Band : Testament

Title album : The Formation Of Damnation

Label : Nuclear Blast Records

Distribution : PIAS

Release date : 21/04/2008

Release : CD

This whole resurgence of the thrash metal movement has always been music to my ears, having pretty much started off listening to Death Angel, Megadeth, Forbidden, Exodus and Testament in the early 80's.

Nine years in the making, Testament's ninth full length studio album is another fine stepping stone in this band's irresistible, though rather slow, ascent, that testifies to the immense talent that has never ceased to penetrate from this band since the birth of their highly acclaimed debut The Legacy. The Formation Of Damnation states the band's commitment to brutality while also displaying their ability and desire to add melodic, emotional, and ultimately moshing elements to their bay area thrash-influenced, crushing head-down-riffing style. The band sounds inspired and hungry, and that feeling pervades the whole album, and makes it sound exciting.

“For the glory of” has a slightly foreboding feeling to it and it serves as a nice intro before “More than meets the eye” blasts off. Utilizing a vicious thrash riff somewhat reminiscent of what Exodus did with Pleasures Of The Flesh. The pummeling drums of new skin-basher Paul Bostaph on the title track are especially noteworthy. but Chuck's unholy growls blister in their intensity. If you combined melodic death metal with mosh pit riffing, this would be your love child. “Dangers of the faithless” is perhaps the strongest track of the disc. Dynamic yet subtle. gripping yet casual. powerful and imposing, yet emotional and detailed and above all catchy, that pushes the groove adrenaline button into over-drive Alex Skolnick's soloing is amazing and his playing intense. In fact all the guitar solos on this album are very impressive and serve their purpose. They are inventive, melodic and worth listening to. The band's music is mostly based around bay area thrash metal, though standout tracks such as "Henchman ride” lean more toward a death metal style. The music is not all fast paced, though, on “Leave me forever” the song starts out with some skullcrushingly slow bass riffs, these guys do have complete mastery of such a dark atmosphere the whole way through. Might I add too that Chuck Billy's vocals have improved with age and are even rawer than ever before!. His voice is raw, powerful and aggressive, but it always has that emotional edge. It feels like he becomes one with the lyrics of each song.  

Buy or die. See you all at Graspop.

99/100

Cosmicmasseur.