First Strike Still Deadly

When I first heard that Testament was going to re-record some old classic tunes, I laughed and simply thought it was the dumbest idea ever. Then again it has been a decade or so since the band probably played their classic tracks the same way. With a new line up it seemed like not such a bad idea. So when I popped the cd into my stereo I wasn't too impressed, there didn't seem to be the same energy that the origonal recordings had. Petersons guitars lacked revered and Tempesta's kits wasn't powerful enough. I didn't think too much of Billy's vocals cause it worked with the rest of the sound.

A few months passed and I began to listen to it again and realized that my first impressions of the album weren't doing it for me anymore. I grew quite fond of the album and quite frankly thought it was better than the "very best of testament" (yes I am lame enough to buy a best of album, sue me. it beats not knowing what album to buy and wind up with their worst work ever). The lack of energy I once heard was transformed into a meaty burst of adrenaline that screamed, "We can still kick your ass!!!" While the new sound may not be the same as the glory hay days of the 80's, it diffenately has a new form of energy from the east bay thrashers. There still remains a very solid and tight-knit level of musicians ship, in other words, no one is fucking around. The one thing I must say I like as an addition to the band is Steve Digorgio's bass work, his frantic fret-work (despite the fact that I think he plays a fretless bass) deffinately added a smoother element to the low ends of the mix. While the drums may not have the classic booming 80's reverb, tempesta's kit has a very nice full sound which compliments the heaviness of the guitars. And last but not least, I must mention Zetro's throat work on the final two tracks. Deffinately something different and not expected but I can't complain too much. Overall I enjoyed this cd very much. There are no indavidual highlights from the cd because lets, face it, they managed to get all the goodies onto one album (the zetro tracks might be in question, but the opening guitar work on "reign of terror" is fucking mind boggling). This is deffinately a good album to have in your collection. Go buy it (NOW!).