REVIEW: TESTAMENT - The Formation of Damnation

 

TESTAMENT - The Formation of Damnation

Nuclear Blast Records

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This is a good one! The 80's Testament had low quality recordings so the production quality wasn't there. Now with the 21st century version of the band we don't have that.  This one is pretty solid and tight.  There are a few members here that came and go which would be bassist Greg Christian whom the band had a falling out with and Paul Bostaph (ex-Forbidden, ex-Slayer) on drums here. I thought that the songs were awesome and sound overall is definitely top notch.  The music and vocals stand out the most. I like how they redid some of the old tracks ("Souls of Black", "Practice What You Preach", etc.). Sound quality is just so much better!

Peterson has been one long-time member that seems to be the driving force of rhythm guitar though now he's executing some leads as well. I wish he'd stay rhythm and let Skolnick write all the solos. That's not happening unfortunately. But Peterson writes awesome rhythms as shown on the re-recording of the first two albums on their 'First Strike Still Deadly' release in 2001. Testament has a multitude of LP's that are solid, new or old.  They're still hacking it these Bay Area thrashers. I always liked this band, they don't seem to disappoint! With this LP, their approach was solid rhythms and forceful vocals.  Everything seemed to go well on here!

I liked all of the songs on here and this is a solid recording. Not sure why it'd get a bad rap in ratings, very good quality music here. I liked the rhythm guitars the most and a few of Skolnick's leads. Chuck Billy always delivers to that's not an issue. I tell you, there aren't many things wrong with this recording. That is, in my humble opinion. I was missing this CD in my collection so I made sure to pick it up. I just figured that since it was Testament it'd do no real wrong. Though, like I said they had some album flops but not many. As long as they had most of the founding members then it's solid.

Well, this is a 2008 recording that's streaming, but I just bought the CD. If you want to hear what it sounds like before buying it it's on Spotify or YouTube. The main members (Alex, Eric, Chuck & Greg) were featured exclusively on here. So you bet it's going to be solid. The guitars galore here and Chuck with his unique vocals makes it out of sight! I guess I felt that it needed a strong rating since the music had me sucked in here.  They really were underrated on here. I think a "A-" is appropriate because the songwriting was super spot on everything seemed to come together on this one!  Take a listen!

Ryan “Death8699” Fanucchi