The Gathering

I think that whatever your general view on Testament may be, 'The Gathering' goes against that view. If you see Testament as one of the true gods of 80s thrash who missed out on the big league due to timing, you're going to wonder what happened to the kind of songwriting that 'The Legacy' brought with it. If you think that Testament are an unpredictable and inconsistent band who never maintain the same quality or style between and even during albums, you're going to be surprised that 'The Gathering' manages to keep it together for most of its length and references most periods of the band's existence without drawing in many new facets. Then, if you came late to the Testament party via the "post-cancer" albums ('The Formation of Damnation' and 'Dark Roots of Earth'), you're going to look upon this album as somewhat of a warm-up to the purer, riffier, or angrier songs displayed on those releases. Or, on the other hand, if you don't know anything about Testament but just like metal, you're probably going to enjoy yourself quite a lot and find some minor things to grumble about.

For me, 'The Gathering' is a slightly odd album, since it has a very distinct aura of being a "modern metal" album, yet also sounds a little dated now. What makes it very strange is that it isn't dated enough to be retro - like a lot of the original thrash - but just dated enough to dampen the edges of the production and make it seem slightly awkward compared to an album from 10 years later. By this, I don't mean that the production is bad, though maybe the guitars a bit dry and the whole thing doesn't gel totally, but rather that the way the songs are written and arranged would be almost unthinkable any time after 2005. There are other albums like this - Armored Saint's 'Symbol of Salvation', Overkill's 'Necroshine', Annihilator's 'Carnival Diablos' - that are organized to include lots of different styles of metal song, mostly reliant on strong vocals and a combination of catchy riffing and melodic soloing, seeking to capture the listener by simply having good songs rather than being the heaviest or the fastest. The reason that this sounds so much like an initial shot in the first wave of "modern metal" is partly because of the grooviness and fatness of some of the riffs, coupled with a tendency to include both mainstream and extreme elements, often at the same time.

The album as a whole is made up of largely mid-paced songs between 4 and 5 minutes in length, telling us that we shouldn't expect progressive complexity or too many ideas outside the box in terms of song structure. In general, we get a solid riff or two to set the song up before Chuck Billy introduces himself, belts through a chorus or two, gives James Murphy a shot at things, and then the song is driven home with either another chorus or a burst of guitar. Going up and down in tempo and complexity is also a great idea, since nothing ever gets dull, except for a few mindless moments in 'Riding the Snake' and the over-simple 'Down for Life', which nonetheless provides an entertaining singalong. 'D.N.R.' gets things going at a fast pace before the mid-paced numbers dominate, cranking things back up for 'Legions of the Dead' and the rather more varied closer 'Fall of Sipledome'. The meat of tracks such as '3 Days in Darkness' and 'Careful What You Wish For' are based on a kind of momentum that doesn't touch thrash but centres on a kind of boldly lurching groove, the former having a monster set of riffs and a great sense of dramatic timing, while the latter shows the skills of the rhythm section with a whole barrage of time changes from Dave Lombardo and grimly twisting fills courtesy of Steve DiGiorgio.

What surprises most about all this is that, despite the evident individual skills on show, there are fairly few times when the whole band comes together and sounds great as a whole, instead of by themselves. '3 Days in Darkness' and 'D.N.R.' are probably the peaks of the album, though the latter certainly has no stand-out moment, even if '3 Days' gets its fill of guitar tasties just right. Of the other songs, there are numerous parts to be picked out of each; for example, James Murphy's great solos in 'Eyes of Wrath' (otherwise too sluggish and slow to develop) and 'Sewn Shut Eyes' (which lacks momentum), or Chuck Billy's dominant phlegmy barks in 'True Believer' (despite being slightly forgettable). That's what makes 'The Gathering' merely a good album with good songs rather than a great one, since it doesn't manage to build a sense of excitement from one song to the next, nor do the band deliver as many direct hits as a line-up with this calibre should. I listen to 'The Gathering' a lot and find it enjoyable, but it doesn't really represent a pinnacle in Testament's career despite the mild interest of its place in a modern stylistic vanguard.