TESTAMENT — The Gathering

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TESTAMENT - The Gathering cover
3.95 | 45 ratings | 3 reviews
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Album · 1999

Filed under Thrash Metal
By TESTAMENT

Tracklist

1. D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate) (3:33)
2. Down for Life (3:23)
3. Eyes of Wrath (5:26)
4. True Believer (3:36)
5. 3 Days in Darkness (4:41)
6. Legions of the Dead (2:37)
7. Careful What You Wish For (3:30)
8. Riding the Snake (4:13)
9. Allegiance (2:37)
10. Sewn Shut Eyes (4:15)
11. Fall of Sipledome (4:48)
12. Hammer of The Gods* (3:11)

* bonus track

Total Time: 46:06

Line-up/Musicians

- Chuck Billy / Vocals
- Eric Peterson / Rhythm and Lead Guitar
- James Murphy / Lead Guitar
- Steve DiGiorgio / Bass
- Dave Lombardo / Drums

About this release

Release date: June 28th, 1999
Label: Spitfire Records

Thanks to Stooge, UMUR, diamondblack for the updates

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TESTAMENT THE GATHERING reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

SilentScream213
Considering all the classic 80’s Thrash bands that collapsed into chaos and failure during the 90’s, Testament stood their ground much better than most. Many consider the preceding “Demonic” one of the only missteps in their discography (and not a severe one at that), but I still see it as quite a strong album. Not only that, it was a necessary step towards this album – “The Gathering.”

The Gathering takes the experimentation with Death Metal from Demonic and and avoids the monotonous limit in style. Instead, we have a great variety of Thrash, Groove, and Death Metal, each taking center stage on certain songs while falling back on others. Thanks to the consistency in quality from song to song, the willingness to change up in style makes the album sound fresh and filled with vitality. The drumming in particular here is very strong (wasn’t until after writing this I found out it was Dave Lombardo!), and Chuck’s vocal variety is on point.

Unfortunately, it drags a bit in the second half. I much prefer Testament when they’re playing faster and heavier (such as on the opener or the insane “Legions of the Dead”), but they falter to slower grooves too often for my taste. “Careful What You Wish For” and “Allegiance” are examples of the band on low gear and not sounding particularly dark, either (their version of stadium anthems? No thanks). This is alleviated with the closing track, a fantastic burst of energy, darkness, and aggression that closes the album out perfectly.

I’d say this is probably the band’s best since Souls of Black, though I wouldn’t peg it as a mid-career masterpiece like many seem to.
UMUR
"The Gathering" is the eighth full-length studio album by US, California based thrash metal act Testament. The album was released through Spitfire/ Burnt Offerings in June 1999. It´s the successor to "Demonic" from 1997. "The Gathering" features an all-star lineup, which in addition to the usual suspects in lead vocalist Chuck Billy and guitarist Eric Peterson, also contains James Murphy who returns on guitar, Steve DiGiorgio on bass, and Dave Lombardo on drums. Each of them prolific and skilled musicians associated with artists like Grip Inc., Death, Slayer, Sadus, and Obituary.

The music on "The Gathering" is powerful and technically well performed thrash metal. Testament brought with them the good powerful elements from "Demonic", which means the raw power and drive of that album, and then added a more melodic touch, which points back to their sound of the 80s ("True Believer" could for example well have been featured on one of the late 80s/early 90 releases by the band). The slightly more melodic touch and the fact that Billy also delivers a more diverse vocal performance (although at times still pretty brutal and raw) give the songs a more memorable sound than the tracks on "Demonic". The addition of Dave Lombardo on the drums especially provides the music with a great organic touch. He is on fire on this album. The songs are generally high quality thrash metal compositions and "The Gathering" is overall a good quality Testament album (they´ve released both better and worse).

The album features a sound production which is powerful, raw, and heavy, and it suits the music perfectly. It´s courtesy of Andy Sneap, who would return to produce quite a few of Testament´s subsequent releases. Upon conclusion "The Gathering" was the right album to release after "Demonic" alienated some fans with it´s relentless aggression and brutality. Coming from a death metal background I never felt "Demonic" more than leaned towards death metal, and to my ears it´s still a Testament thrash metal album, just a little heavier and darker than their usual style. "Demonic" however lacked a couple of other things to make it a complete release. What I missed on "Demonic" was guitar solos and the more melodic and memorable moments of earlier Testament albums, and although there aren´t that many guitar solos on "The Gathering" either, the melodic element is more prevalent here than it was on "Demonic". So on "The Gathering" the brutality and heavy riffs are just more well balanced with the tried and true Testament elements. A 3.5 (70%) rating is deserved.
Warthur
The early Testament albums didn't win me over, but I find myself enjoying The Gathering more than any of them. Significantly more aggressive than the sound they emerged with on their first couple of albums, the album injects a few extreme metal influences (such as the occasionally bestial vocals) into a thrash metal format. The end result doesn't really sound much like classic Testament - instead, it's reminiscent of the sort of album everyone wishes Metallica will release but which they never quite get around to doing, recapturing the classic thrash sound of the late 1980s and applying the lessons of a decade of developments in extreme metal to it.

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