Metal Reviews

Rather than doing a "Hit/Miss" poll for this largely critically lauded album, I thought I'd broaden the options a little bit (as you can see above) and throw in the "in-betweens." For me, it's an Excellent album, except that people really exaggerate its brutality. I don't really see how it's "more brutal" than their earlier albums. It's basically Testament mixed with Machine Head/Sepultura (oh my God! Testament went Nu-metal on this record!). It's also slower and more melodic than their 80s albums.

Well, anyway, what does everybody else think?

average.

Bad.

I just don't like it at all. Practice What You Preach was so much better, and so was *insert your pick of Testament albums minus Demonic here*

They should have left the groove to Machine Head and Pantera.

No album will ever reach the level of St.Anger.

This was an avarage album for me.

Excellent album. After The Ritual—which is a great album—Testament were at a crossroads. Right, mainstream metal. Left, brutal traditional/thrash metal. They went left and I applaud them for continuing down that path.

I wouldn't compare this to Machine Head at all. This album sounds like classic Testament kicked up a few notches and channeling a bit of death metal, too. I could live without "Urotsukidoji" and "Last Call," but the rest of the album is all killer no filler.

Excellent. I enjoy this album a lot. Some really great tracks on here but i could also live without the tracks eyesore mentioned.

I actually like Urotsukidoji. I think it's kind of funny, actually (especially being that the bassline sounds almost like something out of a "gangsta rap" song!). I still have to disagree with everybody about Low being a "thrash album" though. I always saw it as a modern groove metal album with some thrashy moments here or there. But otherwise, the album is just too slow, melodic, and slickly produced to really qualify as "thrash" IMO.

Low is a great song, and the album's not bad, but it's not great either. Like Dead Machine said, the rest of their albums are much better and more interesting, aside from Demonic.

well...being quite a fan of testament i put excellent...granted it might have had a fault or two...but for old guys they put out a metal album heavier and cooler than about 83% of anything else out there and pretty consistently too...

and besides, can anyone really name a band that put out an album or two that were better than their early careers? like as in their 7th album is better than the first or second?

Sure.... Screaming for Vengeance kicks Rocka Rolla's ass, for example.
Though I'll agree that's usually rare, but that's mainly because most bands don't live to release 7 albums.

This was the album that got me into Testament and while not my favorite by them, I do think it is good.

as with The Silent Man, this is the record that introduced me to Testament. I think the songwriting is alright, but the guitarwork is not as good as their other albums. Without this album and Exodus' ''Tempo Of The Damned'', i'm very doubtful that i would have gotten into 80's thrash metal so for that I am grateful.