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Testament > The Legacy > Reviews > morbert
Testament - The Legacy

Their Best - 99%

morbert, August 28th, 2007

This is one of those albums everyone knows to be a classic. When something is considered a classic (this album has been that for 20 years now), newcomers tend to listen to it in a prejudiced way, purposely looking for negative aspects. I myself, I grew up with it, so I know why this is a classic.

‘The Legacy’ is Testaments best album. All their strong points are on this single album. Chuck Billy is at his best here. He never ever again achieved sounding as good as he did on this album. Aggressive with incidental high pitched screams. His youthful enthusiasm is dominant. You can hear this young boy trying to conquer the world. Maybe Chuck never sounded this good again since most of the lyrics and vocal lines on these songs were actually written by Steve Zetro Souza? Who knows (and who cares) since this sure as hell is Chuck’s best performance ever.

Skolnick’s solo’s are melodic as always and on the Legacy they are catchy and heavy as well. Some of his best material is here. Just try ‘Apocalyptic City’ and ‘Over The Wall’ for instance. Riff monster Peterson just blazes through the album with his best riffs and dirtiest sound ever. Louie Clemente has never been thrash metals best drummer but because of the dense production and his overenthusiastic playing it simply convinces. Too bad Greg Christian isn’t as audible as he would be on later albums. I love his metallic Ibanez sound ripping through the walls of guitars.

‘First Strike is Deadly’ is a superb song. Everyone shall agree. Can you imagine it being the worst song on an album? Well, on The Legacy it is. All the other songs simply blow it away! And that is saying enough I presume. This album remains one of the best thrash metal albums of 1987 and stands firmly as the ultimate Testament album to this day. Worship this or die!