty well.

With this album, Testament FINALLY got a good production job, which is what gives Low the final edge over their previous efforts. Pretty much every Testament album before this one had that thin guitar tone that just bugs the hell out of me, but here that isn’t an issue at all. Both Peterson and Murphy are clearly audible and sound as brutal as they’re meant to, while Tempesta (what a great name for a drummer!) comes through loud and clear on every piece of his setup. If you don’t believe that good production value can make a difference, compare Low to say, Souls of Black and tell me that this doesn’t sound 300% better. Seriously!

Despite all of this, Low should not be Testament’s best album. It’s really, really solid, but it lacks that final “wow” factor and memorability that makes an album a masterpiece. Unfortunately, Testament threw this style away shortly after Low was recorded (opting to masquerade as a death metal band instead), so we never got to see just how far this lineup could have gone. None of this means that Low should be as overlooked as it is, though; it stands alone as the only Testament album that I can listen to all the way through without hearing anything glaringly wrong with it. That’s about as much as I can say for a good album by a good band, neither of which reached the status that they should have.

Kingcrimsonprog Testament’s excellent 2005 Live In London DVD is simply one of the best live DVDs that a metal band has ever put out, and even now both sounds and looks terrific.

In terms of visuals the digital camera look presents a great true to life image which makes the footage seem higher definition than it actually is. Elsewhere, the camera work and editing is all top notch and the whole concert is just fantastic to watch.

This combined with the audio mix, which suits the material and the gig perfectly results in a all round great viewer experience.

As for the concert itself, it simply couldn’t be better. The band reunite the classic 1980s line up of Chuck Billy on vocals, Greg Christian on bass, Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick on guitar with Louie Clemente on drums (for half the set, with the first half being handled by Low-era drummer John Tempesta)

The band play a set list devoted entirely to their classic thrash-era material, with all the songs coming from the band’s first five albums. The band play many of their best songs like ‘Disciples Of The Watch,’ ‘Practice What You Preach,’ and ‘The Legacy.’

Even with all the fan service that the line up and set list represents, a concert is only as strong as the band’s performance and could still be terrible if the band are sloppy or their hearts aren’t in it. Luckily, the band are absolutely on fire and deliver one of the most energetic performances I’ve ever seen in a live DVD.

They seem so pleased to on stage and genuinely in to what they are doing and it subsequently comes across in the music, what you get is the electrifying sound of a band genuinely playing the absolute hell out of their instruments, with Chuck Billy engaging with the crowd at every opportunity, commanding the stage like an absolute master, so into the performance that he is playing air guitar (in a cynicism free way) and headbanging like a fan. This is the sort of performance that will win over non fans.

To conclude, Live In London is one of the best metal DVDs on the market, and I say that without hyperbole, even after all this time has passed since its release. Superb Audio Visual quality, Superb idea in the first place and finally a beyond-superb performance.