TESTAMENT — The Formation Of Damnation (review)

TESTAMENT — The Formation Of Damnation album cover Album · 2008 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Stephen
After parting ways with Skolnick and Christian in the early 90s, the classic line up is finally reunited again, only this time, Clemente wasn't joining the party as he's too busy concentrating on his business and his place was replaced by Paul Bostaph. "The Formation of Damnation" quenched the thirst for Testament's new album after an exhausting nine-years of waiting. The result is excessively successful as the album was praised high by many fans and won "Best Album" award at Metal Hammer's Golden Gods Awards ceremony in the midst of 2008.

Throughout eleven tracks presented here, Testament brought out their primal vintage sound but not outdated and dusty. They created a bunch of intense neckwrecking and headbanging tunes, a tight and unaging performance, just like the old days when they first did this in 1987. Check out the first three tracks, a truly monumental entrance with a classic Bay Area strike. The dark chants and Skolnick/Peterson pulse pounding guitar duel in "More Than Meets The Eye" definitely added a flavor to the song. The 9/11 story based midtempo thrash of "The Evil Has Landed" is a pleasing package and Billy's demonic growly vocal supporting the progressive tempo of the title-track is ferociously fascinating.

This album is of course not a 100% flawless attempt, there are some patchy moments but forgivable, such as "Dangers of The Faithless" and the unnecessary bluesy approach of "Leave Me Forever". Or "Killing Season", for instance, lack the strength found in the other killer tracks but alone not a bad one. "Hencemen Ride" and "F.E.A.R" are my other favorites as well, a thrusted speed with the splendid old-school rhythm and lethal solos. "The Formation of Damnation" is a victorious comeback of the San Fransisco thrash legend and I sincerely hope that this is only the beginning for many great releases in the years to come.
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