The Gathering

Whether or not you'll like Testament's 1999 effort can be figured out by answering a simple question. Are you a thrash purist? If the answer is yes. Chances are you will not like this album. If you're a passing fan of the genre, who is willing to see the genre screwed around with, and have a few other influences having large effects on the sound. Chances are you will love this album.

I for one think that this album is fantastic. There's a hell of a groove, the vocals are not thrash vocals, more or less a thrash-death hybrid, there's a lot of chugging riffs, about half the songs are slower, groove driven songs, and to be honest, only about three songs hit me as pure thrash. I have no problem with this, but as you can see from other reviewers, people who do will think this album's worth about a 50%.

To tell the truth, I never really liked early Testament, they just sounded too similar to Metallica, who were far superior to Testament. This is a completly new identity and is simply crushing. Yes, this is mixed by Andy Sneap, so no matter how fast the music moves, the production is going to damage the foundations of your house.

The songs fit into three main catagories, thrashing monsters (DNR, Legions of the Dead, Fall of Sipledome), heavy groove driven songs (Down for Life, 3 days in Darkness, Riding the Snake, Allegience, Sewn Shut Eyes) and very slow groove songs, with thrash breaks (Eyes of Wrath, True Believer, Careful What You Wish For). So yes, there's not too much true thrash here.

The band here is an all-star group, with some very famous names (in the world of metal) amoungst the standard duo of Eric Peterson and Chuck Billy. With a team of James Murphy, Steve Digeorgio, and Dave Lombardo siding with these two, the result is surprsingly groove driven. With only a few solos found within, and most of those being short 'outro' solos.

I haven't heard much James Murphy, but since his early days he really seems to be content with what he's achieved, and knows that he'll always be refered to as 'death metal god James Murphy', he really seems to be coasting with his riffs over the last few years. Resulting in his riffs being grooves, rather than crazy riffs that challenge the mind. Eric is as always over-shadowed by his axe partner, and also seems to be content with developing a good resume of people he's played with.

With that said, the riffs are good, not to mention catchy as hell, and, when needed, as aggressive and infuriated as any you'll ever hear. The guitar sound is amazingly heavy, in fact it makes most of Andy Sneaps other guitar mixes seem patheticly weak. It's that crushing.

I'm with the fans on the drumming, Dave Lombardo is at his incredible best. The drums move from quite amazing double bass beats, to his normal frenzied fills. There's really not that much to say, it's Lombardo, it's going to rule, it's general knowledge.

Chuck Billy proves to be probably the whole reason why this album works for its fans, and fails for is deprecators. He is downright godly on The Gathering, His voice and styling is original and nearly impossible to replicate, yet not obscure or random sounding. It just sounds perfect. Almost every groove on the album, no matter how many there are, and how often you'd just like to hear some mind-numbing thrash is carried through to highly enjoyable levels by Chuck. Of course, they are death tinged, which pisses off some people, and they do work well with grooves and promotes the sometimes excessive use of them, which also pisses off some people.

The Gathering is a very strong effort, there are a few too many plodding songs, and not enough all out fast songs, because the three (or four if you count Down for Life, despite it's incredible groove) really don't get old, even after many listens. I've already stated some clues as to whether not you'll like this. Hell, even if you don't think it sounds like a good album, pick it up anyway, the first two songs and the other two thrashers are totally worth the $15 I paid for it. Who knows, the rest might surprise you.