Preach The Legacy

I'm still over here mining thrash classics from Tim's collection. This time I took the opportunity to grab a couple of Testament records.

Testament's Practice What You Preach album was a big deal for me at the time. It was released on my birthday in August of 1989, and when I found out that they were going to be playing at The Channel in Boston that November, I decided that I wanted to go see them. I'd never gone to a show out of state, so the thought of it was both thrilling and terrifying. I convinced a group of friends to make the trip with me, and we all piled into my car and headed to Boston for the day. This was obviously back in the day before GPS, so we just grabbed a map and hoped for the best. The two hour drive to The Channel ended up taking us more like four as we continually got lost within Boston's confusing roadways, but we eventually found the club and it was a life changing show. Until that point, I was only used to big arena shows for those few bands that toured as far north as Maine... but to be on the floor of a packed club opened my eyes to how great and intimate a live show could be. Honestly, I don't remember much about the band playing because I was probably acting a fool in the mosh pit, but from that moment on I started making regular trips to Providence and Boston to see bands play.

While probably not considered as strong as the previous two Testament albums, The Legacy and The New Order, Practice What You Preach is still a classic from the band, and I'm so glad to finally have this in my collection.

Technically, I guess that I didn't need to buy this copy of The Legacy, but personally I kind of needed it. Mark Sandwell gave me UK pressings of The Legacy and The New Order when he was visiting the US back in 2019, and I was most thankful for his kindness with this gesture. That said however, I was a little bit disappointed that I didn't have US pressing for these albums. I felt like for classic US thrash bands, a US pressing was the proper way to go.

I was content with the UK copy from Mark, until I had the chance to pick up the US Megaforce version from Tim's collection, and I took the opportunity when it was in front of me.

Para Bellum

Testament have been on the four year cycle with albums since they stormed back in 2008 with The Formation Of Damnation... and every one of them has been fucking solid. It has been five years since their last one, Titans Of Creation, but I figure that with covid in the mix, I'll allow them the additional year between records. Still, with Testament's excellent streak of records, when preorders were announced for their new record, I quickly got my preorder in.

With Para Bellum, Testament keep doing what they do best, although there are times here when they thrash so hard and heavy that it reminds me of The Gathering when they leaned into a bit of the death metal sound. Some of these songs really have Chuck growling those vocals and I love it.

It feels like this past year has been fairly low key when it comes to new metal records, but a new Testament album is certainly a highlight.

Black and orange swirl colored vinyl (which looks more like camo) is limited to 750.

Testament Of Creation

Since Skolnick's return to Testament on guitar, the band have released an amazing string of albums. Over 30 years into it and Testament are still releasing uncompromising thrash albums that can stand up next to their 80's classics.

While I really enjoyed Testament's last album, Brotherhood Of The Snake, there were a couple of songs that were duds, so I was hoping that the band would crush from start to finish with the new one, Titans Of Creation.

Zero disappointments here. Some of these song jump out and grab me immediately, while I can tell that I am just going to appreciate this more and more with repeat listens. It will be interesting to see where this is going to land in my Top 10 list for the year.

The colored vinyl for this pressing is called "water element" and it looks fucking amazing. The pictures don't do the vinyl justice. I'm so glad that I picked up this version. 500 pressed.

Disciples Of The Watch

When Sandwell was over from the UK last year on his annual trip to NYC, we agreed to meet in Boston for the afternoon. As he was leaving, getting back on the bus for his return trip to New York, he mentioned that he had extra copies of the first two Testament albums back at home in the UK, and if I needed them, he said that he'd bring them over to me on his next trip to the US. I absolutely love those two Testament records, and since I didn't own copies of them, I took him up on his offer. Still, we weren't sure when he would be back to the US, so I didn't put much stock in it...so it was quite the surprise when we got together again in Boston this year, and based on our conversation from a year ago, he brought those Testament records.

The first Testament is one of the best thrash albums. You take Metallica and Slayer out of the mix, and standing side by side with the first albums from Sacred Reich, Vio-lence, Overkill and Exodus, you'll find The Legacy on my list of favorite thrash records of all time. This album never gets old for me, and from start to finish it just slays.

European pressing from Megaforce.

If The Legacy was one of the best debut thrash albums, The New Order would be one of the best sophomore records...and checking my listening stats, this one is easily the Testament album that I've listened to the most. This album is full of classic Testament songs, and I was lucky to catch Testament playing both this album and The Legacy in their entirety, back in 2015. Such an amazing show to see the band rip through all of these songs.

Interesting that the European pressing of The New Order does not include the cover of Aerosmith's Nobody's Fault. While I do enjoy that song, I'll admit that it does make the album stronger without it.

I'm very happy to have these two albums in the collection, so a big "thank you" to Mark for his generosity.

The Formation Of Damnation

Back in 2008, the Death Angel album wasn't the only one that I was too lazy to chase on vinyl. I was having a great time getting back into metal after a 15 year hiatus, but I was still very much a hardcore kid, and wasn't wasting much time or money with heavy metal records. It would take another few years before I finally let go of the CD dependence, and moved strictly to vinyl, and because of that, I'm still slowly adding records to the collection that I missed the first time around.

One of the big metal albums to come out in 2008 was the new Testament record, A Formation Of Damnation...and this was a big deal because it featured the return of guitarist Alex Skolnick, who had been out of the band since '92. This was also the first new Testament album since I'd gotten back into metal in the 2000's, so I was excited for it, and it totally delivered the kind of thrash that I was looking for.

Like the Death Angel album from 2008, the Testament album was also originally released on colored vinyl, and I'd entertained thoughts of chasing one...but with the 2019 reissue, it was just easier to order it direct from Nuclear Blast, and be done with it. I went with the black vinyl option because silver vinyl looks like shit.

Testament Of The Snake

No doubt, this has been a big year for fans of old school Thrash bands. I think that I'd done a fairly good job in getting them ranked for my Best Of 2016 list, and then Testament goes and disrupts the entire thing, with another killer album.

It was going to be tough for Testament to top 2012's Dark Roots Of Earth, but with Brotherhood Of The Snake, they make a good run at it.

The album starts by tearing the roof off...total old school Thrash, and Testament sound as vital as ever. But then we hit the first stumbling block with the song Black Jack. Holy shit. The gambling lyrics are so cheesy that I can't hang with it. "The stakes are high, and so am I". Oh fuck, make it stop. Easily the worst Testament song ever, and it really lets the steam out of all the momentum that was built to that point. This could have been a serious contender for the top Thrash album, but this blight is going to take it down a notch. Why did this song have to happen?

In typical Nuclear Blast fashion, they went over the top with vinyl pressings, releasing the new album on at least eight different colors. I figured that orange was good enough, and grabbed a copy from the webstore.

500 pressed.

New Testament

I grew up on Old School 80's Thrash. As an awkward and insecure teenager, this music was my safe haven all through High School. I didn't feel like I really fit in anywhere...I wasn't overly intelligent, I didn't play sports, I didn't drink...the only place that I felt at home was when I had an album spinning, and I was banging my head along to Exodus, Slayer, and Metallica. Because of this, I have a strong affinity towards this type of music, and the bands of that time. When those old 80's bands stay true to their sound, and release a new album, I'm at the front of the line to buy a copy.

I was very happy with the new Overkill album this year, and figured that it was going to take the top spot in my Best of 2012 list. With the release of the new Testament album, though, I'm having second thoughts. While I enjoyed Testament's last album, The Formation of Damnation, the new one, Dark Roots of Earth, really brings me back to the days of Practice What You Preach and Souls of Black. I can't get over how great this album is.

I'm going to see Testament in a few weeks, along with Anthrax and Death Angel. Dark Roots of Earth is such a strong album, I'm hoping that the band puts 4 or 5 of these new songs into their live set. You can bet that I'll be up front and thrashing along, just as I did back in '89.

Nuclear Blast loves their colored vinyl, and gave us 6 different pressings for Dark Roots of Earth. It felt good to not have to order from overseas, and I was able to grab the blue with black splatter colored vinyl from the US webstore.