Your favorite and least favorite Testament album.

EmoElmo wrote:

I personally don't understand the hate too, sure it wasn't thrash but it's all about good songwriting.

There is a certain demographic among thrash metal fans (or death metal fans, or black metal fans...hell, just "metal fans" in general) that are completely inflexible and unwilling to allow a band to introduce any kind of change into their sound. A band better keep trying to replicate the same album with minor changes over and over and over or they are committing a mortal sin. The instant a group tries to expand it's sound they cry BLASPHEMER!!!!

2-D fans in a 3-D world.

The only testament albums I have are the legacy, new world order, and dark roots of earth.

And that's the order of enjoyment too, I love the legacy and was stoked to hear them play it live in it's entirety when they opened for megadeth on the 20th anniversary rip tour. I didn't even mind that skolnick wasn't playing because they had drover filling in for him and I've always liked his playing. The band was crazy good and friggin heavy.

New Wold order... It's good and I always enjoy it when it's playing but after a spin it usually get shelved until I go on a old school thrash kick again.

Dark roots... I really, really liked this one for the first cour of days, then it just fell flat for me. As of now it has no staying power, but we'll see in a week or two how I feel when I revisit it.

DevZor wrote:

And that's the order of enjoyment too, I love the legacy and was stoked to hear them play it live in it's entirety when they opened for megadeth on the 20th anniversary rip tour. I didn't even mind that skolnick wasn't playing because they had drover filling in for him and I've always liked his playing. The band was crazy good and friggin heavy.

I hear that, was an amazing tour!

DevZor wrote:

New Wold order... It's good and I always enjoy it when it's playing but after a spin it usually get shelved until I go on a old school thrash kick again.

maybe that's why you can't recall the name of the album?

Bingo... I always have the same problem with anthax's persistence of reality album.

This is pretty hard. I'd probably have to say "The New Order". That's my favourite. But I like all the Skolnick era albums a lot. Practise What You Preach would be right up there, too. And the last two, Formation and Dark Roots.

In general I prefer the early technical thrash metal sound to the later, "brutal", Testament.

A great band. Probably my second favourite thrash metal band after Annihilator. Or maybe just behind Slayer, too.

Anyway, they are awesome. I got to see them live twice, too.

Is there anybody out there (in a strict Thrash metal sense) who can beat Chuck's range? The dude's unbelievably versatile, I wish I could sing like him

Favorite: Practice What You Preach
Least: Demonic

I've never heard Demonic, but considering how it's considered the worst album by most people in this thread means I'll probably love it.

if you like groovy thrash, with the same gruff vox that were used on parts of The Gathering album, then you'd like Demonic. contrary to what people claim, it's not a death metal album in any way.

I don't dislike the demonic album. I just rank it lower on my list because it seems a bit repetitive and out of character for Testament's classic style. But if you're in the mood for something really heavy, it's great.

mc666 wrote:

if you like groovy thrash, with the same gruff vox that were used on parts of The Gathering album, then you'd like Demonic. contrary to what people claim, it's not a death metal album in any way.

These days I'm much more likely to listen to The Gathering than anything else, I'll definitely check out Demonic.

I've never heard Low either.

from fave to least fave

Practice What You Preach
The New Order
Legacy
Low
The Gathering
Dark Roots Of Earth
The Ritual
Souls of Black
The Formation of Damnation
Demonic

Testament albums favorite to least favorite:

The New Order> The Legacy> Practice What You Preach> The Formation of Damnation > Low> The Gathering > Souls of Black > Dark Roots of Earth > The Ritual > Demonic

The Gathering is def my fav and one of my fav thrash albums ever....I also really enjoy Souls of Black, Low, and Demonic...

Least fav? The Legacy...

I do like all Testaments albums to some extent Great band!!!

I finally got around to listening to "Low" recently and it's a pretty damn good album, I think it's a little too long and a couple of the lesser tracks could be deleted to make it a little leaner, but overall better than I anticipated.

hmmm not the biggest Testament person but my fav is the Legacy and my least fav is probably Low.

My ranking of the ones I have:

Practice What You Preach
The Gathering
The New Order
Dark Roots of the Earth

Like them all.

Out of the few Testament albums I own... (favorite to least favorite)

The Legacy (greatest debut of all time)
The Formation of Damnation (my best friend, freshman year)
Dark Roots of Earth (solid, but very much overrated)
Practice What You Preach (for when I need something easy-listening)
The New Order (alternative to counting sheep)

S.D. wrote:

I finally got around to listening to "Low" recently and it's a pretty damn good album, I think it's a little too long and a couple of the lesser tracks could be deleted to make it a little leaner, but overall better than I anticipated.  

Did you ever listen to Demonic? I am curious if you think it is as bad as everyone else (aside from me) here does.

Dark Roots keeps moving up my ranks of Testament albums, fantastic album! Every bit as good as Practice What You Preach (my first Testament album)

Favorite



I must be the only person who didn't like Chuck's vocals on The Legacy. I didn't mind him after that but I still prefer Zetro.

mc666 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

I finally got around to listening to "Low" recently and it's a pretty damn good album, I think it's a little too long and a couple of the lesser tracks could be deleted to make it a little leaner, but overall better than I anticipated.  

Did you ever listen to Demonic? I am curious if you think it is as bad as everyone else (aside from me) here does.

I haven't heard the entire album yet but I've sampled about half of it, what I've heard is badass. Chuck is actually great at the more intense vocals.

S.D. wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

I personally don't understand the hate too, sure it wasn't thrash but it's all about good songwriting.

There is a certain demographic among thrash metal fans (or death metal fans, or black metal fans...hell, just "metal fans" in general) that are completely inflexible and unwilling to allow a band to introduce any kind of change into their sound.  A band better keep trying to replicate the same album with minor changes over and over and over or they are committing a mortal sin.  The instant a group tries to expand it's sound they cry BLASPHEMER!!!!    

2-D fans in a 3-D world.

Actually the truth is much simpler: a renowned thrash band tried to jump the bandwagon and came out with a very lukewarm groovy heavy metal album, which most of their fans didn't like. Change is a good thing when it is positive or at least constructive. Works for some, but in case of Testament failed them miserably. Good thing is, Testament learned their lesson fast, and ditched that experiment, making it an isolated failure. Some weren't so lucky (cough*metallica*cough)   

I was already bored with Testament before The Ritual came out, I thought Practice and Souls were both bland, a couple good tracks on each album and the rest was paint by numbers. Low, Demonic and The Gathering are all better from what I've heard.