The Gathering

For some reason, it has become the cool thing for "real" metalheads to write off Testament's early work and focus mainly on the supposed genius of "Low" and "The Gathering." Look at the lineup: fretless bass wonder Steve DiGiorgio, shredder (or journeyman, depending on if you're nice or not) James Murphy, and Dave Lombardo of Slayer. Look at the awesome song titles: "D.N.R. [Do Not Resuscitate]", "Riding the Snake", "Sewn Shut Eyes"... On paper this album is amazing!

Sadly for us, all is not as well as it seems. Only one of the three above give a performance that merits mentioning, and that is Dave Lombardo. Throughout the album, he pounds away on his drum kit, at times amazing with his speed ("Legions of the Dead"), and other times with a newfound subtlety that he never demonstrated with Slayer. James Murphy, however, is almost completely absent from this album. He just has a few solos that are boring and add nothing to the songs they are in. Even his best one, in "Eyes of Wrath," doesn't measure up to anything Skolnick did with the band. Andy Sneap's production, while giving Testament the first good sound of their careers, does DiGiorgio no favors. And it's not as if he does anything outstanding. If you listen closely, every once in a while he's doing something interesting, but for the most part he gives perhaps the most uninspired performance of his career.

"But if everyone is more restrained, that must mean that there is more room for stronger songwriting, right?"

In a word...no. Although Testament has moved away from that death metal garbage they embraced on the previous album, they seem to have replaced it with groove. "3 Days in Darkness" and "Riding the Snake," while not outright terrible songs, just rely on a simple riff to carry the whole song. No interesting solos, no sped up parts, just fucking groove. HAVEN'T WE LEARNED FROM PANTERA WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALL WE DO IS GROOVE? That's right, you sell millions of records. Perhaps that is why so many people see this as Testament's best. Unfortunately, neither groove nor weak performances are even the biggest problem this album has. The songwriting itself is shabby, to say the least. "Allegiance" has no point whatsoever, while Chuck Billy growls about how someone (metalheads, I assume) should be united. Wait, that sounds familiar, oh yeah, that's right, Judas Priest did that twenty years ago. And while we're talking about stolen ideas, it needs to be mentioned that the "I can't help my friend...help...him...self" part of "Down for Life" is directly taken from Slayer's "Behind the Crooked Cross"! "Fall of Sipledome" sees Testament trying to write some death/thrash epic or something and it fails miserably.

All is not lost, however. "D.N.R. [Do Not Resuscitate]" sees the band (minus Murphy) hint at what could have been. The riffs crush, Chuck Billy sounds like he is going to reach through the speakers and strangle any neck he can reach, and Lombardo shows calculated insanity on the drums. Man, this song never fails to get the adreniline flowing. "Eyes of Wrath" has a good set of riffs and a nice break near the end to which all heads must bang. "True Believer" is probably the most accessible on here, a nice breakdown halfway through in the "Ash...to...ash, dust to dust" part.

Yet even with these three songs, the album as a whole is beyond disappointing. I guess they were trying to sound modern, but this doesn't hold up well at all. The best purpose that this album can serve is to be a gateway album for fans of metalcore who will probably marvel at its heaviness. Metalheads that are more familiar with the genre and with Testament will probably not find much to like here, so be forewarned.