Controversial opinions on metal

[The Ozzman]

YEAH BRO FUCK THOSE HACKS

TESTAMENT IS SHIT

LET'S CHUG SOME PETROL

GEHENNAH TIL DEAAAAAAAARHHHHHFDGDFGTH

I lol'd

 

[The Butt]

You would.

 

[Burkhard]

All I'm saying is, they probably listened to Metallica a-fucking-lot at that time.

OK, then I must have misunderstood you.

I'd like to add that only bought Testament's first three albums (and the "Live At Eindhoven"-EP), resold "PWYP" to a friend after a couple of years and nowadays only still listen to "The Legacy" every once in a while. But that's not something which only goes for Testament. It happened in many other cases as well that I stopped buying the albums of bands I originally liked a lot after their second, third or fourth album, either because I didn't like the musical direction they were taking or because I wasn't interested in only - more or less - good copies of what they had (IMO) done better before.

 

[no country for old wainds]

it's been a while but from what i can recall, i think i would like testament more if they sounded MORE like metallica tbh

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Well honestly Metallica mostly, but I dont think I ever said they were a 'clone' band by nature. Testament were somewhat unique in that they basically defined the sound of 'standard thrash' without injecting their own sense of style or being overly punk influenced. Yea, I am kind of making the claim that they are "completely generic", but considering this was without precedent at the time, maybe you could just say that they just havent aged that well? The first two albums are decent. These guys can play really well, easily on par with or better than other bands in the thrash scene, but I find most of their material rather forgettable, which to me is more important than looking at the technicalities of their style.

I guess if you said "vanilla"/"plain" rather than "generic" I'd agree. I think there's a lot of other vanilla thrash that gets a pass simply due to it not having as much spotlight as Testament, though. Ultimately, Testament is a thrash band for people that like thrash metal, for people that don't like thrash (except of a prefixed or in-crowd variety), naturally they won't appeal.

 

[Omni]

Just because I didn't quote it doesn't mean I ignored it. The Metallica influence is present, but it's not inseparable. Testament, on their first two albums, had their own niche carved in thrash.

I don't even know what you mean by calling them a less focused band than Heathen. Even on Breaking the Silence you get that Sweet cover or songs so basic they barely even count as thrash, and then their second album you get a Rainbow cover, a fucking horrible power ballad, and a Yngwie ripoff leftover from when they still played AOR.

I'm only talking about Breaking the Silence to be honest, which I feel is the stronger album. "Set Me Free" was clearly a concession to have a single for the album, so I won't factor that into my opinions on the level of focus on the album. I can't agree with your other criticisms of the album in terms of considering them to show a lack of focus.

The Legacy is a competent album, but it's fairly samey overall and it doesn't have anything on it that stays with me like songs on Breaking the Silence.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I still don't understand how The Legacy can be simultaneously unfocused and samey. What do you mean by "focus"?

 

[Omni]

Heathen seems comfortable and like they know what they can do. The album shows their capabilities well and has memorable songs on it.

Testament is competent but their songs are pretty safe and they really don't display the same level of confidence. They stick mainly to one thing and play it safe.

I can see how you would be confused by what I meant, so I hope that this clarifies it.

I also think that David White is a much better vocalist overall than Chuck Billy and he adds a lot of energy.

 

[EternalMetal]

I guess if you said "vanilla"/"plain" rather than "generic" I'd agree. I think there's a lot of other vanilla thrash that gets a pass simply due to it not having as much spotlight as Testament, though. Ultimately, Testament is a thrash band for people that like thrash metal, for people that don't like thrash (except of a prefixed or in-crowd variety), naturally they won't appeal.

Is the difference between 'plain' and 'generic' really that significant? Otherwise the last part sounds about right. Most of my thrash friends hold Testament in really high esteem, but my other friends who are into a wider variety of metal arent too particular about them.

They werent particularly exciting live (recently) either, and the second time I saw them they were playing mostly old classics from the first 2 or 3 album (so you would expect them to be at their best). Spot on musicianship of course, but it just didnt excite me live like most other thrash.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Death by Hanging, Pray for Death, and Save the Skull are some of the most rudimentary thrash metal songs I'm aware of. If anything Heathen was a band that played well under their capabilities to hop onto a new trend, David White and Doug Piercy both being AOR guys that got into thrash by the good fortune of living in San Francisco in the early 80s. There are some fancy guitar leads involved, but the riffing and songwriting is unimaginative and heavily indebted to early Exodus. Aside from the occasional melodic intro or whatever, it's all pretty straight forward 16th note chugging and a few descending power chords on the end, with some added harmony guitar taken straight out of pre-album Exodus (compare Death Row with Goblin's Blade for example). The Legacy has a lot more variety in technique, even if it doesn't try the obligatory mid-tempo song for forced variety.

I think the singing on the first album is actually pretty awful; he got better on the second album when he retrained his voice to adapt to a kind of melodic thrash, rather than a Geddy Lee clone pretending he's Paul Baloff or whatever the fuck he was even trying to do. Like, when he's actually singing, yeah he's probably a technically better singer than Chuck Billy, but I don't hear that energy at all. Take a song like Open the Grave (which I actually like despite being a couple minutes overlong), that chorus it's like he's harsh-whispers it, there's no sustain and volume to his voice at all, just (let me out). Chuck Billy has shrieks and shit all over the place on The Legacy, and if anything he's probably one of the more charismatic thrash frontmen out there. I will admit that the verses on Breaking the Silence at least have proper vocal melodies, however; Chuck basically just tries to fit the lyrics onto thrash riffs where others would at least try to play off of them, but for a relatively fast and aggressive album like The Legacy, it's not a big deal.

I don't get the big deal with sticking to one thing anyways. Darkness Descends sticks mostly to one thing. The first Whiplash sticks to one thing. Most death metal in general sticks to one thing. No one demands a Fade to Black or a Heroes End on a Slayer album, why one on a Testament album?

EDIT: irt Omni

 

[Omni]

You totally lost me when you said that Chuck Billy is charismatic.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

His voice is charismatic. He can sound aggro and do it right.

 

[Satanstoenail]

His voice is charismatic. He can sound aggro and do it right.

He has decent power but zero imagination with melodies or hooks.

 

[Omni]

His voice is charismatic. He can sound aggro and do it right.

Charisma is 100% subjective. I don't find him charismatic or memorable.

Also, when was David White an AOR singer? I have never heard of this and there's no info about it on Wikipedia or Metal Archives. I would love to hear him if it's true.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

In the pre-metal Blind Illusion:



Or maybe you could call it pomp rock or something.

He has decent power but zero imagination with melodies or hooks.

I basically agree with this; when he does sing a hook, he's usually singing along with a guitar line.

 

[suckerleaf]

Low is srsly one of the best groove/post-thrash albums ever. Shit is so damn good, never too chuggy and repetitive, about as diverse as you could hope from the style.

Agreed.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Charisma is 100% subjective.

No it's not. It's a quantifiable attribute just like Strength and Intelligence, although most classes treat it as a dump stat.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

No shit they did, so did virtually every other American thrash band up to the mid 80s. You still need to point out specifics if you're going to say that they're that derivative. A band like Heathen directly copies Metallica and Exodus ideas far more often, and didn't have nearly the creative impact of Testament. I can listen to a given band and think "Hey, that sounds like Testament"; I've never listened to a band and thought "Hey, that part was so Heathen".



I used to hate it because of an autistic prejudice against the chorus, but these days yeah, classic song. Battery and Leper Messiah are probably the only ones that aren't 10/10 tracks for me.

i give them both 10/10. the lyrics alone for LM deserve a 10.

 

[suckerleaf]

No it's not. It's a quantifiable attribute just like Strength and Intelligence, although most classes treat it as a dump stat.

Which is a huge mistake!

 

[The Ozzman]

Wisdom is a better dump stat anyway usually