Testament is underrated!

[living dead man]

I know you've heard all this before, but fuck it, here I go....I feel that their albums just get better and better. What's so amazing about this band is that even when they lose a critical member, like Alex, their albums are still great quality.
Demonic and The Gathering are the shit!
But, let's get back to Alex, his return to the metal world has been a gift. His guitar work seems to be on a level that never has been touched before....I mean it's like jazz fusion, bluesy, even somewhat classical, hardcore fuckin' thrashy metal. What's even more amazing, it seems heartfelt. Not just thrown out there to show off, but to smack you around and shit down your neck.
TESTAMENT! :Smokedev:

 

[redfly]

I never get sick of hearing it!

 

[heavy metal]

not by us eric, great band !!

 

[living dead man]

not by us eric, great band !!

Heeeeeey! good to see ya, bro!

 

[Alteredmindeath]

Testament charted well on the last record so they are not an unknown band and have become even bigger than before.

 

[EffigyForgotten]

Id say Testament is OVERRATED, they are a good band but things people say about them (especially on this forum) are exaggerated... Honestly ill take Kreator, Overkill, Sodom etc over Testament ANY day, all of their songs sound pretty much the same to me...

I also don't understand how Testament is even considered thrash metal anymore? Their pretty much 80% death metal, any I think there are DM bands that do what they are trying to do way better...

 

[living dead man]

Id say Testament is OVERRATED, they are a good band but things people say about them (especially on this forum) are exaggerated... Honestly ill take Kreator, Overkill, Sodom etc over Testament ANY day, all of their songs sound pretty much the same to me...

I also don't understand how Testament is even considered thrash metal anymore? Their pretty much 80% death metal, any I think there are DM bands that do what they are trying to do way better...

Honestly, the only thing I agree with you about is that they are labeled "thrash". I mean, sure, they have a lot of thrash songs, but they also venture into many other styles of metal. Take their recent work for instance. Now, in terms of what bands you like more than Testament, that's just your own personal taste, which doesn't stand for a debate.

 

[Angelic Slayer]

Id say Testament is OVERRATED, they are a good band but things people say about them (especially on this forum) are exaggerated... Honestly ill take Kreator, Overkill, Sodom etc over Testament ANY day, all of their songs sound pretty much the same to me...

I also don't understand how Testament is even considered thrash metal anymore? Their pretty much 80% death metal, any I think there are DM bands that do what they are trying to do way better...

I really can't state how much I disagree with that statement... I love all those bands you mentioned, but for me, Testament has been more consistent over their whole career than any of those bands. As for all their songs sounding pretty much the same... what? I can't believe you're being serious about that...

80% death metal? You really don't listen to much death metal do you? The ONLY Testament album that comes close to being death metal, is "Demonic", and even that one arguably isn't total death metal. All of their albums after (and including) "Low" contain elements of death metal, but none aside from "Demonic" really come close to fitting squarely within that genre. And the new album features virtually no death metal at all, aside from "True American Hate".

 

[EffigyForgotten]

I really can't state how much I disagree with that statement... I love all those bands you mentioned, but for me, Testament has been more consistent over their whole career than any of those bands. As for all their songs sounding pretty much the same... what? I can't believe you're being serious about that...

80% death metal? You really don't listen to much death metal do you? The ONLY Testament album that comes close to being death metal, is "Demonic", and even that one arguably isn't total death metal. All of their albums after (and including) "Low" contain elements of death metal, but none aside from "Demonic" really come close to fitting squarely within that genre. And the new album features virtually no death metal at all, aside from "True American Hate".

Don't listen to much death metal?

Maybe you didn't see my avatar, sig, or name but I still stand by my opinion, Have you listened to what was considered death metal in the 80's? Possessed? Death? Sepultura? Testament is heavier than them, they use to be a metallica copy band but now their brutal thrash to say the least..

Now i'm not saying I don't like them, but saying they have "jazz" influences is fucking stupid, testament is heavy ass DEATH METAL influenced thrash metal, bands that have jazz influences are bands like Opeth and Cynic..

And I like what their trying to do, Testament pretty much defined what we call neo-thrash IMO, so maybe you can call it that instead, but maybe i'm listening to the wrong songs but none of them capture the "brutal" quality while still having as much groove or "thrashiness" that sodom, overkill, kreator etc have.

To be honest though, I almost never listen to thrash outside a couple of bands, I listened to SOOO many thrash bands all day for like 3 years and its got a little boring and my musical taste is completely different these days.

 

[living dead man]

80% death metal? You really don't listen to much death metal do you? The ONLY Testament album that comes close to being death metal, is "Demonic", and even that one arguably isn't total death metal. All of their albums after (and including) "Low" contain elements of death metal, but none aside from "Demonic" really come close to fitting squarely within that genre. .

Great point!

 

[redfly]

Thrash is one of the broadest genres,there are lots of different thrash bands.From Testament to Overkill to Anthrax and flotsam and jetsam.Some sing some scream some growl some use acoustics and clean guitar some have a slappy bass.The on constant is the overall time signatures..I would say that all these other genres that have sprouted up have really only taken from what thrash bands have done as separate songs and parts of songs and made a whole sound of it.

As to Testament being "exaggerated" No fucking way.They do it all ,they do it their way.And they have never sacrificed musicianship.

 

[living dead man]

Now i'm not saying I don't like them, but saying they have "jazz" influences is fucking stupid, testament is heavy ass DEATH METAL influenced thrash metal, bands that have jazz influences are bands like Opeth and Cynic..

You are obviously not understanding, Alex Skolnick has been in a jazz based band Trio for like the last fuckin' ten years before rejoining Testament. Now, I'm not saying that Testament songs has some jazz influences, never did, but as I said before, you could hear it somewhat in his guitar solos.

 

[anomynous]

I have no clue how somebody could like Overkill more than Testament.

 

[redfly]

I love Overkill.They are in my tops list.But more than Testament? They are no where near as consistent.

 

[EffigyForgotten]

You are obviously not understanding, Alex Skolnick has been in a jazz based band Trio for like the last fuckin' ten years before rejoining Testament. Now, I'm not saying that Testament songs has some jazz influences, never did, but as I said before, you could hear it somewhat in his guitar solos.

Ah I thought you meant as a whole, I preferred James Murphy as the leas guitarist.

 

[redfly]

Murphy was great! especially his perfect handling of Skolnicks' leads.I wish he was still doing solo albums

 

[living dead man]

Skolnick is an original, and one of the best.
Murphy was really good, but there's no comparison.

 

[redfly]

I'm not comparing.

 

[heavy metal]

fuck up with the cancelled dates in europe. a bit last minute.

 

[F1reblade81]

As above - if you listen to Legacy and think that they don't all sound the same, you are a tard