Gene Hoglan on TESTAMENT

Troublezone wrote:

Chuck, Eric, Greg and Alex are top notch musicians. Some of the best imo!

Agreed, they're great metal musicians. I'm talking about some of their songs, lyrics, riffs. Especially after the first two albums (and to me, including much of the 2nd album).

Troublezone wrote:

Also that particular album Gene played on was very "basic" musically. It was almost a waste to hire someone of Gene's talent to play such basic drum tracks...

Agreed. I was shocked by how vanilla his performance on TENET's album was. What a wasted opportunity!

manny wrote:

I thought they had their own sound.

To a degree.

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As far as Testament being four good looking guys? Are you f**king kidding me!!!!!!!

Agreed.

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Alex is way better guitarist then the dude in Fear Factory,

Understatement of the year!

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I like Possessed but their nick name was baby Slayer for Christ sakes

I thought that was what Hanneman called SEPULTURA.

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I like Possessed but deadliest band on the planet, I have to ask, are you f**king kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!

In 1985 it was probably true.

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Testament commerical, yes maybe they were on this guy's planet:

It's all relative. They are commercial compared to POSSESSED or DARK ANGEL.

actually,now that I think of it the only real band I find better than testament he's been in is SYL, fear factory just seems bad,dont know how to put it,just bad. I enjoy a fair bit of dethklok but the other bands....

The first two Fear Factory albums are awesome platters of industrial death metal, after that, they drop greatly in quality.

If Testament came out first, he'd be calling Slayer and Metallica the same thing.

DallasBlack wrote:

The first two Fear Factory albums are awesome platters of industrial death metal, after that, they drop greatly in quality.

Agreed. Those two albums rock hard - and they are my favorite FF albums. I do like Archetype though as my 3rd favorite.

I can see where his opinion is coming from, working with Slayer and Possessed, being drummer for DARK ANGEL (which can be considered more fast and balls to the wall than Slayer OR Possessed.)

So I guess Testament must pay really well... Guess who's back on drums for the new album?!

adrian wrote:

So I guess Testament must pay really well... Guess who's back on drums for the new album?!

Haha. What a turd!

Hahahaha. Oh dear.

Hahahaha ! That's funny !

adrian wrote:

So I guess Testament must pay really well... Guess who's back on drums for the new album?!

Yep,Money Talks!

I guess they hold no hard feelings regarding Gene's opinions. He's the premier session drummer in metal, so it's no surprise they gave him a call...

Eyesore wrote:

If Testament came out first, he'd be calling Slayer and Metallica the same thing.

I don't think so...Testament is obviously a little more "slick" than Slayer & Metallica when comparing the early albums...sounds like he doesn't like "slick" too much.

As for him taking Testament's money, I see no issue. He did not say Testament sucked or he hated it or the guys were @$$h0le$...he just said he did it for the money. I've done music just for the money...it's no big deal. Gene doesn't have his own well-paying, full-time band...he's a journeyman drummer...nothing wrong with that.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

...he's a journeyman drummer...nothing wrong with that.

And an awesome drummer at that.

Ah! I was trying to find this the other day. I could have sworn I just read that not too long ago about Gene not knowing Testament and only doing it for the money. I was surprised to see his name when they announced he will be doing the drums.

I used to think he was one of the top metal drummers but as of late I think he has slipped a lot. He didn't do anything that blew me away with Fear Factory, Zimmers Hole he didn't do anything either, Tenet same.

They should have let Dave Lombardo come back to do it. He was great on the Gathering and I think plays more like Paul Postaphs (spelling?) style

Testament was a good band, I like their first couple records, but by the time Practice came out it just sounded like they were recycling their own ideas and the compositions kept getting more generic and boring.

I listened to "Souls of Black" once and decided my attention would be better suited elsewhere.

I have no problem with Gene doing the gig for money, everyone has to make a living.

Shawn D. wrote:

Testament was a good band, I like their first couple records, but by the time Practice came out it just sounded like they were recycling their own ideas and the compositions kept getting more generic and boring.

I listened to "Souls of Black" once and decided my attention would be better suited elsewhere.

I have no problem with Gene doing the gig for money, everyone has to make a living.

This pretty much, although I thought The Ritual while slower, was very heavy and had awesome hooks and melody to complement it.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

If Testament came out first, he'd be calling Slayer and Metallica the same thing.

I don't think so...Testament is obviously a little more "slick" than Slayer & Metallica when comparing the early albums...sounds like he doesn't like "slick" too much.

Right, but money bough better production in 1987 than it did in 1981. If Testament had come out then, they'd have had that same raw sound. And I think if Metallica and Slayer came out in the late 80s, they'd have had a more polished sound.

I mean, if in 1987 The Legacy was considered corporate thrash because it was slick, isn't South of Heaven and ...And Justice for All in that same boat? Both are very slick-sounding albums.

Eyesore wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

If Testament came out first, he'd be calling Slayer and Metallica the same thing.

I don't think so...Testament is obviously a little more "slick" than Slayer & Metallica when comparing the early albums...sounds like he doesn't like "slick" too much.

Right, but money bough better production in 1987 than it did in 1981. If Testament had come out then, they'd have had that same raw sound. And I think if Metallica and Slayer came out in the late 80s, they'd have had a more polished sound.

I mean, if in 1987 The Legacy was considered corporate thrash because it was slick, isn't South of Heaven and ...And Justice for All in that same boat? Both are very slick-sounding albums.

OK WHATEVER MAN DAMN!!!

Going back a couple of posts - I seem to say this a lot on this forum, but if you gave up with Testament after their first few records, you owe it to yourself to at least check out The Gathering. Quite different, monstrously heavy and quite a bit more creative than the rut the band fell in to around Souls of Black.

Smindas wrote:

Going back a couple of posts - I seem to say this a lot on this forum, but if you gave up with Testament after their first few records, you owe it to yourself to at least check out The Gathering. Quite different, monstrously heavy and quite a bit more creative than the rut the band fell in to around Souls of Black.

I do like that album, primarily because it doesn't sound like old Testament. Plus I'm a Lombardo fan, so it was a must purchase.

Eyesore wrote:

Right, but money bough better production in 1987 than it did in 1981. If Testament had come out then, they'd have had that same raw sound. And I think if Metallica and Slayer came out in the late 80s, they'd have had a more polished sound.

I don't think the "year" has anything to do with production quality.

Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax...all these guys did their first albums in cheap little studios with very little time or money to spend. Testament did their debut for a major label.

a cheap studio is a cheap studio, in '81, '91 or now. It's all about the microphones, the quality of the mixing equipment and the ears of the engineer. Did the vocal mic cost $3000 or $300? Guess which one sounds better.

SlaytanicPOWER wrote:

Shawn D. wrote:

Testament was a good band, I like their first couple records, but by the time Practice came out it just sounded like they were recycling their own ideas and the compositions kept getting more generic and boring.

I listened to "Souls of Black" once and decided my attention would be better suited elsewhere.

I have no problem with Gene doing the gig for money, everyone has to make a living.

This pretty much, although I thought The Ritual while slower, was very heavy and had awesome hooks and melody to complement it.

Such a criminally underrated Testament album. The guitar solo to Return To Serenity has to be one of the best solos in metal history.